Mark Twain-Howells Letters: Volume II Mark Twain-Howells Letters: The Correspondence of Samuel L. Clemens and William D. Howells, 1872-1910, Volume II

VII (1883-1884)» CONTINUED ## 342. CLEMENS TO HO WELLS [Hartford] Dec. 20/83. My Dear Howells: I couldn't telegraph him, because I had already written him -didn't want to seem too anxious. Now let's write a tragedy. The enclosed is not fancy, it is history -except that the little girl was a passing stranger 8c not kin to any of the parties. I read the incident in Carlyle's Cromwell a year ago & made a note in my notebook; 1 stumbled on the note to-day, & wrote up the closing scene of a possible tragedy to see how it might work. If we made this Colonel a grand fellow, 8c gave him a wife to suit -hey? It's right in the big historical times -war, -Cromwell in big, picturesque power, 8c all that. Come -let's do this tragedy, 8c do it well. Curious -but didn't Florence want a Cromwell? 2 But Cromwell would not be the chief figure here. Ys Ever Mark. Tell Mrs. Howells -never mind -I was only going to say how poor our sagacity was in lugging that valise around where everybody could see it. Cromwell. 3 Gentlemen, ye have heard the verdict -one of the three must die. Choose ye, by lot, which of you it shall be. ## GOOD BOOK (1883-1884) men, with their open hands behind them? Well, take thou these bits of paper, & put one in each of these waiting hands -& God guide thee & be with thee, thou innocent! Minnie. (Peering (very) roguishly around from behind the Colonel -aside.) Why, it's my papa! I thought I knew his hand! -I even know his elbow -such a dear elbow! (Kissing it lightly,) ((She quickly) I wonder if it's right? (Pause, contemplating the ballots.) Yes, it is right, he's my papa. He shall have the prettiest one -he shall have the red one. (Swiftly deposits the ballots in the hands, 8c peers smiling up again from under her father's elbow.) Major (inspecting his ballot) -Ah, thank God! Cap. Saved! (Clasps his hands with emotion). Colonel. (Inspects his ballot) -straightens himself with dignity). So let it be. He hath done it who doeth all things well. Minnie (Clapping her hands) -Papa! Col. (Siezes her & clasps her to his bosom, kissing her a dozen times -the red paper flutters to the floor.) O, my darling. Minnie (Gleefully.) I gave you the pretty red one, papa -I gave the others only white ones. I gave you the pretty red one, because you're my papa! Col. (Stupefied.) Thou? O, my Godl Min. Yes, I did it, papa, Minnie did it. Kiss Minnie, papa. Col. (Wildly kissing her.) O, poor little heart, you little know! Cromwell. His own child! Ah, my God, my God! Min. It is such a pretty red paper -& I gave it you, papa, Minnie gave it you, didn't she? Col. (aside) Ah, poor child, I gave her life, & innocently she has given me death in return. Min. Why papa\ you've thrown it away. Don't you want it, papa? Mayn't I have it, papa? -please, papa, mayn't I have it -it's so pretty! (Col. picks it up 8c pins it to the bosom of her frock.) O, thank you, thank you -& can I wear it alwaysalways? And every time I look at it I'll think of you -O, when I'm ever so big! -all my life. (And sometimes if mam) 457 MARK TWAIN-HOWELLS LETTERS Col. (Kissing her.) My child, my childl (Aside.) Poor little innocent prattler, she will break my heart. Cromwell. Remove the child -a heart of (stone cou) granite could not bear it. Let the drums beat -let the execution proceed, (muffled drums -file of soldiers march.) (They try to take the child from her father -she clings to him.) Col. (Kissing her & weeping.) Go, my child -go, darling, it is only for a little while -then we shall see each other again. There -& there -& there -kisses for mamma. Min. But I don't want to go -I want to stay with you. O, see the pretty soldiers -O, the lovely music! Col Ah, be good, please go, my darling -it's only a little while. Min. Just only a little, little, little while? Col. Yes, only just a very little while, sweetheart. (Aside) Ah, I must lie to her, though it destroy my soul. Min. Well, then, I will go; but I will come again if you don't come right away. For you must be good, too. (Patting his face fc kissing him. They lead her off the stage.) (Military commands & ceremonies. Drums & dirges. The Colonel stands apart. The file of soldiers take aim -at the word he falls.) (Enter mamma wildly, -8c little Minnie joyfully capering.) Mamma. O, my God! (Throws herself on the corpse.) Minnie. (Stands dazed, a while, looking down; then takes the red paper from her bosom, kneels & strokes her father's face -) -Papa! papal wake up, you shall have it again -don't be angry with Minnie -see, here it is, papa, dear, you shall have it again. (Curtain) 4 ι. The notebook entry reads as follows: "That Col. in 'Cromwell' & 2 others to choose which should die. They said it would be suicide, & refused. So a little child was called 8c drew life for 2 & death for the third, the Colonel. By dramatic accident it could have been his own child. The 3 standing, faced away, the child would nevertheless recognize her father, & lovingly put into his hand the red piece of paper -& then tell so, gleefully, is drawing full houses, is not half so funny as ours. He seems a young fellow; but I don't know whether he could be got. He would look the part admirably. Yours ever W. D. Howells. ι. This unidentified item must be added to the list of collaborative projects that bore no fruit. 