SERIALIZATION OF “REBEL WITH A CAUSE: MARK TWAIN’S HIDDEN MEMOIRS” -- CHAPTER 77 (of 78), Part 2
Loss of Jean and Rogers to the Undiscovered Country, and Clara to the Old World (1909), Part 2
Chapter 77
Loss of Jean and Rogers to the Undiscovered Country, and Clara to the Old World (1909)
EDITOR’S NOTES, Continued:
Twain’s appreciation of Rogers seems to have known no bounds, but on some level he apparently realized that their relationship was indeed symbiotic, for Twain’s friendship worked as a decorative protection for Rogers, as Twain’s popularity and reputation for defending the common man caused people to take a more charitable view of this particular robber baron.
Their mutual friend Andrew Carnegie wrote Twain a letter of condolence on hearing of Rogers’ death, adding the following:
Well, his memory will be kept green in your heart and I doubt not history will do him justice because you will take care to record him as your friend in need, showing the real man. Goodnight, Saint Mark.
And although Twain said Rogers never asked anything in return for his financial finaglings/ministrations to assist the Clemens clan, the Standard Oil executive did once express concern in a letter to Twain about an upcoming magazine series about Standard Oil to be written by famed and feared muckraker Ida Tarbell. Twain reacted by telling a friend at the magazine (McClures) that Tarbell should interview Rogers prior to submitting her article. The result of that was that an interview with Rogers conducted by Tarbell did take place. Tarbell described Rogers as “candid”; the series was probably at least slightly less denunciatory as a result of Twain’s intervention.
Another time, Twain was approached with an offer to publish a book deriding, denouncing, and exposing Rogers and his cohorts individually and Standard Oil in general. In an 1894 letter to Livy, Twain wrote of this incident:
When I arrived in September, lord how black the prospect was—how desperate, how incurably desperate! Webster and Co. had to have a small sum of money or go under at once. I flew to Hartford—to my friends—but they were not moved, not strongly interested, and I was ashamed that I went. It was from Mr. Rogers, a stranger, that I got the money and was by it saved. And then—while still a stranger—he set himself the task of saving my financial life without putting upon me (in his native delicacy) any sense that I was the recipient of a charity, a benevolence—and he has accomplished that task; accomplished it at a cost of three months of wearing and difficult labor. He gave that time to me—time which could not be bought by any man at a hundred thousand dollars a month—no, nor for three times the money.
Well, in the midst of that great fight, that long and admirable fight, George Warner came to me and said:
“There is a splendid chance open to you. I know a man—a prominent man—who has written a book that will go like wildfire; a book that arraigns the Standard Oil fiends, and gives them unmitigated hell, individual by individual. It is the very book for you to publish; there is a fortune in it, and I can put you in communication with the author.”
I wanted to say:
“The only man I care for in the world; the only man I would give a damn for; the only man who is lavishing his sweat and blood to save me and mine from starvation and shame, is a Standard Oil fiend. If you know me, you know whether I want the book or not.”
But I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t want any book; I wanted to get out of the publishing business and out of all business, and was here for that purpose and would accomplish it if I could.
Twain further defended Rogers on another occasion, when somebody made the charge that Rogers was of the ilk which Twain had denounced and lampooned in his book The Gilded Age. The accuser intimated to Twain that Rogers’ money was tainted. Twain agreed, replying, “Yes, it’s tainted—‘tain’t mine, and ‘tain’t yours.”
Twain was dedicated to truth and justice, but there may have been times when he was even more devoted to tried and true friends.
You can listen to this chapter here.
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Blackbird Crow Raven’s “Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs” is available in its entirety here.