Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (36 page)

2
(p. 37)
predestined elect:
Predestination was an important part of Calvinist theology and a central aspect of religious doctrine in the American Presbyterian churches of Twain’s youth. Those who believed they were among the “elect” could expect union with God after death, rather the everlasting damnation reserved for everyone else.

1
(p. 43)
bladder that I got at the slaughter house:
There were two slaughter-houses in Hannibal during Twain’s youth there, and during this period byproducts of the slaughtered animals, such as bladders and livers, were given away to those who asked for them.

2
(p. 49)
got “turned down,” by a succession of mere baby words:
In a school spelling bee like the one described in this passage, the winner of the previous contest would take the first position in the line, and remain in this position until he or she misspelled a word, at which point the student would fall back to the second position. Eventually, by successively misspelling more words, this student (in this case Tom Sawyer) would wind up at the end of the line.

3
(p. 49)
pewter medal:
Twain was a good speller and often won the spelling-bee medal in his boyhood; he later described it as a circular silver object the size of a large coin that one wore on a string around the neck.

1
(p. 56)
horse pistols:
These were large pistols designed to be carried in a holster on the side of a saddle.

2
(p. 56)
Black Avenger of the Spanish Main:
The phrase refers to an adventure story titled
The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main, or the Fiend of Blood
(1847); written by the American writer Ned Buntline (pseudonym of Edward Zane Carroll Judson), it was popular among boys during Twain’s youth.

3
(p. 58)
“by the book”:
The “book” from which the boys have memorized their lines is
Robin Hood and His Merry Foresters
(1840), by Joseph Cundall.

1
(p. 62)
devil-fire:
The phosphorescence referred to was produced by the combustion of decaying vegetation or other material; it was also called Saint Elmo’s fire and will-o‘-the-wisp.

1
(p. 74)
wound bled a little:
See the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:10, for the origin of the belief that a murder victim’s renewed bleeding signals that the killer is nearby.

1
(p. 76)
“Health” periodicals and phrenological frauds:
In the United States in the 1840s there were many health magazines, including journals devoted to phrenology—the popular pseudoscience of analyzing the shapes of people’s skulls for insights about their character.

2
(p. 77)
pale horse... with “hell following after”:
In the Bible, Revelations 6:8, Death is described as riding a pale horse with hell following him.

3
(p. 77)
Painkiller:
Twain recounted being forced in his boyhood to swallow patent medicine, referred to here as “Painkiller,” even though it was intended for application to bruises and other external afflictions.

1
(p. 81)
“two souls with but a single thought”:
This phrase comes from the ending of a popular 1842 play,
Ingomar the Barbarian,
by the Austrian play-wright Baron von Munch-Bellinghausen.

2
(p. 82)
Jackson’s Island:
The corresponding island in the Mississippi River near Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up, is Glasscock’s Island.

3
(p. 82)
Red-Handed:
Tom’s source in his “favorite literature” for Huck’s title in this game may be Ned Buntline’s
The Last Days of Callao
(1847), which refers to a pirate ship belonging to “Rovers of the Bloody Hand.”

1
(p. 91)
“they shoot a cannon over the water”:
The belief that shooting a cannon over the water would bring a corpse to the surface was based on the idea that the concussion would shatter the gall bladder, causing the body to float to the surface. There is a similar incident in
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(chapter 8).

2
(p. 91)
“put quicksilver in ’em”:
According to a widely held belief, a hollowed loaf of bread with mercury (quicksilver) inside it would float to the location of a drowned carcass and stop there.

1
(p. 98)
“knucks” and “ringtaw” and “keeps”:
These terms describe different types of marble games: Knucks requires shooting at the marbles while keeping one’s knuckles on the ground; the objective of ringtaw is to knock marbles out of a circle; “keeps” simply indicates that the winner keeps the marbles won in that game.

2
(p. 104)
the Six Nations:
The reference is to the Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Iroquois League), which was formed during the eighteenth century by five Native American groups—Mohawk, Oneida, Onandaga, Cayuga, and Seneca; originally known as the Five Nations, it became the Six Nations when the Tuscarora tribe joined the Confederacy.

1
(p. 125)
“You’d scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the stage,” etc.:
This phrase comes from the 1791 poem “Lines Written for a School Declamation” (to be spoken by Ephraim H. Farrar, aged seven, New Ipswich, New Hampshire), by David Everett.

2
(p. 126)
“The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck”followed; also “The Assyrian Came Down”:
These titles of “declamatory gems” have their, sources in, respectively, the poems “Casablanca,” by Felicia D. Hemans (1793-1835), and “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824).

3
(p. 126)
“extract from it”:
See Twain’s note at the end of this chapter (p. 147), in which he indicates, accurately, that all the “compositions” in his “extract” are taken “without alteration” from an actual source. Scholars have identified the source as
The Pastor’s Story and Other Pieces; or, Prose and Poetry
(1871), by Mary Ann Harris Gay, an ardent Southern sympathizer during the Civil War.

4
(p. 128)
My dearest friend... to my side“:
These lines of verse derive from
The Course of Time
(1827), by Scottish poet Robert Pollock.

5
(p. 129)
Daniel Webster:
A New England statesman—congressman, senator, and secretary of state—Webster (1782-1852) was regarded as antebellum America’s greatest orator.

1
(p. 130)
Cadets of Temperance ... their ”regalia“:
This was a youth organization against smoking and alcohol; young Samuel Clemens belonged to it—because, he later said, of the colorful sash (the ”regalia“) the cadets wore on holidays.

