Twain’s Worl�
Common Core State Standard ELA: Reading Informational Text and Literature (6.1-10 through 12.1-10)
A Boy’s Permanent Ambition
In 1835, Samuel Clemens was born in northern Missouri, and at age four moved
with his family to the small river town of Hannibal on the western bank of the
Mississippi River. Sam’s father died when his son was 11 years old, and both Sam
and his older brother Orion had to go to work as printer’s
apprentices to help support their family.
By age 17, Sam had grown tired working at his cashstrapped brother’s local newspaper, where he was often
not paid the low wages owed to him. Sam left Hannibal
for better paying jobs as a printer, first in St. Louis, then
later in New York City. Sam eventually worked as a
printer for ten years, an invaluable experience that gave
him a deep appreciation for the descriptive power of the
English language.
However, what the future writer known as “Mark Twain”
really wanted to do ever since he had been a little boy
was to be a steamboat pilot. In his descriptive book Life on the Mississippi, “Mark
Twain” later explained why steamboatmen were so inspirational:
When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades
in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient.
When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; …now
and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to
be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a
steamboatman always remained.
Once a day, a cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis and another
downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them, the day was a dead and empty thing. Not only the boys, but
the whole village, felt this… I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it
was then: the white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer’s morning; the
streets empty, or pretty nearly so; one or two clerks sitting in front of the Water
Street stores, with their splint-bottomed chairs tilted back against the wall, chins
on breasts, hats slouched over their faces, asleep… two or three lonely little freight
piles scattered about the ‘levee’… and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the
shadow of them…
…the great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its milewide tide along, shining in the sun; the dense forest away on the other side… the
point above the town, and the point below, bounding the river-glimpse and turning it into a sort of sea, and withal a very still and brilliant and lonely one.
Presently a film of dark smoke appears above one of those remote ‘points;’
instantly a negro drayman… lifts up the cry, ‘S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin’!’ and the
Word Power
1. Find out the precise meaning of all the words underlined in this reading- can you use
each of them correctly in an original sentence of your own? How does knowing the meaning
of all the words in the reading enhance your understanding and appreciation for what Mark
Twain wrote?
2. Find a good picture of a Mississippi steamboat (try www.steamboattimes.com, especially
on the “Art Work” webpage); use it to point out the location of all the following terms:
• Texas Deck
• Hurricane Deck
• Boiler Deck
• Pilot-house
• “gingerbread”
• wheel(s)
Research
Question
• Jack staff
• forecastle
• paddle-box(es)
“Mark Twain” was Samuel Clemens’
“pen name.” What did his pen name
have to do with his life as a steamboat
pilot, and what is the precise meaning of
“mark twain?”
scene changes! The town drunkard stirs, the clerks wake up, a furious clatter of
drays follows, every house and store pours out a human contribution, and all in a
twinkling the dead town is alive and moving. Drays, carts, men, boys, all go hurrying from many quarters to a common center, the wharf.
Assembled there, the people fasten their eyes upon the coming boat as upon a
wonder they are seeing for the first time… She is long and sharp and trim and
pretty; she has two tall, fancy-topped chimneys… a fanciful pilot-house… perched
on top of the Texas deck behind them; the paddle-boxes are gorgeous with a
picture or with gilded rays above the boat’s name; the boiler deck, the hurricane
deck, and the Texas deck are fenced and ornamented with clean white railings;
there is a flag gallantly flying from the jack-staff; the furnace doors are open and
the fires glaring bravely; the upper decks are black with
passengers…
The captain stands by the big bell, calm, imposing, the envy of all… the crew are
grouped on the forecastle… and an envied deckhand stands picturesquely on the
end of it with a coil of rope in his hand; the pent steam is screaming through the
gauge-cocks, the captain lifts his hand, a bell rings, the wheels stop; then they
turn back, churning the water to foam, and the steamer is at rest.
Then such a scramble as there is to get aboard, and to get ashore, and to take in
freight and to discharge freight, all at one and the same time; and such a yelling
and cursing as the mates facilitate it all with! Ten minutes later the steamer is
under way again… After ten more minutes the town is dead again, and the town
drunkard asleep by the skids once more.
In 1857, Samuel Clemens set out to achieve his “permanent ambition,”
and became a cub pilot under the tutelage of a master steamboatman
named Horace Bixby. After two years of rigorous training, Samuel
earned his coveted pilot’s license; his life seemed fulfilled, but unfortunately for him, the Civil War ended all shipping on the river, and
once again Samuel Clemens had to find another line of work.
I mages
Maps and
If you are interested in finding out more
about the museum and its educational
programs, go to www.marktwainhouse.org
the webpage “Mississippi Basin” found on the website Steamboat Times (www.steamboattimes.com) identify all the
1 Using
major rivers that make up the “Mississippi Basin.”
and then identify all of the states of the U.S. that have one or more of these rivers on, or within its borders; using an
2 Count,
atlas, identify major U.S. cities that can be reached by a river within the Mississippi Basin.
the same website, examine the images and information on the webpages “Levee Scenes,” “Steamboat Interiors,” and
3 On“Steamboat
People,” and write a paragraph that explains the kind of work done by steamboatmen as well as the service(s)
4
5
that they provided to their customers; also assess how important these services were to the economic development of our
country.
Go to the website for the Steamboat Arabia Museum (www.1856.com) and open the webpage “Arabia’s Story” to find out
the who/what/where/when/why of the Arabia and its museum; then open the “Arabia’s Exhibits” webpage and make a list of
the kinds of cargo that the Arabia was carrying when it “hit a snag” and sank in the Missouri River;
Based on your Arabia cargo list, and on your understanding of the geographic expanse of the Mississippi Basin, write a paragraph that explains the role that the Mississippi River played in the settlement and growth of the United States.