Part 2 (1/2)

But he was never going to associate Rogers with such corruption In his eyes, his friend occupied a plane far above that of the other tycoons He wasTwain knew that Rogers often enerous side for fear that it would be taken as a sign of weakness by Wall Street rivals It was only after his death that the public learned how freely Rogers had supported a nu, he had becoh college and giving her a lifetiers ”one of the noblest men that ever lived” He was also a supporter of over sixty schools for the children of black far s and hire teachers The ers's behalf was Booker T Washi+ngton, who careatestcould make Twain denounce a loyal confidant As his closest friends knew, if you had his trust, you had all of it If you lost it, it was alet it back Major J B Pond-Twain's lecture er in the 1880s and 1890s-once remarked of his star performer, ”He possesses some of the frontier traits-a fierce spirit of retaliation, and the absolute confidence that life-long 'partners,' in the Western sense, develop”29 It didn't hurt that Twain had a soft spot in his heart for uncoht a few pirateshis own Cle that part in the queen's service was ”a respectable trade” As he confessed in an autobiographical dictation from 1906, ”In ers, playing the fearless buccaneer in the business world was a serious gaame-the stuff of fantasy, like the daydrea to be a pirate on the river Under an oak tree on Cardiff Hill, To faer of the Spanish Main” He sees hilory with a pluh boots ”How his name would fill the world,” he muses in a moment of youthful ecstasy, ”and make people shudder” As Twain jokes in Life on the Mississippi, the boys of his hoood, God would permit us to be pirates”31 There is more than a touch of To abilities as an internationally fa his world tour, and then sending the profits home to his trusted partner at 26 Broadway: ”On the 15th of July, 1895, [I started] on our lecturing raid around the world We lectured and robbed and raided for thirteen ers as fast as we captured it” It pleased Twain to think of hiue with si the white suit was knowing that it was a joke against himself, a ”whited sepulchre” that concealed a heart with darker moods and a character that was far from spotless32 When a new install history of Standard Oil appeared in 1904 with an account of Rogers that cast hireatly disappointed He teased Rogers that the journalist had ashed his character, and he accused hiives you no rank as a conspirator-does not even let you say any dark things; does not even let you sit mute and awful in a Buffalo Court like John D, and lower the teht!”

As both men ell aware, it was in fact Tho had inning of her research, which in turn had helped the millionaire launch the charm offensive that resulted in a more favorable portrait from the journalist Indeed, as she later aders, whose appearance and raphy published long after his death-was one that would have delighted bothin Wall Street”33

A PIRATE NEEDS A shi+P, and Rogers had a superior one With all hisa big yacht His was a stunner-a 227-foot steam-powered vessel called the Kanawha Built to serve as a racing yacht, the vessel could reach speeds in excess of twenty-two knots and was said to be faster even than J P Morgan's renowned Corsair It was the star attraction of the New York Yacht Club's annual cruise at Newport, winning its racing prize-the Lysistrata Cup-two years in a row Rogers entered the shi+p in ers's yacht was an inside joke For several years he had been secretly involved in a business venture of such amble of his life If it failed, he stood to lose half his fortune Around the ti up thousands of acres of cheap land around a little village in West Virginia called Deepwater, which bordered the Kanawha River The land was located a some of the richest coalfields in America, but there was no easy way to haul the coal to ports on the Atlantic coast, where it could be shi+pped to factories, generating plants, and hoers's ambitious plan-which he estimated would require at least six years to complete-was to build his own railroad froinia It was a distance ofto pay for every mile of it out of his own pocket The cost was estimated at between 30 and 40as much of the construction period as possible He couldn't afford to have coal obstacles in his way Rogers's ingenious solution was to build not one railroad, but two-neither of which would appear to have any connection with the other nor pose any great threat to his existing rivals Using a few carefully chosen front s froinia he secretly backed construction of the Deepwater Railroad, which stopped at the border with Virginia On the other side of the state line, he poured money into the Tidewater Railroad, which started in Norfolk and stopped at the border with West Virginia At the last minute he planned to connect the two, reveal his ownershi+p of both, and e theht operation in the world

The whole scheme sounds like a practical version of the railway Colonel Sellers hopes will e His road is supposed to run fro road, though?” Sellers asks after he has traced the iinary route on his kitchen table ”I tell you, it'll oes through There's your onions at Slouchburg-noblest onion country that graces God's footstool; and there's your turnip country all around Doodleville-bless et that contrivance perfected for extracting olive oil out of turnips”35 It is unlikely that Twain knew a his business affairs shrouded in et-rich schemes rather than other people's But when the secret finally leaked out at the end of January 1907, and Twain becaers had taken, he had nothing but praise for the gamble As he told his friend at a later tireat achievement, but ”the triumph of your life” There was still a lot of work to be done before the line was ready to send its first coal trains to the coast But, unlike Colonel Sellers, Rogers kne to turn bold visions into realities, and to make them pay36 As for the Kanawha, Tas alers was Whether the na or not was of little concern to hi on such a fine shi+p, and sharing that experience with ”Aders, as he liked to call hiether on the vessel, which was not only fast but luxurious

