per Telegraph Operator
8 November 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, copy received: MH-H, UCCL 01387)
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.
william orton, pres’t,
a. r. brewer, sec’y.new york
13dated Hartford Ct 187 6
received at CambNov. 8th
to W. D. Howells
37 Concord Ave
I love to steal a while away from every cumbering care and while returns come in today
lift up my voice
& swear
Plymouth Collection
1explanatory note
23 paid
Clemens parodied the first stanza of a popular hymn by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (1783–1861): “I love to steal, awhile, away / From every cumbering care, / And spend the hours of setting day / In humble, grateful prayer.” It was included in Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Collection of Hymns, which Clemens knew well. He was following early returns from the 7 November presidential election. As a supporter of Hayes, the Republican, he was disturbed that Hartford and Connecticut had already gone for Tilden, the Democrat, with the Hartford Courant projecting his victory: “The decided probabilities are that Mr. Tilden is elected” (“The Result,” “The Result in Connecticut,” 8 Nov 1876, 2; Beecher 1855, 799–800).
MS, copy received, telegram blank filled out by the receiving telegraph operator, MH-H, shelf mark bMS Am 1784 (98).
MTHL , 1:162.
See Howells Letters in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter.