Mark Twain House

Two days ago, after going to the Springfield Armory, (and seeing a lot of cool guns) we drove 45 minutes in the jeep to go to The Mark Twain House, in Hartford, CT. If you didn't already know, my 4 favorite authors are: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) and Moses - he wrote many books in The Bible. Well, Ezekiel and Daniel are good too. Not to mention David. And John. You know what, all authors of the Bible are good. So, I was pretty excited to go to his house. Little did I know that Harriet Beecher Stowe was also his neighbor. We didn't get to do them both! Stowe's closed before we got there. Oh well.

Anyway, we went in, and there was a visitor's center about Twain, featuring a bookstore, a dining room, a museum, and then the actual house of M.T. While Rebecca and Dad saw a Norman Rockwell exhibit, Mom and I looked in the museum, and learned about his life, his books, and his life books. He wrote many books on life. We learned about his business endeavors, and his childhood, his young adult life (when he traveled a lot) and his family, his wife, his kids, and his late years, as a man in the white suit. In his early years, he worked on river boat, where he learned the term "Mark Twain". So, Samuel Clemons adopted the term "Mark Twain" as a pen name, because it meant "safe water" so he thought it would be a good omen. Also, his birthday was on Haley's Comet, so his mother thought it was good luck. He died on the second come around of Haley's Comet. Kind of freaky when you think about it.

The store was cool, and before we went on the house tour, we looked around in it, and I bought an autobiography on him, and The Prince and the Pauper. I have already read, "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" "Roughing It" "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Very good books, but I think Huck, Rough, and Yankee are my favorites.

We started the tour and a nice blond named Bridget was our tour guide.

She took us out of the center, and took us along a path, leading to Sam's (I'm going to refer to M.T. as Sam, just as the tour guide did) house. It was a very interesting looking house, with red and black decorations, and had a Gothic twist. It had big windows, sharp points, but at the same time was inviting. It showed Sam's character a little.

The tour guide, Bridget, asked us if we knew why Sam was named M.T. I answered it, because I learned it in the museum. She told everyone the rules, and not taping with a video camera was one. (BUMMER!) We walked in, and straight away, I saw a bust of Sam. From the head up. Also, it was very creepy, and had a staircase that went up three floors. It had a very cool feel to it. On the right was a drawing room, where the Clemons family would talk with each other and would talk a little. The other room, the den, had more fun time in it though, less formal meetings.

We also met the family, and found out that they were very "fake rich." They lived in quite a luxury for their time. But, they didn't have the money for it.

I saw and "met" Clara, Suzie, and Jean, his three daughters, and his wife, Olivia. We got into their dining room, their den, (where Sam would use objects in the room to tell stories. ) the green room, Sam and Olivia's bedroom, the nursery, the school room, Sam's man cave (billiards and desk in it) the library, Clara's bedroom and the butler's room. It was so amazing to see where M.T. wrote his most famous works. It was interesting to see not Mark Twain's house, but the house of Samuel Clemons. Mark Twain was the man in his books, Clemons was the father, the husband, the leader. (even though he smoked 30 cigars a day!) It showed where a man with a wit and charm, not to mention good writing skills, became the man in white.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post.

"It's my idontcarea!BEEP!suit," MT

Apparently there is nothing that can't happen today,

Andrew.

(P.S. This is the 100th blog post of Bourne's Big Trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have made our goal!!!!!! NOW FOR 200!)