-A bit of evidence in the very important final chapter-the names "August" and "44" which were names from the last version, "The Print Shop," were crossed off on the manuscript and were filled in with "Theodor" and "Satan." Yeah, well maybe Twain had made a mistake and corrected himself. Nope, the new names were in the handwriting of Albert Paine, the man who published "The Mysterious Stranger" with the added dream ending.

-There are always two sides to a story. One critic, James M. Cox, believed that the published edition "is the closest thing to Mark Twain's intention that we shall ever have."

Albert Bigelow Paine-

-Twain's notion that in the end all that exists is the thought of oneself reminded me of the philosophy of Rene Descartes. He proposed that we cannot prove anything we perceive through our senses and that we may be living in a dream. He coined the famous line, "I think, therefore I am."

-There is a scene in the published text that may be attributed to a scene from the life of Clemens. Young Satan predicts (or more appropriately, wills) the death of Nikolaus as he attempts to save Lisa Brandt from drowning. Clemens and his friend, Tom Nash, were skating on the Mississippi one winter evening when the ice gave way. Clemens made it to shore but contracted scarlet fever as a result of the chilly waters.

-On a similar note, Clemens could do nothing but watch as his younger brother, Henry, died slowly of burns from a steamboat explosion in St. Louis.

-Henry Clemens.