The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-16
A STRANGE STORY.
Mark Twain On the Influence of Mind
Upon Mind.

Mark Twain On the Influence of Mind
Upon Mind.
Now l come to the oldest thing that
ever happened to me. Two or three
years ago | was lying in bed, idly mus
ing, one morning-it was the I'd of
MarCh-when suddenly a red hot new
idea came whistling down into my camp
and exploded with such comprehensive
effectiveness as to sweep the vicinity
clean of rubbishy reflections and I'LL 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; book which
ought to be written at once; book which
must command attention and be of pecu-
liar intereSt-tO wit. a book about the
Nevada silver mines. The Great
Bonanza was q new wonder then and
everybody was talking about it, 1t
seemed to me that the person best quail
fed TO write this book was William IL.
Wright, journalist of Virginia, Nevada,
! by whose side l had scrubbed many
months when | was a reporter there ten
or twelve years before. He might be
alive still; he might be dead; / could not
tell; but / would write him, anyway. |
! began by merely and modestly suggest
ing that he make such book; but my in
terest grew as | went on and [ yentured
to map out what | thought ought to be
the plan Of the work, he being an old
friend, and not given 10 taking good in
tentons for i'll. | even dealt with details
and suggested the order and sequence
which they should follow.
! was about to put the manuscript IN an
envelope, when the thought occurred 10
me that if this book should be written at
my suggestion, and then no publisher
happen 10 want it, / should feel uncom-
fOrfable; so / concluded to keep my let
ter back until | should have secured
publisher. | pigeon holed my document,
and dropped a note 10 my own publisher,
asking him to name a day tor Il business
consultation. He was out of town on a
far journey. My note remained unan-
swered, and ut the end OF three or four
days the whole matter had passed out OF
my mind. On the 9Th OF March the post
man brought three or four letters, and
among athem thick one whose super
dimly familiar to me. i cOuldlnOt place
it at first, but presently / succeeded.
! Then | said to a visiting relative who was
present;
Nov l will doa miracle I will tell
! you everything this letter contains-date,
/ signature, and all-without breaking the
seal 1t is from a Mr.. Wright, of Vir-
@inia, Nevada, and is dated the I'd Of
! March--seyen days ago. Mr.. Wright pro-
/ poses to make book about the silver
| mines and the Great Bonanza, and asks
! what l, as friend, think of the idea He
says his subjects are tore SO and so, their
! order and sequence so and so, and he will
! close with u history of the chief feature
! OF the book, the Great Bonanza"
! l opened the letter. and showed that J
had stated the date and the contents cor
rectIy. Mr.. Wrights letter simply con-
! tanned what my own letter, written on
| the same date, contained, where it had
been lying during the seven days since
| il was written.
| There was no clairvoyance about this,
! if l rightly comprehend what clairvoy-
ance IS. think the clairvOyant processes
| to actually see concealed writing, and
/ read it off word for word. This was not
| my case. l only seemed to know, and to
| know absolutely, the contents of the
letter in detail and due order. but had to
word them myself | translated them, so
to speak, out Of Wright's language into
/ my own.
| Wright's letter and the one which l
had written to him, but never sent, were
in substance the same.
! Necessarily this could not come by ac-
| cident; such elaborate accidents cannot
| happen. Chance might have duplicated
! one or two of the details, but she would
have broken down on the rest. I could
not doubt-there was no tenable reason
! for doubting-that Mr. Wright's mind
( anu lillAS Hdu De6n III close ana crystal
! clear communication with each other
| across 5000 miles Of mountain and desert
on the morning of the I'd Of March. /
did not consider that. both minds origi-
mated that succession of ideas, but that
one mind originated them. and simply
| telegraphed them to the other
[ was curious to know which brain
was the telegrapher and which the re-
| ceiver, so / wrote and asked for particu-
lars. Mr.. Wright's reply showed that
| his mind had done the originating and
| telegraphing and mine the receiving.
Mark that significant thing, now; con-
| slider for moment how many a splendid
original idea has been unconsciously
| stolen from man three thousand miles
away! If one should question that this
! is SO, let him look into the cyclopedia
and con once that curious thing in the
| history OF inventions which has puzzled
every one so much-that is, the frequency
with which the same machine or other
| continuance has been invented at the
| same time by several persons in different
| quarters of the globe. The world was
without an electric telegraph for several
! thousand years; then Professor Henry,
| the American, Wheatstone in England,
| Morse on the sea, and a German in Nun
| ich, all invented it at the same time. The
| discovery OF certain ways of applying
| steam was made in two or three countries
! IN the same year. Is it not possible that
| inventors are constantly and unwittingly
| stealing each others ideas whilst they
stand thousands of miles asunder?-Mark
Twain In Harper's Magazine.