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A letter from Mark Twainby
Bob Bowman | |
When
William H. Hamman, a two-time candidate for Texas governor, was murdered
on the streets of New
Birmingham in 1890, he left a legacy as an enterprising businessman and investor.
But
often overlooked was his friendship with Samuel Clemens.
Kevin Stingley
of Rusk, an authority on New
Birmingham, recently sent me a copy of a letter from Hamman’s papers bearing
evidence of the friendship, as well as signs of the marvelous wit that made Sam
Clemens famous as Mark Twain. |
| Mark
Twain, who wrote a letter to an East Texan |
Written
from his home in Hartford, Connecticut, Clemens wrote Hamman:
Dear Will.
Here is an odd thing.
Looking among some checks of a New York
bank this morning, I came across a red one--and behold it is that old check I
sent you six weeks ago. You returned it. And I immediately sent it back to you,
requiring that you take Sam (Bowen’s) judgment upon the question of accepting
the check and returning it to me.
“I have looked through the stubs of
two check books and there is only one that corresponds to this--that is, your
name and the amount of $20. It corresponds in all particulars, being check No.
41 of the New Year.
Therefore, I never enclosed this check to you at all
and you never reminded me of my blunder.
That was bad business because
it made me judge Sam (Bowen) upon false premises. Or at least, I would have judged
him for only a day or two.
I was saying to myself, Sam Bowen knows that
I don’t want that money from him or anybody else who is cramped.
But if
he is a true Bowen, he will sell his shirt to pay when the month of his promise
is up.
Now, do you see?
A week or two from now, I should have been
saying, Well, poor Sam is a wreck, for the family pride is gone out of him.
Confound
you, Will, why didn’t you tell me I had forgotten to enclose the check?
I
was once dead broke for several months and sewed up bursted grain sacks on the
San Francisco wharves for a starvation living (when I was already sufficiently
famous to be welcome in the best society of the city and state) rather than borrow
money.
I hate to see Sam Bowen show himself to be less a man. But still
this check is his, not mine. Therefore it is my imperative duty to forward it
instead of tearing it up and keeping shrewdly mum about it.
It is for
him to say whether it shall be accepted as returned. Therefore, you tender it
to him and explain.
Yours truly,
Sam (Clemens).
We
don’t know why Sam Clemens (or Mark Twain) sent a check to a man named Sam Bowen,
and we don’t know Texan Will Hamman’s role in this little mystery.
But
we do know that Mark Twain could weave a good story out of anything--even his
forgetfulness in sending a check to a friend.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas March 15, 2009 Column
A weekly column syndicated
in 70 East Texas newspapers
Copyright Bob Bowman | |
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