Twain well knew, those words would run in newspapers across the country; that really, whatever he said thereafter, & whatever collective exhale it might produce in the room, didn’t matter. 7/11

Surely he obsessed over it though? That was, like, his whole thing

An occasion which had begun with Republican leadership signing autographs for the wives of patrolmen and the Governor receiving a series of standing ovations from men in uniform ended with reporters rushing to get the words “abolish policemen” to press. 8/11