Missive #150

Roughing It is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain. He wrote it during 1870–71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first book The Innocents Abroad (1869). This book tells of Twain’s adventures prior to his pleasure cruise related in Innocents Abroad. — Book promo @ goodreads.com

This book is not as entertaining as was Innocents but it does provide a lot of historical information. It also provides some good information about Mark Twain. In some instances contradicting what you might read elsewhere. In this book he writes that he was editor for the Territorial Enterprise but in the language of his day that meant he was a reporter, he was only the ‘managing editor’ for one week and didn’t like it at all.

The high prices charged for trifles were eloquent of high freights and bewildering distances of freightage. In the east, in those days, the smallest moneyed denomination was a penny and it represented the smallest purchasable quantity of any commodity. West of Cincinnati the smallest coin in use was the silver five-cent piece and no smaller quantity of an article could be bought than “five cents’ worth.” In Overland City the lowest coin appeared to be the ten-cent piece; but in Salt Lake there did not seem to be any money in circulation smaller than a quarter, or any smaller quantity purchasable of any commodity than twenty-five cents’ worth.

I got Johnny to row—not because I mind exertion myself, but because it makes me sick to ride backwards when I am at work. But I steered. A three-mile pull brought us to the camp just as the night fell, and we stepped ashore very tired and wolfishly hungry. In a “cache” among the rocks we found the provisions and the cooking utensils, and then, all fatigued as I was, I sat down on a boulder and superintended while Johnny gathered wood and cooked supper. Many a man who had gone through what I had, would have wanted to rest.

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago. In this age, when a gentleman of high social standing, intelligence and probity, swears that testimony given under solemn oath will outweigh, with him, street talk and newspaper reports based upon mere hearsay, he is worth a hundred jurymen who will swear to their own ignorance and stupidity, and justice would be far safer in his hands than in theirs. Why could not the jury law be so altered as to give men of brains and honesty and equal chance with fools and miscreants? Is it right to show the present favoritism to one class of men and inflict a disability on another, in a land whose boast is that all its citizens are free and equal?

We closed out the month of October with a few days of winter. The day time highs were still pleasant but the mornings dropped down into the 30s. I had the Wave 6 working for the first time Tuesdaay morning when the low approached freezing at 34°.

Erik and I went to the group dog training class for the first time in six months yesterday. I didn’t expect him to do well after being away for so long but he did far better than I expected. He didn’t do everything that the trainer wanted but he did most that was demanded and made me proud. He can be such a good dog when he wants to be!

Ever realize how surreal reading a book actually is? You stare at marked slices of tree for hours on end, hallucinating vividly.

Since the first Bush Administration, our entire Foreign Policy has been based on the ethos of the schoolyard bully. Bullies are usually only strong when attacking individuals. As I recall from my schoolyard days, most bullies met their downfall when their individual victims decided to unite and win by the force of numbers. That’s exactly what’s happening to US Foreign Policy on a wider geopolitical scale. The Uprising in Gaza, like the Ukraine Conflict and the Canadian protests, were started by people who simply had nothing left to lose. Today, foreign governments are realizing that the US can’t attack everybody—all of Africa, the Middle East, South America, Russia, China, and North Korea—all at once, so they feel more confident about standing up to the International Bully and saying ‘no.’ That; and they’ve come to realize that they’ll go on being victims if they continue to submit, so they’ve nothing to lose by fighting back. The Wests True Weakness by The Night Wind