The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-01
MENTAL TELEGRAPAY.'
A Curious Instance OF It Related by
the Great Humorist, Mark
Twain.
The Red-Hot Idea That Occurred
to Him and Els
Friend.
Though 5000 Miles Apart the Suggestion
of Writing n Book Occurred 10 Both
the Same Night.

&. SIZE =-. thp NahhS Nik"'" E.
Mental Telegraphy'' 10 the title of
curiously interesting article by Mar.
Twain in tho December number Of Har
per's Magazine. 1t il prefacsd by the fol
lowing note of explanation.
Note to the Edltor-By slanoing oyer tn
enclosed bundle of susty old manuscript
YOU will perceive that / once made q grea
discovery: the discovery that certain sort
of things which, from the beginning of thu
world, had always Eeen regarded as merely
..curious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. il 80 say, &C
cidents-wsre no more accidental than il
the sending and receiving of a telegram an
accident. / made this discovery sixteen Oh
seventeen years ago, and gave it 4
nams-"Mental Talegraphy." II ia the same
thing around the outer edges OF which
the Psychical Society of England began to
grops (and play with) four Of rive years ago,
and which they named "~Telspathy."
Within tho last two or three years they
have penetrated toward the heart of the
matter, however. and have found out that
mind can act upon mind III q quite detailed
and elaborate way over vast stretches of
land and water. And they have succeeded
in doing by their great credit and influence.
what I could never kavs d~one-they have
convinced the world that msntal telsgraphv
ia mot a Jest, but q fact, and that it is a
thing moi rare, but exceedingly common.
They have done our age a s~eryico-and a
very great service, / think.
In this old manuscript you will find men
tion Of an extraordinary experience of mine
in the mental telegraphis line. Of date
about the year 1874 or 1S75-the one con-
corning tho Great Bonanza book. 1t was
this experience that called my attention to
the matter under consideration. I began
TO keep a record, after that, Of such ex-
perienees of mine al seemed applicable by
the theory that minds telegraph thoughts
to zach other. In 1870 I went to Germany
and began to write the book called GA
Tramp Abroad" The bulk of this old
batch Of manuscript was written at that
time and for that book. But I removed it
when I came to revise the volume for the
press; for I feared the public would treat
the thing a. 4 joke and throw il aside,
whereas I was in earnest.
At home, eight or ten years ago. I tried
to creep in under shelter of an authority
KEAv0 0uOuk2 ~ pkOboCS II 0hp1oA AAOAA
ridieule-ths North American Review. Bat
Mr.. Mstcalf was too wary for me. He said
that to treat these mere ''ooin0idences"
seriously was a thing which the Review
couldn't dare to do; that | must put either
my name or my nom de plume to the arti-
Bnt | couldn't consent to that; it would be
the sursst possible way to defeat my desire
that the public should receive the thing
seriously, and be willing to stop and give it
some fair degree OF attention. So pigeon
holed the manuscript, because l could not
get it published anonymously.
Now see how the world has moved since
then. These small experiences Of mine,
which were too formidable at that time for
admission to = grave magazlns-if the
magazine must allow them to appear as
something above and beyond ''acoidents''
monplaos now, since the flood of light re-
GENTLY cast UPON mental telegraphJ by the
intelligent labors of the psychieal ~soeisty.
But / think they are worth publishing, Just
to show what harmless and ordinary mat
ters were considered dangerous and incredi-
BILE eight or ten years ago.
As / have said, the bulk Of this old manu-
script was written in 1878; a later part was
written from time to time two, three, and
four years afterward. The "postsoript" l
add to-day.
Now I come to the oldest thing that ever
happened to ne. Two or three years ago l
was lying in bed, idly musinR, one morning
Nit was the I'd of March-whsn suddenly a
red-hot new idea came whistling down into
my camp n exploded with such compre-
hensivs effectiveness rs to sweep the vicin-
ity clean of rubbishy reflections and fill the
air with their dust and flying fragments.
This idea, stated in simple phrase, was that
the time WAS ripe and the market ready for
a certain book; a book which ought to be
written at once; a book which must CON-
mand attention and be of peculiar in
~terest-to-wit, a boo about the Nevada
silver mines. The Great Ronanza" was
\ new wonder then, and everybody was
talking about it. 1t seemed to mo that tho
person best qualified to write this book was
Mr.. William H. Wright, a journalist of
Virginia, Nevada, by whose side / had
scribbled many months when ! was a re-
porter thers ten or twelve years before. He
might be alive still; he might bs dead; |
could mot tell; but / would write him, any
: way. / began by merely and modestly sug-
costing that he make such q book: but my
interest grew as | went on, and | ventursd
TO map out what thought ought to be the
plan OF the work, hs being an cid friend
and not given to taking good intentions for
ill. / even dealt with details. and suggested
tho order and sequence which they should
follow. was about to put the manuscript in
an envelope when tho thought occurred
to me that if this book should be written
AZ my suBgestlon, ana then no publisher
happen to want it, | should feel uncom-
Portable; SO I concluded to keep my letter
back until | should have secured q pub
Usher. I ~pigeonholed my document, and
dropped a note to my own publisher, ask
ing him to name a day for a business CON
sultation. He was cut OF town on a far
journey. My note remained unsnawered,
and mt the end of three or four DAYS the
whole matter had passed ont of nv mind.
On the 9th OF March the postnan brought
three or four letters, ana among them a
thick one whose superscription was in a
hand which seemed dimIy familiar to me.
l could not ''place' it at first, but presently
! succeeded. Then | said to visiting rela-
tive who was present:
Nov | will do a miracle. / will tell you
everything this letter oontnins-dats, sigma
ture and all-without breaking the seal. 1t
is from Il Mr.. Wright. of Virginia, Nevada,
and is dated the I'd of March-seven DAYS
ago. Mr.. Wright proposes to make a POOL
about the silver mines and the Great Bo-
nanza. and asks what I, as a friend, think
of the idea. He says his subjects are to be
30 and 30, their order and sequence so and
SO, and he will close with Il history of the
chief feature of the book. the Great b.
nanza."
~era3 I'll, y,+tnw r~I ,l,auoI 4I.l r l.J