Twain’s Worl�
Common Core State Standard ELA: Reading Informational Text and Literature (6.1-10 through 12.1-10)
Mark Twain - Roughing It …Said he: “I know that horse—know him well. You are a stranger, I take it, and
so you might think he was an American horse… but he is, without the shadow of
a doubt, a Genuine Mexican Plug!”
The Civil War stopped all traffic on the Mississippi River, I did not know what a Genuine Mexican Plug was, but there was something
so steamboat pilot Sam Clemens decided to go West about this man’s way of saying it that made me swear inwardly that I would own
where he found work as a reporter for a newspaper in a Genuine Mexican Plug, or die.
Virginia City, Nevada. There Clemens began to develop “Going, going—at twent—ty—four dollars…”
his popular writing style by incorporating humor and
“Twenty-seven!” I shouted in a frenzy.
the Western tradition of “tall tales” into reports on his
travels from Nevada to California, and then to Hawaii! “And sold!” said the auctioneer, and passed over the Genuine Mexican Plug to
me…
Clemens adopted the pen name “Mark Twain,” a steam-
boatman’s term that meant two fathoms of depth, suf- …certain citizens held him while I mounted him. As soon as they let go, he placed
ficient for a steamboat to clear sand bars. Twain’s first all his feet in a bunch together, lowered his back, and then suddenly arched it
real fame came with his humorous short story called: upward, and shot me straight into the air a matter of three or four feet!
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” …Then he hoisted his heels, delivering a vicious kick at the sky, and stood on his
He also launched a career as a lecturer, or “humorist,” forefeet. And then down he came… and began the original exercise of shooting
who recounted his travels in exotic Hawaii to audiences me straight up again…
across the country. …when I [came down] the Genuine Mexican Plug was
By 1872, Twain had moved East and settled with his new wife and young family in affluent not there. A California youth chased him up and caught
Hartford, Connecticut. Twain’s publisher was in Hartford, and it was he who had gotten him, and asked if he might have a ride. I granted
Twain to write his first book: The Innocents Abroad. This travelogue of Twain’s trip to him that luxury. He… got lifted into the air once
Europe and the Middle East was a great success, and the demand for another travel book but sent his spurs home as he descended, and the
spurred Twain to publish Roughing It, a lively account of his Western adventures. He filled horse darted away like a telegram… and disap-
it with funny tales about life on the frontier, such as: peared down the road toward the Washoe Valley…
I had never seen such wild, free, magnificent horsemanship… as these pictur- [as I sat, bruised head to toe] One elderly-looking
esquely-clad Mexicans, Californians and Mexicanized Americans displayed in comforter said:
Carson City streets every day. “Stranger, you’ve been taken in. Everybody in this
How they rode! Leaning just gently forward out camp knows that horse. Any child, any Injun, could
of the perpendicular, easy and nonchalant, with have told you that he’d buck; he is the very worst
broad slouch-hat brim blown square up in front, devil to buck on the continent of America… he is
and long riata swinging above the head, they a simon-pure, out-and-out, genuine d—d Mexican
swept through the town like the wind! The next plug, and an uncommon mean one at that, too…”
minute they were only a sailing puff of dust on … I made up my mind that if the auctioneer’s
the far desert… they sat up gallantly and grace- brother’s funeral took place while I was in the
fully, and seemed part of the horse… [Nevada] Territory I would postpone all other rec-
I was resolved to buy a horse. reations and attend it.
… the auctioneer came scurrying through the After a gallop of sixteen miles the Californian
plaza on a black beast that had as many humps youth and the Genuine Mexican Plug came tearing into town again… like the
and corners on him as a dromedary, and was nec- spume-spray that drives before a typhoon, and, with one final skip over a China-
essarily uncomely; but he was “going, going, at man, cast anchor in front of the “ranch.”
twenty-two!—horse, saddle and bridle at twenty- ...that same day I gave the Genuine Mexican Plug
two dollars, gentlemen!”
to a passing Arkansas emigrant whom fortune delivered into my hand. If this
…A man whom I did not know… [the auctioneer’s brother] noticed the wistful ever meets his eye, he will doubtless remember the donation.
look in my eye, and observed that that was a very remarkable horse to be going
at such a price; and added that the saddle alone was worth the money. It was a
Spanish saddle, with ponderous ‘tapidaros’…
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? How does knowing the meaning of all the words in the reading
enhance your understanding and appreciation for what Mark Twain wrote in Rouching It?
2. Go to the Virginia City Tourism Commission website: www.visitvirginiacitynv.com, and click on
“About Virginia City,” and then click on “History;” As you read, be sure to find the meaning for the
following terms:
bonanza destitute Orient Comstock (Lode) bullion
I mages Maps and
If you are interested in finding out more
about the museum and its educational
programs, go to www.marktwainhouse.org
metropolis calamities petrified tranquil devise
Write a paragraph explaining in your own words how Twain’s work as a newspaper reporter in
1 Go to the website for Eye Witness to History at www.eyewitnesstohistory.com, and look at the map described in
“Riding the Overland Stage, 1861;” list the modern-day states that Mark Twain crossed by stagecoach on his way
Virginia City had such an influence on his creativity as an author.
from St. Joseph to Carson City, and measure the distance that he traveled.
Research Question
1. What was the Comstock Lode? What was life like for those who worked to exploit the Comstock
2 Where is the Washoe Valley? Where is Lake Tahoe, and what two states bisect it? Where is Virginia City? Carson
City? Calaveras County? Yosemite National Park? What is the climate and terrain like in this region?
Lode?
2. Mark Twain used the pejorative term “Injuns” to identify the Paiutes of Nevada - who are the
Paiutes, and what is their history?
3. Mark Twain mentions a “Chinaman” in his story - why were there Chinese in the American West?
What is their history as emigrants to the United States in the 19th century?
4. What did Mark Twain mean when he said some of the cowboys he saw were “Mexicanized
Americans?” What were the Mexican influences on life in the West, especially pertaining to cowboys?