When the tiht and the weather was fair, they liked to sail away from New York with several friends and stay out at least a few days Frequently, the destination was Rogers's hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where he had built an eighty-five-rooht Twain and other pals liked to join the ”Ad strong whiskey, and swapping tall tales So many hands of poker were played in the forward deckhouse that Twain called it the ”poker chapel”

The smoke-filled atmosphere on the Kanawha often turned raucous, especially when Twain started telling ribald jokes with an innocent face They always sounded funnier, and less juvenile, co from him He recorded one of his favorites in a notebook from this period: A drunk on the telephone asks, ”Zis 'e S'iety for Saving Fallen Women?” The answer is yes Well, the drunk responds, ”Save two for erate the extent of their dissipation on these cruises Before leaving on a long ocean voyage with his goodhearted and patient wife, E and added in jest, ”The only essentials this time will be drunkenness, profanity and sodomy”38 Unfortunately, Tas unable tohe didn't enjoy about the yacht was its perforers liked to tell the story of seeing Twain clinging to the rail in a heavy storet you so?”

”Yes,” the seasick Twain replied ”Get me a little island”39 But in cal on the Kanaith his friends At night the vessel would chug gently along like a big stea in his heart soer days He could aline hi to the talk of the crew and the drone of the steaes, he seemed so full of life that Isabel Lyon said he looked ”like a boy fresh froers's steam yacht, the Kanawha, Twain looked ”like a boy fresh froreat disappointers that no one in the press or on Wall Street seein of the yacht's name In any case, when the secret was finally revealed on January 28, 1907, it was the Wall Street Journal that had the scoop The paper declared that H H Rogers was the mastermind behind ”one of the remarkable railroad enterprises of recent years” The report also included a detailed description of how the rival lines had been fooled into assu the Deepwater and the Tidewater railroads were separate entities, and of how Rogers had created a superior road that would be difficult for anyone to co yachting adventure for the end of April 1907, and asked Twain to coinia and attend the opening of the Ja the three hundredth anniversary of the first English settleinal Jamestoas considered unsuitable for the fair, so Norfolk was chosen instead President Theodore Roosevelt and nitaries planned to be there

It wasn't, however, the fair or the president that Rogers wanted to see He wanted to admire the new piers he had built in Norfolk to receive the contents of all the coal cars he would soon be sending to the coast on the Virginian Railhich was his new name for the combined Deepwater and Tidewater lines And his white-clad partner in crier to olden opportunity to expand his own fareat fair

”Yes, I' to be a buccaneer,” he boasted to the press shortly before leaving New York ”The bucks and buccaneers on this cruise to the Spanish Main will be the guests of Henry H Rogers, aboard his yacht Kanawha We expect to have a bully time, and our first port of entry will be Jamestown”42

TWAIN'S USE OF THE WORD ”bully” was probably meant as a little joke at the expense of the other famous visitor to the fair As everyone knew, President Roosevelt and Henry Rogers were on the worst possible terers and the rest of the Standard Oilthe worst of what he reat wealth” He saw himself locked in battle with ”a few ruthless and determined men whose wealth makes them particularly formidable, because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization” His Justice Depart in its power in the federal courts to break up the oil trust and to reduce the influence of Rogers and his partners (By the end of the year, Standard Oil would be facing legal suits in no fewer than seven federal and six state courts) A famous cartoon of the period shows a defiant Roosevelt as the ”infant Hercules” trying to wrestle a two-headed serpent into subs to John D Rockefeller, the other to Henry Rogers43 Rather than antagonize the president any further, one of the heads of that serpent-Rockefeller-had decided to play it safe and was keeping a low profile But Rogers was less cautious, and wasn't going to allow anyone to stop hiinian Railway-not even the president of the United States

”He would go to Halifax for half a chance to show off,” Mark Twain coo to hell for a whole one”44 At the new Exposition both the leader of Aiven a ”whole” chance to de beyond Ha off, Twain felt that he knew his man Whereas he considered hiht the president was a dangerous egotist whose policies-both foreign and do America

Whenever they had met, however, he was civil to the president, and didn't hesitate to use his wit to win Roosevelt's approval for causes near to his heart, such as copyright reform Face-to-face, he always found the president's personal charm difficult to resist After a lunch at the White House in 1905, he told Isabel Lyon, ”You can't help liking [Roosevelt] for he is a netic creature, and he shows his teeth in his forceful smile, just as hted' to see you, just as the caricaturists have it on the record” For his part, the president always said that he thought highly of the author, calling hireat philosopher”

