MARK TWAIN IN THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC CHRONICLE
1866
[EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of these items is unknown. The item "After Him" refers to Clemens's letter in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise dated February 3 and published a few days later titled "Take the Stand Fitz Smythe."]
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AFTER HIM
"Mark Twain" is a malevolent duck. He never lets up on any one -- particularly Fitz Smythe and the police. He calls Fitz "the friend of the police;" yet he avers that he (Fitz) would abuse them (the police) like pirates if they (the police) were all to die suddenly. "I know it," says "Mark," "because he always abuses dead people. He was a firm unswerving friend of Barney Olwell until the man was hanged and buried, and then look what hard names he called him!" Manifestly these two literary lights do not love one another intensely.
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NOT SO
The rumor on the streets that Fitz Smythe attacked "Mark Twain" at the Bank Exchange, yesterday, and "cowhided him," is not authentic. Fitz informed a number of his friends that he was going to perform this feat, but he changed his mind afterward.
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[transcribed from microfilm]
