§ 121. Popper Defieth Ye Earthquake
15—31 October 1865
This sketch survives in a damaged clipping from an unidentified newspaper in the Yale Scrapbook. The last line of the clipping reads “my last shake.—mark twain in the E,” indicating that the sketch originally appeared in one of Clemens' daily letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and that the clipping itself is a reprinting of the Enterprise, which is lost. The letter was written long enough after the earthquake of 8 October 1865 for Popper to have begun reconstruction of his building, but probably before the end of the month: on October 29 the San Francisco Alta California noted that the front of Popper's building had been repaired to the top of the second story and that “in a week or two, nothing will be left there to show the effects of the earthquake”;1 and one of Clemens' remarks (“Popper is rebuilding it again just as thin as it was before”) suggests that restoration was not yet complete when he made his observations. The original letter could therefore have appeared in the Enterprise at any time between October 15 and 31, or even somewhat later.
L. Popper's four-story brick building, under construction at Third and Mission streets, became the “greatest wreck” resulting from the earthquake. On October 14 the San Francisco News Letter and Pacific Mining Journal published a dramatic drawing of the structure at the moment of its collapse.2 Clemens himself said he witnessed its destruction in “The Great Earthquake in San Francisco” (no. 123), noting there that “the walls were only three bricks thick, a fact which, taking into account [begin page 295] the earthquakiness of the country, evinces an unquestioning trust in Providence, on the part of the proprietor, which is as gratifying as it is impolitic and reckless.” Despite Clemens' skepticism, however, a committee of architects selected to examine the damaged building and approve plans for its reconstruction observed that “the injury was confined solely to the front” and that the “reconstruction of the front, and interior work in connection therewith, will render the structure secure and reliable.”3 It is not known whether Clemens or the architects proved more correct in their predictions.
The present text must be treated with caution: the last two sentences have been editorially conjectured on the basis of fragments too small to guarantee accuracy. Discovery of another reprinting or of the Enterprise itself would almost certainly correct the text provided here.4
Where's Ajax now, with his boasted defiance of the lightning? Who is Ajax to Popper, and what is lightning to an earthquake? It is taking no chances to speak of to defy the lightning, for it might pelt away at you for a year and miss you every time—but I don't care what corner you hide in, if the earthquake comes it will shake you; and if you will build your house weak enough to give it a fair show, it will melt it down like butter. Therefore, I exalt Popper above Ajax, for Popper defieth the earthquake. The famous shake of the 8th of October snatched the front out of Popper's great four-story shell of a house on the corner of Third and Mission as easily as if it had been mere pastime; yet I notice that the reckless Popper is rebuilding it again just as thin as it was before, and using the same old bricks. Is this paying proper respect to earthquakes? I think not. If I wereⒶemendation an earthquake, I would never stand for suchⒶemendation insolence from Popper. I am confident that IⒶemendation would shake that shell down, even if it tookⒶemendation my last shake.Ⓐemendation
The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, sometime between 15 and 31 October 1865, is not extant. The sketch survives in the only known contemporary reprinting, a damaged clipping from an unidentified newspaper in the Yale Scrapbook (pp. 38A–39) and in a photograph of the clipping on page 39, now pasted to page 42 of the scrapbook. The original clipping and the photograph of it are here designated copy-text.
The clipping was originally pasted near the bottom of page 39 in the scrapbook. The last four lines of it extended over the bottom edge of the page, and they were later torn off and repasted to the previous page, 38A. One of the previous owners of the scrapbook, probably J. H. Morse, photographed the clipping on page 39 when it was slightly less damaged than it now appears and pasted this photograph to page 42. By conflating these fragments we have recovered most, but not all, of the text. Portions of the last three sentences are wholly lost. We have, nevertheless, conjectured what words are missing and emended them into the present text, basing our guesses on the size of the gaps in each line as well as on the context. Several equally plausible variations are possible, however, as the reader may see for himself by trying to complete the missing words in figure 121. Mark Twain canceled the clipping in early 1867 when he revised the scrapbook, presumably because he did not intend to collect it in JF1. He did not subsequently reprint it. There are no textual notes.