2. Henry E. Dixey, a well-known actor who had first attained celebrity in 1877 as the forelegs of a heifer in the burlesque Evangeline of Ε. E. Rice and Cheever Goodwin (Odell, Annals, X, 193). 3. Confusion, by Joseph Denick, had been first produced in London in May 1883. ## 344. CLEMENS TO HOWELLS [Hartford] Jan 7/84 My Dear Howells -"O my goodn's"! as Jean says. You have now encountered at last the heaviest calamity that can befal an author. The scarlet fever, once domesticated, is a permanent member of the family. 1 Money may desert you, friends forsake you, enemies grow indifferent to you, but the scarlet fever will be true to you, through thick & thin, till you be all saved or damned, down to the last one. I say these things to cheer you. As to the pecuniary feature -the six weeks which Jean robbed me of, happened by accident to be the very most valuable 6 weeks of my entire life. 2 The bare suggestion of scarlet fever in the family makes me shudder; I believe I would almost rather have Osgood publish a book for me. You folks have our most sincere sympathy. O, the intrusion of this hideous disease is an unspeakable disaster. My billiard table is stacked up with books relating to the Sandwich Islands; the walls are upholstered with scraps of paper penciled with notes drawn from them. I have saturated myself with knowledge of that unimaginably beautiful land & that most strange & fascinating people. And I have begun a story. Its hidden motive will illustrate a but-little considered fact in human nature: that the religious folly you are born in you will die in, no matter what apparently reasonabler religious folly may seem to have taken its place meanwhile & abolished 8c obliterated it. I start Bill Ragsdale 3 at 12 years of age, 8c the heroine at 4, in the midst of the ancient idolatrous system, with its picturesque & amazing customs & superstitions, 3 months before the arrival of the missionaries & the erection of a shallow Christianity upon the ruins of the old paganism. Then these two will become educated Christians, & highly civilized. And then I will jump 15 years, & do Ragsdale's leper business. When we come to dramatize, we can draw a deal of matter from the story, all ready to our hand. 4 Yrs Ever Mark Shall hear from Webster as to Raymond about to-morrow or next day, I think 5 -Raymond is drawing crowded houses in New York, 8c giving great satisfaction.® I shall presently go down there & see some comedians play. -Webster is doing it, now. We do hope Mrs. Howells will be soon out of her bed, & that your ill luck will end with John's attack. Μ ι. John Howells was ill with scarlet fever, although "not very sick" (WDH to John Hay, Boston, 7 January 1884, LinL, I, 357). 2. Jean Clemens came down with scarlet fever on 21 June 1882 (SLC to CLW, Hartford, MTBM, p. 188). Several weeks later Clemens wrote to his mother: "Jean is skinning, now; & of course this is a time of great solicitude. For two weeks & a half, now, Rosa, Livy & I have been Jean's nurses; & nobody else but the doctor allowed in that part of the house -8c nobody allowed to enter the front door. I have written no letters, attended to no business, not even matters of the vastest importance" (? July 1882, MTBM, p. 188). In Clemens's letter to Howells of 24 July 1882 he speaks as if all the children have had scarlet fever but are recovered. 3. Mark Twain outlined the story of Bill Ragsdale, "interpreter to the [Hawaiian] Parliament in my time-a half-white," many years later in Following the Equator (DE, XX,(41)(42): "He was a brilliant young fellow, and very popular . . . [but] his prosperous career was cut short in a sudden and unexpected way, just as he was about to marry a beautiful half-caste girl. He discovered, by some nearly invisible sign about his skin, that the A MIGHTY GOOD BOOK (1883-1884) HO WELLS TO CLEMENS CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VII. A MIGHTY GOOD BOOK, continued (1883–1884) VIII. YOU ARE REALLY MY ONLY AUTHOR (1885–1886) IX. THEORETICAL SOCIALISTS, PRACTICAL ARISTOCRATS (1887–1891) X. OLD DERELICTS (1892–1900) XI. FRY ME AN OPTIMIST (1900–1904) XII. ( 1905–1910) APPENDIX CALENDAR OF LETTERS. BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY. INDEX CALENDAR OF LETTERS BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY INDEX