{ "schemaVersion": 1, "slug": "life-on-the-mississippi", "title": "Life on the Mississippi", "author": "Mark Twain", "language": "en", "spoilers": true, "characters": [ { "name": "Captain Marryat", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer whose nickname for the Mississippi, “the Great Sewer,” is cited." }, { "name": "De Soto", "aliases": [], "description": "First white man said to have seen the Mississippi; he died after glimpsing it, and his priests and soldiers buried him in the river." }, { "name": "Francis I.", "aliases": [], "description": "French king mentioned in a historical comparison." }, { "name": "Raphael", "aliases": [], "description": "Artist whose death is mentioned in a historical comparison." }, { "name": "Bayard", "aliases": [ "Sans Peur Et Sans Reproche" ], "description": "Historical figure whose death is mentioned in a historical comparison." }, { "name": "Ignatius Loyola", "aliases": [], "description": "Figure who later founded the Jesuit order." }, { "name": "Michael Angelo", "aliases": [], "description": "Artist whose Sistine Chapel painting is mentioned." }, { "name": "Mary Queen of Scots", "aliases": [], "description": "Not yet born when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Catherine de Medici", "aliases": [], "description": "A child when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Elizabeth of England", "aliases": [], "description": "Not yet in her teens when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Calvin", "aliases": [], "description": "Prominent religious figure in De Soto’s time." }, { "name": "Benvenuto Cellini", "aliases": [], "description": "Prominent figure in De Soto’s time." }, { "name": "Emperor Charles V.", "aliases": [], "description": "Ruler in De Soto’s time." }, { "name": "Margaret of Navarre", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer of the Heptameron and religious books." }, { "name": "Henry VIII.", "aliases": [], "description": "English king who suppressed monasteries and pursued his reformation." }, { "name": "Fisher", "aliases": [], "description": "Bishop executed by Henry VIII." }, { "name": "Luther", "aliases": [], "description": "His death was two years in the future when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Servetus", "aliases": [], "description": "His execution is dated eleven years after De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Rabelais", "aliases": [], "description": "His work had not yet been published when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Don Quixote", "aliases": [], "description": "Title character of a book not yet written when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Shakespeare", "aliases": [], "description": "Not yet born when De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Oliver Cromwell", "aliases": [], "description": "His name would not be heard by Englishmen for another century after De Soto saw the Mississippi." }, { "name": "La Salle", "aliases": [], "description": "French explorer who explored the Mississippi and claimed the surrounding country for France." }, { "name": "Louis XIV", "aliases": [ "Louis the Putrid", "the Sultan of Versailles" ], "description": "French king who granted La Salle exploration privileges and whose claim to the Mississippi basin was made in La Salle’s name." }, { "name": "Joliet", "aliases": [], "description": "Merchant who reached the Mississippi with Marquette in 1673." }, { "name": "Marquette", "aliases": [], "description": "Priest and explorer who traveled down the Mississippi with Joliet and named it Conception." }, { "name": "the Virgin", "aliases": [ "the Virgin Mary" ], "description": "Religious figure invoked by Marquette; the text says she helped avert a fight with a tribe near the Arkansas." }, { "name": "Mr. Parkman", "aliases": [ "Parkman" ], "description": "Historian whose account of the explorers is quoted." }, { "name": "Indian chief", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed chief who received Joliet and Marquette and later escorted them back to the river with six hundred tribesmen." }, { "name": "Henri de Tonty", "aliases": [ "Tonty" ], "description": "La Salle’s lieutenant on the expedition down the Mississippi." }, { "name": "Lorenzo Tonty", "aliases": [], "description": "Henri de Tonty’s father, credited with inventing the tontine." }, { "name": "Indian monarch", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed ruler in the Teche country who received Tonty in state." }, { "name": "Huck Finn", "aliases": [ "Huck" ], "description": "Village boy and son of the town drunkard who escapes with Jim and narrates their raft adventure." }, { "name": "Jim", "aliases": [], "description": "Enslaved man who escapes with Huck Finn." }, { "name": "Big Bob", "aliases": [ "Bob" ], "description": "Large, boastful raft hand who trades threats with the Child of Calamity and helps question Huck." }, { "name": "Child of Calamity", "aliases": [], "description": "Boastful raft hand who joins Bob in a mock quarrel and helps discover Huck hiding aboard." }, { "name": "Little Davy", "aliases": [ "Davy" ], "description": "Small, tough raft hand who beats Bob and the Child of Calamity, then protects Huck." }, { "name": "Ed", "aliases": [ "Edward", "Edmund", "Edwin", "Eddy" ], "description": "Raft hand who tells a ghost story about Dick Allbright and a haunted barrel." }, { "name": "Dick Allbright", "aliases": [], "description": "Former raft hand in Ed’s story who killed his infant son, hid the body in a barrel, and disappeared with it." }, { "name": "Charles William Allbright", "aliases": [], "description": "Dick Allbright’s dead infant son, whose body was hidden in a barrel." }, { "name": "Bill", "aliases": [], "description": "Raft hand who joins in mocking Ed’s story." }, { "name": "Jimmy", "aliases": [ "Jim" ], "description": "Raft hand who mocks Ed’s story and is sent to fetch paint for Huck." }, { "name": "Captain of the watch", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed raft watch leader in Ed’s story who dismisses the haunted-barrel tale as superstition." }, { "name": "Aleck Hopkins", "aliases": [ "Aleck James Hopkins" ], "description": "False name Huck gives the raft hands when they find him hiding aboard." }, { "name": "Pap", "aliases": [], "description": "Huck’s father, a trader on a scow in Huck’s improvised account." }, { "name": "Mr. Jonas Turner", "aliases": [], "description": "Man in Cairo whom Huck claims his father wants the raft hands to contact." }, { "name": "Cabin-boy", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed steamboat worker the young narrator once imagined becoming." }, { "name": "Deckhand", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed steamboat worker admired by the young narrator for standing on the stage-plank with a rope." }, { "name": "Town drunkard", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man asleep by the village wharf; Huck Finn’s father in the embedded story." }, { "name": "Negro drayman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed village worker famous for spotting approaching steamboats and announcing them." }, { "name": "Justice of the peace", "aliases": [], "description": "The young narrator’s unnamed father, whose authority the narrator imagines includes power over life and death." }, { "name": "Cub-engineer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed village boy who becomes an apprentice engineer on