Clemens, Samuel L.

12 pages written on the rectos only of 12 leaves of machine-laid paper (8 x 5 in.; 200 x 127 mm), numbered 45–56, with 10 autograph emendations, revisions, or deletions in purple ink or in pencil; last leaf lightly browned.

Mark Twain drinking, smoking, and swearing with the schoolchildren of Heidelburg. The present manuscript fragment dates from June 1878, early in the seventeen-month foray the Clemenses made to Europe in order to escape the opprobrium resulting from Mark Twain's ill-advised lampoon of John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Whittier's seventieth birthday celebration. In July 1878, Clemens wrote to the American Publishing Company of Hartford that he had completed "one-fourth of a book, but it is in disconnected form & cannot be used until joined together by the writing of at least a dozen intermediate chapters. These intermediate chapters cannot be rightly written until we are settled down for the fall & winter in Munich. I have been gathering a lot of excellent matter here during the past ten days … & shall finish gathering it in a week more." This one-quarter book eventually matured into A Tramp Abroad, one of Clemens's most successful travel pastiches.

"Heidelburg Notes" was one of the earliest sections of the proposed travelogue, as is clear from its date, page numerals, and subject matter (chapter 2 of the published work is titled "Heidelburg.") Although Clemens cut this passage "to make room for more vital statistics," there is much of merit in the manuscript, and his emendations show that he read and revised the section at least twice before deciding not to incorporate it into the finished book. The manuscript begins with a somewhat out-of-place contemplation on the different impression made by Shah of Persia when he is wearing European, rather than Middle-Eastern, garb. But then Clemens turns to a description of a local restaurant "swarming thick with little school-girls; there was not a vacant place at any table; every chair, every bench was occupied … Were they joyous? It was Babel—simply Babel! But mark this truth, & reflect upon it: in every child's hand was a foaming mug of soul-damning lager! Poor lost babes! I took a couple of bumpers myself, & went on my way, a sadder but a more comfortable man."

Writing of schoolchildren leads Clemens to discuss his "landlord's little boy of twelve." The lad "dropped in on me a day or two ago when I had just finished writing & asked me what State I was from. Staat, (state,) and Stadt, (city,) sound much alike to my unaccustomed ear; I thought he meant city; so I said I was from Frankfort-on-the-Maine, last." So to clarify the question, the boy drew a map of the United States, with all of the states indicated, allowing Clemens to point out Connecticut. Clemens was much impressed: "it did surprise me a good deal to see the humble foreign child perform his little geographical wonder with such easy confidence. It raised him in my estimation, & inspired me with a very genuine respect for him. I gave him a double handful of cigars, & promised to teach him how to swear."

The manuscript breaks off with the genesis of one of the most popular and frequently reprinted portions of A Tramp Abroad, Appendix D, "The Awful German Language." The paragraph (crossed out in pencil) immediately following the tale of the landlord's son reads, "Malediction upon this intractable language! It is apparently so slip-shod & systemless, & so slippery & elusive to the grasp. Just when one has at last got hold of a rule which seems to offer firm ground to take a rest on amid the. …" The published text concludes this sentence: "general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns the page and reads, 'Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions.'" This text was too vital to "crowd out" of A Tramp Abroad, and Clemens wisely salvaged it.