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Re: Mark Twain Quotation?



The autobiography of St. Louis mayor Rolla Wells, Episodes of My Life (St.
Louis, 1933) quotes Twain on Mississippi River water:

"Every tumbler of it holds an acre of land in solution.  I got this fact
from the Bishop of the diocese.  If you will let your glass stand half an
hour you can separate the land from the water as easy as Genesis, and then
you will find them both good -- the one to eat, the other to drink.  The
land is very nourishing, the water is thoroughly wholesome.  The one
appeases hunger; the other, thirst.  But the natives do not take them
separately, but together as nature mixed the.  When they find an inch of mud
in the bottom of the glass, they stir it up and take the draught as they
would gruel.  It is difficult for a stranger to get used to this batter, but
once used he will prefer it to water.  This is really the case.  It is good
for steamboating and good to drink, but it is worthless for all other
purposes except baptizing."

A card in our local history files gives the same quote, attributing it to
Twain on a visit to St. Louis in 1882.  It cites a 1926 newspaper article,
although I couldn't locate the clipping.

Jean E. Meeh Gosebrink
Special Collections
St. Louis Public Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On
Behalf Of harperc@SLU.EDU
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2000 11:50 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Mark Twain Quotation?


Dear Listers,

All the reference books have failed me, so I turn to those high-powered
memories inhabiting the archival realm!

Many people I've spoken to here in St. Louis have heard the phrase "too
thick to drink and too thin to plow," ascribed to Mark Twain and
supposedly his comment on St. Louis drinking water taken from the
Mississippi River at the turn of the twentieth century.  But I don't find
this quotation listed in any of the dictionaries, either general or of
Twain's words alone.

A St. Louis newspaper apparently used the phrase some years ago in
reference to the city's water supply, but it sounds too good to have been
invented by them!

I need to know who said this (if anybody!) and its correct context.  We
can't all be crazy!

Thanks a million!

Christine Harper
Archives Assistant, Saint Louis University
harperc@slu.edu

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