Roughing It · Chapter
LXXIX explained
The narrator launches a lecture tour in Nevada and California, but his adventures are interrupted by a staged highway robbery on the 'divide' between Virginia City and Gold Hill.
What happens
The narrator launches a lecture tour in Nevada and California, but his adventures are interrupted by a staged highway robbery on the 'divide' between Virginia City and Gold Hill. The 'robbers' are friends playing a practical joke, though the narrator is genuinely frightened and later falls ill from the cold exposure. He returns to San Francisco, then travels home via the Isthmus of Panama during a cholera outbreak, and eventually joins the Quaker City European Excursion. The chapter concludes with a moral: if you are of no account, go away from home and work.
Themes in this chapter
Humor and Exaggeration
The entire staged robbery is a practical joke, and the narrator's exaggerated fear and comic dialogue highlight Twain's characteristic humor.
Violence and Desperadoism
The chapter references real stagecoach robberies and the dangerous reputation of the 'divide,' underscoring the lawlessness of the frontier.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Lectures in Virginia City and Gold Hill, is robbed by friends in a practical joke, falls ill, and returns home.
- Sugarfoot Mike
Acts as the narrator's agent on the lecture tour and is in on the practical joke robbery.
Key passages
“I launched out as a lecturer, now, with great boldness. I had the field all to myself, for public lectures were almost an unknown commodity in the Pacific market.”
The narrator began lecturing confidently, as public lectures were rare in the Pacific region at that time.
Twain's first lecture tour in Nevada and California.
“The 'divide' was high, unoccupied ground, between the towns, the scene of twenty midnight murders and a hundred robberies.”
The desolate stretch between Virginia City and Gold Hill was infamous for its history of violence and crime.
Twain emphasizes the dangerous reputation of the 'divide.'
“Now this whole thing was a practical joke, and the robbers were personal friends of ours in disguise, and twenty more lay hidden within ten feet of us during the whole operation, listening.”
The robbery was a hoax; the 'highwaymen' were actually the narrator's friends, with many more hidden nearby watching.
Twain reveals the staged nature of the robbery.
“Thus, after seven years of vicissitudes, ended a 'pleasure trip' to the silver mines of Nevada which had originally been intended to occupy only three months.”
What was meant to be a three-month trip to Nevada's silver mines turned into seven years of adventures.
Twain reflects on the unexpected length of his journey.
“The moral of it is this: If you are of any account, stay at home and make your way by faithful diligence; but if you are 'no account,' go away from home, and then you will have to work, whether you want to or not.”
The lesson is that capable people should stay home and work hard, while those who are useless should leave home so they are forced to work.
Twain's concluding moral about work and travel.