17 May 1873 • SS Batavia at New York, N.Y. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 00916)
Mrs Fairbanks has just left us—she spent the night on ship board with us—Claras letter to Allie will tell you all the news Ⓐemendation— 1explanatory note We saw Mrs Brooks for a few moments— 2explanatory note We feel as happy as possible and as hopeful of a successful voyage—Capt. Mouland is perfectly delightful and does everything for our comfort—The baby had a good nights sleep—I am glad there is no bidding good bye to be done here it would be very hard—
All your thoughts of us must be pleasant thoughts for I am sure we shall do well—
Mother Fairbanks was such a comfort to us—
Good bye, mother dear, we are just backing away from the pier.3explanatory note Shall send this back by the pilot. Love.
On 16 April Mrs. Langdon had invited Mary Mason Fairbanks to come to New York to see off the Clemens party on 17 May:
Have you an intention to go to New York this spring, if so cannot you arrange to come to us and to go on to New York with Samℓ and Livia when they sail? It would delight me and them very much if you could do so.—I do not think I shall be equal to going, but Charlie will go with them doubtless and perhaps some others of the family. (CtHMTH)
Clemens, Olivia, and Susy and her nurse (Nellie), along with Clara Spaulding, left Elmira accompanied by Fairbanks (and probably Charles Langdon) on 15 May, arriving in New York late the same day or very early the next. On the night of 16 May, Fairbanks stayed with Olivia in her cabin aboard the Batavia, while Clemens spent the night at the St. Nicholas Hotel; Clara probably stayed on board as well. Allie was Alice Spaulding, Clara’s older sister (17 May 73 to Warner, n. 5click to open letter; “Prominent Arrivals,” New York Tribune, 17 May 73, 12; L3 , 182 n. 6).
Fidele A. Brooks, the wife of New York merchant Henry J. Brooks, was a close friend of the Langdons’ ( L2 , 276 n. 10).
The sixth member of the Clemens party, Samuel C. Thompson, met them on shipboard. He recalled that “some passengers from Pittsburgh told me they heard Clemens was to be one of them, had watched the gangway and decided that I was he. It seemed a curious coincidence at first. But I happened to be the only other passenger with moustache and thick bushy hair” (Thompson, 82). In 1909 Clemens recalled the impression Thompson made:
I can see him now. It was on the deck of the Batavia, in the dock. The ship was casting off—with that hubbub, & confusion, & tramping & rushing of sailors, & shouting of orders, & shrieking of boatswains’ whistles which marked the departure-preparations in those days. ... Every individual was in storm-rig—heavy clothes of sombre hue & melancholy to look upon, but new, & designed & constructed for the occasion, & strictly in accordance with sea-going etiquette—anything wearable on land being distinctly & odiously out of the question!
Very well. On that deck, & gliding placidly among those honorably & properly upholstered groups, appeared Thompson, young, grave, long, slim, with an aged & fuzzy plug hat towering high on the upper end of him & followed by a gray linen duster which flowed down without break or wrinkle to his ancle-bones!
He came straight to us & shook hands, & compromised us. Everybody could see that we knew him. To see those passengers stare! A nigger in heaven could not have created a profounder astonishment.
However, Thompson didn’t know anything was happening. He was right out of East Windsor, where the farmers had no prejudices about clothes, & where a person was correct enough as long as he had some on. I can still see him as he looked when we passed Sandy Hook & the winds of the big ocean smote us. He had not seen the big ocean before, for a good while, & he stood apart absorbed in it. & comparing the majestic reality with his long-time dreams of it; e Erect, & lofty, & grand he stood, not facing the blast, holding his plug on with both hands, & his generous duster blowing out behind level with his neck & flapping & flopping like a loosed maintogallant royal in a gale. There were scoffers observing, but he didn’t know it, & wasn’t disturbed. (SLC 1909, 9–12)
MS, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L5 , 366–367.
donated to CtHMTH in 1962 or 1963 by Ida Langdon.