The Complete Novels of Mark Twain and the Complete Biography of Mark Twain (6 page)

In a word, it was the East which broadened and universalized the spirit of Mark Twain. We shall see, later on, that it steadily fostered in him a spirit of true nationalism and hardy democracy. But it was the South and the West which lavishly gave him of their most priceless riches, and thereby created in Mark Twain an unique and incomparable genius, the veritable type and embodiment of their inalienably individual life and civilization. This first phase of the life of Mark Twain has been so strongly stressed here, because the first half of his life has always seemed to me to have been a period of—shall I say?—God-appointed preparation for the most significant and lastingly permanent work of the latter half, namely, the narration of the incidents of early experience, and the imaginative reminting of the gold of that experience.

One has only to read Mark Twain's works to learn the real history of his life. There were momentous episodes in the latter half of his career; but they were concerned with his life rather than with his art. We cannot, indeed, say what or how profound is the effect of life and experience on art. There was the happy marriage, the tragic losses of wife and children. There were the associations with the culture and art circles of America and Europe—New England, New York, Berlin, Vienna, London, Glasgow; the academic degrees—Missouri, Yale; finally ancient Oxford for the first time conferring the coveted honour of its degree upon a humorist; the honours his own country delighted to bestow upon him. And there too was that gallant struggle to pay off a tremendous debt, begun at sixty—and accomplished one year sooner than he expected—after the most spectacular and remarkable lecture tour in history. The beautiful chivalric spirit of this great soul shone brightest in disaster. He insisted that it was his wife who refused to compromise his debts for forty cents on the dollar—that it was she who declared it must be dollar for dollar; and when a fund was raised by his admirers to assist in lightening his burden, that it was his wife who refused to accept it, though he was willing enough to accept it as a welcome relief.

Mark Twain possessed in the consciousness of personal responsibility for the standards, government, and ideals of his town, his city, and his country. Civic conscientiousness burned strong within him; and he fought to develop and to maintain breadth of public view and sanity of popular ideals. Blind patriotism was impossible for this great American: he exposed the shallowness of popular enthusiasms and the narrowness of rampant spread-eagleism, without regard for consequence to himself or his popularity. What a tribute to his personality that, instead of suffering, he gained in popularity by his honest and downright outspokenness! He wielded the lash of his bitter scorn and fearful irony upon the wrong-doer, the hypocrite, the fraud; and aroused public opinion to impatience with public abuse, open offence, and official discourtesy.

Mark Twain was not a “great” thinker; his views were not "advanced".  But the glory of his temperament was its splendid sanity, balance, and normality. The homeliest virtues of life were his: the republican virtue of simplicity; the domestic virtue of, personal purity and passionately simple regard for the sanctity of the marriage bond; the civic virtue of public honesty; the business virtue of stainless private honour. Mark Twain was one of the supreme literary geniuses of his time. But he was something even more than this. He was not simply a great genius: he was a great man.

By
Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

1873

THE GUILDED AGE CONTENTS

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CHAPTER I.
Squire Hawkins and His Tennessee Land—He Decides to Remove to Missouri
CHAPTER II.
He Meets With and Adopts the Boy Clay
CHAPTER III
Uncle Daniel's Apparition and PrayeR
CHAPTER IV
The Steamboat Explosion
CHAPTER V
Adoption of the Little Girl Laura—Arrival at Missouri—Reception by Colonel Beriah Sellers
CHAPTER VI
Trouble and Darkness in the Hawkins Family—Proposed Sale of the Tennessee Land
CHAPTER VII
Colonel Sellers at Home—His Wonderful Clock and Cure for Rheumatism
CHAPTER VIII
Colonel Sellers Makes Known His Magnificent Speculation Schemes and Astonishes Washington Hawkins
CHAPTER IX
Death of Judge Hawkins

CHAPTER X
Laura Hawkins Discovers a Mystery in Her Parentage and Grows Morbid Under the Village Gossip
CHAPTER XI
A Dinner with Col Sellers—Wonderful Effects of Raw Turnips
CHAPTER XII
Philip Sterling and Henry Brierly—Arrangements to Go West as Engineers
CHAPTER XIII
Rail—Road Contractors and Party Traveling—Philip and Harry form the Acquaintance of Col Sellers
CHAPTER XIV
Ruth Bolton and Her Parents
CHAPTER XV
Visitors of the Boltons—Mr Bigler "Sees the Legislature"—Ruth Bolton Commences Medical Studies
CHAPTER XVI
The Engineers Detained at St Louis—Off for Camp—Reception by Jeff
CHAPTER XVII
The Engineer Corps Arrive at Stone's Landing
CHAPTER XVIII
Laura and Her Marriage to Colonel Selby—Deserted and Returns to Hawkeye

