Show f HARK TWAIN AS A REPORTER His Pen Name When He Began i Newspaper Work Was Josh San Francisco Call Mr Clemens first nen name when he commenced I I to write for Joe Goodmans Territorial i I Enterprise in Virginia City Nevo about I 1S63 as correspondent from Esmeralda district where he mined for a living j was Josh The fun and humor that < I bubbled up in his letters tickled the Washoeites and made the paper sought after They sent for him and he came I gladly relinquishing the pick and shovel and the windlass and the bucket for the journalists pen Mr Clemens came to Virginia City dressed in the usual garb of a miner well worn at that and demeaned himself with all a miners degree I freedom He had also in a greater gree than subsequently the exceptional drawl in his speech which he cpose to i consider one factor in the sum of his distinctive individuality He took readily I read-ily to reporting the varying fortunes I of the mining community and strengthened i strength-ened the writing force on the Enterprise I Enter-prise materially while at the same I I time availing himself of legitimate opportunities op-portunities to acquire feet in the j Comstock and shares in different outlying out-lying mines He was accounted quite rich in this kind of property at onetime f one-time With liberal remuneration for his work his personal appearance rapidly rap-idly improved and he grew to be a swell In a mild way besides cleaner in speech a well as in dress Becoming dissatisfied with his penname pen-name of Josh he changed i to Mark Twain by whch at the present day he Is known In the literature of the world About 1864 Mr Clemens came to San Francisco I cannot be said he made many friends in Nevada There were I some who affected his company ac I count of his writings < hut he had not the faculty of winnig friendship Before i I I Be-fore he arrived in the city he had accumulated ac-cumulated as before stated a good deal of money every stiver of which I he sank in Hale Norcross Then he took up the burden of literary life again He wrote San Francisco letters to his old paper the Territorial Enterprise En-terprise and for some real or fancied cause attacked the local police so persistently per-sistently and fiercely that Martin G J Bourke who was chief of the force at the time brought a suit for libel against the paper Such envenomed communications a Mr Clemens wrote on this subject have rarely been penned They made the official equanimity equan-imity of the old city hall boil like a cauldron of asphaltum the fume and I stench being in proportion He also contributed for Charley Webb Indigo In-digo to the Californian for the Golden I Gol-den Era and did all sorts of literary work whereby he could turn a cent I was a terrible uphill business and a less determined man than himself would have abandoned the struggle and remained at the base Mr Clemens was at Steamboat Springs Nev for his health when the letter written offering of-fering him a place on the Call He came down shortly after but judging judg-ing from his appearance fortune had been playing scurvy tricks with him in the interim Without doing the gentleman gen-tleman any injustice It can be freely stated that although at the time a good general writer and correspondent he made but an indifferent reporter He only played at itemizing Considering his experience in tne mountains he had an inexplicable aversion to walking and in putting his matter on paper he was to use his own expression slower than the wrath 1 to come Many funny and characteristic i character-istic Incidents i occurred durInghis few I months stay on the Call He only wanted to remain long enough he said when he engaged to go to work to make a stake but leaving his purse was no heavier than when he came The most notable thing he did that can now be recalled was a philippic philip-pic against some undertaking employees employ-ees whher the morgue happened to be for theateadlnouse in those days like Ifceold fasSloned plan with the coun tryvschepp injstress and the villagers rKaj lxiarded round and each under liipker afoornrnodatirts corqner in turn It appears someone about the place refused to give Mr Clemens Qn formation or to let him see the slate and next morninghe got such a dose commencing These body snatchers that a general apology was immediately immedi-ately made by every man in the establishment es-tablishment The proprietor was east at the time but when he read the article he shivered as he confessed afterward af-terward and considered his business ruined Mr Clemens parted from the Call people on the most friendly terms when it was found necessary to make the local department more efficient admitting ad-mitting his reportorial shortcomings and expressing surprise that they were not sooner discovered |