ELMIRA, Oct.9 '79.
MY DEAR HOWELLS,--Since my return, the mail facilities have enabled Orion to keep me informed as to his intentions.Twenty-eight days ago it was his purpose to complete a work aimed at religion, the preface to which he had already written.Afterward he began to sell off his furniture, with the idea of hurrying to Leadville and tackling silver-mining--threw up his law den and took in his sign.Then he wrote to Chicago and St.Louis newspapers asking for a situation as "paragrapher"--enclosing a taste of his quality in the shape of two stanzas of "humorous rhymes." By a later mail on the same day he applied to New York and Hartford insurance companies for copying to do.
However, it would take too long to detail all his projects.They comprise a removal to south-west Missouri; application for a reporter's berth on a Keokuk paper; application for a compositor's berth on a St.
Louis paper; a re-hanging of his attorney's sign, "though it only creaks and catches no flies;" but last night's letter informs me that he has retackled the religious question, hired a distant den to write in, applied to my mother for $50 to re-buy his furniture, which has advanced in value since the sale--purposes buying $25 worth of books necessary to his labors which he had previously been borrowing, and his first chapter is already on its way to me for my decision as to whether it has enough ungodliness in it or not.Poor Orion!
Your letter struck me while I was meditating a project to beguile you, and John Hay and Joe Twichell, into a descent upon Chicago which I dream of making, to witness the re-union of the great Commanders of the Western Army Corps on the 9th of next month.My sluggish soul needs a fierce upstirring, and if it would not get it when Grant enters the meeting place I must doubtless "lay" for the final resurrection.Can you and Hay go? At the same time, confound it, I doubt if I can go myself, for this book isn't done yet.But I would give a heap to be there.I mean to heave some holiness into the Hartford primaries when I go back; and if there was a solitary office in the land which majestic ignorance and incapacity, coupled with purity of heart, could fill, I would run for it.
This naturally reminds me of Bret Harte--but let him pass.
We propose to leave here for New York Oct.21, reaching Hartford 24th or 25th.If, upon reflection, you Howellses find, you can stop over here on your way, I wish you would do it, and telegraph me.Getting pretty hungry to see you.I had an idea that this was your shortest way home, but like as not my geography is crippled again--it usually is.
Yrs ever MARK.
The "Reunion of the Great Commanders," mentioned in the foregoing, was a welcome to General Grant after his journey around the world.
Grant's trip had been one continuous ovation--a triumphal march.
In '79 most of his old commanders were still alive, and they had planned to assemble in Chicago to do him honor.A Presidential year was coming on, but if there was anything political in the project there were no surface indications.Mark Twain, once a Confederate soldier, had long since been completely "desouthernized"--at least to the point where he felt that the sight of old comrades paying tribute to the Union commander would stir his blood as perhaps it had not been stirred, even in that earlier time, when that same commander had chased him through the Missouri swamps.Grant, indeed, had long since become a hero to Mark Twain, though it is highly unlikely that Clemens favored the idea of a third term.Some days following the preceding letter an invitation came for him to be present at the Chicago reunion; but by this time he had decided not to go.The letter he wrote has been preserved.
To Gen.William E.Strong, in Chicago:
FARMINGTON AVENUE, HARTFORD.
Oct.28, 1879.
GEN.WM.E.STRONG, CH'M, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE:
I have been hoping during several weeks that it might be my good fortune to receive an invitation to be present on that great occasion in Chicago;but now that my desire is accomplished my business matters have so shaped themselves as to bar me from being so far from home in the first half of November.It is with supreme regret that I lost this chance, for I have not had a thorough stirring up for some years, and I judged that if Icould be in the banqueting hall and see and hear the veterans of the Army of the Tennessee at the moment that their old commander entered the room, or rose in his place to speak, my system would get the kind of upheaval it needs.General Grant's progress across the continent is of the marvelous nature of the returning Napoleon's progress from Grenoble to Paris; and as the crowning spectacle in the one case was the meeting with the Old Guard, so, likewise, the crowning spectacle in the other will be our great captain's meeting with his Old Guard--and that is the very climax which I wanted to witness.
Besides, I wanted to see the General again, any way, and renew the acquaintance.He would remember me, because I was the person who did not ask him for an office.However, I consume your time, and also wander from the point--which is, to thank you for the courtesy of your invitation, and yield up my seat at the table to some other guest who may possibly grace it better, but will certainly not appreciate its privileges more, than I should.
With great respect, I am, Gentlemen, Very truly yours, S.L.CLEMENS.
Private:--I beg to apologize for my delay, gentlemen, but the card of invitation went to Elmira, N.Y.and hence has only just now reached me.
This letter was not sent.He reconsidered and sent an acceptance, agreeing to speak, as the committee had requested.Certainly there was something picturesque in the idea of the Missouri private who had been chased for a rainy fortnight through the swamps of Ralls County being selected now to join in welcome to his ancient enemy.
The great reunion was to be something more than a mere banquet.It would continue for several days, with processions, great assemblages, and much oratory.
