In his days in the Nevada Territory, Twainunderstood the lobbying process. In hisAutobiography, he describes how as a legislativecorrespondent for the Virginia City Enterprise, he was ableto help his brother, Orion:
Orion was…very popular with the members of the legislature…He easily held the belt for honesty in that country but it didn’t do him any good in a pecuniary way because he had no talent for either persuading or scaring legislators. But I was differently situated. I was there every day in the legislature to distribute compliment and censure…and spread the same over half a page of the Enterprise every morning; consequently I was an influence. I got the Legislature to pass a law requiring every corporation doing business in the Territory torecord its charter in full, without skipping a word,in a record to be kept by the Secretary of theTerritory — my brother. All the charters wereframed in exactly the same words. For this recordservice he was authorized to charge forty cents afolio of one hundred words for making the record; five dollars for furnishing a certificate of eachreacord, and so on…Very well, we prospered. Therecord service paid an average of one thousanddollars a month in gold.
In Washington, in 1867, Twain was still trying to helphis brother, this time, without success, to be appointedCommissioner of Patents.
Together with another journalist, William Swinton,Twain claimed to have been the founder of the syndicatedcolumn:
We had twelve journals on our list; they were all weeklies, all obscure and poor and all scattered far away among the back settlements. It was a proud thing for these little newspapers to have a Washington correspondent and a fortunate thing for us that they felt in that way about it. Each of the twelve took two letters a week from us, at a dollar per letter; each of us wrote one letter per week and sent off six duplicates of it to these benefactors, thus acquiring twenty- four dollars a week to live on, which was all we needed in our cheap and humble quarters. Twenty-four dollars a week would really have been riches to us if we hadn’t had to support that jug [Swinton’s fondness for Scotch]; because of the jug we were always sailing pretty close to the wind…
Twain lobbied hard to get himself appointed Postmasterof San Francisco, thinking that “in case I got it I couldperform its duties by Deputy, & then, in receipt of alarge salary & perquisites, I could give myself upexclusively to scribbling.” He secured the backing of theCalifornia, Nevada, and Oregon delegations as well as thatof Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field.. When hediscovered simultaneously that the job would not only betime consuming but also paid only $4,000 a year, he backeddown.
Another scheme Twain thought of was going to China as part of a diplomatic mission. He wrote his friend, AnsonBurlingame, former U.S. Ambassador to China: “Don’t neglector refuse to keep a gorgeous secretaryship or a highinterpretership for me in your great embassy…”
At last, Twain realized that what he really wanted todo was to devote more time to writing his book. So he cutback on journalism and patronage, asked his publisher for a$1,000 advance, and left Washington, “this city of shabbyfurniture and shabby food,” in March 1868, without aregret. Some years later, in his first novel, The GildedAge, co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner, heremembered Washington this way:
Everybody attached to himself an exaggerated importance, from the fact of being at the national capital, the center of political influence, the fountain of patronage, preferment, jobs, and opportunities…There was always some exciting topic at the Capitol, or some huge slander was rising up like a miasmatic exhalation from the Potomac, threatening to settle no one knew exactly where.
He carried with him a lasting contempt for allpoliticians, especially the Congressman, “the trivialestdistinction for fullgrown man.” In spite of Twain’sunkind remarks about legislators — “It could probably beshown by facts and figures that there is no distinctlynative American criminal class except Congress” — Sen.William Stewart remembered his wayward staffer in a morekindly fashion: “I was confident that he would come to nogood end, but I have heard of him from time to time sincethen, and I understand that he has settled down and becomerespectable.”
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In November 1867, Mark Twain was hired by William M.Stewart, first Senator from Nevada, as his personalsecretary. The salary was six dollars a day. Twain, nostranger to political perks, thought the appointment couldbe made “one of the best paying berths in Washington.”
In his Reminiscences, published forty yearslater, Stewart described Twain’s first visit :
I was seated at my window one morning when a very disreputable-looking person slouched into the room. He was arrayed in a seedy suit, which hung upon his lean frame in bunches with no style worth mentioning. A sheaf of scraggy black hair leaked out of a battered slouch hat, like stuffing from an ancient Colonial sofa, and an evil-smelling cigar butt, very much frazzled, protruded from the corner of his mouth. He had a very sinister appearance.
Sam and Bill Stewart had first met in the Nevada Territory in 1861.When he came to Washington in the fall of 1867, Twainwas broke and looking for a place to stay while he worked ona book. He had spent five months as a correspondentsatirizing a group of pious, middle-class tourists travelingthroughout Europe and the Holy Land on the steamshipQuaker City. His hilarious newspaper accounts of the excursion had been enthusiastically received. When hereturned, he found several offers to expand his columns intobook form. This compilation, which did not appear until1869, was to become his first published book, InnocentsAbroad.
Stewart considered Twain’s material “bully,” andproposed, “I’ll appoint you my clerk at the Senate, and youcan live on the salary.” At the time, Stewart was living ina rooming house at 224 F St, at the corner of 14th St.,opposite the old Ebbitt House, while his family was inParis. He invited Twain to make himself at home: “There’sa little hall bedroom across the way where you can sleep,and you can write your book in here. Help yourself to thewhiskey and cigars, and wade in.”
Twain took the Senator at his word but soon alienatedhim by tormenting their genteel Southern landlady, lurchingaround pretending to be drunk, and smoking cigars in bed. Certain that the house would burn down, she appealed toStewart. He warned Twain, “If you don’t stop annoying thislittle lady, I’ll give you a sound thrashing — I’ll waittill that book’s finished. I don’t want to interfere withliterature — I’ll thrash you after it’s finished.”