mark twain at west point--5/15/2026

15 May 2026

mark twain at west point--5/15/2026

0 COMMENTS

Today's selection -- from Mark Twain and West Point by Philip Leon. Mark Twain loved visiting the US Military Academy at West Point, and would always take time to meet with the cadets:

“Mark Twain revelled in the company of cadets, and made it a standing practice to join the young men in the barracks away from their officers. For hours into the night, he would hold forth with jokes and stories, the cadets roaring with laughter. On these occasions the tactical officers obligingly overlooked violations of ‘lights out’ and infractions of noise regulations. At least half or more of a senior class could crowd into an upperclassman's room to hear him because the corps was still quite small. The class of 1881, with whom he became particularly close, had only fifty-three members. Some other senior classes that he visited, 1886 and 1888, graduated seventy-seven and forty-four cadets respectively.

“Carter's description of these intimate barracks sessions provides an appropriate beginning to establish the warm tone of Mark Twain's time with the cadets:

Samuel Clemens, age 15, holding metal type in a composing stick that spells out his first name.

“He had a sharp eye that seemed to look right through you. We were so young that not many of us were aware that he was a great author and speaker. He cocked his feet on one chair and slumped down in the one he sat in, smoking and just rambling along, in a conversational tone. Often his eyes were closed, or half-closed and there would be long pauses in which he seemed to be thinking. The first time we gathered, we thought we were going to hear a rip-roaring orator and were sort of disappointed when he just sat down among us and began to ask us questions about ourselves. Then something that was said would start him off on a story – and from then on we just listened. The stories were good, but no other person I've ever known could tell them as Mr. Clemens did. Only a few of us could sit down, the rest just stood, solid-packed, in that small room. Nobody dared cough or make a sound. Everybody was afraid he might miss a word of those stories that drawled along until, suddenly, like a whip cracking, he would come to the point of his story and we would laugh–real laughter that shakes you in the middle.

“Yes, he did use some profanity, but it seemed to come in natural. His stories were all clean fun that concerned people he had met somewhere in this country or abroad. I think he enjoyed talking to us boys as much as we enjoyed having him. He impressed me as being a man's man and we were flattered by having him treat us as men. He certainly did not talk down to us as did many of our officers. No man can talk down to anybody, sitting with his coat off on the edge of a tilted-back chair and drawling what he says as if he were totally unaware of his audience.

“These earliest visits of Mark Twain to West Point formed the basis for a pattern that would continue for thirteen years. He would arrive at the post to great fanfare, usually welcomed personally by the superintendent. Then he would be included in some formal social event such as a parade, a ‘hop’ or dance, or a less formal activity such as billiards with the officers in their dayroom. If he delivered an address, typically in the evening in the cadet mess hall, or dining room, he might share the dais with several speakers such as general officers or politicians. Later that night, after the duty day and all the oratory ended, Mark Twain would find his way to the barracks to hold court in the large room of a senior cadet where, enthroned in a ‘tilted-back chair,’ he would regale his loyal subjects with jokes and stories.”