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03 - Mark Twain; his life and work. A biographical sketch by William M. Clemens · Mark Twain; his life and work. A biographical sketch

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Speaker 1: This is chapter three of Mark Twain, His Life and Work,
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Speaker 1: a biographical sketch. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Mark Twain His Life and Work, A Biographical Sketch by
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Speaker 1: William M. Clemens, Chapter three in Nevada and California read
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Speaker 1: by John Greenman. Chapter three in Nevada and California. At
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Speaker 1: the outbreak of the Civil War, Mark Twain was a
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Speaker 1: regularly employed pilot on the river steamboat Alonzo Childs. He
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Speaker 1: remained at the wheel until the craft was converted into
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Speaker 1: a Confederate ram. The opening of the war. Having put
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Speaker 1: an end to profitable piloting, young Clemens, at the age
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Speaker 1: of twenty four years, returned to Hannibal and enlisted as
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Speaker 1: a three months volunteer in the Confederate Army under General Price.
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Speaker 1: In a magazine article printed some years since, he related
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Speaker 1: his experience as a soldier in a paper entitled the
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Speaker 1: Private History of a Campaign that Failed. The following is
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Speaker 1: his account of the organization of the company. I was
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Speaker 1: visiting in the small town where my boyhood had been spent, Hannibal,
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Speaker 1: Marion County. Several of us got together in a secret
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Speaker 1: place by night and formed ourselves into a military company.
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Speaker 1: One Tom Lyman, a young fellow of a good deal
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Speaker 1: of spirit but of no military experience, was made captain.
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Speaker 1: I was made second lieutenant. We had no first lieutenant.
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Speaker 1: I do not know why. It was long ago there
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Speaker 1: were fifteen of us. By the advice of an innocent
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Speaker 1: connected with the organization, we called ourselves the Marian Rangers.
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Speaker 1: I do not remember that any one found fault with
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Speaker 1: a name. I did not. I thought it sounded quite well.
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Speaker 1: The young fellow who proposed this title was perhaps a
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Speaker 1: fair sample of the kind of stuff we were made of.
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Speaker 1: He was young, ignorant, good natured, well meaning, trivial, full
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Speaker 1: of romance, and given to reading chivalric novels and singing
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Speaker 1: forlorn love ditties. He had some pathetic, little nickel plated
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Speaker 1: aristocratic instincts and tested his name, which was Dunlap. To
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Speaker 1: tested it, partly because it was nearly as common in
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Speaker 1: that region as Smith, but mainly because it had a
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Speaker 1: Plebeian sound to his ear. So he tried to ennoble
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Speaker 1: it by writing it in this way d Unlap. That
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Speaker 1: contented his eye, but left his ear unsatisfied. For people
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Speaker 1: gave the new name the same old pronunciation, emphasis on
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Speaker 1: the front end of it. He proved useful to us
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Speaker 1: in his way. He named our camps for us, and
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Speaker 1: he generally struck a name that was no slouch, as
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Speaker 1: the boys said. Having been a pilot and therefore knowing
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Speaker 1: the channel and being familiar with the points where steamboats
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Speaker 1: would have to hug the shore, Lieutenant Clemens was detailed
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Speaker 1: to special duty on the river. He was captured and paroled.
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Speaker 1: Being captured a second time, he was sent to Saint
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Speaker 1: Louis and imprisoned in a tobacco warehouse. He got to
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Speaker 1: thinking the matter over the possibility of being sent to
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Speaker 1: Grant's army, by which he was first captured, to be exchanged,
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Speaker 1: and by which, if recognized, he would certainly be shot
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Speaker 1: for a violation of his parole. He finally succeeded in
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Speaker 1: making his escape and started westward. President Lincoln had appointed
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Speaker 1: James W. Nye as governor of Nevada, and Orion Clemens,
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Speaker 1: an older brother of Samuel, was selected as territorial secretary
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Speaker 1: by the President. Sam joined his brother at Carson City
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Speaker 1: in the capacity of private secretary, but fearing that the
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Speaker 1: influence of his brother would not be sufficient to save
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Speaker 1: him if he should be recognized by passing officers or
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Speaker 1: soldiers of the Union Army. He did not remain long
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Speaker 1: in Carson, but pushed on to an out of the
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Speaker 1: way mining camp called Aurora, where he remained until he
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Speaker 1: fancied the storm had blown over. While in Aurora, he
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Speaker 1: wrote a series of letters to the Virginia City Enterprise,
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Speaker 1: which subsequently resulted in his obtaining an editorial position upon
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Speaker 1: that journal. Nevada at that time was swarming with adventurers.
