MARK TWAIN AS CHIEF ENGINEER.

Evening Star, Issue 11680, 12 February 1902, Page 4

MARK TWAIN AS CHIEF ENGINEER.

Captain Thomas Bixbv, under whom Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) served &4 pilot and '' engineer" on the old Mississippi River boat Swallow, has recently beea interviewed on behalf of an American contemporary (says the. 'Mariner'). The captuin's description of " steamboating" ou the good ship Swallow, and especially her "engine," is interesting. "The Swallow had the queerest sort of engine that was ever seen," says Captain Bixby. "The cralt itself was a little shaky—it only plied between St. Louis and Cairo—being about 30ft long, with a stern wheel, ft place for freight and passengers, a pilothouse, and a place on what may be. called the pilot deck for the engine. Thafc engine went aboard when it was needed, and only then. It burnt no wood or coal, but ate a powerful sight of grass. It was a large* grey mule named Jerry, which worked a treadmill that propelled the boat. Sam Clemens —you know, his nam« of Mark Twain cauie later—was chief engineer and pilot. lie had a system of signals, and they were ingenious. By pulling a cord he could raise the head of a cabbage just out of reach of the mule. The engine would start for it and begin to walk after it, and tho boat floated majestically ou down the river or up, as the case might be. When Sam wmttd. to stop, he would pull a rope attached to the feed-box of the engine. Without intending to be personal, 1 will Bay thai Je/ry was one of liie most intelligent animals I ever met. His voice was mora on the order of a foghorn than a whistle it was too much of a baritone for the latter. When Sam wanted to whistle for a landing he hit Jerry with a stick. If he wanted, in the profane language of the river, to go ahead like ,he giro Jerry a touch of the whip."