2
(p. 131)
Mr. Benton:
Thomas Hart Benton served as United States senator from Missouri for three decades (1821-1851).

1
(p. 143)
Still-House branch:
This stream took its name from the fact that one of Hannibal’s several distilleries was located along it.

1
(p. 148)
on a Friday:
The belief that Friday is an unlucky day for undertaking new ventures derives from Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday.

2
(p. 148)
dreamt about rats:
To dream about rats, according to the belief expressed here, meant that one had dangerous enemies.

3
(p. 151)
Then for Texas!:
Texas was known as a haven for outlaws in the mid-nineteenth century.

4
(p. 153)
Murrel’s gang:
The American desperado John A. Murrel (1804?-1850) led a band of outlaws whose violent acts were legendary in Missouri towns during Twain’s youth.

5
(p. 153)
by the great Sachem:
For Injun Joe to swear by the ”sachem,“ a generic term for a great Indian chief, would be for him to take a serious oath.

1
(p. 159)
Temperance Taverns:
Unlike Hannibal’s other taverns of the 1840s, its ”temperance tavern“ did not (except covertly) serve alcohol.

2
(p. 160)
Hooper Street:
This is probably a reference to Hill Street, where Twain’s boyhood home was located.

3
(p. 160)
good as wheat:
This expression, which in this context means that Tom’s and Huck’s agreement is absolutely firm, derives from colonial times, when wheat could serve as payment for goods and services.

1
(p. 161)
”hi-spy“ and ”gully-keeper“:
”I spy“ and ”goalie keeper“ are children’s games; both involve a player trying to reach ”home base“ before being tagged.

2
(p. 163)
McDougal’s cave:
This cave is drawn after McDowell’s cave, located along the Mississippi to the south of Hannibal. During Twain’s youth the cave was associated with its namesake, Doctor Joseph Nash McDowell, a physician given to mysterious activities.

1
(p. 190)
lucifer matches:
The lucifer match, tipped with phosphorous and ignited by friction, was patented in the United States in the 1830s.

Since 1954 accomplished American actor Hal Holbrook has presented his one-man show
Mark Twain Tonight!
dozens of times every year. In each performance—there have been some 2,000 to date—Holbrook, the only actor ever to do the show, depicts Twain at age seventy, which allows him to mine nearly all of the author’s writings. Holbrook constructs each performance almost entirely from Twain’s own words, drawing from some fifteen hours of material he has accumulated. He improvises a great deal to accommodate his mood and audience and often adapts the show to, the times and social milieu. Holbrook’s film and theater careers have grown over the past half-century, but Mark Twain, as he appears in
Mark Twain Tonight!,
has remained relatively unchanged and ageless: Wearing a dapper white suit, he smokes a cigar and rants a timeless sarcasm.

On May 27, 1926, in Mark Twain’s childhood hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, a bronze sculpture of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was unveiled. The figures embody the spirit of adventure: Huck sports his famous straw hat, pushes a walking stick into the ground, and looks up to his hero, Tom Sawyer, who gazes forward confidently in midstep. The monument, created by Frederick Hibbard, stands at the base of Cardiff Hill in the town that was the model for the setting of Twain’s two famous novels of boyhood. The unveiling was attended by ninety-year-old Laura Frazer, who inspired the character Becky Thatcher in
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

In addition to countless stage adaptations, television movies, and animated versions, numerous feature films recount the adventures of Tom and his faithful companion, Huck. These include William Desmond Taylor’s trilogy of silent films
(Tom Sawyer, Huck and Tom,
and
Huckleberry Finn;
1917-1920); the musical
Tom Sawyer
(1973), starring Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher; and the family pictures
Tom and Huck
(1995) and
The Modern Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(2000). The version most lovingly remembered is David O. Selznick’s production
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1938), directed by Norman Taurog. Tommy Kelly plays the respectable ruffian who finds himself in a parade of now-famous scenarios—the whitewashing of the fence, the courting of Becky Thatcher, the spooky graveyard scene, and the claustrophobic cave adventure (brimming with bats). The film also dramatizes less familiar scenes, such as Tom kicking the villainous Injun Joe off a cliff to his death—a scene not present in the novel. Selznick’s sumptuous production conveys Twain’s familiar breed of wit by means of lobbed vegetables and other slapstick frills (mostly directed at Sid Sawyer, played by David Holt), and by John V. A. Weaver’s mischief-riddled screenplay. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Art Direction (Lyle Wheeler).

It is no secret that
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
paved the way for Twain’s masterpiece,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(1885), which Twain originally intended as a companion to
Tom Sawyer.
However,
Huck Finn
has a moral dimension not present in the earlier novel. Many critics attribute this to Twain’s decision to write
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
from Huck’s perspective rather than in the third-person narration he had used in
Tom Sawyer.
What many people don’t know is that Mark Twain published two other sequels to his novel of Missouri boyhood, both written in the first person and from Huck’s perspective, and both less inspired than derivative. The flavor of the first,
Tom Sawyer Abroad
(1894), is conveyed by its opening words: “Do you reckon Tom Sawyer was satisfied after all them adventures?” In the second,
Tom Sawyer, Detective
(1896), Twain capitalized on the mystery craze created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s enigmatic detective Sherlock Holmes. In a review of the later Tom Sawyer stories,
The Guardian
noted, “If Mr. Clemens had been wise, or had preferred his reputation to ‘the very desirable dollars,’ he would not have attempted to resuscitate the genial Huckleberry.” Nonetheless, readers who want more of Tom and Huck may enjoy looking into Twain’s lesser-known sequels.