I enclose photograph for the young ladies. I
will remark that I do not wear seal-skin for grandeur,
but because I found, when I used to lecture in the
winter, that nothing else was able to keep a man warm
sometimes, in these high latitudes. I wish you
had sent pictures of yourself and family—I’ll
trade picture for picture with you, straight through,
if you are commercially inclined.
Your
old friend,
Saml
L. Clemens.
XVII.
Letters, 1877. To Bermuda with Twichell. Proposition to th. Nast. The Whittier dinner
Mark Twain must have been too busy to write letters that winter. Those that have survived are few and unimportant. As a matter of fact, he was writing the play, “Ah Sin,” with Bret Harte, and getting it ready for production. Harte was a guest in the Clemens home while the play was being written, and not always a pleasant one. He was full of requirements, critical as to the ‘menage,’ to the point of sarcasm. The long friendship between Clemens and Harte weakened under the strain of collaboration and intimate daily intercourse, never to renew its old fiber. It was an unhappy outcome of an enterprise which in itself was to prove of little profit. The play, “Ah Sin,” had many good features, and with Charles T. Parsloe in an amusing Chinese part might have been made a success, if the two authors could have harmoniously undertaken the needed repairs. It opened in Washington in May, and a letter from Parsloe, written at the moment, gives a hint of the situation.
From Charles T. Parsloe to S. L. Clemens:
Washington, D. C. May 11th, 1877. Mr. Clemens,—I forgot whether I acknowledged receipt of check by telegram. Harte has been here since Monday last and done little or nothing yet, but promises to have something fixed by tomorrow morning. We have been making some improvements among ourselves. The last act is weak at the end, and I do hope Mr. Harte will have something for a good finish to the piece. The other acts I think are all right, now.