In the Mountains, New Hampshire
May 24th, 1905.

Dear Mr. Fulton:

I remember, as if it were yesterday, that when I disembarked from the overland stage in front of the Ormsby in Carson City, in August, 1861, I was not expecting to be asked to come again. I was tired, discouraged, white with alkali dust and did not know anybody; and if you had said then, "Cheer up, desolate stranger, don't be down-hearted -- pass on and come again in 1905," you cannot think how grateful I would have closed the contract. Although I was not expecting to be invited I was watching out for it, and was hurt and disappointed when you started to ask me and changed it to "How soon are you going away?" for I was an orphan at that time, and had been one so many years that I was getting sensitive about it.

But you have made it all right now, and the wound is closed. And so I thank you sincerely for the invitation; and with you, all Reno, and if I were a few years younger I would accept it, and promptly. I would go, I would let someone else do the oration, but as for me, I would talk -- just talk. I would renew my youth; and talk -- and talk -- and talk -- and have the time of my life! I would march the unforgotten and unforgettable antiques by, and name their names, and give them reverent hail and farewell as they passed: Goodwin, McCarthy, Gillis, Curry, Baldwin, Winters, Howard, Nye, Stewart, Neely Johnson, Hall, Clayton, Jones, North, Root -- any my brother, upon whom be peace! --and then the desperadoes, who made life a joy and the "slaughter house" a precious possession: Sam Brown, Farmer Pete, Bill Mayfield, Six Fingered Jack, Jack Williams and the rest of the crimson discipleship -- so on, so on. Believe me, I would start a resurrection it would do you more good to look at than the next one will, if you go on the way you are doing now.

Those were the days! -- those old ones. They will come no more. Youth will come no more. They were full to the brim with the wine of life. There have been no others like them. It chokes me up to think of t hem. Would you like me to come out there and cry? It would not become my white head.

Good-bye. I drink to you all. Have a good time and take an old man's blessing.

MARK TWAIN

- letter reprinted in "Full of Humor and Pathos," Nevada State Journal, May 30, 1905

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Slightly different quotes from the same letter were published in the "Flesh is Weak Says Twain," San Francisco Call, May 30, 1905:

I would renew my youth and talk and talk and talk, and have the times I used to have when I was in the dear old Sagebrush State, the time of my life.

According to the Call, Twain concluded his letter with:

The spirit is willing, but the flesh will not stand the long journey.

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NOTE: Both versions of the letter differ from the one published by Albert Bigelow Paine in Mark Twain's Letters, Vol. 2, p. 772-773.