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Speaker 1: Bankrupt tradesmen were flocking there from other territories called ssh
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Speaker 1: Graduates tired of grubbing for Greek roots, went there to
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Speaker 1: grub for gold and silver. Murderers and thieves escaped from justice.
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Speaker 1: Gamblers and the outcasts from the cities joined the throng,
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Speaker 1: and society became very lively in the mining towns of
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Speaker 1: the territory. The fashionable ornaments of the day consisted of
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Speaker 1: an eight inch revolver, an Arkansas toothpick, and jack boots.
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Speaker 1: In the mining regions, Mark Twain passed through diverse experiences.
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Speaker 1: He worked at day's wages in a courts mill, and
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Speaker 1: was explorer and prospector. Many of his sketches afterward incorporated
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Speaker 1: in the Jumping Frog and Roughing. It were published at
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Speaker 1: that time in local or eastern journals. Once for the
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Speaker 1: space of a few moments, he owned the famous comstock
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Speaker 1: load and was worth millions. He found out all this
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Speaker 1: after he had sold the claim. During the winter of
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one sixty two, he returned to Carson City.
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Speaker 1: For a time, there was little doing at the territorial capital,
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Speaker 1: and in the rear of Governor NY's private office was
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Speaker 1: a comfortable room where Clemens and the other attaches of
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Speaker 1: the offices whiled away the winter days at cards and storytelling.
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Speaker 1: In the spring of eighteen sixty two he accepted the
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Speaker 1: local editorship of the Virginia City Enterprise, and upon that
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Speaker 1: paper utilized for the first time his pseudonym of Mark Twain.
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Speaker 1: He perpetrated many broad and practical jokes through his paper.
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Speaker 1: His sharp pen caused a man named Willis, then city
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Speaker 1: editor of the Virginia Union, to hunting up his record.
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Speaker 1: This resulted in Clemens sending Willis a challenge to mortal combat.
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Speaker 1: Willis would not accept, for he said he would not
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Speaker 1: meet anyone on the field of honor except man of honor.
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Speaker 1: His best Man then challenged Clemens, but he too declined
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Speaker 1: on the same ground given by Willis. At that time,
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Speaker 1: dueling had just been made popular by a meeting between
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Speaker 1: Tom Fitch, the silver Tungued Orator, and Joseph T. Goodman,
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Speaker 1: editor of the Enterprise. But the matter was dropped, and Mark,
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Speaker 1: Twain and Willis never met upon the field of honor.
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Speaker 1: About the year eighteen sixty three, says Robert Fulford, I
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Speaker 1: was a printer on the Virginia City Enterprise, and Mark
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Speaker 1: was on the local staff. Mark and I roomed together
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Speaker 1: across the divide in a place known as Gold Hill,
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Speaker 1: about a mile from Virginia City. He was a droll,
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Speaker 1: dry sort of a fellow, delighted in practical jokes, and
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Speaker 1: the boys had to be constantly on the alert for
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Speaker 1: fear of some new scheme he would spring upon them.
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Speaker 1: A club of goodfellows was organized in Virginia City by
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Speaker 1: Mark Twain, Dan de Quill, Frank May, Louis Aldrich, and
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Speaker 1: others under the name of the Visigoths, and they carried
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Speaker 1: their practical jokes to such an extent that they gained
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Speaker 1: a somewhat unfavorable reputation. While in Virginia City. Some miners
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Speaker 1: came down from Calaveras and told Mark Twain about the
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Speaker 1: miners there loading a frog up with shot. And it
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Speaker 1: was a fact. In those days the men in the
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Speaker 1: camps would bet about anything, and one day they got
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Speaker 1: to betting about how far some frogs could jump. They
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Speaker 1: conceived the idea of filling one of the rival frogs
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Speaker 1: with shot, and did it, and the frog couldn't jump.
