But by and by the war came, commerce was
suspended, my occupation was gone." For an inimitable account of these
days, the first twenty-one chapters of his _Life on the Mississippi_ (1883)
should be read.
"... in that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly
acquainted with about all the different types of human nature that are to
be found in fiction, biography, or history. The fact is daily borne in
upon me, that the average shore employment requires as much as forty
years to equip a man with this sort of education.... When I find a
well-drawn character in fiction or biography, I generally take a warm
personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him
before--met him on the river." [Footnote: _Life on the Mississippi_,
Chapter XVIII.]
No other work in American literature or history can take the place of this
book and of his three great stories (pp. 359-361), which bring us face to
face with life in the great Mississippi Valley in the middle of the
nineteenth century.
LIFE IN THE FAR WEST.--In 1861 he went to Nevada as private secretary to
his brother, who had been appointed secretary of that territory.
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