Washington, Mch. 2,’85. 
My dear sir,—­I take my earliest opportunity to answer your favor of Feb.

B——­ was premature in calling me a “shrewd man.”  I wasn’t one at that time, but am one now—­that is, I am at least too shrewd to ever again invest in anything put on the market by B——.  I know nothing whatever about the Bank Note Co., and never did know anything about it.  B——­ sold me about $4,000 or $5,000 worth of the stock at $110, and I own it yet.  He sold me $10,000 worth of another rose-tinted stock about the same time.  I have got that yet, also.  I judge that a peculiarity of B——­’s stocks is that they are of the staying kind.  I think you should have asked somebody else whether I was a shrewd man or not for two reasons:  the stock was advertised in a religious paper, a circumstance which was very suspicious; and the compliment came to you from a man who was interested to make a purchaser of you.  I am afraid you deserve your loss.  A financial scheme advertised in any religious paper is a thing which any living person ought to know enough to avoid; and when the factor is added that M. runs that religious paper, a dead person ought to know enough to avoid it. 
                              Very Truly Yours
                                        S. L. Clemens.

The story of Huck Finn was having a wide success.  Webster handled it skillfully, and the sales were large.  In almost every quarter its welcome was enthusiastic.  Here and there, however, could be found an exception; Huck’s morals were not always approved of by library reading-committees.  The first instance of this kind was reported from Concord; and would seem not to have depressed the author-publisher.

To Chas. L. Webster, in New York: 

Mch 18, ’85.  Dear Charley,—­The Committee of the Public Library of Concord, Mass, have given us a rattling tip-top puff which will go into every paper in the country.  They have expelled Huck from their library as “trash and suitable only for the slums.”  That will sell 25,000 copies for us sure.

S. L. C.

Perhaps the Concord Free Trade Club had some idea of making amends to Mark Twain for the slight put upon his book by their librarians, for immediately after the Huck Finn incident they notified him of his election to honorary membership.

Those were the days of “authors’ readings,” and Clemens and Howells not infrequently assisted at these functions, usually given as benefits of one kind or another.  From the next letter, written following an entertainment given for the Longfellow memorial, we gather that Mark Twain’s opinion of Howells’s reading was steadily improving.

To W. D. Howells, in Boston: