The Letters Of Mark Twain, Volume 1, 1853-1866

e battle-front to Ke

he appointment prophe

onist, and a member of

aryship of the new Ter

needed funds to carry

the funds, and upon be

ay both passages on th

the great plains from

g It, has described th

t followed it. His le

that is more or les

lor and background. Th

t long after their ar

t there is enough of i

, "a wooden town; its

ul

to Mrs. Jane Clem

n, but Sept, o

e can receive you in style. But I guess we shall be able to do that, one of these days. I intend that

as it is-no bette

sage-brush," ventures to grow. If you will take a Lilliputian cedar tree for a model, and build a dozen imitations of it with the stiffest article of telegraph wire-set them one foot apart and then try to walk through them, you'll understand (provided the floor is covered 12 inches deep with sand,) what it is to wander through a sage-brush desert. When crushed, sage brush emits an odor which isn't exactly magnolia and equally isn't exactly polecat but is a sort of compromise between the two. It looks a good deal like grease-wood, and is the ugliest plant that was ever conceived of. It is gray in color. On the plains, sage-brush and grease-wood grow about twice as large as the common geranium-and in my opinion they are a very good substitute for that useless vegetable. Grease-wood is a perfect-most perfect imitation in miniature of a live oak tree-barring the color of it. As to the other fruits and flowers of the country, there ain't any, ex

he streams of pure water that used to poke about it in rural sloth and solitude, now pass through on dusty streets and gladden the hearts of men by reminding them that there is at least something here that hath its prototype among the homes they left behind them. And up "King'

"brand" upon the sacks is, the neater the house looks. Occasionally, you stumble on a stone house. On account of the d

nder m

thing of the "wild fre

e to his fame. The sp

as beginning

etary work for him to

s profit in studying

sources. He was not i

d John Kinney he mad

located a timber cl

sed to build a fence a

ent of camp-life to co

dering through the sta

lake in a boat left t

ush house, but they d

es, "It never occurre

uilt to hold the groun

wish to s

rious time, when their

heir claim. His next

missing, desc

Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mr

d somewhat unsafe position (for there was no one within six miles of us,) rendered the scene very impressive. Occasionally, one of us would remove his pipe from his mouth and say, "Superb! magnificent! Beautiful! but-by the Lord God Almighty, if we attempt to sleep in this little patch tonight, we'll never live till morning! for if we don't burn up, we'll certainly suffocate." But he was persuaded to sit up until we felt prett

and ruminate awhile.-Then he would draw a long sigh, and say: "Well-could any Billygoat have scaled that place without breaking his -- --- neck?" And I would reply, "No,-I don't think he could." "No-you don't think he could-" (mimicking me,) "Why don't you curse the infernal place? You know you want to.-I do, and will curse the -- --- thieving country as long as I live." Then we would toil on in silence for awhile. Finally I told him-"Well, John, what if we don't find our way out of this today-we'll know all about the country when we do get out." "Oh stuff-I know enough-and too much about the d--d villainous locality already." Finally, we reached the camp. But as we brought no provisions with us, the first subject that presented itself to us was, how to get back. John swore he wouldn't walk back, so we rolled a drift log apiece into the Lake, and set about making paddles, intending to straddle the logs and paddle ourselves back home sometime or other. But the Lake objected-got stormy, and we had to give it up. So we set out for the only ho

band my very best wishes, and-I may not be here-but wherever I am on that nig

other cabin and fence, and get everything into satisfactory t

promises, but I believe if John would give him a thousand dollars and send him out here he wou

nd it reminded me very forcibly of them. It brought Ella Creel and Belle across the Desert too in an instant, for they sang the song in Orion's yard the first time I ever he

the youn

A

foregoing letter to

s. He was beginn

h his brother Orion,

mp, probably at a

t no exciting prosp

us the size of this

st, however, still

on Lake Bigler (Ta

of it again af

ffett, in

TY, Oct.

