The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete


google search for The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete

Return to Master Book Index.

Page
936 937 938 939 940

Quick Jump
1 314 629 943 1257

S. L. C.  
*
****  
To Mr. Henry C. Robinson, Hartford, Conn.:  
LONDON, Sept. 28, '96.  
It is as you say, dear old friend, "the pathos of it" yes, it was a  
piteous thing--as piteous a tragedy as any the year can furnish. When we  
started westward upon our long trip at half past ten at night, July 14,  
1
895, at Elmira, Susy stood on the platform in the blaze of the electric  
light waving her good-byes to us as the train glided away, her mother  
throwing back kisses and watching her through her tears. One year, one  
month, and one week later, Clara and her mother having exactly completed  
the circuit of the globe, drew up at that platform at the same hour of  
the night, in the same train and the same car--and again Susy had come a  
journey and was near at hand to meet them. She was waiting in the house  
she was born in, in her coffin.  
All the circumstances of this death were pathetic--my brain is worn to  
rags rehearsing them. The mere death would have been cruelty enough,  
without overloading it and emphasizing it with that score of harsh and  
wanton details. The child was taken away when her mother was within  
three days of her, and would have given three decades for sight of her.  
938  


Page
936 937 938 939 940

Quick Jump
1 314 629 943 1257