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I had some wonderful insights to yesterday's puzzle. The word "discharge" has certainly changed, and it was for many unusual in this quote by Mark Twain.

Here's from Null and Void:

The language has changed a bit since then. “Discharge” didn’t have anything to do with batteries, a gun or cannon when fired discharged a bullet or shell. Discharge also meant to remove or finish or eliminate, think discharging the static that’s making your hair stand on end.

“Report” was what was in the newspaper, or was shouted by the news vendors selling the paper. It therefore means hearing the sound of a kid hawking the newspaper ‘extree extree read all about it!!!’ In other words, something you heard before you actually got the news.

In a era of black powered and subsonic artillery shells you’s hear the sound of the gunfire before you felt the fury of the shell.

So an immodest or self-aggrandizing man would make a point of letting everyone in earshot know he’s paid a bill or returned a favor. Whether they were the target of the payment or merely a bystander. It’s really only the business between him and his creditor.

Anyone who has to tell you he’s honest or has to tell you he’s a good man, probably isn’t...

And another from Swordmaker: Hmmmmm, do I hear some Democrat politicians running for a Microphone? This one was a tough one. I got the few patterns there were, but they didn’t much unlock the archaic words Mark Twain used in his pithy remarks for a while. I did not even immediately get the author’s name, even though I once was assigned Samuel Clemons’ desk to use when I was doing some volunteer work on a project at the Sacramento Union newspaper, lo these many years ago. 2 minutes 40 seconds. I doubt many younger people unfamiliar with guns would get the allusion.