CARSON CITY, January 23, 1864.
GENTLEMEN, Certainly. If the public can find anything in a grave state paper worth paying a dollar for, I am willing that they should pay that amount, or any other; and although I am not a very dusty Christian myself, I take an absorbing interest in religious affairs, and would willingly inflict my annual message upon the Church itself if it might derive benefit thereby. You can charge what you please; I promise the public no amusement, but I do promise a reasonable amount of instruction. I am responsible to the Third House only, and I hope to be permitted to make it exceedingly warm for that body, without caring whether the sympathies of the public and the Church be enlisted in their favor, and against myself, or not.
Respectfully,
MARK TWAIN.
There is a quality in this letter more suggestive of the later Mark
Twain than anything that has preceded it. His Third House address,
unfortunately, has not been preserved, but those who heard it
regarded it as a classic. It probably abounded in humor of the
frontier sort-unsparing ridicule of the Governor, the Legislature,
and individual citizens. It was all taken in good part, of course,
and as a recognition of his success he received a gold watch, with
the case properly inscribed to “The Governor of the Third House.”
This was really his first public appearance in a field in which he
was destined to achieve very great fame.
V. LETTERS 1864-66. SAN FRANCISCO AND HAWAII
Life on the Comstock came to an end for Mark Twain in May, 1864. It
was the time of The Flour Sack Sanitary Fund, the story of which he
has told in Roughing It. He does not, however, refer to the
troubles which this special fund brought upon himself. Coming into
the Enterprise office one night, after a gay day of “Fund”
celebration, Clemens wrote, for next day's paper, a paragraph
intended to be merely playful, but which proved highly offending to
certain ladies concerned with the flour-sack enterprise. No files
of the paper exist today, so we cannot judge of the quality of humor
that stirred up trouble.
The trouble, however, was genuine enough, Virginia's rival paper
seized upon the chance to humiliate its enemy, and presently words
were passed back and forth until nothing was left to write but a
challenge. The story of this duel, which did not come off, has been
quite fully told elsewhere, both by Mark Twain and the present
writer; but the following letter—a revelation of his inner feelings
in the matter of his offense—has never before been published.
To Mrs. Cutler, in Carson City:
VIRGINIA, May 23rd, 1864.