The Autobiography of Mark Twain · Chapter
Thursday, March 29, 1906 explained
Twain recounts Orion's early legal career and financial struggles, his own apprenticeship under Mr.
What happens
Twain recounts Orion's early legal career and financial struggles, his own apprenticeship under Mr. Ament, the potato cooking incident with Emperor Wilhelm II, Orion's failed newspaper ventures and marriages, and Twain's own travels to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and back to the Mississippi Valley.
Themes in this chapter
Family and Domestic Life
Twain details the financial struggles and familial support after his father's death, including Orion's support of the family and his own apprenticeship.
Social Class and Inequality
Describes the poverty of the apprentices, the exploitation of slave labor, and the precariousness of small-town newspaper publishing.
Memory and Autobiography
Twain reflects on his early life, correcting his own errors in recollection, and weaves personal anecdotes into a broader narrative.
Characters to notice
- Mark Twain
Narrates his early life as a printer's apprentice, pilot, and traveler; recalls supporting Orion and his own adventures.
- Orion Clemens
Struggles as a lawyer and newspaper publisher; marries and moves to Keokuk; supported by Twain.
- Horace Bixby
Trains Twain as a pilot on the Mississippi.
- Jane Lampton Clemens
Supported by Orion and Pamela after Twain's father's death.
- Henry H. Rogers
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
- William Dean Howells
Not directly mentioned in this chapter.
Key passages
“He never got a case, in those days, nor even an applicant, although he was quite willing to transact law business for nothing and furnish the stationery himself.”
Orion had no clients despite offering free legal services and providing his own paper.
Highlights Orion's early career failure.
“I was only about half as big as Ament, consequently his shirts gave me the uncomfortable sense of living in a circus tent, and I had to turn up his pants to my ears to make them short enough.”
Twain was so small that Ament's hand-me-down clothes were comically oversized.
Illustrates the poverty and humor of Twain's apprenticeship.
“She quite well understood that by the customs of slaveholding communities it was Wales's right to make love to that girl if he wanted to.”
The slave mother knew that under slavery, Wales could freely court her daughter.
Reveals the social norms of slavery and racial hierarchy.
“I made a joyful exclamation of welcome over the potato, addressing my remark to the Emperor at my side without waiting for him to take the first innings.”
Twain impulsively praised the potato before the Emperor could speak, causing a scandal.
Anecdote about Twain's faux pas at a dinner with Wilhelm II.