comes here himself. We have now got about 1,650 feet of mining ground-and if it proves good, Mr. Moffett's name will go in-if not, I can get "feet" for him in the Spring which will be good. You see, Pamela, the trouble does not consist in getting mining ground-for that is plenty enough-but the money to work it with after you get it is the mischief. When I was in Esmeralda, a young fellow gave me fifty feet in the "Black Warrior"-an unprospected claim. The other day he wrote me that he had gone down eight feet on the ledge, and found it eight feet thick-and pretty good rock, too. He said he could take out rock now if there were a mill to crush it-but the mills are all engaged (there are only four of them) so, if I were willing, he would suspend work until Spring. I wrote him to let it alone at present-because, you see, in the Spring I can go down myself and help him look after it. There will then be twenty mills there. Orion and I have confidence enough in this country to think that if the war will let us alone we can make Mr. Moffett rich without its ever costing him a cent of money or particle of troubl

rove him ahead of me till within four miles of town-then we sent Rice on ahead. Bunker, (whose horse was in good condition,) undertook, to lead mine, and I followed after him. Darkness shut him out from my view in less than a minute, and within the next minute I lost the road and got to wandering in the sage brush. I would find the road occasionally and then lose it again in a minute or so. I got to Carson about nine o'clock, at night, b

must get rid of that propensity for tumbling down, though, for when we get fair

ry for Cousin Jim to live in. I don't believe it would take him six months to make $100,000

s in my life, but I'll never be one again. I always intend to be so situated (un

send. We have received half a dozen or more, and, next

ftener,

Br

A

tioned in this lette

olonel Sellers. Wh

usin Jim Lampton's

s to have respecte

ths pass until we h

e mining fever had

was full of the Sel

low, fortify as he

e enough encourag

inter, he made a mi

ldt region, returnin

hard experience.

ribed in Chapters

is set down his

aphy.' Harper

ldt in his next le

s his

ens and Mrs. Moff

ITY, Feb

in California, for that is the Garden of Eden reproduced-but you shall never live in Nevada; and secondly, none of you, save Mr. Moffett, shall ever cross the Plains. If you were only going to Pike's Peak, a little matter of 700 miles from St. Jo, you might take the coach, and I wouldn't say a word. But I consider it over 2,000 miles from St. Jo to Carson, and the first 6 or 800 miles is mere Fourth of July, compared to the balance of the route. But Lord bless you, a man enjoys every foot of it. If you ever come here or to California,

here, and I have had a talk with him. He owns with me in the "Horatio and Derby" ledge. He says our tunnel is in 52 feet, and a small stream of water has been struck, which bids fair to become a "big thing" by the time the ledge is reached-sufficient to supply a mill. Now, if you knew anything of the value of water, here; you would perceive, at a glance that if the water should amount to 50 or 100 inches, we wouldn't care whether school kept or not. If the ledge should prove to be

terously developed-who are endowed with an uncongealable sanguine temperament-who never feel concerned about the price of corn-and who cannot, by any possibility, discover any but the bright side of a picture-are very apt to go to extremes, and exaggerate with 40-horse microscopic power? Of course I never tried to raise these suspicions in your mind, but then your knowledge of the fact that some people's poor frail human nature is a sort of crazy institution anyhow, ought to have suggested them to you. Now, i

ight lexic

such word

ll pro

ns" across the plains. Because I am down on that arrangement. That sort of thing

n hundred feet down the side of a mountain. Why bless you, there's scenery on that route. You can stand on some of those noble peaks and see Jerusalem and the Holy Land. And you can start a boulder, and send it tearing up the earth and crashing over

dollars! But you can easily fix him. You tell him that you'll build a quartz mill on his property, and make him a fourth or a third, or half owner in said mill in consideration of the privilege of using said property-and that will bring him to his milk in a jiffy. So he spits on his hands, and goes in again with his axe, until the mill is finished, when lo! out pops the quondam wood-chopper, arrayed in purple and fine linen, and prepared to deal in bank-stock, or bet on the races, or take government loans, with an air, as to the amount, of the most don't care a-d--dest unconcern that you can conceive of. By George, if I just had a thousand dollars-I'd be all right! Now there's the "Horatio," for instance. There are five or six shareholders in it, and I know I could buy half of their interests at, say $20 per foot, now that flour is worth $50