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Speaker 1: Mark wrote out the story for the Enterprise, and in
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Speaker 1: this way the jumping frog of Calaveras first saw the
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Speaker 1: light of day. Many interesting anecdotes are told of the
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Speaker 1: humorist's life in Virginia City, and he tells one himself
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Speaker 1: of how the funniest thing he ever wrote came to
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Speaker 1: an untimely end and was lost to the world through
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Speaker 1: the interference of an editorial compositor. In Nevada. At that time,
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Speaker 1: it was the custom of the proprietor of every new
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Speaker 1: saloon to send a basket of his choicest wines to
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Speaker 1: the newspaper office, and for the editor to return the
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Speaker 1: compliment by giving a glowing account of the brilliancy of
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Speaker 1: the affair. A basket of unusually choice wine had been
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Speaker 1: sent to the office One day from a saloon of
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Speaker 1: a very aristocratic order that was to be opened, Mark
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Speaker 1: was to write up the opening. He wrote a few
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Speaker 1: lines in the best of English, and then it began
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Speaker 1: to be badly mixed. And as he represented bottle after
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Speaker 1: bottle as having been sampled, approved, and emptied, he drifted
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Speaker 1: into worse and worse confusion, until finally the article was
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Speaker 1: all tangled up, as might be supposed of a man
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Speaker 1: who had drank a basket of mixed wines. When the
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Speaker 1: paper came out, Mark could not find his cherished article,
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Speaker 1: but instead found a short paragraph setting forth in the
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Speaker 1: most commonplace way that a basket of wines had been
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Speaker 1: received from mister Blank, and that they were very fine,
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Speaker 1: et cetera. Mark was mad and found that one of
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Speaker 1: the printers was responsible. The fellow said he could not
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Speaker 1: make head or tail of the copy, and thought mister
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Speaker 1: Clemmons must have been drunk when he wrote it, so
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Speaker 1: he tore it up and substituted the paragraph. The humorist
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Speaker 1: mourned long for the loss of the article, which he
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Speaker 1: could not reproduce, and to this day believes that it
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Speaker 1: was the most brilliant of any of his productions even
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Speaker 1: before or since. During this period in his career, Mark
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Speaker 1: gave to the world many of these short, humorous sketches
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Speaker 1: that made him famous. He had already acquired a name
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Speaker 1: on the Pacific coast, and his newspaper articles were beginning
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Speaker 1: to attract attention east of the Rocky Mountains. Among these
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Speaker 1: sketches were the Undertaker's Chat, the Petrified Man, and the
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Speaker 1: Marvelous Bloody Massacre. Some of the quaintest and brightest things
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Speaker 1: which have appeared under his name originally enlivened the pages
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Speaker 1: of The Enterprise with its Crimson catalog of murders, duels,
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Speaker 1: and Judge Lynch executions. In eighteen sixty three, the Gould
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Speaker 1: and Curry mine on the Comstock paid dividends amounting to
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Speaker 1: one hundred dollars to one hundred fifty dollars a share.
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Speaker 1: Whenever a dividend was declared, the San Francisco Bulletin, after
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Speaker 1: announcing the fact, would add, wonder if this dividend was cooked?
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Speaker 1: A certain San Francisco capitalist, being in Virginia City one
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Speaker 1: day after one of these monthly queries, told the cause
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Speaker 1: of them. It is a fact that one mining company
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Speaker 1: had hired money and declared a dividend. This was the
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Speaker 1: Dana mine, which never had a foot of war. But
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Speaker 1: the dividends raised the price of the stock to a
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Speaker 1: respectable figure, at which the owners thereof disposed of their stock.
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Speaker 1: This San Francisco capitalist stated that this swindle had caught
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Speaker 1: the proprietors of that journal somewhat heavily. But he added,
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Speaker 1: if the bulletin wants to find a company nearer home
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Speaker 1: which is borrowing money to pay dividends, I can give
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Speaker 1: you an instance in point, the Spring Valley Water Company
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Speaker 1: has hired money to pay its two last dividends, and
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Speaker 1: all the big fish are getting out and letting the
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Speaker 1: little fish in. Perhaps that might attract that journal's indignation. Also,
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Speaker 1: Twain and another writer employed on the enterprise counciled together
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Speaker 1: on the improbability of a plain notice of the fact
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Speaker 1: of the Spring Valley Water companies hiring money to pay dividends,
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Speaker 1: made as it must be in a country journal, would
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Speaker 1: attract any notice whatever in the metropolitan press. Accordingly, in
13:22
Speaker 1: order to overcome the difficulty surrounding the country location, the
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Speaker 1: matter was held under advisement for one day, much to
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Speaker 1: the disgust of the San Francisco capitalist. On the second day,
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Speaker 1: Mark announced that he had surmounted the country difficulty, and
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Speaker 1: sure enough he had. Accordingly. In the local columns of
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Speaker 1: the Enterprise the next morning appeared an account of a
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Speaker 1: terrible tragedy that had been committed in the Great Pine
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Speaker 1: Forest between Empire City and dutch Nix the day before.