a steamboat." }, { "name": "Minister’s son", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a steamboat engineer." }, { "name": "Doctor’s son", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a mud clerk on a steamboat." }, { "name": "Post-master’s son", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a mud clerk on a steamboat." }, { "name": "Wholesale liquor dealer’s son", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a barkeeper on a steamboat." }, { "name": "Sons of the chief merchant", "aliases": [], "description": "Four unnamed young men from the village who become steamboat pilots." }, { "name": "Sons of the county judge", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed young men from the village who become steamboat pilots." }, { "name": "Amazon expedition", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed government expedition whose incomplete exploration of the Amazon inspires the narrator’s travel plan." }, { "name": "Young narrator", "aliases": [ "narrator", "Mark Twain" ], "description": "First-person narrator who recounts his steamboat travels and Mississippi piloting, then returns to the river after years away. He adopts Captain Isaiah Sellers’s discarded pen name, “Mark Twain.”" }, { "name": "Captain", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed captain of the Paul Jones and later steamboat; he commands while Mr. Bixby pilots." }, { "name": "Big stormy mate", "aliases": [ "mate" ], "description": "Large, profane steamboat officer whom the young narrator admires; later at the wheel during a night watch." }, { "name": "Night watchman", "aliases": [ "watchman" ], "description": "Unnamed steamboat watchman who befriends the young narrator, tells him a fabricated life story, and calls him out for piloting watches." }, { "name": "Youth who borrowed six dollars", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed deck passenger who borrowed six dollars from the narrator and never repaid it." }, { "name": "Mr. Bixby", "aliases": [], "description": "The narrator’s chief pilot and teacher, who trains him to read the Mississippi and navigate dangerous crossings." }, { "name": "Mr. W——", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot who partners with Mr. Bixby and takes the watch from him." }, { "name": "Jones", "aliases": [ "Mr. Jones" ], "description": "Plantation owner whose landing the steamboat finds at night under Mr. Bixby’s direction." }, { "name": "Leadsmen", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed steamboat crewmen who call out water depths to guide the pilots." }, { "name": "Engineer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed steamboat engineer who responds to Mr. Bixby’s orders during the Hat Island crossing." }, { "name": "Flatboatman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed trader who curses the steamboat crew after a near collision and later sues the boat." }, { "name": "Posey County family", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed family aboard a flatboat in an island chute; the steamboat narrowly avoids striking them." }, { "name": "Mr. X.", "aliases": [ "X." ], "description": "Excellent river pilot and somnambulist who expertly steers a steamboat through the Helena crossing while asleep." }, { "name": "George Ealer", "aliases": [ "Ealer" ], "description": "Pilot who shares a trip with Mr. X.; kind to the narrator, he plays flute and chess and survives the Pennsylvania explosion." }, { "name": "Night watchman on Ealer’s boat", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed watchman who finds Mr. X. sleepwalking, puts him to bed, and warns Ealer that the wheel is unattended." }, { "name": "Mr. Brown", "aliases": [ "Brown" ], "description": "Pennsylvania pilot with an exceptional memory and a malicious, fault-finding manner. He bullies the narrator and fights him after he defends Henry; Brown disappears in the explosion." }, { "name": "Asa Hardy", "aliases": [ "Captain Hardy" ], "description": "Captain of the Sunflower; Mr. Brown recounts details of his life and death despite never having met him." }, { "name": "John Hardy", "aliases": [], "description": "Asa Hardy’s brother and first clerk on the Sunflower; Mr. Brown says he died two years after Asa." }, { "name": "Tom Jones", "aliases": [], "description": "Former first mate of the Sunflower who told Mr. Brown about the Hardy brothers." }, { "name": "Jane Shook", "aliases": [], "description": "Asa Hardy’s first wife, said by Mr. Brown to have been from New England." }, { "name": "Horton", "aliases": [], "description": "Maiden name of Asa Hardy’s second wife, whom Mr. Brown says died in a lunatic asylum." }, { "name": "Ben", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed engineer whom the narrator calls through the speaking-tube to reverse the steamboat during Mr. Bixby’s test." }, { "name": "Mr. Thornburg", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot and the narrator’s chief on the trip when the crew goes sounding near 21." }, { "name": "Tom G——", "aliases": [ "Tom" ], "description": "Mr. Thornburg’s cub and the narrator’s friend and rival for a passenger girl’s attention; he survives the sounding-boat collision." }, { "name": "Girl of sixteen", "aliases": [ "pretty girl" ], "description": "Passenger traveling with her uncle and aunt; the narrator and Tom G—— fall in love with her, and she favors Tom after his rescue." }, { "name": "Girl’s uncle", "aliases": [ "uncle" ], "description": "Unnamed passenger traveling with his sixteen-year-old niece and her aunt." }, { "name": "Girl’s aunt", "aliases": [ "aunt" ], "description": "Unnamed passenger traveling with her sixteen-year-old niece and the girl’s uncle." }, { "name": "Third mate", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed officer in the sounding-boat who survives its collision with the steamer." }, { "name": "Missing sounding-boat crewmen", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed men from the sounding-boat who disappear after the collision and are presumed killed by the paddle-wheel." }, { "name": "Chief mate", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed officer who waits with a rope and helps haul Tom aboard after the sounding-boat collision." }, { "name": "Mr. Brown’s dog-story owner", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man whose dog Mr. Brown intends to discuss before getting distracted by family history." }, { "name": "Mary Ann", "aliases": [], "description": "Young woman whom an unnamed middle-aged woman calls indoors after seeing her flirt with the Grand Turk’s barber." }, { "name": "Middle-aged negro woman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed woman who calls Mary Ann inside and announces that the Grand Turk’s barber wants to speak with her." }, { "name": "Barber of the Grand Turk", "aliases": [], "description": "Spruce young Black barber aboard the Grand Turk, highly regarded in his social circle." }, { "name": "Aleck Scott middle-door fireman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed fireman whose job tending the Aleck Scott’s middle door makes him boast of his status at a New Orleans ball." }, { "name": "Ball manager", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed manager at a New Orleans ball who challenges the Aleck Scott fireman’s airs." }, { "name": "Stephen W——", "aliases": [], "description": "Gifted, humorous, irreverently independent pilot known for borrowing freely and