Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

“Memories of Mark Twain” (1915)

[40] === “Memories of Mark Twain” (1915) George E. Barnes The western journalist W. W. Barnes (b. 1837) worked in Virginia City during the 1860s for the rival newspaper, the Union. He reminisced half a century later about a series of fund-raisers in Nevada in 1863–64 for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the American Red Cross, organized to assist wounded Union soldiers in the East. As Twain also recalled in chapter 45 of Roughing It (293–98), a sack of flour was repeatedly sold at auction until a total of $150,000 was raised: “This is probably the only instance on record where common family flour brought three thousand dollars a pound in the public market.” herewith are set down some hitherto unpublished incidents culled from the recollections of Mr. W. W. Barnes, of Oakland, concerning Samuel L. Clemens while the great humorist was “Roughing It” in Virginia City, Nevada . . . . Barnes met Clemens in Virginia City, Nevada, during the later years of the Civil War. Barnes was then working on the Union, while Clemens was doing his first reportorial work on the rival paper, the Enterprise. Real news was scarce in Virginia City at times in those days, and as readers of Roughing It will remember, the author frankly admits that many of his stories were fabrications. Clemens, it will be remembered, mentions the load of hay which was made to enter the town from many different directions and to encounter a wide variety of strange adventures so as to make “news” and fill space.1 . . . Mr. Barnes also well remembers the episode of the Sanitary Sack of Flour, which is a part of Nevada’s annuals. A mayoralty election was to be held near the town of Austin. A man named Gridley2 was the Republican candidate, while the Democratic candidate’s name was Beal. It was agreed between the rivals that the unsuccessful aspirant was to carry a fifty-pound sack of flour to the top of a hill near the town. Beal was elected, and Gridley cheerfully toted the sack of flour to the top of the hill, under the eyes of most of the town’s population. Having done [41] this, he proposed that the flour be sold to the highest bidder for the benefit of the National Sanitary Commission, which was the forerunner of the present International Red Cross Society. This was agreed to by all parties, and the sack of flour was sold and resold many times. It was carried about all over Nevada and California, and sold again and again. It was the means of bringing many thousands of dollars to the humane cause represented by the Sanitary Commission. When it was sold in Virginia City the employees of the rival newspapers, the Union and the Enterprise, clubbed together and started bidding against each other. There was more or less feeling between the two publications, professional , political, and otherwise, and the employees of the Enterprise were in the habit of referring to the Union crowd as “Rebels,” “Copperheads,” etc. Nevertheless, the Union boys came to the bat with a purse of $100 for the sack of flour. Clemens passed the hat in the Enterprise office and raised the Union’s bid by $50. Not to be outdone, the “Democrats” brought their bid up to $213, and carried off the prize. Incidentally, this historic sack of flour eventually came into the possession of Gridley, who first carried it up the hill at Austin. Gridley’s descendants, who live in Modesto, are said to still have this sack of flour enclosed in a buckskin bag. Something of the old rivalry between the “boys” of the Union and those of the Enterprise, in the historic days of the Comstock Lode, must still linger in the heart of one of them who, though feeble with age, yet maintains the spirit of the old days. For the old pioneer tells a story of Mark Twain which has never before seen print, and which, while a characteristic prank of the young fun-maker, and typical of the West that was all wild and very woolly, still was considered a rather coarse joke. Notes 1. Roughing It, chapter 42 (274–77). 2. Reuel Colt Gridley (1829–70), from Hannibal, wagered on the mayoral election in Austin, Nevada, probably in fall 1863. He was not a candidate for the office. George E. Barnes, “Memories of Mark Twain,” Overland Monthly 66 (September 1915): 263–65. George E. Barnes ...