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SPECIAL FEATURE
by Barbara Schmidt
Removing "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
from the Mark Twain Canon
As early as 1982 the Mark Twain Project at the University of California at Berkeley has been engaged in ongoing efforts to establish the earliest date of publication of "Poor Little Stephen Girard" and confirm whether or not it was written by Mark Twain. With special thanks to Leslie Myrick of the Mark Twain Project for recovering the first printing of "Poor Little Stephen Girard" from historical newspaper archives in May 2012 -- it can now be confirmed that Mark Twain did not write this sketch that was first attributed to him in 1872. This mistaken attribution to Mark Twain endured and gained acceptance with repetition, especially in the absence of his own denial.
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The First Printing of "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
The original publication of the short sketch titled "Poor Little Stephen Girard" was in the New York Sun, Monday, October 21, 1872 [p. 3] over the signature of a Sun correspondent named "John." (The original image is online at the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" website.) John had been contributing pun filled humor sketches to the Sun since at least March 6, 1871. Clipping and reprinting articles was common practice among the nation's newspaper editors throughout the nineteenth century. Often only a short segment from an original contribution would be used. John's earliest contributions to the Sun gained attention across the East coast, with one newspaper commenting: "The N. Y. Sun has a correspondent 'John' who writes as funny as Doesticks, and many of his drolleries are worthy of the lamented Artemus Ward" ("John's Watch," Maine Eastern Argus, July 13, 1871, p. [4]). When the Sun published a lengthy letter titled "John in Philadelphia," in its Monday edition on October 21, 1872, portions of it were recopied in newspapers across the country, spreading like a literary epidemic. The portion titled "Poor Little Stephen Girard" proved to be the most popular segment lifted from the article. John's entire article, filled with puns, jokes and one-liners, is transcribed as follows.
THE SUN, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1872, [p. 3].JOHN
IN PHILADELPHIA Correspondence of The Sun. PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 12. -- This is Philadelphia, called "the City of Brotherly Love." There is nothing said about sisterly love. I came through the Holy Land to get here, and Jerusalem! the land was full of holes too. They call em coal mines. I saw more anthraccite by a darned sight than I ever saw before. Phil. is quite a city, and a quiet city too. Little Phil is no relation to this Phil. I met here my first pious hack driver. His horses were preying on oats, and he was preying on a sandwich. Among all the ramifications of society pious hack drivers are scarcer than plaid zebras, and plaid zebras are scarcer than toad stools with cane bottoms. Says he, "Will thee go to the Continental?" I told him I didn't care a Continental where I went. Says he, "Where's thy baggage?" Then he took me to the Continental. Mr. Continental was out when I got there, and from the quantum sufficit that I ate I guess he was out when I left there -- out of pocket. HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA. The Swedes took possession of the dirt, gravel, and dust on which Philadelphia is built in 1627. Jim II., King of England, granted the State to Wm. Penn, who was a perfect old quill. Wm. Penn arrived in 1682, and hog pens and steel pens came afterward. The city was laid out in 1682, and in 1685 the first Quaker meeting house was built. In 1701 it became a city and put on men's clothes. In 1838 its first fire engine was born. There was lots of squirts around there before that. In 1803 the first hose company was formed. For ages before that the females wore hose and the males wore half hose, and they continue these doings to this day, emblematical of the fact that man isn't but half as good as a woman. Since Laura Fair was acquitted I don't think so much of fair women as I did. In 1753 letter carriers were introduced. Letter carriers have been introduced lots of times since, and hosts of them have been married because they were introduced. If letter carriers were not introduced in Philadelphia until 1753, then how the deuce could letter carriers get married previous to that date? That's a rebus or charade. That was before our benign Government used West Point cadets in gray uniform to deliver letters. In 1784 the first daily paper in the United States was issued, called The Penn Packet. There are lots of weakly papers now issued daily, but there aint many paper packets afloat. Congress the wunth met here Sept. 4, 1774. There were good men in Congress then -- men that knew better than to believe that George Washington got his ideas of the battle of Trenton from reading Robinson Crusoe. The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776 and at 2 P.M. sharp, of that same day, it was read from the steps of Independence Hall. The little boys who were playing marbles that day are all under marbles now. This old hall is still alive, and sacred memories cluster around it like eels around an eel-pot. This venerable pile was commenced in 1729, and finished in 1734, and just for a flyer they hitched two wings on to it in 1749. That was before I was six years old. It has a bell imported in 1752. It cost some pounds sterling, and it's had a good many pounds since. It isn't much larger than a tea-cup, and has on it in store writing: "Proclaim liberty throughout the world, and to all the inhabitants thereof." Washington delivered his farewell address here. CURIOSITIES. Philadelphia has mint the year round. Uncle Sam owns the patch. The Delaware that Washington crossed flows one side of the town, and the Schuylkill that he didn't cross flows the other. The citizens are plump and fat, and ten cents' worth of measles wouldn't go all round one of 'em. White board blinds and marble door-steps grow on most of the houses, and Saturday nights female amazons of the Two-ton-ic and Celtic races vie with each other in swashing boiled hot water on 'em, to rinse 'em off for Sunday. They rinsed me off for Sunday. They took all the mirror-like glare off a pair of white pants, and made my Monarch collar look like four cents' worth of wet canton flannel. In 1776 the British took Philadelphia; it was too big a dose for 'em, and they threw it up. Cornwallis was no relation to Wm. Wallace.
