New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-29
MENTAL TELEGRAPHY.
A STORY TOLD BY MARK TWAIN.
From Harper's Magazine.

From Harper's Magazine.
Now come to the oldest thing that ever hap.
pened to me. Two or three years ago was lying
In bed, idly musng one morning-it was the "a
OF March-when suddenly red hot new idea came
such comprehensive effectiveness TO sweep the
Vicinity clean OF rubbshy reflections, and NIL the air
Tt N @ ast phrase na was that the time was ripe
and the market ready for certain BOOK book winch
mand attention and be Of peculiar interestIto W.T.,
book about the Nevada silver mines. The Great
was talking about it. 1t seemed to me that tn the
person best qualified to write tins BOOK was svoda
Sy Whose side had many when
was reporter there ten or twelve years before He
might n be alive wosa x1 he mE linn Se Sen by
merely and modestly suggesting that he make sucn q
book but my interest grew w, as w thas S a ought
to be the plan Of the work, lie being an
old friend and do not y taking aS gSod e
order and sequence which they should follow. l was
about to put the manuscript In an envelope Tnen h
written at my suggestion and then no publisher
happen to want it, should feel SO
secured a publisher. | pigeon-holed my document,
and dropped note to my own publisher, asking nI
a os SI sd" and Sp at the end Of three or four days
whole matter had passed out OF my mind Oh one
letters, and among them thick one whose super super
to me. could not place. it at first but presently
succeeded. Then said to a visiting relative who
"'s NSow will do miracle. will tell you every
thing this letter contains-dae, signature and all
without 5rea9g the NeS seal and Is da Fe% The ID
to to make a book about the silver mines and the
Great bonanza and asks what l, friend, think OF
the idea He says his subjects are to be so and So
their order and sequence and so, and he VIII close
with history OF the chief feature Of the book the
opened the letter. and showed that had stated the
date and the contents correctly. Mr. WrigMs letter
same date contained and mine still lay in its pigeon
hole, where Ii has been lying during the seven
There was NO eiairvoyance about this, II rightly
comprehend what cialrvoyancc is. 1 think the clair,
Soyant processes actually to see concealed writing ana
seemed know, and TO know absolutely the contents
Of the letter in detail and due order but had TO WORD
them myself. translated tlem so to speak. out OF
Wrjght's into
Wrghts letter and the one which had written to
him but never sent, in substance the same.
Necessarily this could not come by accident; sueh
have duplicated one two Of the details. but she
would have broken down on the rest. l could NOT
that Mr. Wrights mind and mine had been in close
and crystalclear communication with each other
across three thousand miles Of mountain ana desert
slider that both minds originated that succession OF
IDEAS. but that one man Originated them, ana simply
teegraphed them TO the other. was curious to
know which brain was the telegrapher and which
the receiver wrote and and asked for particulars
Mr.. wrichts reply showed that his mind had done
the originating and teegraphing and mine the re
ceving. Mark that significant thing, now consider
for n moment how many splendid "origtnal' idea
has been unconsciously stolen from man three
this Is So let him look into the cycopaeda and con
once more that curious thing In the history of I'm,
is. the frequency with which the machine or
other conrivance has been invented at the same time
by several persons in different quarters Of the globe