But the politician in Roosevelt e As he remarked in private, ”Whenever (as a rule) I meet Roosevelt the statesman & politician, I find hi in Norfolk a day before the president, Tas quick to get ashore and draw a crowd After chatting with the local press, he paraded around the docks in a yachting cap and his white clothes, then took an automobile ride to the Exposition, where heA crowd of 25,000 was expected the next day As for Rogers, he had his own business to attend to and went off i him was his son, Harry, as in his late twenties, and as being groomed to take over his father's empire

Besides the typical exhibits of historical interest, the fair featured amusement rides, a Wild West show, animal acts, military displays, souvenir shops, and-as afull of pren outside announced in big letters, ”Baby Incubators with Living Infants” For those who inal event, there was also a theatrical reenactment of the San Francisco earthquake of the previous year, with crashi+ng scenery, explosions, and fires As for the original Jamestown settlers, they were represented in a life-size dioraoods with the Powhatan tribe46 On opening day-Friday, April 26, 1907-President Roosevelt arrived right on time for his part in the official ceremonies An arn warshi+ps had been asse weather was ideal, with a sunny sky and a light breeze After cruising down the Chesapeake Bay on the presidential yacht, USS Mayflower, Roosevelt woke at dawn and was dressed and ready at half past eight, standing on the deck and watching the horizon through the shi+ny ovals of his pince-nez Wearing a top hat and frock coat, he was attended by members of his administration and various naval officers

When his shi+p entered Hauns roared their welco out white clouds of smoke as the Mayflower slowly sailed down the line Froun salute Most of the American warshi+ps were relatively new-ten had been built in the last three years-and each was painted a dazzling white At the end of the year, the president would send this ”Great White Fleet” on a cruise around the world to show potential adversaries that Aht was second to none

Asked about the fleet, Twain told the press that he didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing for A navy” The problem, he explained, was that the country had too er to unleash ”the martial canines” For Tho had been named in 1901 an honorary vice president of the Anti-Iue of New York-America's brutal conquest of the Philippines in the early years of the century had been a sobering exae a oistic leaders As he would say later in the year, he considered the Philippines ca that can never be effaced” In the rapid buildup of the navy he feared that the president and others were preparing to engage in more misadventures abroad Privately, he complained that Roosevelt had to be watched because he was tes”

Asked if he considered hi that soet up and shout for peace, whatever that etwith the uthtn't to do”47 As he had tried to make clear in ”The War Prayer”-which ritten in 1905 but rejected for publication in March of that year by Harper's Bazaar as ”not quite suited to a woazine”-Twain loathed men of ho pretended to be men of peace No author has ever satirized sanctiers better than Mark Twain If such people spoke truthfully, he pointed out, any prayer for divine assistance in ould reveal its hypocrisy instantly, exposing the real horrors of a victorious cahteous eneht their lives, protract their bitter pilgrie, make heavy their steps, water their ith their tears, stain the white snoith the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him Who Is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore besetAe in any public dispute about the patriotic glorification of the Great White Fleet, but some members of the Exposition's advisory board did complain that its participation in the festivities was an exaant militarism” imposed on an event whose purposes were peaceful But as an old Rough Rider and a former assistant secretary of the navy, Roosevelt wanted an extravagant display of firepower, and he got it The perfor sight,” he wrote a few days later, ”and one I would not have reat deal”49 While the warshi+ps were busy initaries on the presidential yacht, the Kanaas stea the athered at a distance to observe the festivities The news quickly spread that Mark Tas aboard Henry Rogers's yacht, and soon the vessel was being shadowed by the large excursion stea er tourists to the fair The passengers began calling out the author's nah to the yacht to graze its bow To satisfy their curiosity, Twain appeared on deck, waving and bowing To those who asked if the contact between the two vessels had caused any dae, he stepped forward and shouted proudly, ”Never touched s worse When hundreds of passengers on the steamer raced to one side for a closer view of Twain, they almost caused their vessel to capsize In fact, there was so much activity on the water that, before the day was over, the Sylvester nearly collided with another shi+p Realizing the danger in the overcroaters, the captain of the Kanawha found a safe spot where he could anchor, and then Twain and the rest of the Rogers party were transferred to a launch, which safely transported thethe waterfront, where the various state exhibitions were housed in large colonial-style buildings Roosevelt watched fro stand surrounded by so ers would have been able to get near him if they had wanted to There were rumors that an anarchist like the one who had killed President William McKinley six years earlier at the Pan-Ao with the sole purpose of shooting Roosevelt at the Jaton Post reported, ”A strong force of troops lined the space in front of the grand stand, half a hundred Secret Service et to the grand stand was stopped”51 Despite the fact that Rogers and Roosevelt remained at a safe distance from each other at the fair, the president knew froh he was supposed to be celebrating America's past, Roosevelt couldn't pass up an opportunity to bash his current foes-”the predatory classes,” as he called theers personally ”This country,” Roosevelt declared in his speech at the fair, ”should -doer, thescale or a little one, shall receive at our hands mercy as scant as if he committed crimes of violence or brutality”

