14 May 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, on printed form postal card, in pencil: CU-MARK, UCCL 01430)
mr. clemens has gone away on a sea voyage of uncertain duration, but will answer your letter as soon as he returns to this country.
written across printed message:
Profanity is more necessary to me than is immunity from colds.
To take your remedy “by & large,’’ I should say death, will would be easily preferable to it.1explanatory note
us postal card. | write the address on this side—the message on the other | Orion Clemens, Esq Keokuk Iowa postmarked: hartford conn. may 14 6pm
Clemens wrote his note on one of the printed postcards he intended to use while in Bermuda, in reply to the following advice from Orion (CU-MARK):
Keokuk, May 10/77.
My Dear Brother:
Thank you heartily for the three drafts—$42 each.
For your cold, abstain from eating, drinking, and profanity for 24 hours, (except water); then bathe in hot water half an hour to the knees, keeping the water as hot by ex as you can bear by expedients that will readily suggest themselves to a person of your mental resources; then put on woolen socks and go to bed. In the early stages, warranted.
Love to all.
Your Brother,
Orion.
MS, cross-written on printed form postal card, in pencil, CU-MARK.
MicroML, reel 4.
See Moffett Collection in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter.