During the, period of its construction Harte had an order for a story which he said he must finish at once, as he needed the money.  It must be delivered by the following night, and he insisted that he must be getting at it without a moment’s delay.  Still he seemed in no haste to begin.  The evening passed; bedtime came.  Then he asked that an open fire might be made in his room and a bottle of whisky sent up, in case he needed. something to keep him awake.  George attended to these matters, and nothing more was heard of Harte until very early next morning, when he rang for George and asked for a fresh fire and an additional supply of whisky.  At breakfast-time he appeared, fresh, rosy, and elate, with the announcement that his story was complete.

That forenoon the Saturday Morning Club met at the Clemens home.  It was a young women’s club, of which Mark Twain was a sort of honorary member —­a club for the purpose of intellectual advancement, somewhat on the order of the Monday Evening Club of men, except that the papers read before it were not prepared by members, but by men and women prominent in some field of intellectual progress.  Bret Harte had agreed to read to them on this particular occasion, and he gaily appeared and gave them the story just finished, “Thankful Blossom,” a tale which Mark Twain always regarded as one of Harte’s very best.

The new play, “Ah Sin,” by Mark Twain and Bret Harte, was put on at Washington, at the National Theater, on the evening of May 7, 1877.  It had been widely exploited in the newspapers, and the fame of the authors insured a crowded opening.  Clemens was unable to go over on account of a sudden attack of bronchitis.  Parsloe was nervous accordingly, and the presence of Harte does not seem to have added to his happiness.

“I am not very well myself,” he wrote to Clemens.  “The excitement of the first night is bad enough, but to have the annoyance with Harte that I have is too much for a new beginner.”

Nevertheless, the play seems to have gone well, with Parsloe as Ah Sin —­a Chinese laundryman who was also a great number of other diverting things—­with a fair support and a happy-go-lucky presentation of frontier life, which included a supposed murder, a false accusation, and a general clearing-up of mystery by the pleasant and wily and useful and entertaining Ah Sin.  It was not a great play.  It was neither very coherent nor convincing, but it had a lot of good fun in it, with character parts which, if not faithful to life, were faithful enough to the public conception of it to be amusing and exciting.  At the end of each act not only Parsloe, but also the principal members of the company, were called before the curtain for special acknowledgments.  When it was over there was a general call for Ah Sin, who came before the curtain and read a telegram.

Charles T. Parsloe,—­I am on the sick-list, and therefore cannot come to Washington; but I have prepared two speeches—­one to deliver in event of failure of the play, and the other if successful.  Please tell me which I shall send.  May be better to put it to vote.