Sundays with Mark Twain — (1883: "Life On The Mississippi" Excerpts)
Sundays with Mark Twain #90
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI (1883)
1883.3.622) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: His face turned red with passion; he made one bound, hurled me across the house with a sweep of his arm, spun the wheel down, and began to pour out a stream of vituperation upon me which lasted till he was out of breath. In the course of this speech he called me all the different kinds of hard names he could think of, and once or twice I thought he was even going to swear—but he didn’t this time. ‘Dod dern’ was the nearest he ventured to the luxury of swearing, for he had been brought up with a wholesome respect for future fire and brimstone.
Scripture: And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, ... -- Revelation 20:10
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 18; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.4.623) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: Forty of the wounded were placed upon pallets on the floor of a great public hall, and among these was Henry. There the ladies of Memphis came every day, with flowers, fruits, and dainties and delicacies of all kinds, and there they remained and nursed the wounded. All the physicians stood watches there, and all the medical students; and the rest of the town furnished money, or whatever else was wanted. And Memphis knew how to do all these things well; for many a disaster like the ‘Pennsylvania’s’ had happened near her doors, and she was experienced, above all other cities on the river, in the gracious office of the Good Samaritan.
Scripture: But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, – Luke 10:33
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 20; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.5.624) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: It was odd to come upon this thick crop of an obsolete and uncomely fashion; it was like running suddenly across a forgotten acquaintance whom you had supposed dead for a generation. The goatee extends over a wide extent of country; and is accompanied by an iron-clad belief in Adam and the biblical history of creation, which has not suffered from the assaults of the scientists.
Scripture: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. -- Genesis 1:1
Scripture: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ... And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. -- Genesis 2:7, 19
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 22; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.6.625) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: ‘What is a person to do here when he wants a drink of water?—drink this slush?’
‘Can’t you drink it?’
‘I could if I had some other water to wash it with.’
Here was a thing which had not changed; a score of years had not affected this water’s mulatto complexion in the least; a score of centuries would succeed no better, perhaps. It comes out of the turbulent, bank-caving Missouri, and every tumblerful of it holds nearly an acre of land in solution. I got this fact from the bishop of the diocese. If you will let your glass stand half an hour, you can separate the land from the water as easy as Genesis; and then you will find them both good: the one good to eat, the other good to drink. The land is very nourishing, the water is thoroughly wholesome. The one appeases hunger; the other, thirst. But the natives do not take them separately, but together, as nature mixed them. When they find an inch of mud in the bottom of a glass, they stir it up, and then take the draught as they would gruel. It is difficult for a stranger to get used to this batter, but once used to it he will prefer it to water. This is really the case. It is good for steamboating, and good to drink; but it is worthless for all other purposes, except baptizing.
Scripture: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. -- Genesis 1:7-10
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 22; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.7.626) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: Half a dozen sound-asleep steamboats where I used to see a solid mile of wide-awake ones! This was melancholy, this was woeful. The absence of the pervading and jocund steamboatman from the billiard-saloon was explained. He was absent because he is no more. His occupation is gone, his power has passed away, he is absorbed into the common herd, he grinds at the mill, a shorn Samson and inconspicuous.
Scripture: And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. -- Judges 16:16-21
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 22; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.8.627) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: The first shall be last, etc. Just two hundred years ago, the old original first and gallantest of all the foreign tourists, pioneer, head of the procession, ended his weary and tedious discovery-voyage down the solemn stretches of the great river—La Salle, whose name will last as long as the river itself shall last.
Scripture: So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. -- Matthew 20:16
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 27; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.9.628) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: You turn one of those little European rivers over to this Commission, with its hard bottom and clear water, and it would just be a holiday job for them to wall it, and pile it, and dike it, and tame it down, and boss it around, and make it go wherever they wanted it to, and stay where they put it, and do just as they said, every time. But this ain’t that kind of a river. They have started in here with big confidence, and the best intentions in the world; but they are going to get left. What does Ecclesiastes vii. 13 say? Says enough to knock their little game galley-west, don’t it? Now you look at their methods once. There at Devil’s Island, in the Upper River, they wanted the water to go one way, the water wanted to go another. So they put up a stone wall. But what does the river care for a stone wall? When it got ready, it just bulged through it.
Scripture: Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? -- Ecclesiastes 7:13
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 28; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.10.629) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: Steel-plates, Trumbull’s Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Sally from Gibraltar. Copper-plates, Moses Smiting the Rock, and Return of the Prodigal Son.
Scripture: And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. -- Numbers 20:10-13
Scripture: And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. – Luke 15:20
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 38; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.11.630) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: A negro and a white man were in the ring; everybody else outside. The cocks were brought in in sacks; and when time was called, they were taken out by the two bottle-holders, stroked, caressed, poked toward each other, and finally liberated. The big black cock plunged instantly at the little gray one and struck him on the head with his spur. The gray responded with spirit. Then the Babel of many-tongued shoutings broke out, and ceased not thenceforth.
Scripture: Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. – Genesis 11:9
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 45; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm
1883.12.631) Quote, Reference, or Allusion: On this up trip I saw a little towhead (infant island) half a mile long, which had been formed during the past nineteen years. Since there was so much time to spare that nineteen years of it could be devoted to the construction of a mere towhead, where was the use, originally, in rushing this whole globe through in six days? It is likely that if more time had been taken, in the first place, the world would have been made right, and this ceaseless improving and repairing would not be necessary now. But if you hurry a world or a house, you are nearly sure to find out by and by that you have left out a towhead, or a broom-closet, or some other little convenience, here and there, which has got to be supplied, no matter how much expense and vexation it may cost.
Scripture: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. -- Genesis 1:31
Work; Date: Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 51; 1883
Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/245/245-h/245-h.htm