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[133] === From Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1910) Jervis Langdon Charles Jervis Langdon (1849–1916) of Elmira, who met Twain aboard the Quaker City in 1867, was Livy’s brother and so became Twain’s brother-in-law in 1870. it has been said he was given to swearing. I believe he was and that as a young man the habit had quite a hold on him. And yet I can remember hearing him swear only once, and that after I was grown up, which shows he was careful when the children were about. And what I did hear was entirely different from the heavy, guttural, vulgar thing we call profanity. It was so different I failed at first to recognize it. It came trippingly, almost musically, from the tongue. It was artistic compared with the ordinary variety . I can confirm one funny story that has been told about it. One day Mrs. Clemens was confined to her bed. She heard her husband in the distance . Something had happened. He was swearing. Soon he arrived at her door and before he had time even to greet her she repeated so far as she could remember it all of the language she had just heard. Mr. Clemens looked at her dumbfounded for a moment, then doubled over in mirth: “Livy, Livy,” said he, “you have the words but not the tune.” Jervis Langdon, from Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Elmira, N.Y.: privately printed, 1910), 6–7. ...

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