13 June 1864
This piece, Clemens' first signed publication following his move from Nevada to San Francisco at the end of May 1864, appeared on June 13 on the front page of the San Francisco Alta California. It was headed by the following preface, possibly also by Mark Twain:
A most interesting and affecting ceremony was performed on the stage of Maguire's Opera House, at 3 p. m. yesterday; a large number of gentlemen having assembled to witness the presentation of a cane to Major Perry, the beautiful and accomplished engineer, of Capt. Merritt's wrecking party, who leaves by the Constitution this morning, for the East. The cane weighs something less than twelve pounds, and might have been copied from Emperor Norton's. The presentation speech was written upon a parchment seven feet long, by three and a half feet in width, and magnificently illuminated, and while it was being read by Mark Twain, Esq., of Virginia City, the entire audience was dissolved in tears. We have, at an immense expense, secured a copy of this eloquent production, and give it to our readers verbatim.
It is reasonably certain that many prominent citizens took part in this “presentation affair”—the name usually given to those bibulous stag gatherings elaborately staged to honor a popular member of the tribe of good fellows. Although Clemens was identified in the Alta as “Mark Twain, Esq., of Virginia City,” the former “Washoe Giant” had recently been hired as a local reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call. The selection of this newcomer to preside over the occasion speaks for the reputation he had already acquired by mid-1864. His first formal public lecture was still two years in the future, but he was known in San Francisco not only as a newspaper humorist but as a resourceful master of ceremonies and the witty “governor” of the Nevada Third House. His [begin page 6] brief tribute to Major Perry exudes the self-confidence of one who knew his audience and how to win it over.
Major Edward C. Perry of New York City was a veteran of the Army of the Potomac who was trained in marine engineering. Presumably he made friends easily, for he was one of a salvage crew brought to San Francisco only a few months before to raise the steamship Aquila, which had sunk fully loaded at Hathaway's wharf during a heavy storm the night of 15 November 1863. The Aquila's cargo was the dismantled monitor Camanche, a mobile fortress assigned by the War Department to protect San Francisco against the possibility of raids by marauding Confederate warships. By late April the salvage crew had removed the Camanche piece by piece from the Aquila's hold, and soon the steamship itself was afloat. Exactly one year after the Aquila had gone down, the reassembled Camanche was launched with great fanfare. Acting as local reporter for the Call from June to October 1864, Clemens kept tabs on the rebuilding of the monitor.1
Clemens' speech served its occasion well. Possibly his memory of this debut as a speaker in San Francisco influenced his decision two years later to lecture about the Sandwich Islands in the same city.
Major Perry:—Permit me, sir, on the part of your countless friends, the noble sons of the forestⒺexplanatory note—the Diggers, the Pi-Utes, the Washoes, the Shoshones, and the numberless and nameless tribes of aborigines that roam the deserts of the Great Basin to the eastward of the snowy mountains further north—to present you this costly and beautiful cane, reared under their own eyes, and fashioned by their own inspired hands. The red men whom I represent, although visibly black from the wear and tear of out door life, from contact with the impurities of the earth, and from the absence of soap and their natural indifference to water, admire the unblemished virtue and the spotless integrity which they find in you; albeit these dusty savages are arrayed in rabbit skins and their princely blood is food for the veryⒶemendation vermin they cherish and protect, they still respect you, because your repugnance to graybacksⒺexplanatory note—either in the way of food or society—and your antipathy to the skins of wild beasts as raiment, is bold, undisguised and honest; finally, although theseⒶemendation dingy warriors see no blood upon your hands, no human bones about your neck, no scalps suspended from your belt, they behold in you a brave whom they delight to honor—for they see you, in fancy, on the war-path in the three fights on the Bull's Run field; again in the historic seven-days' struggle before Richmond; and again sweeping down the lines with McClellan,Ⓐemendation in the fire and smoke and thunder of battle at Antietam, with a wound in your leg and blood in your [begin page 8] eye! and they honor you as they would a High-you-muck-a-muckⒺexplanatory note of many tribes, with crimson blankets and a hundred squaws. I am charged to say to you, that if you will visit the campoodiesⒺexplanatory note of the nomads of the desert, you shall fare sumptuously upon crickets and grasshoppers and the fat of the land:Ⓐemendation the skin of the wild coyote shall be your bed, and the daughters of the chiefs shall serve you.
Receive the cane kindly—cherish it in memory of your savageⒶemendation friends in San Francisco, and bear in mind always the lesson it teaches: its head is formed of a human hand clasping a fish—the hand will cling to the fish through good or evil fortune, until one or the other is destroyed. And the moral it teaches is this: When you undertake a thing, stick to it through storm and sunshine; never flinch—never yield an inch—never give up—hold your grip till you bust!
You have been a citizen of San Francisco four months, Major Perry; you came to raise the Aquila, with Captain MerrittⒺexplanatory note, and you did it, and did it well—she rides at anchor in the bay. You held your grip. The consciousness of your success will be half your reward—and the other half will be duly paid in greenbacksⒺexplanatory note by the Government. Your labors finished, you are now about to leave us to-morrowⒶemendation for your old home across the seas, and we are here to bid you God speed and a safe voyage.
In the name of WinnemuccaⒺexplanatory note, War Chief of the Pi-Utes; Sioux-Sioux, Chief of the Washoes; BuckskinⒶemendation Joe, Chief of the Pitt Rivers;Ⓐemendation Buffalo Jim, Chief of the Bannocks; WashakeeⒶemendation, Grand Chief of the Shoshones; and further, in the names of the lordly chiefs of all the swarthy tribes that breathe the free air of the hills and plains of the Pacific Coast, I salute you. Behold! they stand before you—thirsty.
Mark Twain,
High-you-muck-a-muckⒶemendation.
The first printing in the San Francisco Alta California for 13 June 1864 (p. 1) is copy-text. Copy: PH from Bancroft. The text was preceded by a paragraph, possibly by Mark Twain as well, that said the Alta had “secured a copy of this eloquent production” which it gave to its readers “verbatim” (see the headnote). This “copy” was almost certainly Mark Twain's manuscript, now lost, rather than a transcription made by someone else. There are no textual notes.