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Speaker 1: The story went on to state that a man named Hopkins,
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Speaker 1: who resided there and who had owned millions in the comstock,
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Speaker 1: had been induced to sell out his entire mining interests
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Speaker 1: by a relative of his, who was one of the
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Speaker 1: editors of the bulletin, by the same advice. He had
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Speaker 1: invested every dollar in the Spring Valley Water Company, and
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Speaker 1: on learning that its two last dividends had been paid
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Speaker 1: with borrowed money, he became so violently insane that he
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Speaker 1: murdered his wife and thirteen children, under the impression that
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Speaker 1: they would come to immediate want. The next day, Mark
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Speaker 1: published a card in which he took it all back,
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Speaker 1: except the way the money had been procured to pay
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Speaker 1: the dividends, and adding that it took a fearful tragedy
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Speaker 1: to get any truth into a San Francisco newspaper. Anyhow, J. H. Stebbens,
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Speaker 1: an old time printer, relates the following incident of Twain's
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Speaker 1: life in Virginia City. Clemens was local on the enterprise,
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Speaker 1: and I was a printer on the same paper. Clemens
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Speaker 1: was writing humorous sketches, but his fame as a humorist
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Speaker 1: was young. Yet he was an inveterate smoker and smoked
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Speaker 1: the foulst smelling pipe in Virginia City. By any odds.
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Speaker 1: Clemens's office was just off the composing room, and although
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Speaker 1: printers as a rule are not squeamish about pipes and things,
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Speaker 1: this pipe was breeding a revolution. It smelled so infernally
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Speaker 1: bad that we always spoke of it as the remains.
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Speaker 1: There were numerous plots suggested to get the remains out
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Speaker 1: of the way, but we hesitated about putting them into execution.
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Speaker 1: When we learned that it was a pipe of considerable
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Speaker 1: value and one that he cherished on account of its
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Speaker 1: association or something. It was clear, however, that something had
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Speaker 1: to be done, and we finally concluded to present Clemens
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Speaker 1: with a new pipe. We had suffered so much from
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Speaker 1: the old pipe of a thousand smells that we felt
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Speaker 1: justified in making him the victim of a joke if
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Speaker 1: we could, And so we scoured the town and bought
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Speaker 1: the cheapest pipe we could find that would pass after
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Speaker 1: night for a good one. I think it cost thirty cents.
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Speaker 1: One night, after we had the paper up, we all
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Speaker 1: filed solemnly out into the local room and presented Clemmens
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Speaker 1: with the pipe. We threw as much ceremony into the
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Speaker 1: presentation as possible. One of the boys made an address
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Speaker 1: that was really affecting. He talked about the toilers in
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Speaker 1: the profession of journalism, their long nights of labor, when
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Speaker 1: all the rest of the world was wrapped in peaceful slumber.
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Speaker 1: Then he worked in some of the poetry about tobacco
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Speaker 1: and the solace it afforded the tired brain. He spoke
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Speaker 1: of the warm friendship that existed between the local department
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Speaker 1: and the composing room, and hoped nothing would ever occur
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Speaker 1: to sever their silken ties. And he handed him the
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Speaker 1: twenty five cent Fraud wiped his fingers through his eyes
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Speaker 1: and sat down. Clemens was knocked completely out for a time,
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Speaker 1: but he pulled himself together and returned his thanks in
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Speaker 1: a very feeling manner. He said, the pretty gift from
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Speaker 1: his co workers on the paper touched him deeply, and
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Speaker 1: he would retain it long as a souvenir of pleasant days.
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Speaker 1: The old pipe had long been a friend and companion.
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Speaker 1: It had been a comforter in lonely hours. But this
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Speaker 1: handsome gift from friends he loved made the parting easy,
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Speaker 1: and as a climax to his remarks, he threw the
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Speaker 1: ill smelling old timer out of the window. We accepted
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Speaker 1: his invitation to go downstairs with him, and, knowing the
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Speaker 1: miserable swindle we had perpetrated every dollar he spent, gave
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Speaker 1: us a pang. The very next night, while Clemens was
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Speaker 1: smoking his new pipe, the bowl of the cussed thing
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Speaker 1: split open from stem to stern. We heard him growling
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Speaker 1: to himself and looking out of a hole in the
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Speaker 1: wall through which he shoved copy. We saw him brushing
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Speaker 1: the ashes off his desk and clothes, and swearing softly
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Speaker 1: in a very picturesque manner. He didn't say a word
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Speaker 1: to us about the pipe or its fate, and you
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Speaker 1: bet we said nothing to him. It was evident, however,
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Speaker 1: that he had done some thinking, for he appeared at
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Speaker 1: the office next night, complacently smoking the remains he had
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Speaker 1: gone down into the back yard and hunted it up.