nfernal trains to go through?" Well,

itory, that he would come here-and look sadly around, awhile, and then get homesick and go back to hell again. But I hardly believe it, you know. I am saying, mind you, that Margaret wouldn't like the country, perhaps-nor the devil either, for that matter, or any other man but I like

ve any. Now they raised a yell here in front of the office a moment ago. I put away my papers, and locked up everything of value, and changed my boots, and pulled off my coat, and went and got a bucket of wat

know Dan Haines. Mrs. A. once tried to embarrass me in the presence of company by asking me to name her baby, when she was well aware that I didn't know the sex of that Phenomenon. But I told her to call it Fran

nd loose. And I don't remember having heard him speak the truth since we have been in Nevada. He even tries to prevail upon me to do these things, Ma, but I wasn't brought up in that way, you know. You showed the public what you could do in that line when you raised

. e

A

headed for the Esmeral

ished there in a camp

ps (Raish). Later he c

of Aurora, became kno

and, still later, with

would one day be ded

s time, and Orion, wi

he financial par

ife there in the Esmer

s nothing to do, and

no letters until April

re he seems to be maki

tempt to be light-he

hat of a d

e Clemens,

TY, April

t was strange that while her ma and her grandma and her uncle Orion could understand anything in the world, I was so dull that I couldn't understand the "ea-siest thing?" And doesn't she remember that finally a light broke in upon me and I said it was all right-that I knew old Moses himself-and that he kept a clothing store in Market Street? And then she went to her ma and said she didn't know what would become of her uncle

t week of a room on first floor of a fire-proof brick-rent, eighteen hundred dollars a year.

first lesson in the musket drill. We had half a dozen mus

bellish my person for many a day-for I do hope that I

to

Respe

A

tter was his sister Pa

would be the wife of C

tner. "Dick" the reade

k printing-office; he

at Fort

meralda when the next

ctures of that cheerle

alternate hopes and

er one day soaring on

, irritable, profane.

d vanish almost at a

anescence of

ers here will best sp

. It is perhaps unnece

nal humor in t

emens, in C

, 13th Ap

ians. They had a pitched battle with the savages some fifty miles from the fort, in which Scott (sheriff) and another man was killed. This was the day before the soldiers came up with them. I mean Noble's men, and those under Cols. Evans and Mayfield, from Los Angeles. Evans assumed the chief command-and next morning t

ll in the snow. Shall begin on it within 3 or 4 weeks-strike the ledg

l I get the deed. Send it along-by mail- d--n the Express- have to pay three times for all express matter; once in Carson and

y while trying to defend a claim on

a d--n-except Clayton's-and it

r $50-by mail

rown away-shan't re-locate it. It is nothing but bed-rock croppings-too much work to find the l

r" under

"Red Bird" are

several ledges, but refused all but t

, subject to my call. I go to work to-morrow, with pick and s

good opinion or anybody's else, in keeping your office in a shanty. Says put Gov. Nye in your place and he would have a stylish office, and no objections would ever be made, either. When old Col. Youngs talks this

f those black portfolios-by the stage, and put a

, don't forget to break open the middle drawer and take out my things.

any money home. I shall have your next quarter's salary spent before you get

r

A

in the opening para

e trouble concernin

and Nevada. The t

asional bloodshed.

