登陆注册
5380500000072

第72章

Yes, it is true.I am only going to remain beyond the sea, six months, that is all.I love stir and excitement; and so the moment the spring birds begin to sing, and the lagging weariness of summer to threaten, I grow restless, I get the fidgets; I want to pack off somewhere where there's something going on.But you know how that is--you must have felt that way.This very day I saw the signs in the air of the coming dullness, and I said to myself, "How glad I am that I have already chartered a steamship!" There was absolutely nothing in the morning papers.You can see for yourself what the telegraphic headings were:

BY TELEGRAPH

A Father Killed by His Son A Bloody Fight in Kentucky A Court House Fired, and Negroes Therein Shot while Escaping A Louisiana Massacre An Eight-year-old murderer Two to Three Hundred Men Roasted Alive!

A Town in a State of General Riot A Lively Skirmish in Indiana (and thirty other similar headings.)The items under those headings all bear date yesterday, Apl.16 (refer to your own paper)--and I give you my word of honor that that string of commonplace stuff was everything there was in the telegraphic columns that a body could call news.Well, said I to myself this is getting pretty dull; this is getting pretty dry; there don't appear to be anything going on anywhere; has this progressive nation gone to sleep?

Have I got to stand another month of this torpidity before I can begin to browse among the lively capitals of Europe?

But never mind-things may revive while I am away.During the last two months my next-door neighbor, Chas.Dudley Warner, has dropped his "Back-Log Studies," and he and I have written a bulky novel in partnership.

He has worked up the fiction and I have hurled in the facts.I consider it one of the most astonishing novels that ever was written.Night after night I sit up reading it over and over again and crying.It will be published early in the Fall, with plenty of pictures.Do you consider this an advertisement?--and if so, do you charge for such things when a man is your friend?

Yours truly, SAML.L.CLEMENS, "MARK TWAIN,"An amusing, even if annoying, incident happened about the time of Mark Twain's departure.A man named Chew related to Twichell a most entertaining occurrence.Twichell saw great possibilities in it, and suggested that Mark Twain be allowed to make a story of it, sharing the profits with Chew.Chew agreed, and promised to send the facts, carefully set down.Twichell, in the mean time, told the story to Clemens, who was delighted with it and strongly tempted to write it at once, while he was in the spirit, without waiting on Chew.Fortunately, he did not do so, for when Chew's material came it was in the form of a clipping, the story having been already printed in some newspaper.Chew's knowledge of literary ethics would seem to have been slight.He thought himself entitled to something under the agreement with Twichell.Mark Twain, by this time in London, naturally had a different opinion.

To Rev.J.H.Twichell, in Hartford:

LONDON, June 9, '73.

DEAR OLD JOE,--I consider myself wholly at liberty to decline to pay Chew anything, and at the same time strongly tempted to sue him into the bargain for coming so near ruining me.If he hadn't happened to send me that thing in print, I would have used the story (like an innocent fool)and would straightway have been hounded to death as a plagiarist.It would have absolutely destroyed me.I cannot conceive of a man being such a hopeless ass (after serving as a legislative reporter, too) as to imagine that I or any other literary man in his senses would consent to chew over old stuff that had already been in print.If that man wern't an infant in swaddling clothes, his only reply to our petition would have been, "It has been in print." It makes me as mad as the very Old Harry every time I think of Mr.Chew and the frightfully narrow escape I have had at his hands.Confound Mr.Chew, with all my heart! I'm willing that he should have ten dollars for his trouble of warming over his cold victuals--cheerfully willing to that--but no more.If I had had him near when his letter came, I would have got out my tomahawk and gone for him.

He didn't tell the story half as well as you did, anyhow.

I wish to goodness you were here this moment--nobody in our parlor but Livy and me,--and a very good view of London to the fore.We have a luxuriously ample suite of apartments in the Langham Hotel, 3rd floor, our bedroom looking straight up Portland Place and our parlor having a noble array of great windows looking out upon both streets (Portland Place and the crook that joins it to Regent Street.)9 P.M.Full twilight--rich sunset tints lingering in the west.

I am not going to write anything--rather tell it when I get back.I love you and Harmony, and that is all the fresh news I've got, anyway.And Imean to keep that fresh all the time.

Lovingly MARK.

P.S.--Am luxuriating in glorious old Pepy's Diary, and smoking.

