THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
MARK TWAIN
P nter and Pilot in the Fifties
:
A i-u'j'C i>;: >K:r; severed .'::
■ •:i:iv. •:■:: v:vh the printing h->u>e
::; bt! Louis, and came up "to H.t::
:;:; >.t-. and bought a weekly paper
called "The Hannibal Journal.'' to
gether with its plant and its
ivill, : ' .r the sum -f rive hundred
■ 5 >ilarsca>h. He I> »rrowed the cash
at ten per cent, interest, from ar.
'. i :t::-:'T named J<h:i->:; who
lived rive :iv.ie- nut of town. Then
!e rtriv. u?*»crij»ti«Ki price of the ;'a-»er from
«-.vu <!•'.. ■ me dollar, lie :v-iu-.v-l the rates :••:
tdvert:-:: .. : '.-ut the »ame proportion, and thus
be created ■ liute and unassailable ertainty —
tjv.it.: the business would never pay h;n: .t
single d • : •:;•. He t<»ok me "U*. ■•! vThe
tourier" : engaged my services in his •"'■'■
:■ three d>) : and a half a v.vek. v h:- h wa.- an ex :
trav.t-..: • ; but Orion was always gener«»us. al
ia v> ::•■: th everv"l*i»dy exce|)t himseli It >»>t
luru r. :h i~e; :'< >r he never " as j •.-.• t > pa}
i.ie a penu i<»ng a> 1 was with him:
Bythc • :• Srst year he f«»und he must ruu^-.:
same <.■■ ■ The office rent v <- cheap: but :".
»t>:. ■ noujjh He Li»uld not allord to pay
r^.t of . : . . . he Ri«»ved the whole pi.mt aito
Ihr hwust ■ ! :n. .i:ii it i rnn;»-l the duelling
I'Lice i r . He kept that pajier alive .i'tr:n^ four
yrj.r^>; '. ■■:■ ...•.• at this tinie :i" -.i'-t ':!••• he ac
«-»::;;.::-':: i »'Aard end of each year he had
Xj tun, .: i scrape .iii'l scratch for the fifty
«3<jilar> di • lue Mr Johhvm. and that fifty
dollars • the '.ji!v cash he ever rtM-eived or
{Miidout. I ■ hile he ivas propriet'»r <jf tliat
sit".-.-:,.- •• io' r ink and printing [«ai»er. The
paper « : : lureJ It had :. ; - that frmn
the -• -■
Final! led it over t« Mr. J ,hn*m. and
*cnt i] s^atine^ l.v.a. and acquired .1 small
batcrest n**u>pa]»ei there. It was not .<
!■:" : • . marry ••n-!>tit no matter H-
tarat* :. : inning and pretty -^irl .vh«» live i in
Ou::;, \ : .. few inilt-^ below Ke<»kuk, and
they •• .-,-.! He vvas always falling in love
v ah . • !,me;iccidentorotherhehadney^r
S'JDi- - ts fengageincnt before. And bow he
auhu- . .-i- misfortune by it. because he
stoighi fell in k»ve with a Kt--.kuk He
natrrii Kit- .kuk girl, and they tiegan :i struggle
for lift h turned out to i«- a difiicult enten»rise.
To ; living in Muscatine vva» plainly imi»os
fStAe :; ,n and his new wife ii : ent U» Keokuk to
live, i ■ anted to Ijc iic.tr ht-r rt-latives. He
bought^ ■ tfa job printing plant.-^<»n credit^
"i cwur ..ji.J at onct j.ut prices down t-> where
not •■■. • mirentices could get a lix-ing "lit of it:
And •: -■ ':' thing ivent on.
|3L.:> i.»iiied tlie Muscatine migration, ju^t
* before :. Lj»j»eiied (which 1 think was in 1853) I
disappca: ! one '.n^ht and ik-d i<» St. I^>'i^ There
I wor'. . the tximrKising V'x>m of "The Evening
Kews" : : a tinie. an'<l then on my travels
tosee ;:, rid The world war. Now V-.rk cityj and
Ibere ••;,■ World's Fair there. It had just
i>cen - lt -d r.here the '^rcat reservoir afterward
*as, su here iii<- sumptuous public library is now
beiag I :•• Fifth-aye. and 42d-st 1 arrived in
fcew V : : .• •• h two or three dollar- in pocket change
and:, tenMollar bank bill concealed in the lining <>i
ray coat. I '^..t work "at villainous wages in the
rstabli • entai |ohn A; Gray and Green on Cuff -st. 1 ;
«nd found !*riard in :i sufficiently villainous mechan
ics' boarding house on Duane-st" The firm i»a:-l my
•ages ::; wildcat money at its face value, and my
»«-k's iva^e merely s'uiheed X<> pay board and
•'J^ging. !',-. .-i,! by 1 went to Philadelphia; and
forked there w>me months as a "sub" (»n "The
bqairer" and " Th-- Public Ledger." Finally 1
•a** a flying trip t<» Washington to see the sights
ttexe, and l- 4 j ViCnt |, at t t<( the Mississippi
J^Sky. itting upright in the smoking car two or
Uate days and nights. When 1 reached St. Louis I
.n-1. 1 went to bed on board a steamboat
ir^t v ; ts bound for Muscatine. I fell a>le-p at ...we.