for reckless but skillful piloting." }, { "name": "Captain Y——", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed elderly captain who dismisses Stephen W—— and recounts his noisy, reckless behavior aboard the boat." }, { "name": "Stephen’s cat", "aliases": [ "cat" ], "description": "Stephen W——’s cat, whose howling in response to his poor fiddle playing keeps people awake." }, { "name": "Captain who hired Stephen", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed captain who hires Stephen W—— at half wages and later tries to hurry the boat." }, { "name": "Two Missouri River pilots", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed pilots who quote eighteen hundred dollars apiece for a month’s work." }, { "name": "Illinois River captain", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed captain of a small stern-wheel boat who asks the Missouri River pilots their rate." }, { "name": "Captain at Cat Island", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed nervous captain who urges Mr. Bixby to give the steamboat more steam while crossing a close place." }, { "name": "Captain ——", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed captain who hires a Pilots’ Benevolent Association pilot after the association gains leverage." }, { "name": "I. S——", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed experienced pilot whom Captain —— hires for the season; an association pilot refuses to work alongside him." }, { "name": "Association secretary", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed secretary who explains the association’s rules to Captain —— and arranges a member pilot." }, { "name": "Pilot association treasurer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed treasurer of the St. Louis pilots’ association who steals its funds." }, { "name": "Pilot association president", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed president who assigns apprentices to boats under the association’s control." }, { "name": "Captain and owners’ association leader", "aliases": [], "description": "The passage describes captains and owners organizing collectively to impose rules on pilot employment; no individual leader is identified." }, { "name": "Yates", "aliases": [ "young Yates" ], "description": "Good-hearted young pilot who lends Stephen W—— $250 and repeatedly fails to collect it." }, { "name": "Jim Wilson", "aliases": [], "description": "Person Stephen claims to have paid $250 on account; no further information is given." }, { "name": "George Ritchie", "aliases": [], "description": "George Ealer’s cub, who imitates Mr. Brown to tease the narrator and later helps Horace Bixby chart river crossings." }, { "name": "Henry", "aliases": [], "description": "The young narrator’s younger brother and Pennsylvania clerk; he returns to help the wounded after the explosion but dies from his injuries." }, { "name": "Captain Klinefelter", "aliases": [], "description": "Captain of the Pennsylvania, who survives its boiler explosion, protects the narrator after his fight with Brown, and leads rescue efforts." }, { "name": "George Black", "aliases": [], "description": "The Pennsylvania’s chief clerk, who disappears in the explosion." }, { "name": "Mr. Wood", "aliases": [], "description": "Clerk aboard the Pennsylvania who is thrown into the river by the explosion and swims toward shore." }, { "name": "Second engineer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed Pennsylvania officer on watch in the engine room when its boilers explode." }, { "name": "Striker", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed engine-room worker trapped beneath wreckage who begs to be shot rather than die in the fire." }, { "name": "Carpenter", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed Pennsylvania crewman thrown into the river by the explosion while still on his mattress." }, { "name": "Head engineer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed chief engineer of the Pennsylvania, asleep when its boilers explode." }, { "name": "Second mate", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed Pennsylvania officer who has the deck watch when the boilers explode." }, { "name": "French naval cadet", "aliases": [], "description": "Fifteen-year-old son of a French admiral, badly scalded in the Pennsylvania explosion but brave in his injuries." }, { "name": "French admiral", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed father of the French naval cadet injured in the Pennsylvania explosion." }, { "name": "Priest injured in the explosion", "aliases": [ "priest" ], "description": "Unnamed priest struck through the body by an iron crowbar in the Pennsylvania explosion." }, { "name": "Dr. Peyton", "aliases": [], "description": "Principal Memphis physician who treats Henry after the Pennsylvania explosion but cannot save him." }, { "name": "Poet", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed poet who accompanies the narrator on his return west." }, { "name": "Stenographer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed stenographer who accompanies the narrator and is hired to record the poet." }, { "name": "Hotel clerk", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed clerk at the St. Louis hotel who recognizes the narrator despite his attempted disguise." }, { "name": "Rogers", "aliases": [ "Jones", "Brown", "Dexter", "Ferguson", "Bascom", "Thompson" ], "description": "Fellow traveler encountered by the narrator at a St. Louis hotel; these are his interchangeable assumed names." }, { "name": "Hon. Charles Augustus Murray", "aliases": [ "Mr. Murray" ], "description": "Scottish writer who described St. Louis decades earlier and predicted its future importance." }, { "name": "Bishop of the diocese", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed bishop from whom the narrator says he learned a fact about muddy Missouri River water." }, { "name": "Colored boy on the Grand Tower packet", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed boy keeping watch aboard the packet who tells the narrator it will leave when it has obtained its trip." }, { "name": "Irish literature vender", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed elderly Irishman selling cheap books aboard the Gold Dust; he entertains the narrator with a practiced lecture." }, { "name": "Lady put ashore at St. Genevieve", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed, well-dressed passenger who disembarks with a gentleman and two young girls near St. Genevieve." }, { "name": "Gentleman put ashore at St. Genevieve", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed, well-dressed passenger who disembarks with a lady and two young girls near St. Genevieve." }, { "name": "Young girls put ashore at St. Genevieve", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed, well-dressed passengers who disembark with a lady and gentleman near St. Genevieve." }, { "name": "Robert Styles", "aliases": [ "Rob Styles" ], "description": "Pilot whom the narrator recognizes after hearing him tell elaborate fabricated stories about the river and alligators." }, { "name": "Ben Thornburg", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Beck Jolly", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Squire Bell", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Major Downing", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "John Stevenson", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Billy