MARK TWAIN LETTER SOLD
Written to Thomas Nast, It Proposed a Joint Tour.
A Mark Twain autograph letter brought $43 yesterday at the action by the Merwin-Clayton company of the library and correspondence of the late Thomas Nast, cartoonist. The letter is nine pages 8vo, is dated Hartford, Nov. 12, 1877, and is addressed to Nast. It reads in part as follows:
Hartford, Nov. 12.
My Dear Nast: I did not think I should ever stand on a platform again until the time was come for me to say "I die innocent." But the same old offers keep arriving that have arriven every year, and been every year declined - $500 for Louisville, $500 for St. Louis, $1,000 gold for two nights in Toronto, half gross proceeds for New York, Boston, Brooklyn, &c. I have declined them all just as usual, though sorely tempted as usual.
Now, I do not decline because I mind talking to an audience, but because (1) traveling alone is so heart-breaking dreary, and (2) shouldering the whole show is such cheer-killing responsibility.
Therefore I now propose to you what you proposed to me in November, 1867 - ten years ago, (when I was unknown,) viz.: That you should stand on the platform and make pictures, and I stand by you and blackguard the audience. I should enormously enjoy meandering around (to big towns - don't want to go to little ones) with you for company.
The letter includes a schedule of cities and the number of appearances planned for each.
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