Mark Twain
The incorruptible town
Many years ago, Hadleyburg was known as the most honest and upright town in the whole region. The nineteen main residents of the town were very proud of their fame and taught their children the virtues of being honest and incorruptible. Once, however, the town offended a passing stranger. It may have been unintentional, but the bitter and revengeful stranger did not forget it. He made a plan to corrupt the entire town and bring down its reputation.
The plan in action
One day, the stranger came to the house of Richards, the cashier in the town’s bank, and left a heavy sack with him. He said that he was just discharging a duty and that a paper attached to the sack would explain everything. He quickly went away.
The contents of the paper were: “This sack contains more than 160 lbs of gold coins. I was once a gambler and I came to this town when I was down and out. I sought help and one man here gave me $20 and also made a remark to me that I have never forgotten. I made a lot of money using those 20 dollars, but the man’s remark has haunted me. I have now given up gambling and am going away from this country.”
The note continued: “I have no idea who that man was and I want these gold coins to be given to him. I have no time to search for him, but this incorruptible town will surely find him. The man can be identified by the remark he made to me. You will find the remark in a sealed cover inside the sack. Give wide publicity to this matter and convene a townhall meeting in thirty days. The claimant should write down the remark he made to me and if it tallies with the remark in the sack, the town can hand over the coins to that man.”
True nature of the people
Richards got the matter printed in the local newspaper and the story spread across the whole country. Hadleyburg the Incorruptible Town became even more famous. The residents basked under the fame and were happy – for a while. There was also the question: Who could have given the 20 dollars to the stranger? The answer was obvious to every resident – it could only have been Barclay Goodson, who was a plain-speaking and irreverent person, who used to call the townspeople as “narrow, self-righteous and stingy”, which was actually true. Goodson had died six months before the stranger arrived with the sack!
Soon, the true nature of the people started surfacing. In each of the 19 houses, the refrain was, “What could have been the remark that Goodson made? If only we could guess it!” Soon everyone was miserable, trying to guess the remark and unable to come up with a good version. This went on until just a week was left for the grand event.
A new turn
Then there was a new turn of events. Richards received a letter from a person who claimed to have been Goodson’s friend. Goodson had told him that Richards had done him a service once. The writer had also overheard the remark that Goodson made to the stranger and it was “You are far from being a bad man: go and reform.” If Richards had really done Goodson a service, he should claim the coins using the remark. If not, he should find the right person.
Richards and his wife were overjoyed. They even began planning how they would spend the money. Unfortunately, however, a similar letter had arrived for the other 18 residents too. The contents were the same except that in place of Richards’ name, the letter carried the name of the recipient! That night, in each of the 19 households, the husband was trying to recall the service he had done to Goodson and the wives were busy mentally spending the money!
The day of the resolution
Finally, the important day arrived and a large crowd gathered at the town hall to see who would get the gold coins. Rev. Burgess was in the chair. During the preceding week, each of the 19 residents had given him in private a sealed envelope!
What do you think happened at the meeting?
Note: At this point, I am stopping the abridged version of the remarkable 50-page novella The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain. Try to guess the further development of the story and then read the original version here or here. The story says much about human nature.
I have always liked this story and shared it with many audiences. But I could never capture the twists and turns as well as the subtle humour of the original.
Professor now you are making us work 😀 just share the story with us. 🙏 Lovely reading what you write.
Thank you, Rekha. I hope the stories offer some solace during difficult times.
Beautiful narration sir. Very interesting and curious to go down the lines. THANK you so much Sir.
Thank you, Rajendra Prasad.
I have read through the novella. Very interesting. The human mind is always fallible as it always looks for its comfort zone, assuming that to be the ultimate. In this endeavour the power of discrimination is lost. It looks at itself from the eye of the beholder rather than from within. Compulsions of the surrounding, gives us an artificial behaviour rather than the original that we should generally possess. If our actions, thoughts and behaviour are original, then the scope of buckling down to external interventions or getting corrupted either in deed or thought can be avoided. Was it that the residents of Hadleyberg were honest and upright for the world to see or intrinsically they were of such a nature? This answers the conflict within them and it requires tremendous amount of unshaken belief to remain without being corrupted from external or internal compulsions.