The American Claimant

  EXPLANATORY

  The Colonel Mulberry Sellers here re-introduced to the public is thesame person who appeared as Eschol Sellers in the first edition of thetale entitled "The Gilded Age," years ago, and as Beriah Sellers in thesubsequent editions of the same book, and finally as Mulberry Sellers inthe drama played afterward by John T. Raymond.

  The name was changed from Eschol to Beriah to accommodate an EscholSellers who rose up out of the vasty deeps of uncharted space andpreferred his request--backed by threat of a libel suit--then went hisway appeased, and came no more. In the play Beriah had to be dropped tosatisfy another member of the race, and Mulberry was substituted inthe hope that the objectors would be tired by that time and let it passunchallenged. So far it has occupied the field in peace; therefore wechance it again, feeling reasonably safe, this time, under shelter ofthe statute of limitations.

  MARK TWAIN. Hartford, 1891.