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Speaker 1: From Virginia City, Mark Twain drifted, as a matter of course,
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Speaker 1: to San Francisco, the harbor of all adventurers on the coast.
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Speaker 1: He was in a chronic state of impecuniosity when he
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Speaker 1: arrived at the Golden Gate. He had furnished some correspondence
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Speaker 1: to the Morning Call from Nevada and to the office
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Speaker 1: of that newspaper. He immediately betook himself. He wanted work
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Speaker 1: and money. He wore a ragged felt hat, a soldier's
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Speaker 1: blue overcoat, and pantaloons which had formed a passing acquaintance
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Speaker 1: with the tops of his boots. George Barnes, who was
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Speaker 1: at that time editor of The Call, told him to
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Speaker 1: go to work the next day and gave him an
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Speaker 1: order on the business office for money enough to make
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Speaker 1: himself look respectable. The next day Twain took possession of
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Speaker 1: his chair, and for six weary months Barnes tried to
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Speaker 1: get some work out of him. At the end of
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Speaker 1: that time, in his good natured way, he tried to
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Speaker 1: let Mark down and out easily and politely by saying
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Speaker 1: to him, Mark, don't you think you are wasting your time?
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Speaker 1: And talents and doing local work. What do you mean,
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Speaker 1: said Mark, Why, I think with your style and talent
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Speaker 1: you could make more money writing for first class magazines
19:57
Speaker 1: than in such work as you are doing. Now. That
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Speaker 1: means that you don't want me any more, I suppose,
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Speaker 1: And he put his feet on the desk and smiled
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Speaker 1: blandly at Barnes. Well, I think you are better fitted
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Speaker 1: for that class of work. The fact is you have
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Speaker 1: come to the conclusion that I am not the kind
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Speaker 1: of man you want. Well, if you will have it,
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Speaker 1: said Barnes, you are not. You are the laziest, most shiftless,
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Speaker 1: good for nothing specimen I ever saw around a newspaper office.
20:37
Speaker 1: I have tried for six months to get some work
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Speaker 1: out of you and failed, and I have come to
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Speaker 1: the conclusion that it is useless to keep you any longer.
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Speaker 1: Barnes replied Twain in his most placid manner. You are
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Speaker 1: not as smart a man as I thought you were.
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Speaker 1: You have been six months in finding that out, and
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Speaker 1: I knew the day I came to work. Give us
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Speaker 1: an order on the office for three days pay, and
21:05
Speaker 1: I get one of the printers employed upon the call
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Speaker 1: at the time furnishes the following reminiscence. One evening, Clemens
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Speaker 1: came into our room where we were shining our boots.
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Speaker 1: What's up, boys, he asked. We're going to the theater,
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Speaker 1: but it's not seven yet. You've plenty of time, said Clemens,
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Speaker 1: sitting down on the corner of the bed, I want
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Speaker 1: to tell you a good story, and he proceeded to
21:33
Speaker 1: entertain us with an account of his latest practical joke.
