MARK TWAIN AS TRAVELER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12538, 30 August 1926, Page 2

MARK TWAIN AS TRAVELER

A BURNING WANDERLUST WHEN HE MET PILOT BIXBY. When Samuel L. Clemens was 17 be was filled with a burning wanderlust. Ho asked his mother for odol that lie might start out to see the world. This was promptly refused, so Samuel defiantly announced that he would go anyhow. One stormy night ho left his home iu Hannibal, Missouri, and went to St. Louis. From there he worked his way to New' York, Philadelphia. Washington, and then back to the home of his brother in Muscatine, lowa, who gave him a position in his little job printing office. But Samuel was not content. His travels had broadened the boy's vision. One snowy evening in the winter of 185(5, while going along tho street- from work, Samuel noticed a piece of paper which had been blown against the wall by the wind. He investigated and found that it was a oOdol bill. He advertised his find in the newspapers for days. Then, ns no one claimed it, he went to Cincinnati, as he said, “to take that money out of danger.” From Cincinnati Samuel took passage for New f Orleans on an ancient tub called the Paul Jones, and it wn6 on this trip that ho met the pilot Morare Bixhy. In relating tho incident, Bixby said : “l was chief pilot on the Paul Jones, a boat that made occasional trips from Pittsburg to New Orleans. One day a tall, angular, lioosier-like young fellow, whose limbs appeared to bo fastened with leather hinges, entered the pilot-house and in a peculiar drawling ■voice said : “ ‘Good mawnin*. sir: didn't you want to take er piort young follow and teach ’im how to bo cr pilot?* “ ‘No, sir; there is more bother alwvut it than it’s worth.’ “ ‘T wish yon would, mister. I'm er printer bv trade, but it dosn't ’pear t<» 'gree with me. and Fin on my way to

Central America for my health. I believe I’ll make a tolerable good pilot, ’cause I like the river.’ “ What makes you pull your word® that way?’ I asked. “ ‘I don’t know, mister; you’ll have to ask my raa. She pulls hern, too. But ain’t there some way we can fix it so that you can teach me how to be a pilot?’ “ ‘The only way is for money. PH teach you for 500d01.* “‘Gee! I ain’t got 500dol. But I’ve got five lots in Keokok and 2000 acres of land in Tennessee that is worth two bits an acre any time. Yon can have that if you want it.* “It was finally agreed that he should pay me 100 dol (borrowed from his brother-in-law), loOdol in twelve months, and the balance when he became a pilot.” For nearly three years Clemens sailed the river. Then came the Civil War, and the occupation of pilot for the time being was gone, but tho lessons of the river were in after years revealed in his “Life on the Mississippi*’ and “Huckleberry Finn.” At last, however, the supreme desiro iof his life was about to be realised, and he was to make a trip around the world. This trip not only gave him a chance to visit different countries, but enabled him to study his fellowbeings and to get under the skin of things, a habit which always made hit writing picturesque, and gave it a human touch.