第35章

MY DEAR MARK,--I have been dangerously ill for the past two weeks here, of congestive fever.Very grave fears were for a time entertained of my recovery, but happily the malady is gone, though leaving me very, very weak.I hope to be able to resume my journey in a week or so.I think I shall speak in the Theater here, which is one of the finest establishments of the kind in America.

The Saints have been wonderfully kind to me, I could not have been better or more tenderly nursed at home--God bless them!

I am still exceedingly weak--can't write any more.Love to Jo and Dan, and all the rest.Write me at St.Louis.

Always yours, ARTEMUS WARD.

If one could only have Mark Twain's letters in reply to these! but they have vanished and are probably long since dust.A letter which he wrote to his mother assures us that he undertook to follow Ward's advice.He was not ready, however, for serious literary effort.

The article, sent to the Mercury, was distinctly of the Comstock variety; it was accepted, but it apparently made no impression, and he did not follow it up.

For one thing, he was just then too busy reporting the Legislature at Carson City and responding to social demands.From having been a scarcely considered unit during the early days of his arrival in Carson Mark Twain had attained a high degree of importance in the little Nevada capital.In the Legislature he was a power; as correspondent for the Enterprise he was feared and respected as well as admired.His humor, his satire, and his fearlessness were dreaded weapons.

Also, he was of extraordinary popularity.Orion's wife, with her little daughter, Jennie, had come out from the States.The Governor of Nevada had no household in Carson City, and was generally absent.

Orion Clemens reigned in his stead, and indeed was usually addressed as "Governor" Clemens.His home became the social center of the capital, and his brilliant brother its chief ornament.From the roughest of miners of a year before he had become, once more, almost a dandy in dress, and no occasion was complete without him.When the two Houses of the Legislature assembled, in January, 1864, a burlesque Third House was organized and proposed to hold a session, as a church benefit.After very brief consideration it was decided to select Mark Twain to preside at this Third House assembly under the title of "Governor," and a letter of invitation was addressed to him.His reply to it follows:

To S.Pixley and G.A.Sears, Trustees:

CARSON CITY, January 23, r86?

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.