Read The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) Online

Authors: Mark Twain

The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) (73 page)

Stein declares he will pay no more funerals. They stop.

Upon reflection I find my way is not clear, for certainly Martin is
another & not I. It is he that is Lisbet's husband.

I must renounce that marriage & win her in my own person.
By & by.

Visit other centuries to ease my heart. Marry there, by compulsion

44 shows me dream-wonders & music of spheres, but I can't
describe them, there being nothing to compare them with.

D-4

P.O. DEPT. doesn't use [MT wrote `used'] dreams so much now,
they use the late French King's post.

Katrina has dream?

Shall her implorations restore 44? 1 think so

44 must turn to animals.

Have him be a mountebank with trained animals-they talk together.

Adolf arrest the lot

D-5

INDULGENCE-murder produces one signed by Adolf, but he
points out it only saves his soul, not his life. Court doubts, but yields.
GHOST-NIGHT-castle full of spectres & wandering lights. Distant groans & cries-flight & pursuit, noiseless.

The murderer is I or my Duplicate, they can't tell which; I confess
I did it but I won't tell which. The indulgence names the Duplicate
& 44 claims to be he & that a duplicate is not human & not amenable
to law. Court is uncertain.

D-6

The emperor said:

"They blame an emperor for his appetite for notice & praise:
Look at God!"

His Majesty old Henry MMMMMDCXXII (of savage) The
Blasphemous/Uncultured said-"Yes, I am fond of (what the
books call) praises, processions, notice, attentions, reverence, fuss &
feathers. Vanities? Are they? There was never n a living creature nor
even n a god that didn't like them." [this paragraph canceled with a
single line]

D-7

Kings and all. [circled] All Amen n are so very very little, so
microscopically little, not alone to the eye of God but when they searchin[g]ly & honestly examine them-[selves) it seems foolish to go
thro the pretence of detecting differences & distinctions.

D-8

Let your condition be what it may, you will provide yourself with
the same amount of unhappiness required by your born disposition
-king & tramp alike.

D-9

Pity-don't scoff at & despise & hate the race. It is (sw) victim of a
swindle, & the arbitrary character of its nature makes it blameless.
It has no responsibility.

(Both talk gently & earnestly.)

D-10

You wouldn't like everybody to (admire) (A applaud n) ["admire"
reinstated] you?

A Well .... no. A

You wouldn't like anybody to admire all sides of your character?

Why?

Nemmine. (Tell you)

Wouldn't you he satisfied if the "best people" admired as much of
your character & conduct as you do?

NO-(& that is honest.)

D-11

(B) DREAM-LIFE

A funeral;

accident;

loss of wealth;

" " wife & child

Crossed in love—

It bites, it cuts, it tears,-but keep heart, it is not real.

There is but one person in the Universe-you are he, & you are
merely a wandering Thought.

Group E

These notes, in the blue-black ink of MS pp. 432-587, on four sheets of
Par Value tablet stock, were written during 1905.

E-1

1 Cat passes through-she will bring news.

A 44 says n Those boys are out of date in the matter of conveying
messages-go by Fr.[ench] K[ing]'s post, now. I remember the fat &
the lean kine.

The dreams are all right enough, but the art of interpreting is
lost. 1500 yr ago they were getting to do it A SO A badly it was
considered better to depend on (augurs-do you know about those?

Yes,)

chicken-guts & other naturally intelligent sources of prophecy, recognising that when guts can't prophecy it is no use for Ezekiel to
go into the business.

Prophecy went out with the chicken guts.

E-2

Everything at standstill because of the missing 3.