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Show WARK TWAIN IN THE LONG AGO. (A Thin, Scrawny Fellow When He I Was a Wheelsman In California, i Capt. Selwyn Ramsey of San Joa-Quin Joa-Quin City, Cal., claims the unique distinction dis-tinction of once having employed Mark Twain as second wheelsman at a salary of $18 a week. Capt. Ramsey Ram-sey is one of the old pioneers in California Cali-fornia river navigation. He commanded command-ed the first steam packet that ever ran up the Sacramento river, and although he is over 80 years old and hasn't been on the bridge for more than 12 years, yet he still loves to talk of the good old river days. "Yes, I used to know Sam Clemens," Clem-ens," said Capt. Ramsey to an interviewer, inter-viewer, "and he was one of the best wheelsmen I ever had. It was along in 18C8. I was on the old John "Wallace at that time, on the Sacramento river. "About the tinio I met Clemens I was pretty hard up for help. Wages were good and lots of men deserted for the mines. All the wheelsmen had to be broken In, as there were no experienced river men in the country in those days. And I was pretty glad when I heard of a young fellow who had been in a pilot house on the Mississippi. Mis-sissippi. The minute I tied up in San Francisco I went right over to the United States mint, where I got his address. As soon as I saw him at the wheel I engaged him on the spot "Mark Twain was a thin, scrawny looking fellow then, but he was a great hand making friends, and all of us liked him. I think he was on the iWallaco about five months it's so long ago that I forget the exact time. He was a straight out and out wheelsman, wheels-man, and he learned the river like a book. The country was pretty wild in those days and a man had to watch out fca- himself, bu demons gat along withie best of them." " |