STORY OF POOR LITTLE STEPHEN GIRARD. The man lives in Philadelphia who when young and poor entered a bank, and says he, "Please, sir, do you want a boy?" And the stately personage said, "No, little boy, I don't want a little boy." The little boy, whose heart was too full for utterance, chewing a piece of licorice stick he had bought with a cent stolen from his good but pious aunt, with sobs plainly audible, and with great globules of water rolling down his cheeks, glided silently down the marble steps of the bank. Bending his noble form, the bank man dodged behind a door, for he thought the little boy was going to shy a stone at him. But the boy picked up something, and stuck it in his poor but ragged jacket. Then spake the bank man, "Come here, little boy;" and the little boy did come here; and the bank man said, "Lo, what pickets thou up?" And he answered and replied, "A pin." And the bank man said, "How do you vote? --excuse me, do you go to Sunday school?" and he said he did. Then the bank man took down a pen made of purse gold and flowing with pure ink, and he wrote on a piece of paper, "St. Peter," and he asked the little boy what it stood for, and he said, "Salt Peter." Then the bank man said it meant "Saint Peter." The little boy said "Oh!" Then the bank man took the little boy to his bosom, and the little boy said "Oh" again, for he squeezed him. Then the bank man took the little boy into partnership, and gave him half the profits and all the capital, and he married the bank man's daughter, and now all he has is all his and is all his own, too. STORY OF ANOTHER GOOD LITTLE BOY. My uncle told me this story, and I spent six weeks picking up pins in front of a bank. I expected the bank man would call me in and say, "Little boy, are you good?" and I was going to say "Yes," and when he asked me what "St. John" stood for, I was going to say, "Salt John." But I guess the bank man wasn't anxious to have a partner, and I guess his daughter was a son, for one day says he to me, says he, "Little boy, what's that you're picking up?" Says I, awful meekly, "Pins." Says he, "Let's see 'em." And he took 'em, and I took off my cap all ready to go into the bank, and become a partner, and marry his daughter. But I didn't get an invitation. He said, "You little rascal, those pins belong to the bank, and if I catch you hanging around here any more I'll set the dog on you. Then I left, and the mean old cuss kept the pins. Such is life as I find it.
