Old times on the mississippi summary. LibriVox 2022-12-08

Old times on the mississippi summary Rating: 7,1/10 1579 reviews

"Old Times on the Mississippi" is a classic essay written by American author and journalist Mark Twain. The essay, which was published in 1875, reflects on Twain's experiences working as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River in the mid-19th century.

In the essay, Twain paints a vivid picture of life on the Mississippi in the days before the Civil War. He describes the challenges and dangers of piloting a steamboat through the winding, treacherous waters of the river, as well as the camaraderie and sense of adventure that existed among the pilots.

Twain also reflects on the changes he has seen on the river over the years, as technology and transportation have advanced and the steamboats that once ruled the Mississippi have been replaced by railroads and other modes of transportation.

Throughout the essay, Twain's wit and humor shine through as he tells tales of his adventures and observations on the river. His writing is evocative and nostalgiciac, and he manages to capture the spirit of the Mississippi and the people who lived and worked on its waters.

Overall, "Old Times on the Mississippi" is a delightful and thought-provoking essay that offers a glimpse into a bygone era and the culture and way of life of the people who lived and worked on the Mississippi River. It is a must-read for anyone interested in American history or the works of Mark Twain.

Mark Twain

old times on the mississippi summary

Two months of his wages would pay a preacher's salary for a year. Why, what could you want over here in the bend, then? The yawl had disappeared in the other direction. You can't see it. He said,-- "Well, taking you by-and-large, you do seem to be more different kinds of an ass than any creature I ever saw before. There was nothing generous about this fellow in his greatness. The lower river was about bank-full, and if anybody had questioned my ability to run any crossing between Cairo and New Orleans without help or instruction, I should have felt irreparably hurt. Sometimes a buoy is not laid at all, but the yawl goes ahead, hunting the best water, and the steamer follows along in its wake.

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Old Times On The Mississippi by Mark Twain

old times on the mississippi summary

It was a sore blight to find out afterwards that he was a low, vulgar, ignorant, sentimental, half-witted humbug, an untraveled native of the wilds of Illinois, who had absorbed wildcat literature and appropriated its marvels, until in time he had woven odds and ends of the mess into this yarn, and then gone on, telling it to fledgelings like me, until he had come to believe it himself. In both instances, Howells places an importance on truth. The voice of the invisible watchman called up from the hurricane deck:-- "What 's this, sir? I was sorry I hated the mate so, because it was not in young human nature not to admire him. First, the writer has a moral responsibility to tell the truth to society. When the yawl has reached the shoal place, the speed is slackened, the pilot begins to sound the depth with a pole ten or twelve feet long, and the steersman at the tiller obeys the order to "hold her up to starboard;"or "let her fall off to larboard;" 1 or "steady --steady as you go. I could not know how the lordly steamboatman scorns that sort of presumption in a mere landsman.

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Old times on the Mississippi [microform] : Twain, Mark, 1835

old times on the mississippi summary

Eventually, he achieved this role: a large part of the book deals with his training in this area, under the tutelage of an experienced pilot named Bixby. In Old Times on the Mississippi 1875 , he recalled his childhood in Hannibal with fondness. But I had to say just what I had said before. He was a nervous man, and he shuffled from one side of his wheel to the other as if the floor was hot. Just then the night watchman happened in, and was about to happen out again, when he noticed E-- and exclaimed,-- "Who is at the wheel, sir? Moreover, he said that the "pride of caste is becoming the pride of taste; but as before, it is averse to the mass of men; it consents to know them only in some conventionalized and artificial guise" 187.

