The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-04-22

place as reporter on the Enterprise,
and there he worked with the late
Dan de guile. the other member of
the local STAFF until the summer of
1864. when he came to San Francisco
and found a place as reporter on The
Call. In this city he wrote few news
articles for the Enterprise and he and
Goodman remained warm personal
friends through all the years.
The routine work of a reporter in
San Francisco was not congenial to
Twain and in the fall of 1854 he left
the paper. His closest friend and
roommate here was Steve ellis, "A
printer who had set type in the Enter
prise office. and who came down to
the bay just before Twain did When
the latter quilted The Call he went up
to Jackass Hill in Tuolumne county,
where Steve ellis had two brothers.
Jim" and Billy" Gillis, who were en-
gagged in pocket mining. Twain lived
with them and another miner named
Jacob r. Stoker four months but he
could not become interested in mining
He did, however, in that short time
pick up wealth of material which he
afterward put into books, and Stoker
was the original of Dick Baker in
'Roughing It."
One rainy day he heard the outline
of The Jumping Frog in a barroom
at Angels Camp across the Stanislaus
river, the next day he wrote the story,
and that was the solid foundation of
his fame and fortune.
Jim" ellis is dead, but Steve still
lives on the summit of Jackass. hill. In
1870 Mark Twain wrote from Elmira
n. Y, to Jim" ellis, inviting them all
to his wedding, and he concluded his
letter:
l remember that old night just
as well. And somewhere among
my relics | have your remem-
brance stored away. 1t makes my
heart ache yet to call to mind some
of those days. Still. it shouldn't
for right in the depths of their
poverty and their pocket hunting
vagabOndage lay the germ of my
coming good fortune. You remem-
Der the one CLEAN of jollity that
shot across our dismal sojourn in
the rain and wind of Angels Camp.
/ mean that day we sat around the
tavern stove and heard that chap
tell about the frog and how they
filled him with shot. And you re-
member how we quoted from the
yarn and laughed over 1t there on
the hillside while you and dear old
Stoker PANIED and washed. I jot-
ted the story down in my note
book that day and would have
it was that blind. But then,
we were so hard up.
I published that story and it
became widely known in America.
India, China, England; and the
reputation it made for me has paid
me thousands of dollars since.
Four or five months ago I bought
into that Express and went heav-
lily in debt-never could have
dared to do that, Jim. if we hadn't
heard the jumping frob story that
day. Truly your friend
SAML J.. CLEMENS.
The next year Twain went to the |
Hawaiian islands for the Sacramento |
Union and from that time on his his |
tory and successes are very well |
known. More has been written of him |
and his work than of any other con- |
temporary American. He evolved from |
a jokesmith into one of the greatest |
literary figures of his time Such dis
corning critics as Andrew Lang and |
Ambrose Bierce have called him the |
foremost man of American letters. 1t |
was a long leap from The Jumping |
Frog of Calaveras" to Joan of Arc" |
but Mark Twain was more than humor- |
list and wit-he was a profound phil |
osopher with the vision of a prophet. |