They came in at 8.45, 15 minutes late; wish they would always be
    present, for it isn’t permissible to begin until they come; by that
    time the late-comers are all in.

Clemens wrote a number of final letters from Vancouver.  In one of them to Mr. J. Henry Harper, of Harper & Brothers, he expressed the wish that his name might now be printed as the author of “Joan,” which had begun serially in the April Magazine.  He thought it might, help his lecturing tour and keep his name alive.  But a few days later, with Mrs. Clemens’s help, he had reconsidered, and wrote: 

My wife is a little troubled by my wanting my nom de plume put to the “Joan of Arc” so soon.  She thinks it might go counter to your plans, and that you ought to be left free and unhampered in the matter.

    All right-so be it.  I wasn’t strenuous about it, and wasn’t meaning
    to insist; I only thought my reasons were good, and I really think
    so yet, though I do confess the weight and fairness of hers.

As a matter of fact the authorship of “Joan” had been pretty generally guessed by the second or third issue.  Certain of its phrasing and humor could hardly have come from another pen than Mark Twain’s.  The authorship was not openly acknowledged, however, until the publication of the book, the following May.

Among the letters from Vancouver was this one to Rudyard Kipling

Dear Kipling,—­It is reported that you are about to visit India.  This has moved me to journey to that far country in order that I may unload from my conscience a debt long due to you.  Years ago you came from India to Elmira to visit me, as you said at the time.  It has always been my purpose to return that visit & that great compliment some day.  I shall arrive next January & you must be ready.  I shall come riding my ayah with his tusks adorned with silver bells & ribbons & escorted by a troop of native howdahs richly clad & mounted upon a herd of wild bungalows; & you must be on hand with a few bottles of ghee, for I shall be thirsty.

To the press he gave this parting statement: 

It has been reported that I sacrificed for the benefit of the creditors the property of the publishing firm whose financial backer I was and that I am now lecturing for my own benefit.  This is an error.  I intend the lectures as well as the property for the creditors.  The law recognizes no mortgage on a man’s brain, and a merchant who has given up all he has may take advantage of the laws of insolvency and start free again for himself.  But I am not a business man, and honor is a harder master than the law.  It cannot compromise for less than 100 cents on the dollar and its debts never outlaw.  From my reception thus far on my lecturing tour I am confident that if I live I can pay off the last debt within four years, after which, at the age of sixty-four, I can make a fresh and unincumbered start in life.