Weekly Trinity journal., 1869-11-06
Mark Twain as an "Honest Miner,


AT the banquet given by the New Workers to
the California pioneers, on the evening of Octo-
Der 18th, the following characteristic letter by
Mark Twain, was read
ELMIRA, October 11th 1860
To the California Pioneers-Gentlemen: Cir
cumstances render it out Of nv power to take
advantage OF the invitation extended to me
through Dir. Simonton, and be present at your
dinner at New York. ! regret this very much,
for there are several among you whom | would
have right to join hands with on the score of
old friendship, and | suppose would have
sublime general right to shake hands with the
rest of you on the score of kinship in California
ups and downs in search of fortune. If were
10 tell some OF my experience. you would recog-
nize California blood in me | fancy the old,
old story would sound familiar, no doubt. /
have the usual stock of "reminiscences. For in
stance: | went to Esmeralda early. | pur-
chased largely in the "Wide West "Winne-
mucca," and other fine claims and was wealthy
Jared sumptuously on bread when -four was
$500 barrel and had beans for dinner every
Sunday, when none but bloated aristocrats could
afford such grandeur. But furnished my feeding
batteries in quaitz mill, at SIS a week, and
wishing was battery myself and had some
body to feed me. My claims in Esmeralda
there yet. suppose | could be persuaded to
sell. ! went TO Humboldt district when it was
new, became largely interested in the ALBA
Neuava," and other claims with gorgeous names,
and was rich again-in prospect. | owned a
vast mining property there. would not have
sold out for less than $500, 900 at that time
But will now. Finally, | walked home-two
hundred miles-partly for exercise, and partly
because stage fare was expensive. Next | en-
tered upon an afluent in Virginia City,
and by judicious investment of labor and the
capital of friends, became the of about
all the worthless wildcat mines there were in
that part of the country. Assessments did the
business for me there There were a hundred
and seventeen assessments to dividend, and
the proportion of income to outlay was little
against me. Ny financial barometer went down
to thirty-two Fahrenheit, and the subscriber
was frozen out. ! took up extensions on the
main lead-extensions that reached to British
America in one direction, and TO the Isthmus of
Panama in the other - and | verify believe |
would have been rich man if | had ever found
those internal extensions. But | didn't. | ran
tunnels till tapped the Arctic ocean, and sunk
shafts till broke through the roof of perdtion
but those extensions turned up missing every
time. am willing to sell all that property and
throw in the Improvements. Perhaps you re-
member that celebrated "North Ophir?"
bought that mine. 1t was very rich in pure sill
ver- Yor could take it out in Jumps large as
a hilbert. But when it was discovered that
those Jumps were melted half dollars, and hardly
melted at that, painful of Sailing was
apparent, and the undersigned adjourned TO the
poor-house again. paid assessments on Hale
& Norcross until they sold me out, and had to
take in washing for a living-and the next mouth
that Infamous stock went up TO 81 900 a foot.
! own millions and millions of feet of affiuent
silver leads in Nevada-in fact, | own the en-
tire undercrust of that country nearly, and if
Congress would move that State off my property
SO that could get at it, would be wealthy yet
But no, there she squats-and here am |. Fail
Jag health persuades me to sell. If you know
any one desiring permanent Investment | can
furnish him one that will have the virtue of be-
ing eternal.
have been through the California mill, with
all Its q dips, spurs and angles, variations and
sinuostieS." | have worked there at all the
different trades and professions known to the
catalouge. | have been everything, from
newspaper editor down to cowcatcher on a loco
motive, and am encouraged to believe hat if
there had been few more occupations to exper-
iment on, might have made a dazzling success
at last and found out what mysterious design
Providence had in creating me.
But you perceive that although am not
pioneer, have had a sufficient variegated time
of it to enable me to talk pioneer like a native,
and feel like forty miner. Therefore cordially
welcome you to your old remembered homes and
your long-deserted fresides and close this screed
with the sincere hope that your visit here will
be happy one, and not embttered by the sor-
rowful surprises that absence and lapse of wears
are wont TO prepare for wanderers surprises
which come in the form of old friends missed
from their places; silence where familiar voices
should be; the young grown old change and
decay everywhere; home a dilusion and disap-
pontment strangers at the hearthstone sor-
row where gladness was tears for laughter;
the melancholy pomp of death where the grace
of life had been.
With al. good wishes for the returned prodi-
gals, and regrets that cannot partake of small
piece of the fatted calf (rare and no CRAWL.
am, yours, cordially,
MARK TWAIN