ROOTS WANTED. Politics are flourishing. The weather is getting too cold to be on the fence much longer. I saw a store to-day -- a shrubstore -- and there was a sign hanging out -- "ALL KINDS OF ROOTS FOR SALE." I went in, and says I, "Got all kinds of roots?" Says he, "Yes, sir." Says I, "Give me ten cents worth of root hog or die." If I hadn't been afraid he was armed I wouldn't have run as fast as I did. There are not so many Buffalo Bills in Philadelphia as in New York, because there are more goods sold to go to Buffalo in New York than there are goods sold to go to Buffalo in Philadelphia. MR. BARTLETT. I met an old friend in Philadelphia; his name is Bartlett. Says I, "What's the news?" Says he, "My wife had twins yesterday." Says I, "You're raising Bartlett pairs, ain't you?" I guess he had been occupying some position of trust, where he got accustomed to "knocking down," for he knocked me down, and I notice I went clear down, too. They are making some of the voters here believe that Hen. Kill-patrick was named so because he has killed so many Irishmen. That's mean. "SNIPE ON TOAST, 60 CENTS." Snipe on toast would be almost too hearty food to feed people on who had been floating on a raft three weeks feeding on old boot legs. Says I to the waiter, "Give me snipe on toast." By and by he came in and put down some toast, and I kept on reading almost what an almighty donkey Grant was, and what a cussed villain Greeley was, and what a ridiculous {illegible] every one is who is cunning for office; and I sat there an hour. Then I rang the gong. The waiter entered, and says I, "Where in thunder is my meat?" Says he, "They've been on the table an hour." Says I, "I didn't order plain toast; I want a snipe on it." Says he, "There is a snipe on it." Then I drew close up to the table, and I saw a little black speck on the toast, and says I, "You'll swear that's a snipe?" Says he, "Yes." Says I, "You'd make a good linen buyer, you would." Say he, "It's a snipe on toast, anyhow." Says I, "How did it get on?" Says he, "That snipe is all right. It's a full -sized one, too." Says I, "I'm glad of it. I'm glad you told me that's a full-sized snipe, for, do you know, young man, when I sat out there reading I saw a black speck on that toast, but I took it for a fly, and I'm glad to be informed it's a snipe -- a full-sized snipe. Now you can take that snipe away, and bring me a turkey on toast; and darn it! I want a full-sized turkey, too." I ain't hankering after snipe since that episode. I swear I could have blown that snipe through a putty blower without hurting the snipe, or the putty blower either. Snipe on toast may be game, but it's a mean game. Cider and stewed snipe is ripe. JOHN. |
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Misattributions "Going Viral"and an Overlooked Retraction
In the rough and tumble world of newspaper publishing in the 1870s, it is understandable how the segment of John's letter titled "Poor Little Stephen Girard" came to be tagged as the work of Mark Twain. John had, after all, introduced his correspondence with the line, "I came through the Holy Land to get here." Mark Twain was firmly entrenched in the minds of newspaper editors and readers as the author of The Innocents Abroad (1869), a book which was rich in Holy Land humor and satire. Never mind that John was likely referring to Jerusalem, Pennsylvania. And never mind that the "Holy Land" John referred to were "holes" made by coal mining. In all likelihood, John was probably attempting to invoke an image of Mark Twain in the minds of his readers. And he succeeded.
With the proliferation of searchable historical newspaper databases, it is now possible to follow the story as it became ingrained in the Mark Twain canon. At least six reprints of the story attributing it to Mark Twain in 1872 have been found. There are likely dozens of others that have yet to surface.
Date: 1872-11-21, "Story of the Poor Little Stephen Girard,"
Paper: Cleveland Plain Dealer, p. 4.
Date: 1872-11-28, '"Story of the Poor Little Stephen Girard
"
Paper: Cincinnati Enquirer, p. 2.
Date: 1872-12-22, "Two Little Boys. Mark Twain's Story
of the Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Columbus (GA) Daily Sun, p. 4.
Date: 1872-12-24, "Story of the Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: San Francisco Daily Bulletin, Supplement p. 1.
Date: 1872-12-30, "Story of Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Trenton (NJ) Daily State Gazette, p. 1.
Date: 1872-12-30, "The Story of Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: (New York) Commercial Advertiser, p. 1.
Three days after running their reprint attributed to Mark Twain, the New York Commercial Advertiser ran a correction under the column "Editorial Notes.".
The New York
Commercial Advertiser, January 2, 1873, p. 2.
In spite of this correction in the New York Commercial Advertiser, the misattribution continued as the reprintings multiplied. The following papers continued with the attribution to Mark Twain.
Date: 1873-01-03, "The Story Of Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Providence (RI) Evening Press, p. 4.
Date: 1873-01-04, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: New Haven, (CT) Columbian Weekly Register, p. 3.
Date: 1873-01-09, "Two Little Boys. Mark Twain's Story
of the Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Augusta (GA) Chronicle, p. 4.
Date: 1873-02-10, "Two Little Boys. Mark Twain's Story
of the Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: (Arkansas) Morning Republican, p. 1.
