A WALK OVER IN 1804 AND IN 1904

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Hale & Kilburn Manufacturing Co. A WALK OVER IN 1804 AND IN 1904. Philadelphia: Hale & Kilburn [1904] Die cut advertising card or blotter printed in red and black, depicting a Pullman passenger car, with text on back describing their newly designed railroad seats; 3 1/2 x 9 inches. Small crease to one corner, some mounting abrasions on verso, two small staple or punch-holes from original hanger or stapling, but a very nice and attractive advertising piece. These kinds of cards and flyers were typically hung on strings at depots for passengers to take if interested, but this one may have been designed to be stapled to tickets. Each of the ten windows of the car contains a photographic portrait of a celebrity: Clara Barton (1) Thomas Edison (2), Mark Twain (4), Madame Currie (5), Teddy Roosevelt (6), General Nelson Miles (7), Admiral George Dewey (8), and President Grover Cleveland (9). The fellows gazing out from windows 3 and 10 remain a mystery. Twain spent a good portion of his life on railroad cars traveling great distances to and from his many lectures, and his wife's family, the Langdons of Elmira, owned a railroad, and would arrange a special car each summer to transport Twain and his family to and from Elmira where he wrote ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, and much more.