The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-08-27
HE TAUGHT MARK
TWAIN RIVER LORE
Captain Bixby, to Whom Author
Paid for Instructions as
Pilot, Dead.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, August 10
Capt. II. E. Bixby, steamboat pilot of
the old Mississippi River days, civil
war captain and instructor of Mark
Twain in river navigation, was found
dead in bed at his home here today.
Captain Bixby was born in New York
State eighty-six years ago, and long
since retired from active life. For ten
years prior to the civil war he ran
steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, and then quit to become pilot
of gunboat in the federal fleet. which
joined in the attack on Memphis and
Vicksburg.
Although Captain Bixby's services in
the war were not extraordinarily con-
spicuous, as the instructor of Mark
Twain and the original of one of the
principal characters in Mr.. Clemens
book, ''Life on the Mississippi his
fame has been perpetuated through the
fifty years since the war. Mr.. Clemens
paid him $500, partly in cash and part
ly in real estate of doubtful value, for
the instruction, which began in 1852,
when Mr.. Clemens was seventeen years
old. Captain Bixby, according to
"Will" M. Clemens, Mark Twain's
earliest biographer, gave this descrip-
tion of his meeting with the future
author:
Gin 1852 was chief pilot on the
Paul Jones, boat that made OCCASION
al trips from Pittsburgh to New Or
leans. One day tall, angular, Hoosier-
like young fellow whose limbs. appeared
to be fastened with leather hinges en-.
tered the pilot house and in a peculiar
drawing voice, said:
g Good mawnin sir. Don't you
want to take peart young fellow and
learn him how to be a pilot''
No, sir; there's more bother
about it than it 8 worth
Il wish you would, mister. l I'M a
printer by trade, but it don't pear to
gree with me, and L IN on the way to
Central America for my health. i be-
lieve III make a tolerable good pilot,
cause l like the river
What makes you pull your words
that way7'
Il don't know, mister; you'll have
to ask my ma; she pulls hern too.
Amt there some way we can fix it
so IS you II learn me how to be pilotP
=" THE only way is for money!
How much you a-going to charge
me3'
Il ii teach you the river Tor S5UU.
90 Gee whTlTikensl 1 ain t got $500,
but I've got five lots in Keol1uk, Iowa,
and 1000 acres of land in Tennessee
that is worth two bits an acre any
time. You can have that if You want
it.
90 told him I didn't want the land,
and after talking awhile he agreed to
pay 800 in cash, $3.50 in twelve months
and the balance when he became
pilot. He was with me long time,
but occasionally took trips with other
pilots. He was always drawing out
dry jokes, but we didn' pay any at
tention to him!n'
1t was while employed on board Cap
tain Bixby's boat that Mr.. Clemens
first heard the expression, "By the
mark, twain,'' from the lookout, and
adopted the last two words as his pen
name. 1t was also with Captain Bixby
that young Clemens once had fight,
knocking his opponent down with an
iron bar, as told in "Life ON the Mis-
sissippi. -
Mark Twain himself once said of his
instruction under Captain Bixby:
"The work proved hard and discour-
aging for the youth, but he finally
reached the desired position of pilot,
and had the proud satisfaction of re-
ceiving $3.50 a month. ~