Date: 1873-02-28, "The Story of Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: (IL) Rockford Daily Register, p. 2.
Date: 1873-03-01, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Duluth Minnesotian, p. 2.
Date: 1873-03-11, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: San Francisco Daily Alta California
Date: 1873-04-02, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: (Massachusetts) Springfield Republican, p. 7.
Date: 1873-04-20, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Indianapolis Sentinel, p. 2.
Date: 1873-05-17, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: San Francisco (CA) Elevator, p. 1.
Date: 1874-01-02, "Poor Little Stephen Girard"
Paper: Corning (NY) Journal, [p. 3].
The sketch, attributed to Mark Twain, was published in Agricultural Almanac for the Year 1874 and in 1957 Jacob Blanck numbered this printing No. 3358 in the Bibliography of American Literature as a rare first appearance of this Mark Twain work. In July 1877 it was featured in The Quarterly Elocutionist, edited by Anna Randall-Diehl. Two years later it appeared in Carleton's Popular Readings, (1879), pp. 183-84 also edited by Anna Randall-Diehl. In 1885 it was published in Canadian Elocutionist by Anna K. Howard, (Toronto: Rose Publishing Company, 1885), p. 147. A French language translation has been found in a 1900 edition of Tout Allais, Volume 1, p. 443. The reprints and misattributions have continued unabated into the 21st century. Charles Neider selected the title of his 1961 collection of Mark Twain's work from the last line of "Story of Another Good Little Boy" -- Life As I Find It.
The 1961 edition
of Charles Neider's Life As I Find It takes it title from the last
line of the second portion of the sketch.
Neider sourced his printing of "Poor Little Stephen Girard" to the Agricultural Almanac for the Year 1874 (Lancaster, Pa.). In 1968 Chester Davis reprinted the essay in The Twainian (July/August 1968) in conjunction with his study of marginalia in books from Mark Twain's library. Davis acknowledged there was confusion regarding the original publication date. Thirty years later, eminent Mark Twain scholar Louis J. Budd included the sketch in Library of America's edition of Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays 1852-1890 (Library of America, 1992). Budd believed he had found an even earlier printing and sourced his version of the story to a San Francisco Alta California printing of March 8, 1873.
Placing "Poor Little Stephen Girard" In Historical
Context:
Jacques Lafitte, Mark Twain, Charles Heber Clark and Stephen Girard
"Poor Little Stephen Girard" is the genre of humorous stories and sketches derived from turning Sunday School stories which teach good morals upside down. Mark Twain was an early adaptor, if not innovator, of this sort of humor. On May 15, 1864 the Golden Era published an unsigned sketch titled "Stories for Good Little Boys and Girls." There is no evidence Mark Twain wrote "Stories for Good Little Boys and Girls," although some scholars have attributed it to him.
Over a year later, in July 1865, Mark Twain did publish "Advice for Good Little Boys" and "Advice for Good Little Girls" in Youth's Companion. Both items were reprinted across the country. Mark Twain's "The Story of the Bad Little Boy That Bore a Charmed Life" appeared that same year in the Californian on December 23, 1865 and again as "The Story of the Bad Little Boy Who Didn't Come to Grief" when the story was republished in Mark Twain's collection The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County And other Sketches (1867).
Early banks used pins to hold banking records together, much like staples and paper clips are used today. The plot of a young boy whose fortunes began by picking up a pin off a bank floor can be traced back to the life story of French banker Jacques Laffitte (b. 1767 - d. 1844). Laffitte's rise to financial power in France is documented in his obituary which appeared in Gentleman's Magazine of July 1844 (London: Vol. 176, p. 87-89). The moral of thriftiness leading to rewards was one often repeated in children's literature and Laffitte's biography was ripe for humorous exploitation. As early as 1868, Charles Heber Clark, writing under his pseudonym "John Quill" published "The Melancholy History of Joseph Binns" in The New York Weekly, 5 November 1868, p. 7. Clark's character of Joseph Binns gets arrested for stealing a pin and is also accused of stealing money when he goes to a bank and tries to reenact Jacques Laffitte's good and thrifty behavior in his effort to get a job (1).