Letters are exceedingly scarce through all this period.Mark Twain, now on his second visit to London, was literally overwhelmed with honors and entertainment; his rooms at the Langham were like a court.Such men as Robert Browning, Turgenieff, Sir John Millais, and Charles Kingsley hastened to call.Kingsley and others gave him dinners.Mrs.Clemens to her sister wrote: "It is perfectly discouraging to try to write you."The continuous excitement presently told on her.In July all further engagements were canceled, and Clemens took his little family to Scotland, for quiet and rest.They broke the journey at York, and it was there that Mark Twain wrote the only letter remaining from this time.

Part of a letter to Mrs.Jervis Langdon, of Elmira, N.Y.:

同类推荐
  • 六十六

    六十六

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 观世音菩萨往生净土本缘经附西晋录

    观世音菩萨往生净土本缘经附西晋录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 蠢子医

    蠢子医

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Robert Falconer

    Robert Falconer

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Philosophical Dictionary

    The Philosophical Dictionary

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 贞白遗稿

    贞白遗稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 狂妃当道:王爷大叔靠边站

    狂妃当道:王爷大叔靠边站

    初识,她十一,他二十一,演绎了最萌的年龄差。五年后,她惊世绝艳,他紧步相随,她说:我若要逃,你拦不住。他腹黑轻笑:我若不松手,你便无处可逃。同样狂傲的两人,将擦出怎么样的火花?拭目以待!
  • 赤松领禅师语录

    赤松领禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 法师故事2

    法师故事2

    半身人说:好奇就是力量。矮人会说:团结就是力量。精灵会说:魔法就是力量。侏儒会说:创造就是力量。兽人会说:杀戮就是力量。人类会说:权力就是力量。龙一直说:知识就是力量。神曾经说:信仰就是力量。奥索斯站在全知高塔的露台上,俯瞰安瑞尔大陆,轻轻地说:我,就是作者。
  • 糖尿病健康饮食指南

    糖尿病健康饮食指南

    《糖尿病健康饮食指南》力求贴近生活,内容通俗易懂、简单实用,是广大群众防病治病的家庭保健必备读本。健康是生命的基石,没有健康,再灿烂的生命也只是流星一瞬,再辉煌的梦想也无从实现,再多的财富也无法享用。远离生活误区,选择健康的生活方式,是获得健康、减少疾病的最简便易行、最经济有效的途径。《家庭医生保健丛书》以家庭保健为主要任务,从预防、就医、用药、生活、饮食、运动等几方面分别进行阐述。
  • 别让学习折磨你

    别让学习折磨你

    书中为广大青少年朋友介绍了12个优质的学习观念,通过获得正确的学习观念,认识到学习的重要性,走出对待学习的误区,学生朋友才会发现学习中的乐趣,从而爱上学习。书中附有古今中外名人关于学习读书的名言,希望青少年朋友能从中获得一些鼓励和启迪。还附有名人的学习读书心法,希望你从中能学到一些方法和观念,开启你的学习新纪元。
  • 重生之结婚之前

    重生之结婚之前

    为婆媳关系痛心,为孩子被夺心碎,为丈夫不忠绝望……重生在与他结婚之前、怀孕之后,本以为重获新生,便可平静度日,偏偏你还敢往枪口上撞,那就别怨人家新仇旧恨一起算!
  • The Paths of Inland Commerce

    The Paths of Inland Commerce

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 未央欢,语还休

    未央欢,语还休

    安洛央,大闹地府,暴打阎王!孟婆?也敢揣进忘川河!三生石?狗屁的前生今世!打碎!自顾自踏着满坡的彼岸花,一转身投入迷魂崖白冥休,满腹怨念不入轮回,烧了火照之路,毁了奈何桥,暴打牛头,那个人说,皇兄,你夺人所爱了。
  • 创造艺坛神话的璀璨明星

    创造艺坛神话的璀璨明星

    本书介绍了创造艺坛神话的璀璨明星,人物包括:好莱坞电影奇才,国际影坛第一代功夫巨星,太空独舞,时尚百变女王,舞之女神:篮坛飞人,一代球王,美国人的心灵女王,喜剧表演大师等璀璨明星。通过他们的简介、生平、经典语录、以及影响领袖生平的传奇事件几方面,向读者真实还原明星的传奇人生。