8 CHOICE BITS FROM MARK TWAIN.
Some yeais later we have the illustrious John
Morgan Twain. He came over to this country
with Columbus in 1492 as a passenger. He appears
to have been of a crusty uncomfortable disposition.
He complained of the food all the way over, and
was always threatening to go ashore unless there
was a change. He wanted fresh shad. Hardly a
day passed over his head that he did not go idling
about the ship with his nose in the air, sneering
about the commander, and saying he did not be¬
lieve Columbus knew where he was going to or
had ever been there before. The memorable cry
of "Land ho!" thrilled every heart in the ship
but his. He gazed a while through a piece of
smoked glass at the pencilled line lying on the
distant water, and then said, " Land be hanged!
It's a raft!"
When this questionable passenger came on board
the ship he brought nothing with him but an
old newspaper containing a handkerchief marked
" B. G.," one cotton sock marked " L. W C," one
woollen one marked " D. F.," and a night-shirt
marked " O. M. R." And yet during the voyage he
worried more about his " trunk," and gave himseli
more airs about it than all the rest of the passengers
put together. If the ship was " down by the head,"
and would not steer, he would go and move his
"trunk" further aft, and then watch the effect. If
Permalink: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rd15c