re were few enoug

eep track of the mu

re the gold-hunters

lly in the snow. It

letter, for much

years, and is mere

writer's heart, an

nshaken. Later he

ith justice or not

lowns, in

A, May 1

ave got to wait six weeks, anyhow, for a dividend, maybe longer-but that it will come there is no shadow of a doubt, I have got the thing sifted down to a dead moral certainty. I own one-eighth of the new "Monitor Ledge, Clemens Company," and money can't buy a foot of it; because I know it to contain our fortune. The ledge is six feet wide, and one needs no glass to see gold and silver in it. Ph

feet in the C. T. Rice's Company!" Well, I am glad you did not

all our earthly wishes satisfied, so far as money is concerned-and the more "feet" we have, the more anxiety we must bear-therefore, why not say "No-d--n your 'prospects,' I wait on a sure thing-and a man is less tha

, as sure as fate. I would hate to swap chances with any member of the "tribe"-in fact, I am so lost to all sense and reason as to be capable of refusing to trade "Flyaway" (

I have struck my tent in Esmeralda, and I care for no mines but those which I can superintend myself. I am a cit

n town for ten times that amount today, but I shall probably hold onto it till the cows come home. I shall work the "Monitor" and the other claims with my own hands. I prospected of a pound of "M," yesterday, and Raish reduced it with the b

ions, and one good-sized bedroom and adjoining it a kitchen, neither of which latter can be entered by anybody but yourself-and finally, when one of the ledges begins to pay, the whole to be kept in parlor order by two likely contrabands at big wages,

press isn't. They charge 25 cts to express a letter from here, but I

hat it resembles the Monitor-but, come to think, a man can tell absolutely nothing about that without seeing both ledges themselves. I tried to break a handsome chunk from a huge piece of my darling Monitor which we brought from the croppings yesterday, but it all splintered up, and I send you the scraps. I call that "choice"-any d--d fo

t it was, unless, perhaps, that I want a sum of mo

p a line to the "Age" occasionally. I supp

.

A

health, but she could improve it by coming to

deserves his "posish." They have done a reckless thing, though, in putting Sam Bowen on

of those envelopes, pe

was for his brother

dly Government refus

the miners, with g

suite "superbly carpe

contrabands"-that is

ys believed in expa

other, though also m

ise in the matter of o

s it tu

acquiring "feet" on h

east, seems to hav

enda

rs mentioned we shall

emens, in C

Sunday, M

ks as if it did. If that is a ledge, and you own 200 feet in it, why, it's a big thing-and I have nothing more to say. If you have actua

particular vein must be at least an inch wide, jud

e your specimen-said Bagley brought it, and asked me if it were cinnabar. I examined it by the waning daylight, and

yesterday, all prepared, we prospected the "Mountain House." I broke the specimen in two, and found it full of fine gold inside. Then we wash

hold on to the "Mountain House," for it is a "big thing." Touch it lightly, as far as money is concerned, though, for it is well to reserve the co

ouse. We two will work the ledge, and have full control, and pay all expenses. If you can spare $100 conveniently, let me have it-or $50, an

sameness in the lette

always new claims, an

tinuance, hoping to u

lue

d the one following i

f two incidents whic

It. The story as tol

have happened, rather

in the "blind lead" o

sunk in it by unfort

letters are given. T

and of sl

ter to Orion Cleme

8

r d--d country, nothing but the District Court (and there ain't any) can touch the matter, unless it assumes the shape of an infernal humbug which they call "forcible entry and detainer," and in order to br

, and work but they would do the same. I asked one of our company to take my place in the hole, whil

the shooting scrape in which Gebhart was killed the other day. The Clemens Company-all of us-hate to resort to arms in th

this letter was not

ncident. The only ment

a letter wri

r to Orion Clemens,

awhile ago. Raish and I have secured 200 out of a 400 ft. in it, which perhaps (the ledge, I mean) is a spur from the W. W.-our shaft is about 100 ft. f

was forfeited, but t

his partners were ev

days." The backgroun

all real enough, but M

er reminiscent writin

to the needs o

ummer (1862) most of

mining as a source of

s own judgment, and no

s without pract

on Clemens, i

LDA, T

gly, and part of it didn't. Concerning the letter, for instance: You have PROMISED me that

ing for owners, free of charge. I don't want any more feet, and I won't touch another foot-so you see, Orion, as far as any ledges of P

, and told the man the ground wasn't worth a d--n. He said he had been hankering after a few feet in the H. and D. for a long time, and he had got them at last, and he couldn't help thinking he had secured a good thing. We went and looked at the ledges, and both of them acknowledged that there was nothing in them but good "indications." Yet the owners in the H.

today. It snowed. It alw

ey have pretty much

d any of it here until after you have told me you hav

llen, that it wasn't as good as the croppings. He said that was true enough, but they

y Sheriff. The fact of my being in California, and out of his country, wo

ept that I shall find out all I want to k

the Rec

.

