Explanatory Notes        Apparatus Notes (Ⓐ)

Source: Harvard University, Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass ([MH-H])

Cue: "All right come"

Source format: "MS, copy received"

Letter type: "copy received"

Notes:

Last modified:

Revision History: AB

MTPDocEd
To William Dean Howells per Telegraph Operator
3 March 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, copy received: MH-H, UCCL 01059)
blank no. 1. the western union telegraph company. the rules of this company require that all messages received for transmission, shall be written on the message blanks of the company, under and subject to the conditions printed thereon, which conditions have been agreed to by the sender of the following message. thos. t. eckert, gen’l sup’t,
       new york. william orton, pres’t, geo. h. mumford, sec’y, new york.1explanatory note dated  Hartford Ct 3.                                   187     received at                                                       to  W. D. Howells.                                             Edtor Atlantic Mnthly— All right come down with me Friday the superior value of birds in the hand over those that still sport in joyous freedom amid the leafy depths of their native woodland is so universally recognized that I cannot feel necessitated to enlarge upon it to one of the first minds of the age at three cents a word by telegraph 2explanatory note Mark 60 pd           (Good, sounds just like him
                                   Opr)
Textual Commentary
3 March 1874 • To William Dean Howells , per Telegraph Operator • Hartford, Conn. • UCCL 01059
Source text(s):

MS, the copy received, a telegram blank filled out by the receiving telegraph operator, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 [98]).

Previous Publication:

L6 , 59; MTL , 1:214, with omission; MTHL , 1:14–15.

Provenance:

see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.

Explanatory Notes
1 

For identification of the Western Union officials, see L5 , 9 n. 1, 48–49 n. 1, and 264 n. 1 top.

2 

The figure “60” below is the telegraph operator’s count of words in the body of the telegram. Clemens was attempting to complete arrangements for Howells’s visit to Hartford (4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 1click to open letter).

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