M my clothes on. and didn't wake again for
rarty-fiix hours.
* forked sn that little job ohice in Ker»kuk a
f^^i as two years. •■:.•■ eve: .1
■*tisij a «nt bf wages ; f<«r < ►rion vcas never able to
I*y anything; |,ut I>:-k Higham and I had good
\™^- 1 don't know what D:(k got; but it was
r^v "tily uncashable prwnisei.
'>Ik- day in the midwinter of 1856 or 1857—1
it was iH-,<,— l was coming along the mats
1. ■< ... ..•■,.■• -♦
street of Keokuk in the middle of the foren-. »n I:
va> 1 litter weather— >o bitter that that street was,
deserted, almost A light dry sn«.w iva> :.:■.- •.!!.
here and there on the ground and on the pavement
swirling thi< way, and ... all *>rt
.if beautiful figure-., but •• fry chilly :■|o >k r ih •
wind Men a :,-,■..- >i pa^r past trie, and it 1 .<igi-l
agamstawallolahou.-.e Something "about .the -1.».k
<•! it attracted m> attention, and 1 gathered it in
It was a lifty-doilar '■>■::.. the onl} one I had ever
seen, and the large*; a-»emMai;f ■ ■:" money 1 :it-l
ever. encountered in one sjk/1 1 advertised it in the
:»ai»ers and suffered more than a thousand l-.liir-'
worth of siiiicitude and fear and listres> during the
next fe\i days lest the owner •-h • i!-i >cc the .dver
tisenient and cine an.l t ike nn fortune a■■ i\ As
many a> four day* went by without an applicant;
then'l could en lure this kind ot liiLsery no longer.
I felt sure that another four i >uld not go by in this
safe and secure way I felt th.a 1 must t ike that
money oin i dan-er S-» I Si.utfht a ticket f-r Cin
cinnati, and went t<» that c:t> I worked then- sev
eral :n->nth> ::i the print hm •>::] ■■ oi Uri^ht-.n &
I- impany.
I had Ix-en reading Lieutenant Herndoii s a -
c<>unt of his explorations of the Amazon, and had
Utm -mightily attracted by what he sai<l of c«jca
: made up my mind that 1 would go to the head
waters of the Amazon an.! collect coca and trade in
it and make a fortunt; I left for New < Weans in the
steamer Paul Tone with thi- great id.-, nll:n« my
H« SM He Would Mat. I '■ ••" Oat ..: M :„: ■ Hu-dred I>oJUr.
r.ind. One of the pilots of that boat was 'J°/? c *
Bixbv Little !»v little i got acquainted with him.
and pretty soon i was doing a lot of steering for htm
in his daylight watches: When I got to Xew < Weans
I inquired about ships leaving for Purli and discov
ered that there weren't any; and learned tn it tnere
probably wouldn't be any during that century. It
had not occurred to me to inquire about the>e par
ticulars before; leaving Cincinnati: so there I was.
I couldn't to the Amazon: 1 had no mends in
New Orleans, and no money to speak of.
II Horace Bixby and asked him to make
* i pilot out of me. He said to would doat for ..
hundred dollars cash in advance: So I steered tor him
up to St. Louis. Iwrrowed the money fnmr m>
brother in law. and closed the bargain: I hud ac
quired this brother in law several year- before.
This was Mr. William A. Motfett, a merchant, a
Virginian, a fine man in every way. He had mar-
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• .It-ii i if t ini 1 1 ■ ihet • i [ • n
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Presently he moved to a wee little hiimlet cailel
Alexandria'; two or three miles down the river, .'.II i
he put up thit s:;4n there !!<• R'.»t no cust>xn H •
was by this time very hard aground But '■•'■• '''■•'•
time 1 was beginning to earn a wage ■: two hun Ire i
and fifty dollars a month as pilot; ami ■• 1 up
ported him thenceforth until tSoi, when his in ieni
friend. Edward Bates, then :i ineniivr >l Mr Lin
coln's tirst Cabinet^ got Inn; the place >: Secretiry
of the new Territory of Nevada, md i>ri«m md I
cleared for that couiitry in the overland st iijecoaoh;
1 paying the Mr.-., vh,. h were pretty he:»v"j m I
I
1 '
•in, i-i i i - 1 •■ i i>" ' ■ ' : ■
An 1 ■•• ;i; i ■. ! in-
I liction-
I- ■ ■ .;i 1;< iuii 1 md w.i
•
for :i 1 Lt did
In 1 1 i 1
. . . ■ : • ■ v Lidn'l
. . ; ...;.■ ■ ■ nes thai
■: • ■ -' '■ ter was a
T. • ■ • ■ ■ , i ,
■
■ | .-..n.- i politiei in frr>m \ev V
• m m He had ■ Kite h m :: •
: ■ -■ p ningl;
ad dee istrou ■ n eyes thai