tions, as to humanity at large and kings in particular,
to a waiting public. It was determined to spare no expense on the
manufacture, also that its illustrations must be of a sort to illuminate
and, indeed, to elaborate the text. Clemens had admired some pictures
made by Daniel Carter ("Dan") Beard for a Chinese story in the
Cosmopolitan, and made up his mind that Beard was the man for the
Yankee. The manuscript was sent to Beard, who met Clemens a little later
in the office of Webster & Co. to discuss the matter. Clemens said:

"Mr. Beard, I do not want to subject you to any undue suffering, but I
wish you would read the book before you make the pictures."

Beard replied that he had already read it twice.

"Very good," Clemens said; "but I wasn't led to suppose that that was
the usual custom among illustrators, judging from some results I have
seen. You know," he went on, "this Yankee of mine has neither the
refinement nor the weakness of a college education; he is a perfect
ignoramus; he is boss of a machine shop; he can build a locomotive or
a Colt's revolver, he can put up and run a telegraph line, but he's an
ignoramus, nevertheless. I am not going to tell you what to draw. If a
man comes to me and says, 'Mr. Clemens, I want you to write me a story,'
I'll write it for him; but if he undertakes to tell me what to write
I'll say, 'Go hire a typewriter.'"

To Hall a few days later he wrote:

Tell Beard to obey his own inspirations, and when he sees a picture
in his mind put that picture on paper, be it humorous or be it
serious. I want his genius to be wholly unhampered. I sha'n't have
any fear as to results.

Without going further it is proper to say here that the pictures in the
first edition of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court justified
the author's faith in the artist of his selection. They are far and away
Dan Beard's best work. The socialism of the text strongly appealed to
him. Beard himself had socialistic tendencies, and the work inspired him
to his highest flights of fancy and to the acme of his technic. Clemens
examined the pictures from time to time, and once was moved to write:

My pleasure in them is as strong and as fresh as ever. I do not
know of any quality they lack. Grace, dignity, poetry, spirit,
imagination, these enrich them and make them charming and beautiful;
and wherever humor appears it is high and fine--easy, unforced, kept
under, maste