Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-29

MARX TWAIN AS A PILOT.
He Learned TO "Pu!p Boat Eat
Didn't Know Why He pulled" His
Words.

Albert Bigelow Paine, the authorized
biographer of Mark Twain, tells the
story of how the great hutnorist be-
gan his career as a Mississippi pilot.
The facts of the story were all OBJ
tanned from Captain Horace Bixby,
who taught Mark Twain, and in 1910
was stu at the wheel. IN 1857 Mark
Twain went aboard the Paul Jones.
Horace Bixbs-. pilot Of the Paul
Jones, then man OF S2-stili living
$3.50 ana at the wheel-was looking
out over the bow at the head Of Island
No 80. when he heard a slow, pleas
ant voice say:
Good morning.
~Bixby vas clean cut, direct,
courteous man.
Good morning, sir he said, brisk
ly. without looking around.
AS a rule. MIR. Bixby Gid not care for
visitors in the pilot house. This one
presently came up and stood a little
behind him.
How would you like young man
to learn the river?' he said.
The pilot glanced over his shoulder
and saw q rather slender, looselimbea
young fellow with fair, girlish com
plexion and a great tan&le Of auburn
hair.
. I wouldn't like il. cub pilots are
more trouble than they're worth. \
great deal moro trouble than pro1it
The applicant was not discouraged
I am printer by trade he went
on, in his easy, deliberate way. 1t
doesn't agree with me. / thought I'd
GO to South America
''Bixby kept his eye on the river, but
a note of interest crept into his voice.
What makes you pull your words
that way?' (pulling being the river
term for drawling), he asked
The young man had taken q seat
ON the visitors bench.
g You'll have to ask my mother he
said, more slowly than ever. She
pulls hers, too.
pilot Bixby woke up and laughed
he had-a keen sense of humor, and the
manner OF the reply amused him.
'"'Come over and stand by the side
Of me- he said What is your name?'
The applicant told him, and the two
stood looking at the sunlit water.
Did you ever dos any steering?'
BlXby questioned.
I have steered about everything on
the river but steamboat. / guess
Very well take the wheel and see
what you can do with a steamboat.
Keep her as she Steward the lower
cottonwood snag.'
''Bixby had sore foot and was glad
of little relief. lie sat down ON the
bench and kept a careful eye ON the
course. By and by he said:
"'There is just one way that would
take young man to learn the river;
that is. for money
What do you charge
Five hundred dollars and / to be
at no expense whatever
IN those days pilots were allowed to
carry learner, or 'cnb. board free.
MIR. Bixby meant that he was to be
at no expense in port or for inciden-
tails. His terms looked rather discour-
aging.
go haven't got $500 in money said
Sam; I've got a lot of Tennessee land
worth rs cents an acre; III give you
1000 acres of that
"Bixby dissented.
No; don't want any unimproved
real estate, / have too much already
THE young man reflected upon the
amount he could probably borrow of
Pamela's husband without straining
his credit. AR
=" Well. then. I'll give you 800 cash
and the rest when / earn it,
Something about this young man
had won Horace Bixby's heart. His
slow, pleasant speech, his unhurried.
quiet manner with the wheel, his evil
dent sincerity of purpose-these were
externals, but beneath them the pilot
felt something of that quality of mind
or heart which later made the world
love Mark Twain. The terms proposed
were agreed upon. The deferred pay
ments We're to begin when the pupil
had learned the river and was re-
ceiving a pilots wages.
/ at st. Louis Sam borrowed from
Mr.. Moffet the funds necessary to