M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-what?

A book about a river seems like something bland and monotonous that an Indian chief would write, assuming, obviously, that his tribe had access to a typewriter of some sort, editor, and a publishing company. In his book about a river the first chapter could be exclusively written about its beauty and the second about its usefulness to mankind. The next fifty-eight chapters could be entirely constructed of fluff. Mark Twain with his amazing ability to turn something seemingly arid and dull into something fascinating and inspiring wrote the book “Life on the Mississippi.” This apparently plotless autobiography written exclusively about the majestic Mississippi River caught my attention and curiosity. Mark Twain packs his book with clever and humors anecdotes, technical statistics and facts, satirical comments, tragic stories, Indian legends, and well explained and documented narrative of his own piloting career. All of these elements add to the fascination given to a boring subject by a truly talented writer Mark Twain.

From the beginning of the book, Mark Twain caught my attention. He immediately starts his book by stating the following: “The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable (pg. 15).” He proceeds to worship the river with statistics of its majesty, its length, width, dept, and so on. He describes its history with De Soto’s discovery in 1542 (pg. 18), sad neglect of European explorers, and finally La Salle’s exploration that lead to the river’s popularity (pg. 21). The way Mark Twain describes the river, a subject rather tiresome from an outside perspective, inspired me with his diction of admiration and his love.

Mark Twain’s almost romantic relationship to art of piloting a steamer is another inspiring aspect of his book. On page 42, he introduced the next chapters of the book with this paragraph, an example of his attitude to the “science of piloting”:

“I now come to a phase of the Mississippi River life of the flush
times of steamboating, which seems to me to warrant full examination–
the marvelous science of piloting, as displayed there.
I believe there has been nothing like it elsewhere in the world.”

Throughout the next chapters Mark Twain recounts his days as a “cub,” a pilot’s apprentice, on a steamer. Like stated in the exert, he talks of piloting as a science, something to be admired, an art. For me to explain the complexity and skill needed to pilot a steamer down the river would be for me to re-write half of his book. Under the pilot Mr. Bixby, Mark Twain, as a cub, was “learned” to be a pilot. As expressed so zealously on page 77 by Mr. Bixby when he said, “…I’ll learn him or kill him,” piloting was no easy task. Neither was explaining it and for the reason that five chapters are dedicated to explaining the memorization, ability, and dedication needed to know the river and its shape at any given point on its route at any given time, even at night. Not to mention the river also changes shapes, literally, as explained in his metaphor comparing the river to a book Mark Twain wrote “And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day. (pg. 82)” Truly, piloting a steamer down the Mississippi River wasn’t a task for everyone but only those who had a passion and dedication to life on the Mississippi.

Another fascinating aspect of the book was the humors stories Mark Twain collected throughout his years on the river. For example, he recounts a story he was told on a trip (pg. 284) about three professional gamblers and a cattle enthusiast. In a shortened version the story goes as follow: The introverted story teller was on board a steamer with a cattle enthusiast named Mr. Backus. Normally he, the narrator, would stay in his books and keep to himself during a trip but this Mr. Backus “seemed determined to be friendly with me [the narrator] (pg. 285).” Quite bluntly, they became friends throughout the voyage and talk very many times, mostly about cattle. It was rumored Mr. Backus had ten-thousand dollars on board, tempted the gamblers to a point they couldn’t resist. Almost at the end of their ride, the gamblers finally convinced poor Mr. Backus to play a little game with them. They tricked him into drinking plenty of champagne by all taking shots at once. The three gamblers would throw the “cider” over their shoulders as Mr. Backus drank the whole shot. The point was reached in the game when Mr. Backus had bet all of his money, ten thousand dollars, on his hand over one of the gamblers. The gamblers laid down four kings, a good hand, but not one that would bet four aces. With a cocked revolver pointing at his rival’s face Mr. Backus said, “I’m a professional gambler myself, and I’ve been laying for you duffers all this voyage! (pg. 291)” This is merely one of the witty stories Mark Twain has scattered throughout his book.

Even though lengthy and boring sometimes, “Life on the Mississippi” was an inspiring book. Like explained above, Mark Twain felt a special wonder and awe for the river and again a respect and honor to the “marvelous science of piloting.” The feelings expressed toward these make me want to have the same for my faith. I want others to feel the way I felt when I read about Mark Twain’s extraordinary admiration toward the majestic Mississippi, and how much more for an awesome God.