A

ng letters-the one da

er's "Enterprise Lett

the miner had followe

onal burlesque sketch

he Territorial Enterp

sent to a Keokuk pape

Jane Clemens at the t

id not always approve

hat he will do bette

in will be proud of."

racted some attention,

that might come to hi

hem to become known

came desperate, the Es

for relief. But we w

ion hi

emens, in C

A, July

ny Tom's version, though. I own 25 feet (1-16) of the 1st east ex. on it-and Johnson himself has contracted to find the ledge for 100 feet. Contract signed yesterday. But as the

gs. I owe about $45 or $50, and have got about $45 in my pocket. But how in the h-l I am going to live on something o

sts here, and it's d--d seldom they hear from this country. I can't write a specimen letter-now, at any rate-I'd rather undertake to write a Greek poem. Tell 'em the mail and express leave three times a week, and it costs from 25 to 50 cents to send letters by the blasted express. If they want

curse awhile and wait. And if I can't move the bowels of those hills this fall, I will c

.

A

rise at Virginia City

who had bought it on

boom, and from a stru

one of the most import

the coast. The sketc

r the name of "Josh"

named Barstow, in the

h" to join their staff

he idea. Among a lot o

mens, July 30th, wrot

t as local reporter fo

tten him that I will l

ossi

e told that the mine

to Virginia City, bu

ark Twain was neve

s unwillingness to sur

han one fortune in th

of the foregoing he

emens, in C

A, Aug.

it. I wrote him that I guessed I would take it, and asked him how

t is barely possible that mail facilities may prove infernally "slow" during the few weeks I expect to spend out there. But do you w

or it four months ago. So I have made out a deed for one half of all Johnny's ground and acknowledged and left in judge F. K. Becktel's hands, and if judge Turner wants it he must write to Becktel an

ow. I may want some

nt desolate appearance; the rose and the oleander have taken the place of the departed sage-bush; a rich black loam, garnished with moss, and flowers, and the greenest of grass, smiles to Heaven from the vanished sand-plains; the "endless snows" have all

waves, in so

t groves

the canary-and shudders when the gaudy-plumaged birds of the distant South sweep by him to the orange gr

ite home, but I

.

A

lize that he had gone

spective on the situ

and sometimes with H

One such is recorded i

no means of knowing

it is clear that he

n. Indeed, we gather

e among the barre

written to Mrs. Mo

CAL., Aug

ve once thought of returning home to go on the river again, and I never expect to do any more piloting at any price. My livelihood must be made in this country-and if I have to wait longer than I expected, let it be so-I have no fear of failure. You know I have extravagant hopes, for Orion tells you everything which he ought to keep to himself-but it's his nature to do that sort of thing, and I let him alone. I did think for awhile of going home this fall-but when I f

bin" together-and will continue to

in the way of washing dishes. Dan gets up first in the morning and makes a fire-and I get up last and sit by it, while he cooks breakfast. We have a cold lunch at noon, and I cook supper-very much against my will. However, one must have one good meal a day, and if I were to live on Dan's abominable cookery, I should lose my appetite, you know. Dan attended Dr. Chorpenning's funeral yesterday, and he felt as though he ought to wear a white shirt

shortly afterwards, it couldn't be had at any price-and for one month the people lived on barley, beans and beef-and nothing beside. Oh, no-we didn't luxuriate then! Perhaps not. But we

Jolly?-[a pil

Bro

A