Raymond received the terms which Twain wanted for the new Sellers play, but he rejected them, claiming that his season was full and that, perhaps, he might consider this new play the following season. Besides, Raymond had plans to revive the old Sellers play after Christmas of 1883.
When Twain heard of the rejection, he threatened to stop the planned holiday performances of Colonel Sellers. The Annals of the New York Stage records no production of Sellers in the New York region again until the following November. Perhaps Twain held true to his threats. It is certain, though, that Raymond was performing Colonel Sellers out on the circuit, for it is on the logs of the TREMONT OPERA HOUSE in Galveston, Texas, for February 4, 1884.
Immediately upon Raymond's initial rejection of the new Sellers play, the pair of potential playwrights tried to lease the property to a different actor, for after all, "there couldn't be more than thirty or forty actors in the country who could do it better." Perhaps Clemens' sarcasm had truth in it; but even if it were so, the part of Colonel Sellers was so identified with John T. Raymond, that no actor would take the part.
Twain did offer the script to a comic actor by the name of Nat Goodwin, but after Howells saw him in a production in Toronto, he wrote to his fellow playwright, offering to sell his portion of the play to Twain rather than have his name associated with Goodwin, whom Howells considered indecent. But Howells did note that Raymond's understudy, William Cullington, had received good reviews for a performance in Toronto.
One year later, Twain met Goodwin on a train, and the actor expressed his desire to do the play, if only he could change the characters' names to avoid identification with the Raymond-Sellers connection. In late February of 1885 Howells succumbed to Clemens and decided to let Goodwin have the play—even to let him change the names if he wished—but he wanted Goodwin to pay more than Raymond would have. Nothing came of this, however.