Gordon", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Jim Brady", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Billy Youngblood", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water." }, { "name": "Tom Ballou", "aliases": [ "Capt. Tom" ], "description": "Captain of the Cyclone, whom the narrator’s fellow pilot calls an exceptionally persistent liar; the Cyclone later sank." }, { "name": "Uncle Mumford", "aliases": [], "description": "Gold Dust’s second officer and longtime river mate who tells river stories and argues engineers cannot tame the Mississippi." }, { "name": "General Cheatham", "aliases": [], "description": "Confederate general who led troops into the Battle of Belmont." }, { "name": "General Pillow", "aliases": [ "Old General Pillow" ], "description": "Confederate general at Belmont, described by the pilot as leading troops on a white horse." }, { "name": "Pilot’s partner at Belmont", "aliases": [ "partner" ], "description": "Unnamed pilot who leaves his partner in the pilot-house to watch the Belmont fight and hides below during the battle." }, { "name": "Captain of the R. H. W. Hill", "aliases": [ "captain" ], "description": "Unnamed captain aboard the R. H. W. Hill during the Battle of Belmont." }, { "name": "Red-headed major from Memphis", "aliases": [ "major" ], "description": "Unnamed major from Memphis who is with the captain on the roof during the Belmont fight." }, { "name": "General Polk", "aliases": [], "description": "Confederate general who praises the pilot’s courage after the Battle of Belmont." }, { "name": "Country gentleman near Island No. 10", "aliases": [ "country gentleman" ], "description": "Unnamed, college-educated passenger who tells the narrator about regional family feuds and their violence." }, { "name": "Darnell youth killed at nineteen", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man from one of the feud families, killed while trying to escape his attackers by swimming downriver." }, { "name": "Windy Marshall", "aliases": [], "description": "Steamboat captain who witnessed the killing of a young man from one of the local feud families." }, { "name": "Old Darnell", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed older Darnell who tried to leave the region with his two sons; after they were killed, he was shot by the ferry-man’s friends." }, { "name": "Two young Darnell sons", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed sons of Old Darnell, killed by the Watsons while trying to board a steamboat with their wives." }, { "name": "Wives of the young Darnell sons", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed women accompanying their husbands when the Watsons killed the young Darnell men." }, { "name": "Ferry-man", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man who ran a ferry, fell into conflict with Old Darnell, and died; his friends later killed Darnell." }, { "name": "Mrs. Trollope", "aliases": [ "Mrs Trollope" ], "description": "English tourist and writer whose descriptions of the Mississippi and early Memphis are quoted." }, { "name": "Captain Basil Hall", "aliases": [ "Basil Hall" ], "description": "British naval officer and travel writer whose reflections on the Mississippi are quoted." }, { "name": "Alexander Mackay", "aliases": [], "description": "Middle Temple barrister and travel writer whose account of seeing the Mississippi is quoted." }, { "name": "D'Autray", "aliases": [], "description": "Associate of La Salle who took the eastern channel at the Mississippi’s mouth." }, { "name": "Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg", "aliases": [], "description": "German tourist whose book describes Memphis during a yellow-fever epidemic." }, { "name": "Captain Eads", "aliases": [], "description": "Engineer credited with building jetties at the Mississippi’s mouth." }, { "name": "Colonel Grant", "aliases": [ "General Grant" ], "description": "The narrator recalls Grant drilling his first command at Cairo; he was Colonel then and General later." }, { "name": "Murel", "aliases": [ "Murel’s Gang leader" ], "description": "Notorious criminal described as leader of a gang involved in robbery, theft, murder, and plans for insurrection; convicted and sentenced to fourteen years." }, { "name": "Jesse James", "aliases": [], "description": "Notorious outlaw recently assassinated at the time of the narrator’s journey; compared with Murel." }, { "name": "Stewart", "aliases": [], "description": "Young man who infiltrated Murel’s gang while searching for two abducted enslaved people, then exposed it and helped secure Murel’s conviction." }, { "name": "Crenshaw", "aliases": [], "description": "Member of Murel’s gang who participates in robberies and murders described in Murel’s confession." }, { "name": "South Carolinian traveler", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed traveler robbed and killed by Murel and Crenshaw on Cumberland Mountain." }, { "name": "Man robbed and killed by Murel", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed traveler whom Murel robbed and murdered while recounting his crimes to Stewart." }, { "name": "Enslaved man sold by Murel’s gang", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed enslaved man repeatedly sold under false promises of freedom, then murdered to conceal the gang’s crimes." }, { "name": "Edward Atkinson", "aliases": [ "Mr. Edward Atkinson" ], "description": "National commercial authority whose opinion on Mississippi River improvement is referenced." }, { "name": "Montgomery", "aliases": [ "Captain Montgomery" ], "description": "Confederate fleet commodore at the Civil War battle at Memphis; formerly a pilot for whom the narrator steered." }, { "name": "Jesse Jamieson", "aliases": [], "description": "Pilot said to have left an elderly visiting pilot at the wheel near Island No. 63." }, { "name": "Visiting pilot at Island No. 63", "aliases": [ "ancient mariner" ], "description": "Unnamed elderly pilot who repeatedly steers the Skylark through a chute and back to the same place during his watch." }, { "name": "Old man who tells the Eclipse story", "aliases": [ "old darkey" ], "description": "Unnamed man on shore who changes his account of a passing boat after learning it was the famous Eclipse." }, { "name": "Gray mare", "aliases": [ "mare" ], "description": "Horse associated in Uncle Mumford’s stories with steamboat disasters when traveling with a preacher." }, { "name": "Steamboat preacher", "aliases": [ "preacher" ], "description": "Unnamed preacher who travels with a gray mare and is thrown overboard during Uncle Mumford’s story." }, { "name": "Captain Poe", "aliases": [ "Poe" ], "description": "Captain who lived aboard a small stern-wheel boat with his wife; it struck a snag in Kentucky Bend and sank." }, { "name": "Captain Poe’s wife", "aliases": [ "wife" ], "description": "Unnamed wife of Captain Poe, asleep in the boat’s upper berth when it sank." }, { "name": "Stranger from Wisconsin", "aliases": [ "young fellow" ], "description": "Unnamed young man from inland Wisconsin who plays an elaborate practical joke by giving the narrator false names and uses for boat parts." }, { "name": "Passenger from Arkansas City", "aliases": [ "Mr. H." ], "description": "Austere steamboat mate traveling to Vicksburg to join his Sunflower packet; he punctures a friend’s exaggerated mosquito stories." }, { "name": "Friend of