CHAPTER XIX
Harry Brierly Infatuated With Laura and Proposes She Visit Washington
CHAPTER XX
Senator Abner Dilwortliy Visits Hawkeye—Addresses the People and Makes the Acquaintance of Laura 186
CHAPTER XXI
Ruth Bolton at Fallkill Seminary—The Montagues—Ruth Becomes Quite Gay—Alice Montague
CHAPTER XXII
Philip and Harry Visit Fallkill—Harry Does the Agreeable to Ruth
CHAPTER XXIII
Harry at Washington Lobbying For An Appropriation For Stone's Landing —Philip in New York Studying Engineering
CHAPTER XXIV
Washington and Its Sights—The Appropriation Bill Reported From the Committee and Passed
CHAPTER XXV
Energetic Movements at Stone's Landing—Everything Booming—A Grand Smash Up
CHAPTER XXVI
The Boltons—Ruth at Home—Visitors and Speculations
CHAPTER XXVII
Col Sellers Comforts His Wife With His Views on the Prospects

CHAPTER XXVIII
Visit to Headquarters in Wall Street—How Appropriations Are Obtained and Their Cost
CHAPTER XXIX
Philip's Experience With the Rail—Road Conductor—Surveys His Mining Property
CHAPTER XXX
Laura and Col Sellers Go To Washington On Invitation of Senator Dilworthy
CHAPTER XXXI
Philip and Harry at the Boltons'—Philip Seriously Injured—Ruth's First Case of Surgery
CHAPTER XXXII
Laura Becomes a Famous Belle at Washington
CHAPTER XXXIII
Society in Washington—The Antiques, the Parvenus, and the Middle Aristocracy
CHAPTER XXXIV
Grand Scheme For Disposing of the Tennessee Land—Laura and Washington Hawkins Enjoying the Reputation of Being Millionaires
CHAPTER XXXV
About Senators—Their Privileges and Habits
CHAPTER XXXVI
An Hour in a Book Store

CHAPTER XXXVII
Representative Buckstone and Laura's Strategic Coquetry
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Reception Day in Washington—Laura Again Meets Col. Selby and the Effect Upon Her
CHAPTER XXXIX
Col. Selby Visits Laura and Effects a Reconciliation
CHAPTER XL
Col. Sellers' Career in Washington—Laura's Intimacy With Col. Selby is Talked About
CHAPTER XLI
Harry Brierly Becomes Entirely Infatuated With Laura—Declares His Love and Gets Laughed At
CHAPTER XLII
How The Hon Mr Trollop Was Induced to Vote For Laura's Bill
CHAPTER XLIII
Progress of the Bill in the House
CHAPTER XLIV
Philip in Washington—Visits Laura
CHAPTER XLV
The Passage of the Bill in the House of Representatives

CHAPTER XLVI
Disappearance of Laura, and Murder of Col. Selby in New York
CHAPTER XLVII
Laura in the Tombs and Her Visitors
CHAPTER XLVIII
Mr Bolton Says Yes Again—Philip Returns to the Mines
CHAPTER XLIX
The Coal Vein Found and Lost Again—Philip and the Boltons—Elated and Then Cruelly Disappointed 443
CHAPTER L
Philip Visits Fallkill and Proposes Studying Law With Mr Montague—The Squire Invests in the Mine—Ruth Declares Her Love for Philip
CHAPTER LI
Col Sellers Enlightens Washington Hawkins on the Customs of Congress
CHAPTER LII
How Senator Dilworthy Advanced Washington's Interests
CHAPTER LIII
Senator Dilworthy Goes West to See About His Re—election—He Becomes a Shining Light
CHAPTER LIV
The Trial of Laura for Murder

CHAPTER LV
The Trial Continued—Evidence of Harry Brierly
CHAPTER LVI
The Trial Continued—Col Sellers on the Stand and Takes Advantage of the Situation
CHAPTER LVII
The Momentous Day—Startling News—Dilworthy Denounced as a Briber and Defeated—The Bill Lost in the Senate
CHAPTER LVIII
Verdict, Not Guilty !—Laura Free and Receives Propositions to Lecture—Philip back at the Mines
CHAPTER LIX
The Investigation of the Dilworthy Bribery Case and Its Results
CHAPTER LX
Laura Decides on her Course—Attempts to Lecture and Fails—Found Dead in her Chair
CHAPTER LXI
Col Sellers and Washington Hawkins Review the Situation and Leave Washington
CHAPTER LXII
Philip Discouraged—One More Effort—Finds Coal at Last
CHAPTER LXIII
Philip Leaves Ilium to see Ruth—Ruth Convalescent—Alice
APPENDIX