(Private and General.)
I was to have gone to Washington tonight, but have held over a day,
to attend a dinner given by a lot of newspaper Editors and literary
scalliwags, at the Westminster Hotel. Shall go down to-morrow, if I
survive the banquet.
Yrs truly
SAM. CLEMENS.
Mark Twain, in Washington, was in line for political preferment: His
wide acquaintance on the Pacific slope, his new fame and growing
popularity, his powerful and dreaded pen, all gave him special
distinction at the capital. From time to time the offer of one
office or another tempted him, but he wisely, or luckily, resisted.
In his letters home are presented some of his problems.
*****
To Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mrs. Moffett, in St. Louis: