THE REAL TOM SAWYER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue X, 7 September 1895, Page 285

THE REAL TOM SAWYER.

NOW LIVING IN THIS CITV AND DOING BfSINESS ON MISSION STREET. Kipling had his Mulvaney and Haggard had his Quartermaiu. Both of these characters existed and performed the feats and did the things which their immortalizers gave them credit for. Mark Twain had his Tom Sawyer, but Tom, the real Tom, did nothing but meet Mark when he was about 30 years old. That Tom Sawyer, from which Mark Twain's book derives it name, is at present in this city and has lived here for a good many years. His boyhood days were not mingled with those of the writer, neither did lie go to school with the humourist. The reason Twain called his book ‘ Tom Sawyer ’ was because he was fond of the individual by that name, who keeps a small

saloon at 935, Mission-street, and decorates his walls with photographs and prints of veteran firemen and old election tickets. Just how it all occurred is best told by Tom himself: ‘ Me and Jack Mannix, who was afterwards bailiff in Judge Levy’s court, was walkin’ down MontgomeryStreet. We drifted into the capital saloon, where the Mills building now stands, and Mark caught sight of us from a window across the street in the Russ House. Well, as soon as he seen us he came down and we all went in and had a few jolts together. The result was. to be plain with you, we got full. Mark was as much sprung as I was, and in a short time we owned the city, cobble stones and all. Towards mornin' Mark sobered up a bit and we all got to tellin’ yarns. I dished up a few. Mark dished up a few, but Mannix was speechless. 'The next day I met Mark down by the old Call office. He walks up to me and puts both hands on my shoulders. “Tom,” he says, “ I'm goin’ to write a book about a boy, and the kind I have in mind was just about the toughest boy in the world. Tom, he was just such a boy as you must have been. I believe I'll call the book ‘‘Tom Sawyer.” How many copies will you take, Tom. half cash ? ’ ’That’s the way it came about, and you can bet when Mark shows up here next August he’H’ bear me out. Have a drink ?' Sawyer is now about sixty-six years of age, and speaks of Twain with that feeling which signifies the invisible bond between the old-timers and their comrades.