Year: 1873

WILL IT EE PERMANENT!


Many persons have their doubts
about the raft being kept open.
They reason from the fact that it
has been repeatedly opened and rs
often closed. That is true, but at
the same time it has travelled up the
liver some three hundred miles
since Mr.. Sibley made his report in
1905. Lieut.. Woodruff in his re-
port to the department stated that
it would take $4,000 a year for a
number of years to keep the river
open, and it is reasonable to sup
pose that Congress in making the
appropriation for the removal ofthe
raft adopted the report in whole and
will see that the necessary appro-
priations are made to keep it open.
The amount recommended is no
doubt sufficient for the purpose and
no apprehension need be felt on
that score.


1t will be remembered that at tie
last session Of Congress another
appropriation was made. This
time it was $4,000. AS Lieut..
Woodruff is over half through the
raft at this time and the first appro-
priation not yet exhausted there
will be no lack of money to finish it.


THE BENEFITS


likely to accrue from the opening
of the raft are beyond conjecture. 1t
will reclaim hundreds Of thousands
of the finest cotton lands in the
world now utterly useless, and pre-
vent the further destruction of many
valuable farms seriously threatened
by the clongation ofthe raft, besides
opening up to navigation an i'm
mense area Of country now almost
destitute of such facilities. The
people of South Western Arkansas
arc likely to be the most benefited
at this time and it is to them that
we are mainly indebted for the
last four appropriations made by
the general government.


Mark Twain's Literary Career.


A correspondent Of the Chicago
journal gives the following pleas
ant bit of gossip about man who
is doing more to make people good
natured than any other American
writer:


Samuel l.. Clemens is now occupied
with his fourth book, "John Bull"
of which he has written nearly one
third. Those who have seen the
MS. say it will be indescribably fun
ny. He looks at the native Britons
at such a variety of angles, and de-
tects them in so.many grotesque po-
sitions, that they ought to be able
to laugh at themselves as presented
by "Twain."


Clemens literary career has been
singular. 1t is not very long since
he was a Mississippi river pilot,
with no more idea of writing than
applying for the Professorship of
Dead Languages at the University
of Jena. Later, he went to the Pa
eific coast, and made local repu-
tation as contributor of humorous
sketches to the San Francisco press.
The first thing that advertised him
here was his "Jumping Frog" af-
terward bound and issued, with
other sketches, in this city, and find
ing only limited sale. After lit
tie while he came cast to embark on
the "Quaker City" with crew of
pious pilgrims. in search of classic
and theological scenes and associa-
tions. The result of his voyage, as
is we'll known, was the ''Innocents
Abroad" which, on his return, he
prepared in such qantity that nearly
half of the MS. had to be omitted to
get it within proportion of a large
subscription book.


Anybody with the least sense of
humor would suppose that very few
pages of the "Innocents" could be
read without finding a publisher.
1t was not so, however, Clemens Of
fered his MS. to a number Of pub
fishers here, in Philadelphia and
Boston, and none of them, strange
to say, could find enough in it to
warrant their giving it to the world.
He thought, as it was professedly
humorous, that the object lay in its
capacity to make people laugh, and
asserted, in his own justification,
that some such thing, scattered
through book of the kind, ought
not to be considered an insuperable
obstacle to publication. Having got
nearly through with the regular
firms, he was induced to try a Hart
ford subscription house, and sent
his copy accordingly to the Ameri
can Publishing Company.


Recognition of the merit of the
work was very slow in that quarter
Several of the leading stockholders
could sec nothing in it (what mustl
old tomb stones they must have
been) but the principal man in tho
firm carried it home one night, ano
made the remarkable discovery thai
the book was deucedly droll. Con
scquently, the "Innocents,' copious
ly illustrated, appeared in a few
months, and set both sides of tho
Atlantic laughing. 1t has sold a
the present time something ovel
$50, 900 copies, and "Roughing It
fully 100000, with q still active de
mand for both.


Hannv Daddy.