Mr. H.", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed passenger and friend of Mr. H. who tells sensational mosquito stories." }, { "name": "Barkeeper", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed barkeeper aboard the boat who comments on local produce, drink preferences, and steamboat bar economics." }, { "name": "Colonel Calhoun", "aliases": [], "description": "Grandson of the statesman who organized the Calhoun Land Company to develop cotton land in Arkansas." }, { "name": "Man without a country", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed sole owner of Island 74, which after the river changed course belongs to neither Arkansas nor Mississippi." }, { "name": "Passenger and wife from Vicksburg", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man and his wife who survived the Vicksburg siege in caves; he recounts their experiences." }, { "name": "Maria", "aliases": [], "description": "Wife of the unnamed Vicksburg siege survivor; she carried their children to a cave during bombardments." }, { "name": "Vicksburg siege survivor’s children", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed children who lived through the Vicksburg bombardment and sheltered with their parents." }, { "name": "Friend whose arm was severed", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed friend of the Vicksburg survivor whose arm was cut off by a shell fragment after church." }, { "name": "Aged colored man at Vicksburg", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed elderly man who shows visitors an unexploded bombshell that fell in his yard during the siege." }, { "name": "Dog at Vicksburg", "aliases": [ "dog" ], "description": "The aged man’s dog, which approached the unexploded shell during the Vicksburg siege." }, { "name": "General Pemberton", "aliases": [], "description": "Confederate general who surrendered Vicksburg to General Grant." }, { "name": "College professor", "aliases": [ "passenger" ], "description": "Unnamed passenger who tells the story of his earlier voyage to California as a young land surveyor." }, { "name": "Professor as young land-surveyor", "aliases": [ "Triangle" ], "description": "The college professor’s younger self, a land surveyor nicknamed “Triangle” by John Backus." }, { "name": "Mr. John Backus", "aliases": [ "John Backus" ], "description": "Ohio cattle-raiser traveling to California who befriends the young surveyor and reveals that his cattle expertise was a pretence; he is a professional gambler." }, { "name": "Three professional gamblers", "aliases": [], "description": "Three unnamed gamblers aboard the California-bound ship who target Backus in a card game; one is his accomplice." }, { "name": "Hank Wiley", "aliases": [ "Wiley" ], "description": "One of three gamblers aboard the California-bound ship; he deals cards and bets against Backus, who exposes the scheme." }, { "name": "Mr. Dickens", "aliases": [ "Dickens" ], "description": "Writer whose judgment that Mississippi steamboats were not magnificent is contrasted with Valley residents’ admiration." }, { "name": "Sir Walter Scott", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer whose medieval romances are blamed for inspiring Baton Rouge’s imitation castle and sustaining romantic chivalry." }, { "name": "Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne", "aliases": [], "description": "Physician quoted on disease risks associated with burying bodies." }, { "name": "Dr. E. H. Barton", "aliases": [], "description": "Physician who reported high mortality in a New Orleans district containing several cemeteries during the 1853 epidemic." }, { "name": "Professor Bianchi", "aliases": [], "description": "Professor who demonstrated that excavations in old burial ground were followed by plague in Modena." }, { "name": "Mr. Cooper", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer cited for noting that opening plague burial grounds at Eyam was followed by an outbreak." }, { "name": "Dr. Charles W. Purdy", "aliases": [], "description": "Physician who advocated cremation and compared funeral costs with other national expenditures." }, { "name": "Colored acquaintance", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed laborer supporting a wife and young children on low earnings; after his child dies, he struggles to afford a coffin." }, { "name": "Child of the colored acquaintance", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young child whose death leaves the family with the cost of a coffin." }, { "name": "Man encountered in the street", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man whom the narrator meets again after several years; he says he has become a prosperous undertaker." }, { "name": "J. B——", "aliases": [ "J. B——, Undertaker" ], "description": "Undertaker who boasts that funerals are reliably profitable and recounts selling costly coffins and embalming." }, { "name": "Mrs. O’Flaherty", "aliases": [ "Mrs. O'Flaherty" ], "description": "Fictional widow in J. B——’s sales story who insists her husband Pat be buried as a gentleman." }, { "name": "Pat", "aliases": [], "description": "Mrs. O’Flaherty’s deceased husband, whose funeral is used as an example of selling a costly coffin." }, { "name": "Mrs. O’Shaughnessy", "aliases": [ "Mrs. O'Shaughnessy" ], "description": "Customer in the undertaker’s story who buys a more expensive coffin for her husband Dennis." }, { "name": "Dennis", "aliases": [], "description": "Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s deceased husband, whose funeral is described as ostentatious." }, { "name": "Pastor", "aliases": [], "description": "The narrator’s unnamed pastor, who responds to his wish to be cremated with a remark about his chances." }, { "name": "South’s finest literary genius", "aliases": [ "Mr. Cable", "Cable" ], "description": "Southern writer and author of The Grandissimes who guides the narrator’s party through old New Orleans and interprets its history and culture." }, { "name": "Early pirate turned alderman", "aliases": [ "pirate" ], "description": "Unnamed former pirate buried in an old New Orleans cemetery; he later became an alderman." }, { "name": "Sir Anne", "aliases": [], "description": "A saint whose relics are said to heal the sick; the narrator argues that her burial had spread disease." }, { "name": "General Joseph A. Mabry", "aliases": [ "General Mabry" ], "description": "Tennessee general killed in a street gunfight with Major Thomas O’Connor, according to a reproduced news item." }, { "name": "Thomas O’Connor", "aliases": [ "Major O’Connor" ], "description": "Bank president who killed General Mabry in a street gunfight and was then killed by Mabry’s son." }, { "name": "Joseph A. Mabry, Jr.", "aliases": [ "Joe Mabry", "young Mabry" ], "description": "Son of General Joseph A. Mabry; he shot Thomas O’Connor and died from O’Connor’s return fire." }, { "name": "Will Mabry", "aliases": [], "description": "Member of the Mabry family said to have been killed by Don Lusby the previous Christmas." }, { "name": "Moses Lusby", "aliases": [], "description": "Man whom General Joseph A. Mabry and his son had recently been acquitted of murdering." }, { "name": "Don Lusby", "aliases": [], "description": "Moses Lusby’s son, also said to have been killed by the Mabrys." }, { "name": "Bystander wounded in Mabry-O’Connor shooting", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed bystander wounded in the thigh during the street gunfight." }, { "name": "Professor