The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1912-01-04
now MARK TWAIN
STARTED AS PILOT
Biographer Relates the Circum.
stances of Authors Secur-
ing First River Job.
From Harper.a Weekly.

story Of how the great humorist be-
gan his career as q Mississippi pilot.
The facts Of the story were all OBJ
tanned from Captain Horace Bixby. who
taught Mark Twain. and In 1910 was
still at the wheel. In 1857, Mark Twain
went aboard the Paul Jones.
Horace Bixby, pilot Of the Paul
Jones, then q man of 32-sun living
O9l0) and at the wheel-was looking
out over the bow at the head Of Island
No. IS, when he heard q slow. pleasant
voice say:
"'Good morning .r.
"Bixby was a clean cut, direct, court
o u man.
"'Good morning. SIR he said. briskly,
without looking around. <
"As a rule. Mr.. Bixby did not are
for visitors in the pilot house. THIS
one presently came zip and stood q
little asH osh'R %ou htm you iaiks D yoSns man
to learn the river?' he said
"The pilot glanced over his shoulder
and saw O rather slender. loose ffmbed
young fellow with q fair. girlish COM
plexion and a great tangie Of auburn
hair. IN
"I wouldn't like 1t. Cub pilots are
more trouble than they're worth. A
great deal more trouble than profit
"The applicant was not discouraged.
81 am a printer by trade he went
on in his easy. deliberate way. IT
doesn't agree with me. I thought I'd
go to South America
"Bixby Kept his eye on the river, but
a note of interest crept into hs voice.
"'What makes you pull your words
that way?' C"pulling" being h river
term for drawlng),' he asked.
1.-THE young man a taken seat on
the visitors bench.
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 n the
Of the reply amused him.
Come over and tand by the side
Of me- he said. What is you nameH
1.-The applicant told him. and the two
stood looking at the sunlit water.
Ibid you ever do any steering?
Bixby questioned.
az have steered about everything
on the river but q steamboat, ] guess
livery well; take the wheel and see
what you can do with a steamboat.
Keep her as she Steward that lower
cottonwood snag.'
"'Bixby had a sore foot and was
glad Of a little relief. He sat down on
the bench and kept a careful eye on
the course. BY and by he said:
mere Is JUST cHe way tIdt L WouIO
take a young man to learn he river;
that is, for money .t.. ...
"'What do you charge?
"'Ffve hundred dollars, n I to be
at no expense whatever
"1n those days pilots were allowed
to carry a learner, or "cub." board free.
MI. Bixby meant that he was to be at
no expense in port or for incidentals.
His terms, looked rather d~iscouraging.
az haven't got $500 in money said
Sam; I've got a lot of Tennessee land
worth rs cents ar acre; I'll give you
1000 acres Of that
"Bixby dissented. ,r
mo; / don't want any unimproved
| real estate. I have too much already
THE young man reflected upon the
amount he could probably borrow of
Pamela's husband without straining his
credit.
"rwell, then. I'll give you 800 cash
and the rest when l earn it,
Something about this young man
had won Horace Bixby's heart. His
slow, pleasant speech, his unhurried,
quiet n with the wheel, his evil
dem sincerity Of purpose-these were
| external, 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 were to begin when the pupil
had learned the river and was receiving
pilots wages.
"At ST.. Louis, Sam borrowed from
Mr.. Mofrit the funds necessary to make
up his first payment, and so concluded
his contract.
Horace Bixby was a lightning pilot
with a method of instruction as direct
n forcible as 1t vas effective. He was
a small man, hot and quick firing
though kindly, too, and gentle, when
he had blown off. After n rather
pyrotechnic misunderstanding between
them as to the manner Of acquiring
information, he said:
my boy, you must get a little MEM
orandum book, and every time I tel
| you a thing put 1t down right away
There's only one to be q pilot and
that Is to get this entire river by heart
You have to know 1t like A B c.
$50 Sam Clemens got the little book
and presently 1t fairly bristled' with
the names of towns. points, bars, is
lands, bends n reaches, but 1t made
his heart ache to think that he had only
half Of the river set down; for. as the
watches were four hours off and fouI
hours On, there were long gaps in which
he had slept.
There is but one way to account fol
the fact that the man whom the world
, knew as Mark Twain-dreamy, unprac-
teal. and Indifferent to details-eyel
persisted In acquiring knowledge like
that In h vast, the absolutely limit
less quantity necessary to Mississippi
plotting. 1t lies in the fact that he
loved the river In its every mood and
aspect and detail, and not only the
river. but a steamboat; and still more
perhaps, the freedom of the pilots life
and its prestige. Wherever he ha.
written Of the river-and in one way
or another he was always writing OF a
we feel the claim OF the bic captivity
and that It still holds him." =
When Samuel Clemens Became Marx
Twain.
Albert Bigelow Paine. In Harper's.
AS the boys of Hannibal had gathered
around to listen when Sam Clemens be-
gan to speak. so we may believe thai
the pilots in the Rooms" at st. Louis
and New Orleans laid aside Other
things when he a IN observation tC
make Oh a tale to tell. Few Of his
stories Of those days are remembered
now, and perhaps all could not be print.
ed even IL they could be recalled. Oc-
c~asionally some Of his droll yarns would
get into h papers. He may havt
written them himself. 4.
But IL he published any work in
those river days he did not acknowl,
edge 1t later-with n exception. TIL,
exception was not intended for publ
cation, either. It was a burlesqu,
written for the amusement Of his i'm
mediate friends. He has told the stor,
himself more than once, but 1t belongl
here for the reason that somewhere on