22 January 1885 • St. Paul, Minn. (Transcript by Herman Levison: CU-MARK, UCCL 11487)
I have never felt a disposition to satirize the Jews. I have no reason to offer; for I think it is a matter of feeling not a conscious intellectual impulse. Hang it, what I am trying to say, is, that I have never had the disposition, but also have never reasoned out why I haven’t had the disposition. Now as any valuable moral impulse must (I suppose) have its source in the intellect, I could doubtless dig there and find the origin of this one. (The disposition itself is the same that would keep one from satirizing the Acadians—you simply don’t want to—the thought of it being repellant.) But the intellectual origin of the disposition lies mainly in two facts I think; (and they long ago deeply impressed me) that I have never seen a Jew begging his bread; and have never seen one procuring it by manual labor. The one fact must mean that the Jews take care of their unfortunates with a fidelity known to no other race; and the other fact must mean that the Jews are the only race with whom brains are a universal heritage. (By contrast consider the Irish race.) We do not satirize people whom we singularly respect—one would do it but indifferently well, and be ashamed of it when it was done. Twenty years ago, I knew Adolph Sutro well (of Sutro tunnel)—a fine, manly, beautiful character; & I have always found something of Sutro in all the Jews whom I have personally known since; and a part of Sutro is a sufficient equipment for an average man. No, I never knew Ben Holliday—I only knew of him. I never got those pamphlets of yours; but I have been raiding the country a long time on the platform; so I will no doubt find them at home when I get back. I shall hope so. Aha, but didn’t we sock it to the paltry plumed knight in the tin helmet, though! For weeks I couldn’t sleep, for solid joy in that achievement. Twichell is flourishing, and at last accounts hadⒶemendation No 9 on the scales—a girl, 12 lbs.
Transcript by Herman Levison, CU-MARK. A modern, typed copy of this same letter from Clemens survives in CSmH, but that typed copy evidently derives from the Levison copy, not from the original manuscript, which has not been found.
MicroPUL, reel 2.
Herman Levison, co-founder and proprietor with his brother Louis of the San Francisco-based California Jewelry Co., enclosed his transcript in a letter to Adolph Sutro, presumably dating from late February 1885, stating: “this letter is a copy of one which I happened to see in Portland – Oregon – a few weeks ago when there” (H. Levison to Adolph Sutro, late February 1885?, CU-MARK). Clemens’s letter had been prompted by an inquiry from Wood, who had recently moved to Portland where he practiced law. He was in turn motivated by a request from M. W. Fechheimer, another lawyer in Portland. Fechheimer had seen the original by 5 February 1885, when he wrote to thank Clemens for writing it, and to admit that he had “suggested to Mr. Wood the inquiry which you have kindly taken some pains to answer” (Fechheimer to SLC, 5 February 1885, CU-MARK). Clemens wrote on the envelope of Fechheimer’s letter: “From a distinguished Jew.” The Levison copy was offered for sale by the John Howell Bookshop in May 1977. It was purchased, directly or indirectly, by Nick Karanovich, whose collection was auctioned off at Sotheby’s on 19 June 2003. The letter was purchased by CU-MARK, as part of lot 67, with funds provided by Benjamin Shapell.