As dire as these words may have sounded to most people, they wouldn't have ers, who kne to play the legal systeainst Standard Oil and other coe stake, he had proven himself to be such a slippery defendant that the Wall Street Journal had started calling hiardless of what the president said or did, Rogers and Tere deterers inian Railway, all of whorounds and adant row of state exhibition halls Finally, he ”blundered into the Virginia building”-as he put it-where he found hiovernor, Claude Swanson Seeing Twain, everyone soon forgot the politician and began to gather around the author Swanson didn't seem to mind

”I took it off his hands,” Twain said of the reception afterward ”It gave hi day caers, and the rest of their party returned to the yacht and spent the night at anchor near the battleshi+ps, all of which were illuhts that were visible forrow of naval vessels from the dark shore, one reporter turned poetic and described the scene as a ”line of fire which shi+ood spirits, Twain retired to his cabin His first day at the fair, he wrote later, ”was very gay, & really paid for the excursion” He had every reason to be satisfied In the view of the New York Times, the crowds had shown ” naval review at the opening of the Jamestown Exposition” 55

THE NEXT DAY-a Saturday-brought a change in the weather that kept Twain fro ashore for a few days The sky turned overcast and a cold drizzle began to fall Much of the Exposition was still under construction, and the rain left the grounds muddy So while they waited for the sky to clear, Twain and his friends contented themselves with the entertainhout the weekend, with a heavy fog descending over ers felt that pressing business in New York required him to return home immediately To save time, he and his son, Harry, diseers's son-in-law Urban Broughton, an English-born engineer, stayed behind to keep Twain company on the Kanahile the yacht's captain waited for the weather to i persisted into Tuesday, and he finally went ashore to the Cha court in the lobby with ad hiinning to worry he would never see hohton ith him, he spun a sad tale for his audience

”Here I aers's yacht Kanawha, anchored out there, and not a saint to look down in pityFor two days we have been held up by the fog out by the Cape, and the navigation officer says that he won't risk the passageSo here I re the boards of the Kanawha or the carpets of the Chaivably alone I think of that Fifth Avenue and of the dear o up and down from the monument, and I feel that I am without a country”56 When soested that he simply take a train home, he answered that he detested rail travel and said he had no alternative but to ”reood at delivering such words with a straight face that some people concluded from his remarks that he was actually in distress, especially when the headlines the next day read, ”Mark Twain in Gloo Tells a Tale of Desertion,” and ”Humorist Only Unhappy Man at Hampton Roads Refuses to Desert the shi+p” But by the time these stories appeared in print, the weather had ihton and the crew of forty attending to his every need, Tas able to relax and enjoy hie By Thursday, May 2, the old ain to the coton Square omnibus as it passed his door

But the joke that he had been ”ers himself, who saw the newspaper headlines about ”desertion” and decided to match Twain's false story with one of his own And his tall tale was h he ell aware that his beloved yacht had returned to New York the day before, he sent an urgentthat the Kanawha had not yet arrived at her hoht be lost at sea (”The only way [I] was lost at sea,” Twain joked afterward, ”was for soetting that he was the sauised as two seely unconnected ones ”The Standard Oil wizard showed a res of his ton Post later re humorist was born”58 It was said that the editor of the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch was so worried by the possibility of Twain going doith the yacht that he ”sat up all night with an 'extra' ready and with his heart in his raph office to convey to the paper any news of shi+ps in distress When the concerns expressed in Virginia were relayed to New York, the national press ju readers found Mark Twain's nae of the New York Times The news appeared very bad indeed ”Twain and Yacht Disappear at Sea,” the headline read ”Hu froe of the New York Tribune was equally alarraph froers's yacht Kanawha, having on board Mark Twain The yacht has beensince Wednesday” To oner59 Tas as surprised as anyone to learn that he was in peril on the open ocean ”I see you are lost in the fog,” a neighbor teased after finding the author at hoood shape

Bewildered, Twain asked, ”Lost in a fog? What do you uessed that Rogers was behind the story and rose inia friends,” he soleathered at his door, ”that I will ation of this report that I have been lost at sea If there is any foundation for the report, I will at once apprise the anxious public”

The next day the papers had great fun playing with variations on Twain's old joke about exaggerated stories of his death The New York American came up with the best headline: ”Twain Hesitates to Ad a visit to Bermuda

FOUR