NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET
imperial generosity, what does America do? She charges a duty on French works of art !
I wish I had your end of this dispute; I should have something worth talking about. If you would only furnish me something to argue, something to refute but you persistently won t. You leave good chances unutilized and spend your strength in proving and establishing unimportant things. For instance, you have proven and established these eight facts here following a good score as to num ber, but not w r orth while :
Mark Twain is
1. "Insulting."
2. (Sarcastically speaking) "This refined humor ist."
3. Prefers the manure-pile to the violets.
4. Has uttered "an ill-natured sneer."
5. Is "nasty."
6. Needs a "lesson in politeness and good man ners."
7. Has published a "nasty article."
8. Has made remarks "unworthy of a gentle man." ! These are all true, but really they are not
1 "It is more funny than his [Mark Twain s] anecdote, and would have been less insulting."
A quoted remark of mine "is a gross insult to a nation friendly to America."
"He has read La Terre, this refined humorist."
"When Mark Twain visits a garden ... he goes in the far-away corner where the soil is prepared."
"Mark Twain s ill-natured sneer cannot so much as stain them" (the Frenchwomen).
"When he [Mark Twain] takes his revenge he is unkind, unfair, bitter, nasty."
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