21:38
Speaker 1: This reminded him of a personal experience on a steamboat,
21:42
Speaker 1: which in turn led to a graphic description of his
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Speaker 1: life on the Mississippi. He talked on without pause, holding
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Speaker 1: our closest interest by his artful blending of humor, pathos,
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Speaker 1: vivid description, and thrilling incident, until it breaking off. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: he said with a laugh, Well, boys, if you're going
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Speaker 1: to the theater, it's time you were off. We drew
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Speaker 1: our watches. It was eleven o'clock. His love for practical joking,
22:16
Speaker 1: while living in California, called forth the following from a
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Speaker 1: San Francisco paper some years ago. There have been moments
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Speaker 1: in the lives of various, kind hearted and respectable citizens
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Speaker 1: of California and Nevada when if Mark Twain were before
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Speaker 1: them as members of a vigilance committee for any mild
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Speaker 1: crime such as mule stealing or arson. It is to
22:45
Speaker 1: be feared his shrift would have been short. What a
22:50
Speaker 1: dramatic picture the idea conjures up, to be sure, Mark
22:55
Speaker 1: before those honest men, infuriated by his practical jokes, trying
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Speaker 1: to show them what an innocent creature he was when
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Speaker 1: it came to mules, or how the only policy of
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Speaker 1: fire insurance he held had lapsed, how void of guile
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Speaker 1: he was in any direction, and all with that inimitable
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Speaker 1: drawl that perplexed countenance, and the peculiar scraping back of
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Speaker 1: the left foot like a boy speaking his first piece
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Speaker 1: at school. It is but fair to say that the
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Speaker 1: fund that Mark mixed up for citizens in those days
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Speaker 1: was not altogether appreciated in the midst of it. For
23:37
Speaker 1: some one touched too sharply serge a bat a marie
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Speaker 1: a liquid, and Mark had another denouncer joined to the
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Speaker 1: wounded throng. I think I may justly claim to having
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Speaker 1: kept Mark Twain in the realms of literature, said General
23:56
Speaker 1: John MacComb to the writer not long ago. In eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty four, Mark Twain was City editor of the Morning Call.
24:05
Speaker 1: In those days, the city editor of a San Francisco
24:08
Speaker 1: newspaper had something else to do then sit at his desk,
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Speaker 1: make out details and read copy. Mark used generally to
24:17
Speaker 1: look out for the late police news, would report a
24:21
Speaker 1: lecture or anything that came to hand. I think the
24:25
Speaker 1: local staff then considered of himself and one reporter. Things
24:29
Speaker 1: did not go exactly to Mark's liking. He detested police
24:33
Speaker 1: reporting and would not go to the city hall any
24:36
Speaker 1: oftener than he was obliged to. He was out of
24:39
Speaker 1: his sphere, he thought, and as a consequence, used to
24:42
Speaker 1: be dissatisfied with the world in general and newspaper work
24:46
Speaker 1: in particular. One morning I met him at the corner
24:49
Speaker 1: of Clay and Montgomery Streets. We stopped, shook hands, and
24:53
Speaker 1: he said, Mac, I've done my last newspaper work. I
25:00
Speaker 1: am going back east. What do you mean, I asked, Well,
25:05
Speaker 1: he replied, I've been trying to get out of this
25:10
Speaker 1: work a long while. Some time since I made application
25:15
Speaker 1: through some friends at Washington for an appointment as government
25:21
Speaker 1: pilot on the Mississippi River. I have just received notification
25:27
Speaker 1: that my application was successful. The salary is three hundred
25:35
Speaker 1: dollars per month, and it is not hard work. I
25:41
Speaker 1: was a great deal surprised and disappointed. Clemens and I
25:45
Speaker 1: had become warm friends, and I had conceived a high
25:48
Speaker 1: regard for his literary ability. Although I could see he
25:52
Speaker 1: was more or less hampered by his surroundings. I determined
25:55
Speaker 1: to do what I could to cause him to reconsider
25:58
Speaker 1: his determination. With this object in view, I said to him, Sam,
26:03
Speaker 1: you are making the mistake of your life. There is
26:06
Speaker 1: a better place for you than a Mississippi steamboat. You
26:10
Speaker 1: have a style of writing that is fresh and original
26:13
Speaker 1: and is bound to be popular. If you don't like
26:17
Speaker 1: the treadmill work of a newspaper man, strike up higher,
26:21
Speaker 1: write sketches, write a book. You'll find a market for
26:25
Speaker 1: your stuff, and in time you'll be appreciated and get
26:29
Speaker 1: more money than you can standing alongside the wheel of
26:32
Speaker 1: a steamboat. There's nothing in this pilot business either. You
26:37
Speaker 1: say you were to get three hundred dollars a month,
26:40
Speaker 1: that's in green backs. You remember, now, three hundred dollars
26:43
Speaker 1: in green backs won't go a great way, as you know.
26:47
Speaker 1: Then again, the war will be over in a little while,
26:50
Speaker 1: and where'll you be? You will be thrown out of
26:54
Speaker 1: government employ and you'll have to fight for work with
26:57
Speaker 1: a lot of older and more experienced men. Can you succeed?
