I was three thousand miles from home, at breakfast in New Orleans, when the damp morning paper revealed the sorrowful news among the cable dispatches. There was no place in America, however remote, or however rich or poor or high or humble, where words of mourning for your honored father were not uttered that morning, for his works had made him known & loved all over the land. To Mrs. Clemens & me, the loss is a personal one; & our grief the grief which one feels for one who was peculiarly near & dear. Mrs. Clemens has never ceased to express regret that we came away from England the last time without going to see him; & often we have p since projected a voyage across the Atlantic for the sole purpose of taking him by the hand & looking into his kind eyes once more before he should be called to his rest.

We both thank you greatly for the Edinburgh papers which you sent. My wife & I join in affectionate remembrances & greetings to yourself & your aunt, & in the sincere tender of our sympathies.