It was now the autumn of 1863.Mark Twain was twenty-eight years old.On the Coast he had established a reputation as a gaily original newspaper writer.Thus far, however, he had absolutely no literary standing, nor is there any evidence that he had literary ambitions; his work was unformed, uncultivated--all of which seems strange, now, when we realize that somewhere behind lay the substance of immortality.Rudyard Kipling at twenty-eight had done his greatest work.
Even Joseph Goodman, who had a fine literary perception and a deep knowledge of men, intimately associated with Mark Twain as he was, received at this time no hint of his greater powers.Another man on the staff of the Enterprise, William Wright, who called himself "Dan de Quille," a graceful humorist, gave far more promise, Goodman thought, of future distinction.
It was Artemus Ward who first suspected the value of Mark Twain's gifts, and urged him to some more important use of them.Artemus in the course of a transcontinental lecture tour, stopped in Virginia City, and naturally found congenial society on the Enterprise staff.
He had intended remaining but a few days, but lingered three weeks, a period of continuous celebration, closing only with the holiday season.During one night of final festivities, Ward slipped away and gave a performance on his own account.His letter to Mark Twain, from Austin, Nevada, written a day or two later, is most characteristic.
Artemus Ward's letter to Mark Twain:
AUSTIN, Jan.1, '64.
MY DEAREST LOVE,-- I arrived here yesterday a.m.at 2 o'clock.It is a wild, untamable place, full of lionhearted boys.I speak tonight.See small bills.
Why did you not go with me and save me that night? --I mean the night Ileft you after that dinner party.I went and got drunker, beating, I may say, Alexander the Great, in his most drinkinist days, and I blackened my face at the Melodeon, and made a gibbering, idiotic speech.God-dam it!
I suppose the Union will have it.But let it go.I shall always remember Virginia as a bright spot in my existence, as all others must or rather cannot be, as it were.
Love to Jo.Goodman and Dan.I shall write soon, a powerfully convincing note to my friends of "The Mercury." Your notice, by the way, did much good here, as it doubtlessly will elsewhere.The miscreants of the Union will be batted in the snout if they ever dare pollute this rapidly rising city with their loathsome presence.
Some of the finest intellects in the world have been blunted by liquor.
Do not, sir--do not flatter yourself that you are the only chastely-humorous writer onto the Pacific slopes.
Good-bye, old boy--and God bless you! The matter of which I spoke to you so earnestly shall be just as earnestly attended to--and again with very many warm regards for Jo.and Dan., and regards to many of the good friends we met.
I am Faithfully, gratefully yours, ARTEMUS WARD.
The Union which Ward mentions was the rival Virginia.City paper;the Mercury was the New York Sunday Mercury, to which he had urged Mark Twain to contribute.Ward wrote a second letter, after a siege of illness at Salt Lake City.He was a frail creature, and three years later, in London, died of consumption.His genius and encouragement undoubtedly exerted an influence upon Mark Twain.
Ward's second letter here follows.
Artemus Ward to S.L.Clemens:
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan.21, '64.
