登陆注册
5380500000020

第20章

LETTERS 1861-62.ON THE FRONTIER.MINING ADVENTURES.

JOURNALISTIC BEGINNINGS

Clemens went from the battle-front to Keokuk, where Orion was preparing to accept the appointment prophesied by Madame Caprell.

Orion was a stanch Unionist, and a member of Lincoln's Cabinet had offered him the secretaryship of the new Territory of Nevada.Orion had accepted, and only needed funds to carry him to his destination.

His pilot brother had the funds, and upon being appointed "private"secretary, agreed to pay both passages on the overland stage, which would bear them across the great plains from St.Jo to Carson City.

Mark Twain, in Roughing It, has described that glorious journey and the frontier life that followed it.His letters form a supplement of realism to a tale that is more or less fictitious, though marvelously true in color and background.The first bears no date, but it was written not long after their arrival, August 14, 1861.

It is not complete, but there is enough of it to give us a very fair picture of Carson City, "a wooden town; its population two thousand souls."Part of a letter to Mrs.Jane Clemens, in St.Louis:

(Date not given, but Sept, or Oct., 1861.)

MY DEAR MOTHER,--I hope you will all come out here someday.But I shan't consent to invite you, until we can receive you in style.But I guess we shall be able to do that, one of these days.I intend that Pamela shall live on Lake Bigler until she can knock a bull down with her fist--say, about three months.

"Tell everything as it is--no better, and no worse."Well, "Gold Hill" sells at $5,000 per foot, cash down; "Wild cat" isn't worth ten cents.The country is fabulously rich in gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, iron, quick silver, marble, granite, chalk, plaster of Paris, (gypsum,) thieves, murderers, desperadoes, ladies, children, lawyers, Christians, Indians, Chinamen, Spaniards, gamblers, sharpers, coyotes (pronounced Ki-yo-ties,) poets, preachers, and jackass rabbits.

I overheard a gentleman say, the other day, that it was "the d---dest country under the sun."--and that comprehensive conception I fully subscribe to.It never rains here, and the dew never falls.No flowers grow here, and no green thing gladdens the eye.The birds that fly over the land carry their provisions with them.Only the crow and the raven tarry with us.Our city lies in the midst of a desert of the purest--most unadulterated, and compromising sand--in which infernal soil nothing but that fag-end of vegetable creation, "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, except "Pulu" or "Tuler," or what ever they call it,--a species of unpoetical willow that grows on the banks of the Carson--a RIVER, 20yards wide, knee deep, and so villainously rapid and crooked, that it looks like it had wandered into the country without intending it, and had run about in a bewildered way and got lost, in its hurry to get out again before some thirsty man came along and drank it up.I said we are situated in a flat, sandy desert--true.And surrounded on all sides by such prodigious mountains, that when you gaze at them awhile,--and begin to conceive of their grandeur--and next to feel their vastness expanding your soul--and ultimately find yourself growing and swelling and spreading into a giant--I say when this point is reached, you look disdainfully down upon the insignificant village of Carson, and in that instant you are seized with a burning desire to stretch forth your hand, put the city in your pocket, and walk off with it.

As to churches, I believe they have got a Catholic one here, but like that one the New York fireman spoke of, I believe "they don't run her now:" Now, although we are surrounded by sand, the greatest part of the town is built upon what was once a very pretty grassy spot; and the 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's Canon,"(please pronounce canyon, after the manner of the natives,) there are "ranches," or farms, where they say hay grows, and grass, and beets and onions, and turnips, and other "truck" which is suitable for cows--yes, and even Irish potatoes; also, cabbage, peas and beans.

The houses are mostly frame, unplastered, but "papered" inside with flour-sacks sewed together, and the handsomer the "brand" upon the sacks is, the neater the house looks.Occasionally, you stumble on a stone house.On account of the dryness of the country, the shingles on the houses warp till they look like short joints of stove pipe split lengthwise.

(Remainder missing.)

In this letter is something of the "wild freedom of the West," which later would contribute to his fame.The spirit of the frontier--of Mark Twain--was beginning to stir him.

同类推荐
  • 佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经教迹义记

    佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经教迹义记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Vanished Messenger

    The Vanished Messenger

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 敖氏伤寒金镜录

    敖氏伤寒金镜录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 西京杂记

    西京杂记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 成唯识论述记

    成唯识论述记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 悟真集

    悟真集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生后我开起了黑店

    重生后我开起了黑店

    拿着炮灰女配剧本的司甜死了一回,表示自己已经大彻大悟、看破红尘,无心掺和男女主甜甜的恋爱,整个人只想搞钱!不过,系统出品的产品是不是太沙雕了?瘦身丝袜、防脱洗发水、养生保温杯、托福真题资料……系统:我相信你,你可以的!司甜:告辞!新文《修仙不如种树》连载中,无CP女强修仙,欢迎收藏养肥
  • 刁徒难养:仙师,快到碗里来

    刁徒难养:仙师,快到碗里来

    他是神界至高无上的幻莲神尊,冷俊强大,万人仰慕;她是天生孤煞之星,弱小卑微,人人欺辱。而她,却成了他唯一的徒弟。“师傅,一日为师,终生为夫,徒儿铭记在心。”
  • 诗格

    诗格

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 生命密码

    生命密码

    掀开未曾展现的一面,挖掘隐藏在性格深处的东西。阿拉伯数字在我们的日常生活中有着重要的沟通交流作用,其实每个稀松平常的数字背后都有什么特殊的意义?不同的人看来,大不相同。这本书通过一组生日数字分析人的个性、情感、工作、人际交往、沟通要领、情感派对、子女教育、健康状况等。通过分析了解自己,认识他人。旨在帮助你怎样与自己相处,如何与周围人和谐相处。对调整自我,调节与他人的关系提出很多指导性方法。
  • Rose in Bloom

    Rose in Bloom

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 国际危机传播

    国际危机传播

    由高晓虹和隋岩主编的《国际危机传播》结合丰富的案例,在厘清危机传播与国际危机传播的关系、剖析危机传播国际化趋势的基础上,对国际危机传播中媒介组织的社会功能、生产机制、报道策略,以及公共政策、文化在国际危机传播中的作用,进行了深入的探讨;创新性地引入修辞学和阐释学理论,对国际危机传播中的文本修辞和过度报道进行了详尽分析。国际危机此起彼伏,国际危机传播影响深远,如何临希不乱,有效地进行媒体传播,帮助各方面转“危”为“机”,是《国际危机传播》的宗旨所在。
  • Hello刁蛮千金

    Hello刁蛮千金

    她是全国五大家族之一苏家的千金,家族唯一的继承人,能文能武,不管学什么,都是一点就通,古灵精怪,冷傲不羁。他是慕容家的太子爷,只要惹到他的人都不会有好下场,偏偏她就是个例外,高冷,绝世,心高气傲,唯我独尊,两人第一次见面就势同水火,在学校偏偏还是个同桌,于是乎,“敢不敢和我比一比”“没问题,我有什么不敢的。”
  • 无限之归零

    无限之归零

    魔女教的大罪司教,司职“嫉妒”,林赁参上。
  • 把温柔藏在心底

    把温柔藏在心底

    流过的泪,受过的伤,都需要时间淡摸释然。可留在心里的,始终是那时的悸动,消逝不去,滋养成树……