27:00
Speaker 1: What will happen? He'll be a river pilot all the
27:04
Speaker 1: rest of your days. And you know what that is. No, Sam,
27:08
Speaker 1: don't you drop your pen. Now, stick to it, and
27:11
Speaker 1: it will make your fortune. He listened very attentively to
27:15
Speaker 1: what I had to say, and I saw that I
27:17
Speaker 1: had made an impression. He said he would think it over,
27:21
Speaker 1: shook my hand, and passed on down Clay Street. The
27:25
Speaker 1: next day he came into my office and the first
27:27
Speaker 1: thing he said was, now, Mac, I've taken your advice.
27:32
Speaker 1: I thought it all over last night, and finally I
27:37
Speaker 1: wrote to Washington declining the appointment, and so I'll stick
27:42
Speaker 1: to the newspaper work a while longer. On one occasion,
27:48
Speaker 1: Clemens was standing at the corner of Clay in Montgomery Streets,
27:51
Speaker 1: leaning against a lamp post and holding a cigar box
27:54
Speaker 1: under his arm. Missus Captain Edward Poole, a very beautiful
27:58
Speaker 1: woman and as bright witty as beautiful, came along and
28:02
Speaker 1: stopped and held out her hand, saying, why Mark, where
28:06
Speaker 1: are you going in such a hurry? I'm moooving, drawled Mark,
28:13
Speaker 1: at the same time opening the cigar box, disclosing a
28:16
Speaker 1: pair of blue socks, a pipe, and two paper collars.
28:21
Speaker 1: He never cared for the ladies, was in fact a
28:24
Speaker 1: fish out of water when he happened to be near them.
28:26
Speaker 1: While employed on the daily Alta, he called at a
28:30
Speaker 1: dressmaker's establishment and for ten minutes addressed a wax figure
28:34
Speaker 1: of a lady before discovering his mistake. In the spring
28:38
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five, he became interested with Brett Hart
28:41
Speaker 1: in the conduct of The Californian. While sub editor of
28:45
Speaker 1: that magazine, he produced many sketches of merit, which were
28:49
Speaker 1: widely copied in the Eastern press. In a series of
28:52
Speaker 1: articles entitled Answers to Correspondents contributed to The Californian, appeared
28:58
Speaker 1: the following and Wheeler Sonora. The following simple and touching
29:04
Speaker 1: remarks and accompanying poem have just come to hand from
29:09
Speaker 1: the rich gold mining region of Sonora to mister Mark Twain.
29:15
Speaker 1: The within parson which I have sought to poetry under
29:20
Speaker 1: the name and style of he done his level best
29:24
Speaker 1: was one among the whitest men I ever see, And
29:28
Speaker 1: it ain't every man that note him, that can find
29:31
Speaker 1: it in his heart to say he's glad the poor
29:34
Speaker 1: cuss is busted and gone home to the States. He
29:37
Speaker 1: was here in an early day, and he was the
29:40
Speaker 1: handiest man about taking hold of anything that come along
29:43
Speaker 1: you most ever see, I judge he was a cheerful,
29:46
Speaker 1: stirn critter, and ally was doing something. And no man
29:50
Speaker 1: can say he ever see him do anything by Havers.
29:54
Speaker 1: Preaching was his natural gait. But he warn't man to
29:57
Speaker 1: lay back and twiddle his thumb because there didn't happen
30:01
Speaker 1: to be nothing doing in his own a special line, no, sir.
30:05
Speaker 1: He was a man who would meander forth and stir
30:09
Speaker 1: up something for hisself. His last axe was to go
30:13
Speaker 1: to his pile of King's end, talking it to phil
30:17
Speaker 1: but which he didn't fill when there was a flush
30:21
Speaker 1: out again him and naturally, you see, he went under,
30:25
Speaker 1: and so he was cleaned out, as you may say,
30:27
Speaker 1: and he struck the home trail cheerful but flat broke.
30:34
Speaker 1: I know this talent man in Arkansas, and if you
30:37
Speaker 1: would print this humbly tribute to his gorgeous abilities, you
30:41
Speaker 1: would greatly oblige his on happy friend. He done his
30:47
Speaker 1: level best. Was he mining on the flat, He'd done
30:52
Speaker 1: it with a zest. Was he a leading of the choir,
30:57
Speaker 1: He'd done his level best. If he'd a regular task
31:01
Speaker 1: to do, he never took no rest or. If twas
31:05
Speaker 1: off and on the same, he'd done his level best.
