细节
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("Papa") to his daughter Jean, n.p. [New York], n.d. [1890s?]. 2 pages, 8vo, both sides of same sheet.
"Oh, great Scott, dear Jean! I believe I never told you about that seed which Mrs. [Mary Mapes] Dodge sent you in a little box. It must be warmed in your hand or under the rays of a lamp -- then...it will walk quite rapidly across a smooth surface like a sheet of paper. It comes from Mexico & is called the Walking Seed [i.e., Mexican jumping bean]. They have lately put up a building here which is as high as the highest steeple in New York. A short time ago an iron girder 30 feet long & weighing many hundreds of pounds fell endwise from the sixteenth story, struck the pavement & jumped entirely over a cable-car full of people, then fell across the traces of a wagon, cutting them in two as with a knife but not touching the horses; then rested from its wonderful trip. All this at noonday in Broadway, New York, the most crowded street in America, & yet it hurt nobody...Yes, dear, I have been to Hartford, & seen the good people & the dear home -- & you shall do likewise one of these days."
"Oh, great Scott, dear Jean! I believe I never told you about that seed which Mrs. [Mary Mapes] Dodge sent you in a little box. It must be warmed in your hand or under the rays of a lamp -- then...it will walk quite rapidly across a smooth surface like a sheet of paper. It comes from Mexico & is called the Walking Seed [i.e., Mexican jumping bean]. They have lately put up a building here which is as high as the highest steeple in New York. A short time ago an iron girder 30 feet long & weighing many hundreds of pounds fell endwise from the sixteenth story, struck the pavement & jumped entirely over a cable-car full of people, then fell across the traces of a wagon, cutting them in two as with a knife but not touching the horses; then rested from its wonderful trip. All this at noonday in Broadway, New York, the most crowded street in America, & yet it hurt nobody...Yes, dear, I have been to Hartford, & seen the good people & the dear home -- & you shall do likewise one of these days."