Show I Mark Twains Twain Il P Days s In Nevada I Reno Nev March 12 Sam Davis is active in his crusade against the gam gambling gambling I bling places of this town I have always been a religious per person person person son he said but owing to several facts the world has shown reluctance in accepting me as a truly strenuous gospeller In the first place I am the son of a minister and a cynical gener generation generation generation has come to accept that as a reason why I should not be he zealously religious In the next place I am con constantly constantly constantly referred to as a humorist Now as a matter of fact I am as serious minded an editor as ever cursed cur d the paper trust and as godly god and even if IC I were a humorist Is that a reason I should be considered ungodly There is one reason I admit which justifies people in supposing that I am amnot amnot amnot not a strictly moral person my broth brother er Bob is Js a magazine editor in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York But I always alwa s Bobs go going going going ing east I warned him im nothing good could come of it and andI 1 have taught my children to pray that their Uncle Bob should be shown the error of his lila way wa turn from the paths of magazine editor editorship editorship edItorship ship and seek some reputable means of earning his hU daily dally bread I went to Virginia City said Mr Davis as the new reporter there when the Comstock Constock bonanza was just opening up One of my ers was Arthur McEwen my editor was Denis McCarthy and on the staff staf of our hated rival the Enterprise were Dan Dande Dande Dande de Quille Qullie Rollin M Daggett and Char Charley Charle Charley ley le Goodwin Every person per n I have named after afterward afterward afterward ward became famous at least pretty prett well known throughout the country as did another member of that gang who left lett just before I went there Samuel Clemens Well sir they were all a brainy husky lot and every one of them thern could write a bit I tell you QU Sam Clemens tried hard to get any an or all aU of them to follow him him east but they ther the Comstock Clemens did publish a book of Dan de but their work be belonged belonged belonged longed to those bleak hills lulls just as they did A German came out there and start tart started started ed a little brewery on the eastern fringe of the town to n a place called SixMile Canyon He found that if iC he put wa water water Water ter on that sage brush land it would grow anything and he did grow a lot lotof lotof lotof of vegetables One Sunday Clemens De Dc Quille Goodwin Daggett and McCarthy set setoff setoff setoff off to take a long walk and came on the little brewery br wery and the garden Seated in the shade of the Ice house they tried the beer and found It good Then Clemens discovered the onions and climbed over the fence to get some someI I read about Mark Twain attending a plate dinners In New York these days but from what his companions have told me of the rhapsodies he ut uttered over those fresh onions they tasted better to him than any of ot the million millionaire millionaire aire al e club feeds he lie takes these days Well Wen Dan de Quille was told off of to jolly the brewer so that he would not mark down too many rounds of ot beer Daggett who could offhand talk better poetry than most poets write these days da s was told off of to jolly jony bread and butter from the brewers wife Clemens swiped onions and the party sat there all day da After that on hot summer nights they made it a habit to go to the brew brewery brewery brewery ery for supper returning to tow town n later lateras as Clemens said to call 11 on our fash ash fashionable fashIonable friends with the breaths breatha of or buz buzzards buzzards and nd otherwise refreshed and up uplifted lifted I You will understand that In those days Sam Clemens did anything on n the paper he was told to It is a settled routine in mining camp journalism to give a free tr fr e to any new enter enterprise prise When and McGee opened their new place which became the most famous saloon and gambling house heuse on the coast McCarthy told Clemens to give gie the new concern a good The firm also follow following ing I ng the mining camp custom cu had sent f fo to 0 each editorial room a case of ot as assorted s sorted liquors Clemens stood alt all the bottle bottie in a row and began studying the 1 I I labels There were many man strange for foreign foreign foreign eign names of makers maker of ot places and of contents and arid he began to chuckle over the use that he saw that he could make of them Daggett told me that he called for Clemens to go to the brew brewery brewery ery cry and finding him at work on the read the copy as It was pro produced produced produced and that Mark lark Twain never hover wrote anything funnier than that story The next day was a busy one and nd Clemens did not have a chance to 10 look at t his story until the edition was run runoff runoff I off He was a bit eager to see it too for Daggett had billed the story vory vry I handsomely about town the night be before before I fore He almost fainted when hr hp read reada I Ia a brief colorless notice of the Orm or t I and McGee Opening followed by a enumeration of the jase of ot wines and liquor The printer who set up the story de declared declared dared that only a man In th very verv middle of a mad frenzy of drunken drunkenness ness could have written the copy he hr took off the hook so to save Clemens reputation he had straightened out jut the foolish yarn I 1 have told you that those men loved the Comstock Well a silk Filk hat mining expert went out there with let Itt letters letters from the and a dozen other big people He was wag kickin from frum the time he arrived and failed on alt all sides to make a hit but Goodwin who owned the Enterprise and was an im ian important important man socially entertained the tIle at dinner He ie e had the gang all aU aUthere r rOver there Over the cigars and black coffee the silk hatter looked around him and tIen tl en said Ive really been impressed gen gentlemen gentlemen gentlemen by your views I will confess confes that I have been surprised You have talked of oC art literature the philosophers statesmen all charmingly I am compelled to ask then how in the name of heaven can you men of o sense sen c cof of Intelligence of ot refinement bear b ar the awful deadening dreary death d in Hc lire of ot living in these black barren God Clod Godforsaken Godforsaken forsaken hills lulls I ask you rou McCarthy has often told me he would give ghe a thousand dollars for a shorthand report of the speeches which followed Those men young lusty lust brainy Imaginative loved those hills lulls a as if only such men could after living among them long enough to come under the thc Influence of their rugged grandeur their mighty strength the splendid i uncompromising dignity an aloof aloofness aloofness ness of it all And besides they the like the silk hatter even before he had spoken slightingly of the mountains they loved loed Sam Clemens got enough command of oC his temper to answer him first He lie tried satire saUre on the man bein him to consider that they were simple folk foU with souls too to the beautiful to be much affected by the tile surrounding ugliness Dan De Do Quille followed with child childlike childlikE childlike like fun directed at the tenderfoot who began to got get g t wise Denis Mc McCarthy McCarthy McCarthy Carthy being Irish lost all au of ofa a I his temper and nd slammed into the now no startled guest Charlie Goodwin followed with acme seme sharp sarcasm and all the time the rage in the bosom of Rollin Daggett Dagg tt i iwas was swelling till his shirt front fairly bowed The guest gU t rose rather hastily to de depart depart depart part Daggett never spoke till the man was no longer under Goodwins Goodwin roof but followed him out under the stars tars and then suddenly burst out Damn you sir air take off oft your hat ball The man did ff fJ Now turn your our eyes ey s up to se stars nearer to man here her ter than any ary anywhere where else on earth turn your oUr eyt eyes to the top of Mount Davidson proud prou faithful lonely sentinel If f all the th ages turn your eyes over oyer there to where that fleecy drift of silver silve shows the snowcapped tops of the distant Hum Humboldt Humboldt Humboldt boldt range Well Daggett a poem sermon an hour long In which he dem deni demonstrated ted that an atom was Mount Davidson in size compared to the soul of the man who had ey to see sch such beauties yet saw them not At the end Daggett said lair Now go So home and repent The man started off with his hat still in his hand but Sam Clemens drawled out I suggest Dagg that you let the gentle genUe stranger put on his hat or hell take such a cold he wont live Uve until tomorrow to repent and if it ithe he lie repent for tor not liking our scenery hell hen go where It Is said to be even less lovely than he lle thinks this Is I I |