cots.twain.IMG.0581.jpg
Mark Twain Joel Chandler Harris, [?]Editor "Constitution"Atlanta, Georgia
cots.twain.IMG.0577.jpg
Jo Twichell brought me your note & told me of his talk with you. He said you didn't believe you would ever be able to muster a sufficiency of reckless daring to make you comfortable & at ease before an audience. Well, I have thought outa device whereby I believe we can get around that difficulty. I will explain when I see you.
Jo says you want to go to Canada within a month or six weeks— well i forget
just exactly what he did say;
cots.twain.IMG.0578.jpg
but he intimated that that trip
could be delayed a while, if necessary. If this is so, suppose you meet Osgood
& me in New Orleans early in May — say between the [?] 1st & 6th?
It will be well worth your while to do this because the author who goes to Canada
unposted will not know what course to pursue when he gets there; he will find
himself in a hopeless confusion as to what is the correct thing to do. Now Osgood is
the only man in America who can lay out your course for you & tell you
exactly what to do. Therefore, you just come to New Orleans
cots.twain.IMG.0579.jpg
& have a talk with him.
Our idea is to strike across lots & reach St. Louis the 20th of April
— [?] thence we propose to drift southward,
stopping at some town a few hours or a night, every
day, & making notes. [?]
To escape the interviewers, I shall follow my usual course & use a fictitious name (C.L. Samuel of New York. ) I don't know what Osgood's name will be, but he can't use his own.
If you see your way to meet us in New Orleans, drop me a line, now, & as we
approach
cots.twain.IMG.0580.jpg
that city I will telegraph what
day we shall arrive there.
I would go to Atlanta if I could, but shan't be able. We shall go back up the river to St. Paul & thence by rail X‐lots home.
[I am making this letter so dreadfully private & confidential because my movements must be kept secret, else I shan't be able to pick up the book‐material I want.]
If you are diffident, I suspect that you ought to let Osgood be your magazine‐ agent. He makes those people pay three or four times as much as an article is worth, whereas I never had the cheek to make them pay more than double.