31:10
Speaker 1: If he was preachin on his beat, he'd tramp from
31:14
Speaker 1: east to west and north to south in cold and heat,
31:19
Speaker 1: he'd done his level best. He'd yank a sinner out
31:23
Speaker 1: in hades and land him with the blest, then snatch
31:28
Speaker 1: a prayer and waltz in again and do his level best.
31:33
Speaker 1: He'd cos and sing and howl and pray and dance
31:37
Speaker 1: and drink and jest and lie and steal all one
31:41
Speaker 1: to him. He'd done his level best. Whatever this man
31:46
Speaker 1: was sought to do, he'd done it with his zest.
31:49
Speaker 1: No matter what his contract was, he'd do his level best.
31:55
Speaker 1: October eighteen sixty five. Verily, this man was gifted with
32:01
Speaker 1: gorgeous abilities, and it is a happiness to me to
32:05
Speaker 1: embalm the memory of their luster in these columns. If
32:09
Speaker 1: it were not that the poet crop is unusually large
32:13
Speaker 1: and rank in California this year, I would encourage you
32:17
Speaker 1: to continue writing, Simon, But as it is, perhaps it
32:22
Speaker 1: might be too risky in you to enter against so
32:26
Speaker 1: much opposition. The nomadic taint ran ride in the blood
32:32
Speaker 1: of both Mark Twain and Brett Hart, and they one
32:35
Speaker 1: day deserted the Californian and started inland for another delusive
32:40
Speaker 1: experiment in mining for gold. On returning to San Francisco,
32:45
Speaker 1: Clemens found his health failing and made arrangements to go
32:48
Speaker 1: to the Sandwich Islands as a newspaper correspondent. Before his departure,
32:53
Speaker 1: he held his first interview with Artemis Ward, the published
32:57
Speaker 1: report of which was widely quoted. He sailed in eighteen
33:01
Speaker 1: sixty six for Honolulu. There was a wedding on board
33:05
Speaker 1: the vessel, and Mark gave away the bride. The groom
33:09
Speaker 1: was greatly vexed over the absence of a wedding ring.
33:11
Speaker 1: When Mark reached up and pulled off one of the
33:14
Speaker 1: huge curtain rings large enough to go around the girl's
33:17
Speaker 1: two arms. He held an imposition on her finger at
33:21
Speaker 1: the proper time, and as she was a remarkably pretty girl,
33:25
Speaker 1: he took good care to exercise his privilege of kissing
33:29
Speaker 1: her at the close. Arriving in Honolulu, he proceeded to
33:33
Speaker 1: write up the sugar plantations and descriptions of life and
33:37
Speaker 1: character on the islands. His letters were very readable. They
33:41
Speaker 1: were mostly published in the Sacramento Union. He wrote, among
33:45
Speaker 1: other things, a most thrilling description of a burning crater
33:48
Speaker 1: some miles round, full of white and red heated crystal fire, caverns,
33:54
Speaker 1: and crimson lava. There is a touch of wondrous beauty
33:58
Speaker 1: in his picture of the Sandwich Islands, written some years after.
34:03
Speaker 1: No alien land in all the world has any deep,
34:10
Speaker 1: strong charm for me, but that one, no other land
34:16
Speaker 1: could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and
34:23
Speaker 1: waking through half a lifetime as that one has done.
34:29
Speaker 1: Other things leave me, but it abides. Other things change,
34:35
Speaker 1: but it remains the same for me. Its balmy airs
34:41
Speaker 1: are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun.
34:47
Speaker 1: The pulsing of its surf beat is in my ear.
34:53
Speaker 1: I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, It's
34:59
Speaker 1: plumy po drowsing by its shore, its remote summits floating
35:06
Speaker 1: like islands above the cloud rack. I can feel the
35:10
Speaker 1: spirit of its woodland solitudes. I can hear the plash
35:15
Speaker 1: of its brooks. In my nostrils still lives the breath
35:19
Speaker 1: of flowers that perished twenty years ago. And these world
35:25
Speaker 1: wanderers who sit before us here have lately looked upon
35:29
Speaker 1: these things, and with eyes of flesh, not the unsatisfying
35:35
Speaker 1: vision of the spirit, I envy them that the climate
35:41
Speaker 1: of Hawaii soon restored him to perfect health, and after
35:45
Speaker 1: an absence of two months, he returned to San Francisco
35:49
Speaker 1: with renewed spirits and with his world wide fame still
35:53
Speaker 1: before him. End of chapter three read by John Greenman