Maria McManus, Wet Nurse

An excerpt from Autobiography of Mark Twain, volume 3. Maria McManus was Clara Clemens' wet nurse until she was weaned. In a later reference Twain wrote "give her all the beer and whisky and brandy and tobacco and green fruit and lemon-pie she might want, and turn her loose on the nursery, and have no solicitude about the results."

North America: 1895 - Skykomish to Tacoma

Mark Twain and his party complete their journey to the Pacific on this leg from Skykomish to Tacoma. The railroad terminus was Seattle followed by a steamboat ride to Tacoma. This video explores the histories of Snohomish, Index, Monroe and Everett. We ponder the loses of the native Americans with the Treaty of Point Elliot and marvel at the performance of the fast little steamboat called The Flyer of Puget Sound.

North America: 1895 - Spokane to the Cascades Switchbacks

Taking credit, or at least the money, for James Fennimore Cooper's literary offenses; Great Northern Railway equipment, club life along the journey; Harrington, Washington; the Channeled Scablands and Missoula Floods; Wilson Creek, a railway division point; Wild Horse herds in Ephrata; Packing for travel and shaving; the Rock Island Bridge, boon and bane; Wenatchee Valley, once a salmon fishery; Leavenworth and the Tumwater Canyon Route; Pullman Carbuncles.

North America: 1895 - Great Falls to Butte

Mark Twain, his wife Livy and daughter Clara, along with Major Pond and his wife take the Montana Central Railway from Great Falls, Montana to Butte, Montana. The video touches upon a number of historical events and locations along the way. The train passes Egbert Malcolm Clarke's ranch, whose death touched off one of the bloodiest massacres perpetrated by the US Army. The train travels through a Missouri River canyon that experienced a major dam failure. The video also touches on the silver mining financial bubble that burst just two years before Mark's visit.

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