A letter from Mark Twain, about to embark on his journey to the Holy Land, among other things (the trip that makes up his wonderful travelogue The Innocents Abroad
I am resigned to Rev. Mr. Hutchinson’s or anybody else’s supervision. I don’t mind it. I am fixed. I have got a splendid, immoral, tobacco- smoking, wine-drinking, godless room-mate who is as good and true and right-minded a man as ever lived–a man whose blameless conduct and example will always be an eloquent sermon to all who shall come within their influence.
If you haven’t read Innocents Abroad, I highly recommend it. Very interesting – but also laugh-out-loud funny.
Here’s one of my favorite Twain gems about his beloved daughter Susy and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s husband:
‘Her husband, old Professor Stowe, was a picturesque figure. He wore a broad slouch hat. He was a large man, and solemn. His beard was white and thick and hung far down on his breast. The first time our little Susy ever saw him she encountered him on the street near our house and came flying wide-eyed to her mother and said, “Santa Claus has got loose!”‘