Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-04-22

his boyhood days Mark Twain was just
such a boy in whom "Huckleberry Finn"
and Tom Sawyer would have delight
ed, and of whom they would have ap-
proved. His parents gave him full
range, knowing that he was well away
from the good-for-nothingness of the
town.
Hannibal offers many physical fea-
lures to delight the heart of a boy.
Lovers Leap, a steep cliff, offered great
possibilities for climbing, bird-nesting
and getting into danger. II once rolled
down it," said the author. and 1T
hurt High hills and a beautiful and
picturesque valley, added to the bot
toms of Bear creek and the great river.
made for a boy whose tastes ran to-
ward nature a perfect paradise.
When Clemens was IL years of age
his father died and he was put to
work in the village print shop, which
was owned by his brother, Orion S.
Clemens.
Wanted TO BE a pilot.
Now. the small boys along the Mis-
sissippi river had one great overshad-
owing ambition. Sometimes they mo-
mentarily allowed themselves to in
dulge in dreams of other ambitions.
but the one great one, the one that
stuck. was to become a river pilot on
one of the big steamboats, which before
the war made the river famous and
carried on the transportation for a dis
lance of more than 1000 miles. The
superhuman omniscience of the pilot,
his gentlemanly airs and his conspicu-
80 .-zs.s-. -. Al1 ,+aa ,ahAnfC n1iad
the great waterway appealed to the
younger generation and gripped young
Clemens.
After many attempts to get a position
on board a steamboat young Clemens
started out with a wild notion and no
details to explore the upper reaches Of
the river, and with this purpose in
view and only $40 in his pocket when
he arrived at New Orleans he started
life in earnest and succeeded in APP
prenticing himself to Horace Bixby, a
river pilot.
His great powers of observation, his
extensive and peculiar knowledge of
human nature and other qualifications
which combined to make him a great
writer. he says we're cultivated as a
cub" pilot. In describing the needs
of a pilot on the great river in his
work Life on the Mississippi he said;
lone cannot easily realize what a
tremendous thing 1t is to know every
trivial detail of twelve hundred miles
of river and know it with absolute eX-
actness. If you will take the longest
street in New York and travel up and
down 1t, coming its features patiently
until YOU know every house and win
dow and lamp post and big and little
sign by heart, and know them so ac-
curately hat you can instantly name
the one you are breast of when you are
set down at random in that street In
the middle of an inky black night, you
will then have a tolerable notion or the
amount and the exactness of a pilot
knowledge who carries the MISSISSIPPI
river in his head. And, then, IL yot
will go on until you know every street
crossing, the character, size and posi-
ton of the crossing stones, n ths
varying depth of mud in each of tho
numberless places, you Will have some
idea of what the pilot must know ir
order to keep a Mississippi steamer oul
of trouble. Next, If you will take hal
Of the signs in that long street, ano
change their places once a month. ane
still manage to know their new posi-
tions accurately on dark nights, anc
keep up with these repeated change
without making any mistakes, o vii
understand what is required OF a pilots
peerless memory by the tickle Missis
sippi."
The war came. commerce was sus
pended, and without an occupation
young Clemens found himself with tn
other youths joining the Confederat
or Union armies. He became a Con
federate soldier. served for two month
and then. his brother having Reen ap
pointed territorial secretary of Nevada
without salary or duties" aA Twain
put It, he went to Nevada. II wa