The American Claimant

The American Claimant

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Title: The American Claimant
Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Release Date: April, 2002 [EBook #3179] [Yes, we are more than one
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AMERICAN CLAIMANT, BY TWAIN ***

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THE AMERICAN CLAIMANT
by Mark Twain

1892
EXPLANATORY
The Colonel Mulberry Sellers here re-introduced to the public is the
same person who appeared as Eschol Sellers in the first edition of the
tale entitled "The Gilded Age," years ago, and as Beriah Sellers in the
subsequent editions of the same book, and finally as Mulberry Sellers
in the drama played afterward by John T. Raymond.
The name was changed from Eschol to Beriah to accommodate an
Eschol Sellers who rose up out of the vasty deeps of uncharted space
and preferred his request--backed by threat of a libel suit--then went his
way appeased, and came no more. In the play Beriah had to be dropped
to satisfy another member of the race, and Mulberry was substituted in
the hope that the objectors would be tired by that time and let it pass
unchallenged. So far it has occupied the field in peace; therefore we
chance it again, feeling reasonably safe, this time, under shelter of the
statute of limitations.
MARK TWAIN. Hartford, 1891.

THE WEATHER IN THIS BOOK.
No weather will be found in this book. This is an attempt to pull a book

through without weather. It being the first attempt of the kind in
fictitious literature, it may prove a failure, but it seemed worth the
while of some dare-devil person to try it, and the author was in just the
mood.
Many a reader who wanted to read a tale through was not able to do it
because of delays on account of the weather. Nothing breaks up an
author's progress like having to stop every few pages to fuss-up the
weather. Thus it is plain that persistent intrusions of weather are bad for
both reader and author.
Of course weather is necessary to a narrative of human experience.
That is conceded. But it ought to be put where it will not be in the way;
where it will not interrupt the flow of the narrative. And it ought to be
the ablest weather that can be had, not ignorant, poor-quality, amateur
weather. Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn
out a good article of it. The present author can do only a few trifling
ordinary kinds of weather, and he cannot do those very good. So it has
seemed wisest to borrow such weather as is necessary for the book
from qualified and recognized experts--giving credit, of course. This
weather will be found over in the back part of the book, out of the way.
See Appendix. The reader is requested to turn over and help himself
from time to time as he goes along.



CHAPTER I
.
It is a matchless morning in rural England. On a fair hill we see a
majestic pile, the ivied walls and towers of Cholmondeley Castle, huge
relic and witness of the baronial grandeurs of the Middle Ages. This is
one of the seats of the Earl of Rossmore, K. G. G. C. B. K. C. M. G.,
etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., who possesses twenty-two thousand acres of
English land, owns a parish in London with two thousand houses on its
lease-roll, and struggles comfortably along on an income of two
hundred thousand pounds a year. The father and founder of this proud

old line was William the