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Show Page 8 "Dough" on a Saturday morning for Sacramento. While Gridiey is contentedly sleeping his way over the Sierras, Let us stay for a few days in Virginia City and watch Mr. Twain as he writes himself into a historical footnote. It could be said that Twain suffered a letdown after Gridiey left for California. There was no immediate, burning issue and even his editor, Joseph T. Goodman, had, out of sheer boredom, left for San Franciso, Leaving Twain in charge of the Enterprise. Twain was- having a drink with Julie Bouiette that night when a reporter from the Virginia Daily Union, a rival newspaper, came over to his table. The reporter was welL sauced and he inadvertently let slip that James Laird, editor of the Union, was planning an editorial blasting Twain and the Enterprise for claiming that a Ladies club in Carson City had held benefits for the Sanitary Sack and then had diverted the funds to their own use. White with anger, Twain rushed back to his office and wrote a stinging editorial in which he claimed that neither the editor of the Union or the Union itself had supported or contributed to the Sanitary Fund. He also attacked Laird personally. |