"Poor Little Stephen Girard" adds yet another twist in turning this moral story on its head. The title character of the sketch, Stephen Girard, is based on one of the wealthiest bankers in America -- Stephen Girard (b. 1750 - d. 1831). Today Girard's wealth is ranked as the fourth greatest fortune in American history (ranking him just ahead of Microsoft founder Bill Gates). Girard, a resident of Philadelphia, left the bulk of his estate to the city of Philadelphia for the establishment of a school for poor white orphan boys with the caveat that no religious instruction or clergyman would be allowed on the campus. Girard effectively challenged the city to establish a school that could teach morality without any corrupting sectarian influences. His goal was to provide a moral education for young men who could make decisions related to religion denominations at a later date in life. Girard's idea was controversial and his will faced several court challenges. It was a topic in which Mark Twain took great interest (2).
In the sketch "Poor Little Stephen Girard," the title character is a bad boy who tries to disguise himself as a good boy by picking up a pin off a bank floor to impress the banker, not knowing that the banker would rather hire a bad boy who had no religious training. When the boy does not recognize the name of St. Peter as the name of a saint, but instead believes it stands for "salt Peter," the banker knows he has found an heir. The second portion of the story subtitled "The Story of Another Good Little Boy" is about a boy who intends to mimic Stephen Girard but ends up being dismissed as a thief for stealing a pin -- in much the same manner as "John Quill's" story of Joseph Binns. By 1903 the story of the good/bad boy who picks up a pin had been so corrupted that a version titled "Mark Twain's Pins" was reprinted in the January 30, 1903 issue of Lutheran Observer (p. 31) with young Sam Clemens as the boy who tried to get a job by picking up pins he had taken from his mother and had planted on the bank floor. The Lutheran Observer credited their reprinting of "Mark Twain's Pins" to Our Young Folks.
John W. Beach, the Humorist Time Forgot
Cartoon of John
W. Beach from New York Sun, August 21, 1871.
"Poor Little Stephen Girard" was written by John W. Beach, a Brooklyn, New York businessman who contributed at least 69 humorous travel letters and sketches to the New York Sun between March 6,1871 and May 7, 1874. The earliest recovered piece of correspondence from Beach to the Sun is in the form of a humorous letter to the editor titled "John's Watch" which related John's story of having his watch stolen by a pickpocket. The letter was simply signed "John" but likely caught the attention of Sun publisher Charles A. Dana. By June 1871 Beach, known only to his readers as "John," was contributing an average of two humorous travel letters a month to the New York Sun. "John" gained the reputation of being a "wicked punster" with his notorious wordplay and his letters often poked fun at other traveling salesmen he identified as "Boston drummers."
John W. Beach was born on February 2, 1824 in New Haven, Connecticut. Contemporary biographies of Beach identify him as the great-nephew of Roger Sherman, one of the five signers of the original Declaration of Independence. Little information is available regarding Beach's formal education or his early family life. In 1853 he married Caroline E. Gibbons of Albany, New York, the daughter of prominent builder and architect Thomas W. Gibbons. After his marriage, Beach and his wife relocated to Brooklyn, New York where he affiliated with the R. K. Davis Company, a men's furnishing and clothing establishment. Beach became widely known in New York and Brooklyn as a "thoroughly progressive, enterprising and energetic man, a public-spirited citizen and a prosperous merchant" (3). Those who knew him as the man behind the "John" columns in Charles Dana's Sun referred to him as "Sun John." Beach and his wife had two daughters and one son. His eldest daughter Carrie also engaged in literary work, contributing to magazines under the pseudonym of "Hollyberry."
Beach died on November 11, 1887 of an apparent heart attack at his home at 14 Hanover Place in Brooklyn. The New York Sun published his obituary on November 13, 1887, describing his writing as "made up of such sights and sayings as a clever man might pick up on his travels and were brimful of lightsome wit and playfulness" (4). Beach's obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of November 12,1887 described him as "a man of sound business habits and possessed a remarkably quaint humor and considerable ability as a writer, as the columns of the New York Sun of some ten years ago can show (5). Beach was buried in Clinton, New Jersey. With the lone exception of "Poor Little Stephen Girard," Beach's contributions to the New York Sun have been largely forgotten and overlooked by scholars. There is no available evidence at this date that Mark Twain ever denied writing "Poor Little Stephen Girard."
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