1 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01201)
Hoping that the Tennessee Land is now in hell, please pay the enclosed bill—but rigorously require Mr. Rice’s receipt in full of all claims under that head——which receipt you should frame & send to him for his signature.
I do not care a cent whether his demand is just or not, I want it paid. I am nothing but a ceaseless prey to sharpers with imaginary claims against me & am only too glad to compromise when the opportunity offers.
And be particular to tell this man that I would not have “benefitted” a penny by a sale of the land, having long before sworn in San Francisco washed my hands of the infernal rubbish for good & all.1explanatory note I do not suppose for a moment that IⒶemendationasked this man to sell the land—but no matter about that, I want him paid & shut up.
I increase the check a trifle to pay for the Washington bank for collecting it2explanatory note—which you will also explain to him. I shall not write him.
Everybody well, here, & send love to you & Mollie.
enclosure:
clinton rice attorney & counsellor at law
practising in all the courts of
the united states
washington, d.c.
p.o. lock box 177.
Ⓐemendation
Franklin Square
Mr. Clemens. (Mark Twain)
Dear Sir:—
I endeavored to make a call upon you when you were last here, but found it impossible on account of illness in my family. 3explanatory note My object in desiring to see you was to call to your mind the circumstance (which occurred in 1870,) of your having asked me to correspond with your brother Mr. Orion Clemens at St. Louis with reference to the disposition of a piece of property in FentressⒶemendation County, Tennessee., Ⓐemendation and you urged me to attempt to make sale of it, as I was somewhat in the line of selling Southern property. I wrote Mr. O. Clemens, at your suggestion, and he forwarded me plats and Maps and description of the property, and afterwards addressed me several Communications in the premises. In January 1871, several weeks or some after my interview with you, and after I had secured a party who was likely to purchase the property, and had gone to an expense of $11.70. in finding such purchaser, I received a letter from your brother stating that he had effected a sale of the property, and desiring me to suspend further efforts in the premises. I did so and sent him my account for the above amount (saying nothing of my services) but, I have never received the Same, nor any part thereof. I suppose it is fair that I should be paid it, and that it is not out of place to make mention of it to you, who would most likely have been one of the beneficiaries of my efforts had I succeeded—or rather been permitted to succeed—in selling the property. 4explanatory note
The amount is Small in the eyes of a Millionaire—or in those of a man worth twice as much, but I haven’t got such eyes about me—and am not like to have as long as Colonel Sellers, draws on this place so heavily as he does—and at sight, too. Since his last draw there has been no money here. 5explanatory note
Orion Clemens, Esq | Keokuk | Iowa. sideways, along left edge: Preserve this man’s letter. postmarked: hartford ct. mar 1 6pm
This particular renunciation came in late 1865 or early 1866, after Orion frustrated Clemens’s arrangements for a sale (see L1 , 326–27, 343).
The enclosed check (now lost) was written for an unknown amount more than the $11.70 requested by Clinton Rice (see the enclosure).
Clemens’s last known trip to Washington was in October 1871, while he was on a lecture tour ( L4 , 478).
Despite Clemens’s vehement disclaimer, the circumstantiality of Rice’s letter supports his version of events. His meeting with Clemens, which he loosely recalled as having occurred “several weeks, or some” before January 1871, might have occurred in July 1870, or, less probably, in February 1871, occasions when Clemens was in Washington lobbying for the passage of a bill of interest to the Langdon family. In 1870 Orion had engaged more than one agent in his attempts to profit from the Tennessee land. Nothing is known, however, of the sale he supposedly “effected” in January 1871—evidently just another of his ultimately fruitless efforts (see 10 May 74 to Howells, n. 2click to open letter; 11 July 74 to JLC, n. 8click to open letter; L4 , 113–14, 138–39, 164–69, 177–78, 193, 325–26).
An allusion to the financial success of the Gilded Age play. Performances in Washington, from 1 through 6 February, were well attended (“Ford’s Opera House,” Washington, D.C., National Republican, 1 Feb 75, 4 [two items], 2 Feb 75, 4).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK), is copy-text for the letter and envelope. MS, Clinton Rice to SLC, 25 Feb 75, CU-MARK (UCLC 32115), is copy-text for the enclosure.
L6 , 396–98.
see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.