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Old Times on the Mississippi by TWAIN, Mark : Free Audio : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive

old times on the mississippi summary

This is not to say that Twain does not digress from his main topic sometimes. But I hope he 'll have them often. And whenever his boat was laid up he would come home and swell around the town in his blackest and greasiest clothes, so that nobody could help remembering that he was a steamboatman; and he used all sorts of steamboat technicalities in his talk, as if he were so used to them that he forgot common people could not understand them. Have I got to learn the shape of the river according to all these five hundred thousand different ways? Tom had never jumped for the guard at all, but had plunged head-first into the river and dived under the wheel. Cross over, now, and follow along close under the reef--easy water there-- not much current. Oh blazes, there you go! Seven or eight of these days the boat spent at the wharves of St. All of a sudden, on a murky night, a light would hop up, right under our bows, almost, and an agonized voice, with the backwoods "whang" to it, would wail out: "Whar 'n the -- you goin' to! As I mentioned earlier, in discussing the The Adventures of Tom Sawyer manuscript, Twain trusted Howells's judgment in critical matters, and would make whatever changes were requested, although, in the case of the watchman section, he did so only after explaining that the section was an area of concern before the manuscript had even been sent to Howells Twain was possibly saving face? That word "old" is merely affectionate; he was not more than thirty-four.

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Old Times on the Upper Mississippi — University of Minnesota Press

old times on the mississippi summary

Second, the writer must exercise that responsibility "by discrediting what is irresponsible--the 'romantic,' the 'literary,' the 'artificial,' the merely 'artistic'" Bell 47-8. It was only about fifteen hundred miles from Cincinnati to New Orleans, where I could doubtless get a ship. One day he turned on me suddenly with this settler:-- "What is the shape of Walnut Bend? One does n't hit a rock or a solid log raft with a steamboat when he can get excused. A gray mist would tangle the head of the oldest man that ever lived. B--, uttered in soliloquy and with unction by one of our guests. Louis was gone and I was lost.

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LibriVox

old times on the mississippi summary

I said I never would come home again till I was a pilot and could come in glory. The last date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. But no; he would crowd up around a point, hugging the shore with affection, and then say: "The slack water ends here, abreast this bunch of China-trees; now we cross over. B-- said warningly through his speaking tube to the engineer:-- "Stand by, now! But I drank in his words hungrily, and with a faith that might have moved mountains if it had been applied judiciously. The Gilded Age because it was not written by Twain alone. But I resolved that I would stand by him any way. Jones's plantation such a night as this; and I hope you never will find it as long as you live.

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Old Times on the Mississippi : Mark Twain : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

old times on the mississippi summary

Presently he turned on me and said:-- "What 's the name of the first point above New Orleans? Additionally, Twain finds out that other aspects of the job are not as easy as he had previously thought. However, given the facts that Twain had grown up in a small town by the Mississippi Hannibal, Missouri , been a steamboat pilot for several years, and, by the time he put pen to paper and began writing "Old Times," been away from the river for over a decade, it is understandable to think that Twain might, in writing "Old Times," tend to be more than a bit un-Realistic. The law required all such helpless traders to keep a light burning, but it was a law that was often broken. A stalwart darkey once gave offense at a negro ball in New Orleans by putting on a good many airs. Running titles have not been preserved. Two things seemed pretty apparent to me.

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Twain, Mark, 1835

old times on the mississippi summary

It pulls the reader along by the lapels to the end. When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life; now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. Stop the starboard wheel! Bank-full is a pretty liberal stage. Clemens and Howells 49-50. Presently a film of dark smoke appears above one of those remote "points;" instantly a negro drayman, famous for his quick eye and prodigious voice, lifts up the cry, "S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'! I first wanted to be a cabin-boy, so that I could come out with a white apron on and shake a table-cloth over the side, where all my old comrades could see me; later I thought I would rather be the deck-hand who stood on the end of the stage-plank with the coil of rope in his hand, because he was particularly conspicuous. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original.

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Life on the Mississippi Summary & Study Guide

old times on the mississippi summary

It was published in 1876. Said he, "This is Six-Mile Point. Old Times on the the Mississippi has one last chapter that has nothing to do with the rest of the book. Then there 's your pitch dark night; the river is a very different shape on a pitch dark night from what it is on a starlight night. The awful crash was imminent--why did n't that villain come! In fact I hope you won't; for I want you to learn something by that experience. I wished that the boys and girls at home could see me now. When he closed the window he was empty.

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