or who was present he said:

"Now I will do a miracle. I will tell you everything this letter
contains--date, signature, and all without breaking the seal."

He stated what he believed was in the letter. Then he opened it and
showed that he had correctly given its contents, which were the same in
all essential details as those of his own letter, not yet mailed.

In an article on "Mental Telegraphy" (he invented the name) he relates
this instance, with others, and in 'Following the Equator' and elsewhere
he records other such happenings. It was one of the "mysteries" in
which he never lost interest, though his concern in it in time became a
passive one.

The result of the De Quille manifestation, however, he has not recorded.
Clemens immediately wrote, urging Dan to come to Hartford for an
extended visit. De Quille came, and put in a happy spring in his
old comrade's luxurious home, writing 'The Big Bonanza', which Bliss
successfully published a year later.

Mark Twain was continually inviting old friends to share his success
with him. Any comrade of former days found welcome in his home as often
as he would come, and for as long as he would stay. Clemens dropped his
own affairs to advise in their undertakings; and if their undertakings
were literary he found them a publisher. He did this for Joaquin Miller
and for Bret Harte, and he was always urging Goodman to make his house a
home.

The Beecher-Tilton trial was the sensation of the spring of 1875, and
Clemens, in common with many others, was greatly worked up over it.
The printed testimony had left him decidedly in doubt as to Beecher's
innocence, though his blame would seem to have been less for the
possible offense than because of the great leader's attitude in the
matter. To Twichell he said:

"His quibbling was fatal. Innocent or guilty, he should have made an
unqualified statement in the beginning."

Together they attended one of the sessions, on a day when Beecher
himself was on the witness-stand. The tension was very great; the
excitement was painful. Twichell thought that Beecher appeared well
under the stress of examination and was deeply sorry for him; Clemens
was far from convinced.

The feeling was especially strong in Hartford, where Henry Ward
Beecher's relatives were prominent, and animosities grew out of it. They
are all forgotten now; most of those who cherished bitterness are dead.
Any feeling that Clemens had in the matter lasted but a li