Two Samuels of Hartford: Clemens, Colt, and the Unification of a Disjointed Mysterious Ending

Abstract

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, less than six weeks after Samuel Colt obtained English patent for his first revolver. In time, Twain's innovative use of language would drastically revise face of American fiction, just as Colt's invention had already moved world of weaponry a great step forward. Previous pistols had fired only twice before they needed to be reloaded; Colt's five-shot revolver minimized reloading time and therefore offered a significant advantage in life or death situations. A six-shot adaptation quickly followed, winning Colt a government contract during Mexican War, which enabled him to buy building land in Hartford, Connecticut, where Twain would day choose to live. (1) There, Colt planned to build the largest and most perfectly organized armory in world, and by 1856 his company was producing 150 weapons a day. Soon he one of ten wealthiest businessmen in US. (2) Colt died prematurely at age of forty-seven, nine years before Twain moved to Hartford. The two men never met, but several of Twain's texts suggest Colt's legacy often on his mind, and indeed may hold key to of most elusive of his works. Twain first visited in 1868 and clearly impressed with what he saw. In a letter to Alia California he wrote: I think this is best built and handsomest town I have ever seen.... They have broadest, straightest streets in Hartford, that ever led a sinner to destruction, and dwelling houses are amplest in size, and shapeliest, and have most capacious ornamental grounds about them.... This is centre [sic] of Connecticut wealth. dollars have a place in half great moneyed enterprises of union. His letter goes on to describe Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company--by that time, prospering in hands of Colt's widow--as greatest industry in and a veritable Hartford institution. The birthplace of six-shooters was, he claimed, of particular interest because [he] had seen so many graceful specimens of their performances in deadfalls of Washoe and California. (3) At time of Twain's visit, Colt's factory manufacturing and further developing Gaffing gun, which had been adopted by US government two years earlier. (4) Twain described weapon as a cluster of six to ten tubes that carry great conical pellets of lead, with unerring accuracy, a distance of two and a half miles. It feeds with cartridges, and you work it with a crank like a hand organ; you can fire it faster than four men can count. When fired rapidly, reports blend together like clattering of a watchman's rattle. It can be discharged four hundred times a minute! I liked it very much, and went on grinding it as long as they could afford cartridges for amusement--which not very long. (5) The comic humor of final sentence is subverted by Twain's pointed reference to running costs, while his choice of savage to describe gun's components and his reference to weapon feed[ing] itself connote something more ominous than mere machinery. Sixteen years later, Twain would recall weapon's capability as he noted an idea to be included in what would become of bloodiest of his books: Have a battle between a modern army, with gatling guns--(automatic) 600 shots a minute, ... [and] Middle Age Crusaders. (6) Twain moved to in 1871 declaring his intention to concentrate on writing books, but on July 12, 1872, he wrote to Colt's factory from New Saybrook, Connecticut: Gentlemen: A friend of mine who is connected with an insignificant foreign government, officially, writes me to call upon you & inquire cost of a Gattling [sic] gun complete, including duplicates of certain portions necessary (in a country where repairs will be impossible,) & 25,000 rounds of ammunition comprising different cartridges used. …