Mark Twain’s Christmas Wish
Submitted by editor on Mon, 12/17/2012 - 10:54am
“It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us-the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage-may-eventually be gathered together in heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss-except the inventor of the telephone.”
— Mark Twain, Hardford, Ct. Dec. 23, 1890
The above Christmas wish was a letter to the editor written by Mark Twain, and published in the New York World during the Christmas holiday of 1890. At the time, Twain was fighting off bankruptcy to save what little financial security he had left after a decade of foolhardy investments. Twain might have been the “Lincoln of Our Literature”, but as a businessman he lacked the acumen to make the correct call when it came to investing his finances. His biggest folly was the 14 year affair he had financing a three ton Frankenstein, known as the Paige Typesetter. Twain dropped $300,000 in the doomed venture. It proved to be the Titanic that finally sank the Twain Fortune.
By 1890, Twain had become a bitter man. He not only lost his fortune, but publishing company as well. A year later he put his Hartford home up for sale and moved to Europe where living was cheaper. Twain went on the lecture circuit while living abroad and became quite a celebrity. His humor, wit and charm had won over the masses. He would eventually amass enough wealth through his lectures and writings to pay off his creditors, and get back on the road to financial security once again.
The above story gives us an insight as to why Twain was upset that Christmas of 1890, but why would he exempt the inventor of the telephone from his Christmas wish? The answer lies in the year 1877, a year after Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent on the telephone. Bell needed money, and a lot of it to get his company off the ground. An agent working for Bell approached Twain in Hartford and offered him stock in the company for $25.00 a share. Here’s what Twain said about the offer: “I declined, I said I didn’t want anything more to do with wildcat speculation, said I didn’t want it for any price. He said he would sell me as much as I wanted for $500.00. Offered to let me gather it up in my hands and measure it in a plug hat, said I could have a whole hatful for $500.00. I went off with my check intact, and the next day lent five thousand of it on an unendorsed note to a friend who was going to go bankrupt three days later.”
Mark Twain, businessman, making the wrong call at the wrong time. Twain never invested a dime in Bell’s invention, but was one of the first persons in the country to have a telephone installed in his Hartford home in 1877. Twain’s refusal to invest in the Bell company and the technical trouble he had with his home phone, no doubt remained in his memory for the remainder of his life. His Christmas wish of 1890, exempting Bell from a heart-warming Christmas wish, was nothing more than a humorous reminder of what might have been if Twain had made the right call in 1877.
Recommended reading: Mark Twain Himself by Milton Meltzer, Bonanza Books, 1960.
— Chic DiFrancia is a long-time Virginia City resident, free lance writer, historian and letterpress printer. In his youth he once was a typesetter at the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City.