Sharpe", "aliases": [], "description": "Somerville Female College professor who shot and killed his brother-in-law, Captain Burton, after hearing of a threat against him." }, { "name": "Captain Burton", "aliases": [], "description": "Professor Sharpe’s brother-in-law, who threatened to kill Sharpe and was shot by him in a saloon." }, { "name": "Two young men in North Carolina", "aliases": [], "description": "Two unnamed men who fought over a girl; one killed the other with an ax." }, { "name": "Peter Dick", "aliases": [], "description": "Charlottesville hardware-store clerk who blinded Charles Roads with pepper during a quarrel and later stabbed him." }, { "name": "Charles Roads", "aliases": [], "description": "Charlottesville hardware-store clerk stabbed by Peter Dick after a dispute escalated into a proposed duel." }, { "name": "St. Anne", "aliases": [], "description": "A saint whose relics are said to heal the sick; the narrator argues that her burial had spread disease." }, { "name": "Gentleman speaking about the war", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man who tells the narrator that conversation among veterans repeatedly returns to war memories." }, { "name": "Old negro woman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed woman in an anecdote who nostalgically claims the moon was better before the war." }, { "name": "Farragut", "aliases": [], "description": "Commander who advanced upon Port Hudson on a dark night using white-painted ship decks for light." }, { "name": "Negro in the cockfight ring", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man who handles one of the fighting cocks with a white man." }, { "name": "White man in the cockfight ring", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man who handles one of the fighting cocks with a Black man." }, { "name": "Big black cock", "aliases": [ "black cock" ], "description": "Fighting cock in the New Orleans match; it dies in the ring while fighting." }, { "name": "Little gray cock", "aliases": [ "gray cock" ], "description": "Fighting cock in the New Orleans match, badly injured and exhausted during the fight." }, { "name": "Southern reporter", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed reporter whose flowery writing about women and public events the narrator critiques." }, { "name": "Special correspondent of the Times-Democrat", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed correspondent whose ornate reports describe a relief steamer’s trip and a New Orleans mule race." }, { "name": "Captain of the relief steamer", "aliases": [ "Captain" ], "description": "Unnamed captain who invites village women aboard his relief steamer for a short trip up a bayou." }, { "name": "Rex", "aliases": [], "description": "Unidentified chief personage of the Mystic Crew of Comus at the New Orleans Mardi-Gras procession." }, { "name": "Mr. Joel Chandler Harris", "aliases": [ "Uncle Remus", "Mr. Harris" ], "description": "Shy writer who arrives from Atlanta; the narrator praises his genius and mastery of Black dialect in the Uncle Remus stories." }, { "name": "Mr. Warner", "aliases": [ "Warner" ], "description": "Writer who collaborated with the narrator on The Gilded Age and proposed the name Eschol Sellers." }, { "name": "Eschol Sellers", "aliases": [], "description": "Real man whose unusual name Mark Twain and Mr. Warner borrowed for a character in The Gilded Age; he objected and secured a name change." }, { "name": "Mulberry Sellers", "aliases": [], "description": "Name adopted for the Sellers character in later editions of The Gilded Age." }, { "name": "Horace Bixby", "aliases": [ "Mr. Bixby", "Captain Bixby" ], "description": "Former pilot and the narrator’s teacher, now captain of the City of Baton Rouge; he charts crossings with George Ritchie." }, { "name": "Major Wood", "aliases": [], "description": "Host whose guests join the narrator and Bixby on a trip to Warmouth’s plantation." }, { "name": "Ex-Governor Warmouth", "aliases": [ "Warmouth" ], "description": "Owner of the sugar plantation visited by the narrator’s party." }, { "name": "General Lafayette", "aliases": [], "description": "French general whose 1825 trip from New Orleans to St. Louis aboard the Natchez is recorded in Sellers’s diary." }, { "name": "General Jackson", "aliases": [ "Jackson" ], "description": "General whose victory at New Orleans in 1815 is commemorated by a monument; he later became president." }, { "name": "Steersman on the steam-plow", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed Black worker who steers the large plow on Warmouth’s plantation." }, { "name": "Tug’s pet parrot", "aliases": [ "parrot" ], "description": "Tug-boat parrot whose profane comments and harsh laughter disrupt the narrator’s sentimental river trip." }, { "name": "Manchester", "aliases": [ "Mr. Manchester" ], "description": "New York spiritualist medium who claims to relay letters from the dead and writes supposed answers from spirits." }, { "name": "Pilot spiritualist", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former river pilot who has received weekly letters from a deceased relative through Manchester for more than fifteen years." }, { "name": "Friend who consults Manchester", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed friend of the narrator who questions Manchester about a deceased uncle during a séance." }, { "name": "Friend’s deceased uncle", "aliases": [ "late uncle" ], "description": "Unnamed man killed when a cyclone carried him and a large tree several miles; Manchester purportedly communicates with him." }, { "name": "Client learning to design a railway car-wheel", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed client whom Manchester says spirits are teaching to invent an improved railway car-wheel." }, { "name": "Pilot-farmer", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former pilot who farms unsuccessfully during the warm months and returns to river work in winter." }, { "name": "Pilot who hires an agricultural expert", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot who puts his farm in an expert’s hands on shares but receives no corn after the poor harvest." }, { "name": "Agricultural expert", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed farm manager who explains that the farm produced only two loads of corn, leaving none for the pilot’s share." }, { "name": "Captain Montgomery", "aliases": [ "Montgomery" ], "description": "Pilot turned Confederate fleet commander at the Battle of Memphis; he survives the sinking of his vessel and is notably calm." }, { "name": "Pilot killed after steering burning boat to land", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot who stays at the wheel until he brings a burning boat safely to shore, then dies from his injuries." }, { "name": "Young pilot killed on White River", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot buried in a Memphis graveyard who burns fatally while grounding a burning boat on a sandbar, saving all 200 aboard." }, { "name": "Dick Kennet", "aliases": [], "description": "Former river pilot killed when a boat blew up near Memphis." }, { "name": "Wild cub of Ben Thornburgh", "aliases": [ "Ben Thornburgh’s cub" ], "description": "Unnamed reckless pilot apprentice who quarrels with the narrator and once unchains a bear aboard a steamboat." }, { "name": "Bear brought aboard by an Arkansas passenger", "aliases": [ "bear" ], "description": "Bear chained to a lifeboat aboard a steamboat; after being released, it chases the cub and roams the vessel." }, { "name": "Arkansas passenger", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed passenger who brings a bear aboard and chains it to a lifeboat." }, { "name": "Pilot who fell dead at the wheel", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot who died of heart disease at the wheel in 1869." }, { "name": "Other pilot lost in Madrid Bend explosion", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed pilot lost when Mr. Bixby’s boat exploded in Madrid Bend." }, { "name": "Clerk called George Johnson", "aliases": [ "George Johnson" ], "description": "Deceased steamboat clerk, described under an assumed name, who secretly fathered a child with a young woman and married her after a will left her a fortune." }, { "name": "Young woman in the George Johnson story", "aliases": [], "description": "Comely young woman who was part friend and part servant in a wealthy childless foreigner’s household; she became the clerk’s partner and wife." }, { "name": "Rich old foreigner", "aliases": [], "description": "Childless wealthy man who forgave the young clerk and woman after they falsely claimed to be married, then left his fortune to the nonexistent Mrs. George Johnson." }, { "name": "Wife of the rich old foreigner", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed wife of the wealthy foreigner; she dies before her husband." }, { "name": "Justice of the Peace in the George Johnson story", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed justice who performs and backdates the clerk and young woman’s marriage." }, { "name": "Captain Isaiah Sellers", "aliases": [ "I. Sellers", "Mark Twain", "Captain Sellers" ], "description": "Respected, pioneering Mississippi pilot whose river notes appeared under the name “Mark Twain.” The narrator borrowed that discarded pen name after Sellers died." }, { "name": "Correspondent of the St. Louis Republican", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed newspaper correspondent who culled material from Captain Sellers’s diary after his death." }, { "name": "Mrs. Turner", "aliases": [], "description": "Owner of a plantation at the head of Big Black Island, mentioned in Captain Sellers’s river note." }, { "name": "Cub aboard the City of Baton Rouge", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed apprentice pilot who lets too much water show between the boat and nearby ships until Captain Bixby takes the wheel." }, { "name": "Pilot killed by fire before the narrator’s return", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former pilot whose boat caught fire; he remained at the wheel until it reached shore and later died from his injuries." }, { "name": "Apprentice-blacksmith turned actor", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former village blacksmith’s apprentice who became stage-struck after seeing two Englishmen perform a swordfight; he spent decades as a Roman soldier and hoped to play Hamlet." }, { "name": "Two young Englishmen", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed visitors to the narrator’s village who staged a Richard III swordfight, inspiring a local blacksmith’s apprentice to become an actor." }, { "name": "Grizzled man from the St. Louis riots", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former neighbor whom the narrator abandoned during a march against rioters to go home for a drink; years later he confronts the narrator jokingly." }, { "name": "Military man commanding the anti-riot group", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed officer who commands two hundred young men assembled to confront the St. Louis rioters." }, { "name": "Clergyman who reads Jack Hunt’s letter", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed friend of the narrator who brings him a letter from an ex-thief and is moved by its contents." }, { "name": "Jack Hunt", "aliases": [], "description": "Imaginary reformed thief whose supposed letter was actually written by Williams to himself as part of a fraud. The narrator’s friend reads it to church audiences, believing it genuine." }, { "name": "Williams", "aliases": [ "Charlie", "Mr. W——" ], "description": "Harvard-educated burglar serving a nine-year prison term who becomes a Christian and encourages Jack Hunt to reform." }, { "name": "Ladies who visit Williams", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed women who encourage Williams during his imprisonment and later receive a copy of Jack Hunt’s letter." }, { "name": "Owner of the house robbed by Williams", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man forced at gunpoint to hand over $8,000 in government bonds; his home burglary leads to Williams’s arrest." }, { "name": "Old woman robbed on the train", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed woman whose pocketbook Jack Hunt steals, then returns after reconsidering his intention to reform." }, { "name": "Man with the runaway carriage", "aliases": [ "gentleman who owned the horse" ], "description": "Unnamed owner of a runaway horse and carriage carrying two children; he rewards Jack Hunt for stopping it." }, { "name": "Two children in the runaway carriage", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed children riding in a runaway carriage whom Jack Hunt rescues." }, { "name": "Mr. Brown of St. Louis", "aliases": [ "Mr. Brown" ], "description": "Fictitious benevolent employer in Williams’s forged letter, in which he supposedly gives Jack Hunt work, shelter, and instruction." }, { "name": "Charles Dudley Warner", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer who suspects the supposed convict’s letter is too polished to have been written by an uneducated person." }, { "name": "Dr. J. G. Holland", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer and preacher who weeps while hearing the forged letter read in a church." }, { "name": "Mr. Seymour of the New York Times", "aliases": [ "Mr. Seymour" ], "description": "Newspaper figure present when the forged letter is read during a church service." }, { "name": "Mr. Page", "aliases": [ "Brother Page" ], "description": "Philanthropist and temperance advocate moved by the forged letter; he sends a copy to the prison chaplain to verify it." }, { "name": "Senator Frye", "aliases": [], "description": "Maine senator whom the narrator thinks may have attended the sermon featuring the forged letter." }, { "name": "Brother minister", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed minister who borrows the forged letter and uses it in a sermon." }, { "name": "Minister in the town where Williams was jailed", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed minister who assures the narrator’s friend that the letter is genuine, relying on false information." }, { "name": "Rev. —— ——", "aliases": [ "minister who replies to the clergyman" ], "description": "Unnamed minister who writes that he believes the forged letter genuine and suggests conditions for publishing it." }, { "name": "Prison chaplain", "aliases": [ "chaplain of the State’s prison" ], "description": "Unnamed chaplain who tells Page that no such letter reached a prisoner and that Williams is not a Christian convert." }, { "name": "Lady who receives Williams’s letter", "aliases": [ "Sunday-school teacher" ], "description": "Unnamed woman who receives the forged letter and corresponds with