SERIALIZATION OF “REBEL WITH A CAUSE: MARK TWAIN’S HIDDEN MEMOIRS” -- CHAPTER 38 (of 78) - Lion by Attrition (1867)
Lion by Attrition (1867)
Chapter 38
Lion By Attrition (1867)
When I read in the papers about the upcoming pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land, I wondered if, similar to my extended working vacation in the Sandwich Islands, I might be able to parlay this into a way to explore hitherto unexplored (by me) regions, and earn a few dollars besides.
The famed pastor of Plymouth church in Brooklyn, Henry Ward Beecher, was advertised as being one of the passengers on the Quaker City’s excursion to Europe and—that which his constituents considered to be of more importance—the “Holy Land.”
Beecher’s participation ramped up interest amongst his flock. When he was at last unable or unwilling to make the trip, and backed out, many who were going mainly because of his assumed presence also removed their names from the passenger list.
That left room for others, including me, to be among the travelers accepted to be part of the floating menagerie. Although the person to whom I applied for passage later claimed that I was drunk and imitating a Baptist minister when I visited him, he nevertheless accepted my application. I had the money. That left a positive impression on him that outweighed any negative notion he may have otherwise construed about me.
EDITOR’S NOTES: Whether Twain was drunk when he applied for passage on the Quaker City excursion is probably impossible to know, but it should be noted that often people considered him to be in an inebriated state due to his slow drawling speech and rolling gait.
For example, the false impression one person had about Twain being in this state led to long-standing animosity between Twain and one of his friend’s wives (Lilian Aldrich, wife of author Thomas Bailey Aldrich), who had refused to accept him as a dinner guest, and upbraided her husband for bringing a person in such a condition into her home.
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When Henry Ward Beecher decided not to be an excursionist on the Quaker City after all, forty of his parishioners then decided that they, too, would bow out. Another “celebrity,” General Sherman, also bailed, explaining that he had Indian wars yet to wage (“Custer's Last Stand” and the hounding of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce across the northwest still lay a decade in the future). Beecher and Sherman dropping off the passenger list left Twain the most celebrated person aboard, and he was given an “upgrade” to the best passenger cabin on the ship. With a passenger capacity of 110, the Quaker City ended up carrying only sixty-five.
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Henry Ward Beecher’s brother Thomas K. Beecher was to co-perform Twain’s wedding in Elmira, New York in 1870, along with Twain’s long-time close friend, Joseph Twichell of Hartford, Connecticut. Isabella Beecher Hooker, sister of Henry and Thomas, ended up being a Hartford neighbor of the Clemens family, as was another sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Twichell was minister to an affluent community in Twain’s neighborhood. Twain referred to the “doxology-works” there in Hartford as “The Church of the Holy Speculators” (a sly reference, apparently, to “The Church of the Holy Sepulcher” which Twain visited in Europe while on the Quaker City excursion). Still, Twain considered the “gospel-sharp” Twichell, a veteran of Gettysburg, “one of the best of men, although a clergyman.”
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Blackbird Crow Raven’s “Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs” is being serialized in this space on substack every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; it is also available in its entirety from here.