Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-03-11
MARX TWAIN.
A Good story hat Lost a Good CIai'n
 i'm tIne DtUgfnS.
From the New York Tribune ]

A Good story hat Lost a Good CIaf,n i i'm tI,e Dtgsins.
 From the New York Tribune.]
 1 "Mark Twain's narrow escape from
 becoming n pocket miner has never been
 told. It is worth recording, as 1t gave
 him the story of the dumping Frog,
 and sent hun off along the line 'f the i literary lode, and set him to searching
 therein for "pockets" of fun. In 1865
 Mark, weary of Bohemian life ill Sln
 Francisco, went up into the mining re-
 eions of Tuolumne county to rustlcat-
 with some old friends, Steve, Jim aIId
 1 illy Giliis Jim Gillis was and Is one
 of the most expert pocket miners of California. Although educate d with a
 view of eventually fighting the battle of
 life as physician. and though stl find- ing a solace in his leisure moments in
 the works of Latin and Greek authors
 that repose on their shelves in theIr
 cabin, he is booked for life as a pocket
 mner. The business has charms for
 him that bind him to 1t ill chams ol
 Co,d-chalns that bnd more firmly an
 iron or steel. Show him Il paItic. of
 quartz gold on the side of a mountain,
 and, if 1t came to where It was found
 through the processes of accidents of na
 ture, undistuI bed in any way by the in-
 telference of man, he will as unerrngly
 trace it to it's golden source as the bee
 hunter will follow the bee to its hoard of
 sweets.
 Mark Twain found the Bohemian style
 of mining practiced by the Gil.is brothers
 to be very attractive. He and Jim Gillis
 took to the hills ill search of golden
 pockets, and. 4saent some days h hunt fling for the undisturbe3 trail of an un-
 discovered deposit. Finsiy they struck
 a golden bee-line. They wele two or
 three days ill following It up, as It WAS
 necessary to carry each sample of dirt
 considerable distance to small stream
 in the bed of g canyon in order to pan 1t
 out. Each step made sure by golden
 grains, they at last came to the pocket.
 It was cold, dresry, drlzzling day when
 the home deposit WAS found. The first
 samples carried to the stream and
 washed yielded but few cents. Al.
 though the right vein had been discov-
 cred, they had as yet found but the tail
 of the pocket. Returning to the vein
 they dug sample from a new place, and
 were about to carry 1t down the ravinc
 and test it, when the rain bega to pour
 down heavily, and Mark, with chatter
 i. teeth, declared he would remain no
 longer.
 He said there was no sense in freezing
 to death, as in day or two, when 1t WAS bright and warm, they could return and pursue their investigations III Comfort. Yielding to M..rG's eutreaties. backed as they were by his blue nose, bumped
 back and generally miserable and de- , iected appearance, JIm emptied the sack of dirt upon the gruund, nrst hay 1, ing written and posted up notice of
 their claim to 8 certain number of feet on the vein, winch notice would be go,d for thirty days. Angles amp being at no great distance, while theIr cabin was some miles away, Mark and Jim struck
 out for that place. The only hotel in
 the little mining camp was kept by Coon Drayton, an old Mississippi r1ver pilot, and at his house the half-drOwned pocket miners found shelter. Mark hay lng for some yeats followed the business of pilot on the Mississippi, he and Coon were soon great friends and swapped scores of warns. It continued to ram
 for three days, and, until the weather clt ared up, Mark and Jun remained at Coon's hotel.
 Among the yarns told Mark by Coon was that of the dumping Frog" and 1t struck him us being so comical that he determined to write 1t up in good
 shape, and, when he returned to the Giil;s cabin, Mark Set to work upon 1t. He also wrote some sketches of life ill the mines for the San Francisco MCrn- l inq CdU. Mark did not think as much { of the frog story alter 1t had received the finishing touches as he did when he first heard it. He gave some other sketches the preference, and sent them ! 70 the Gull and other papers. Steve Z iillis, however, declared It WAS the best hing lie had written, and advised him save and publish it in hook of l sketches u ut was talked of A literary turn having thus been given to the , thoughts of the inmates of the Gillis cabin, a month passed without return to the bus ness of pocket mining. ? While the days were passed by Mark and his friends in discussing the m rits of the dumping Frog other pros pectors were not idle. A trio of Austrian ! mirers who were out i'll s"arch of gold ',nring quartz happen d upon the spot |, where Mark and Jim had dug into tueir edge. It was but a few days alter they Lad retreated from the spot Tn the our ing rain. The Austrian prospec; ors - were not little astonished at seeing the ground literally glittering with told. WhaIe the dirt emptied from the sack had b-en dissolved and washed away by the rain lay some three ounces Of hlight 10 quartz gold. The Austrlans were not d Iong in gathering this, but the speedy d discovery of the notice forbade their ,t delving into the deposit whence it came. -e They could only wait and watch and .s pray in the hop, that the parties who ,s put up the notice would not return while "a it still held good The sun that rose on ,o the morning of the day after the Tw fin- I Gi,lis notice expired saw the AuStrians ii pose e-si1n of the ground, with mo- m tice of their own conspicuously and de- F. tiantly posted. The new owners cleaned ,e out the pocket, obtaining little over IF $7,500 in few days. Had Mark Twain's n backbone held out little longer the 10 -ack of dirt would have been washed # and the grand discovery made. He m would not then have gone to Angles m Camp, and would never have heard or gr written mp the story of Jumping as Frog "-the story which gave him his n first ''b ost" Ill the literary world 1r Had Mark found that gold he would h. have settled down aS a pocket miner. ld He would never have gwen up ths |, :hase, and to this day, when gray as $ c- Da, ger, he would have been pounding c,. quartz as Jim Gillis' "parI" in tut a Sierra Nevada mountains.
 r. Russian Moves.