8–10 December 1865
This verse about Thomas Maguire, San Francisco's leading theater manager and impresario for three decades, was probably written shortly after the event to which it refers, and therefore published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise sometime between 8 and 10 December 1865. The original printing is not extant. The verse survives in the San Francisco American Flag for 20 December 1865, which introduced it with these words: “ ‘Mark Twain’ has constructed the following extremely funny thing, at the expense of the enlightened and war-like ‘Napoleon of the Stage.’ ”
Thomas Maguire came to California from New York in 1849. He began his theatrical career by opening the first Jenny Lind Theatre in 1850. Plucky, enterprising, hot-tempered, and constantly embroiled in court-room controversy, Maguire did more than anyone else to bring novelty and talent to the San Francisco stage. In 1865, as proprietor of the Academy of Music and the Opera House, he completely dominated the city's theater. But in November and December of that year he made news with two highly personal disagreements: one with the composer and pianist W. J. Macdougall, the other with the Polish actress and opera singer Felicita Vestvali.1
On December 5, while in Kohler's music store, Maguire attacked Macdougall, strangling and pummeling him from behind. The day before, Macdougall had scheduled Miss Emily Thorne, a popular English comedienne and vocalist, to appear with him in a benefit concert for the [begin page 386] British Benevolent Society of California. She had been prevented from appearing, however, by other arrangements made by her manager, Tom Maguire. Macdougall reacted to this slight by distributing a news release charging Maguire with broken promises, and the enraged Irishman responded with his attack. Maguire was ultimately fined fifty dollars for assault and battery.2
Maguire's earlier controversy was with Felicita Vestvali over her contract with him. Vestvali arrived in San Francisco on August 25 to play one hundred engagements within one hundred and thirty days. In October she charged Maguire with willful violation of her contract because he refused to schedule her performances with reasonable regularity. When Maguire learned that she meant to enforce her contract, he threatened to break every bone in her body. On October 31 her charges against Maguire for threatening bodily harm were dismissed in police court on his promise to refrain from violence. But the same day Vestvali entered a $30,000 breach of contract suit.3
Clemens' verse touches on both of these very public quarrels. His allusion to her as a “gentle Jew gal” refers to her popular role as the Jewish mother Gamea in the play Gamea, the Fortune Teller. Vestvali was an accomplished actress, known especially for her excellent impersonations of men.
Torn withⒶhistorical collation ire,
Lighted on MacdougallⒶemendation,
Grabbed his throatⒶhistorical collation,
Tore his coatⒶhistorical collation,
And split him in the bugle.
Shame! Oh, fieⒶhistorical collation!
Maguire, why
Will Ⓐhistorical collation you thus skyugle?
Why bang and clawⒶhistorical collation,
And gouge and chawⒶhistorical collation
The unpreparedⒶhistorical collation MacdougallⒶemendation?
Of bones bereft,
See how you've leftⒶhistorical collation,
VestvaliⒶemendation, gentle Jew gal—
And now you've slashedⒶhistorical collation,
And almost hashed,
The form of poor MacdougallⒶemendation.
The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably sometime between 8 and 10 December 1865, is not extant. The poem survives in the only known contemporary reprinting of the Enterprise, the San Francisco Daily American Flag for 20 December 1865 (p. 1) (AF), which is copy-text. A clipping of AF is pasted in the Yale Scrapbook, and although Mark Twain did not revise the clipping, he did not cancel it either, indicating that he may have considered reprinting it in JF1. The sketch was not included there, and Mark Twain did not subsequently reprint it. Copies: California State Library, Sacramento; PH of the Yale Scrapbook, p. 38A.
Albert Bigelow Paine published the poem in MTB (1: 275–276) from an unidentified source. His text varies so markedly from the copy-text, and seems on balance so clearly an editorial modification of the original poem, that it has seemed unwise to conflate the two. Still, Paine may have had access to a more reliable text, or Mark Twain may have volunteered to revise Paine's text for him. We therefore provide a historical collation of AF and MTB . There are no textual notes.