Mark Twain's house

When my husband and I were in Hartford, Connecticut two weeks ago for a friend's wedding, we took the opportunity to see where Mark Twain once lived. For the time, he had a very technologically advanced residence. His family had running water, gas lamps, and a telephone. Poor Sam Clemens did not always like the phone however. He thought it was very unreliable, because whenever he cursed the switchboard operator would hang up on the call. He had a chance to invest in the telephone, but instead he invested his money in a printing press called the Paige compositor (I think I have the spelling right). The printing machine didn't work very well, and the Clemens family went bankrupt. A lecture trip in Europe for several years allowed Mark Twain to pay back all of his debt.

For those who are interested, the Mark Twain house offers summer workshops on Mark Twain and his writings. See http://www.marktwainhouse.org/neh/ for more details.