Williams in the account relayed by a minister." }, { "name": "Young narrator’s old Sunday-school mate", "aliases": [ "bald-summited superintendent" ], "description": "Unnamed former schoolmate who recognizes the narrator and supervises one of the town’s Sunday-schools." }, { "name": "Mate of the narrator in Sunday school", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former Hannibal schoolmate who graduated from an Eastern college, failed in life, and was believed to have gone to the dogs." }, { "name": "Brightest boy in the village school", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed boy who graduated with honors from an Eastern college but died defeated in a western territory." }, { "name": "Successful bright boy", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed bright schoolboy whom the narrator’s informant says became a lasting success." }, { "name": "Young fellow who studied for a profession", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former Hannibal resident who changed professions, drank and gambled, abandoned his family, and died in Mexico in poverty." }, { "name": "Early sweetheart", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed woman the narrator loved as a boy; she married three times and has children scattered in different places." }, { "name": "Lawyer from Hannibal", "aliases": [ "stupid boy" ], "description": "Unnamed former schoolboy regarded as a fool by the people of Hannibal who became a leading lawyer in Missouri." }, { "name": "Miss ——", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed woman whom the narrator says was frightened by a prank as a girl, went mad, and spent the rest of her life in an asylum." }, { "name": "Giddy young ladies", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed girls who frightened Miss —— with a shroud-and-mask prank when she was reading at night." }, { "name": "Lem Hackett", "aliases": [], "description": "Fictitiously named boy who drowned on a Sunday while playing on a flatboat; the narrator recalls how his death and a storm frightened the village children." }, { "name": "Jim Smith", "aliases": [], "description": "Boy whom the narrator mentions in a mock prayer as having broken a window and lied about it." }, { "name": "Tom Holmes", "aliases": [], "description": "Boy whom the narrator says swore more than anyone else in the village." }, { "name": "John Jones", "aliases": [], "description": "Boy whom the narrator accuses of fishing on Sunday and lying about throwing back a mud-cat." }, { "name": "Dutchy", "aliases": [], "description": "German Sunday-school boy with a remarkable memory who drowned after being teased by other boys during a diving game." }, { "name": "Model Boy", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed boy remembered from the narrator’s childhood as perfect in manners and outward piety but a prig; he later succeeded in life." }, { "name": "John Stavely", "aliases": [ "Stavely" ], "description": "Hannibal saddler who pretended to hurry to the river for imaginary steamboat business and became one of the narrator’s early admirations." }, { "name": "Carpenter who claimed to be the Mysterious Avenger", "aliases": [ "Mysterious Avenger" ], "description": "Unnamed Hannibal carpenter who fabricated melodramatic stories about murdering men named Lynch and convinced the boy narrator he was a fearsome avenger." }, { "name": "Archibald Lynch", "aliases": [], "description": "The fictional carpenter’s supposed rival, who threatened his beloved and killed her at their wedding in the carpenter’s invented story." }, { "name": "Carpenter’s bride", "aliases": [ "golden-haired darling" ], "description": "Unnamed woman whom the carpenter claimed to love and who supposedly was killed by Archibald Lynch at their wedding." }, { "name": "Mr. Lynch", "aliases": [], "description": "Hannibal resident whom the boy narrator warns about the carpenter’s supposed vendetta; he exposes the carpenter as a fraud." }, { "name": "Owner of the cave", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed former cave owner who made a cave near Hannibal a mausoleum for his fourteen-year-old daughter." }, { "name": "Daughter of the cave owner", "aliases": [ "poor child" ], "description": "Unnamed fourteen-year-old girl whose body was placed in an alcohol-filled copper cylinder in her father’s cave mausoleum." }, { "name": "Jimmy Finn", "aliases": [], "description": "Hannibal town drunkard who, according to the narrator, died naturally in a tan vat rather than in the calaboose." }, { "name": "Stranger who burned in the calaboose", "aliases": [ "tramp", "wayfarer" ], "description": "Harmless, whiskey-sodden stranger who was arrested and died when his straw bed and the jail caught fire; the narrator had helped him get matches." }, { "name": "Marshal", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed constable who arrested the tramp and held the only key to the calaboose during the fire." }, { "name": "Young narrator’s younger brother", "aliases": [ "bed-mate" ], "description": "Unnamed younger brother who shares the narrator’s bed and unknowingly helps him believe that Ben Coontz was responsible for the calaboose fire." }, { "name": "Ben Coontz", "aliases": [], "description": "Boy whom the narrator’s younger brother mistakenly identifies as the boy who gave the tramp matches; the narrator lets the misunderstanding stand." }, { "name": "Colored coachman", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed coachman who explains to the narrator that country time runs about an hour and a half behind town time." }, { "name": "Henry Clay Dean", "aliases": [ "Dean" ], "description": "Self-educated political orator who studied on Keokuk’s curbstones and delivered a celebrated speech after being hurried onto a stage." }, { "name": "Mr. Claggett", "aliases": [ "Claggett" ], "description": "Keokuk citizen whose son recounted an incident about Henry Clay Dean’s impromptu speech." }, { "name": "Son of Mr. Claggett", "aliases": [ "Claggett’s son" ], "description": "Unnamed son of Keokuk citizen Mr. Claggett who told the narrator the story of Dean’s speech." }, { "name": "Distinguished stranger", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed scheduled speaker who failed to appear at a 1861 Keokuk meeting, prompting the manager to enlist Dean." }, { "name": "Meeting manager", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed distressed organizer who found Dean studying on a curbstone and sent him to address a packed meeting." }, { "name": "Burdette", "aliases": [], "description": "Writer associated with Burlington, which the narrator calls his home." }, { "name": "Lunatic in Muscatine", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed man who threatened the narrator with a butcher-knife unless he admitted the man was the Devil’s only son." }, { "name": "Black Hawk", "aliases": [], "description": "Native leader whose name was once powerful in the Upper Mississippi region; the narrator describes his Christian-style burial modified by Indian custom." }, { "name": "Keokuk", "aliases": [], "description": "Native leader whose name was prominent in the Mississippi region below Dubuque." }, { "name": "Old gentleman from the north-west", "aliases": [ "lecturer", "panorama traveler" ], "description": "Early settler familiar with the region who entertains passengers with florid scenery descriptions and Indian legends. He formerly traveled with a panorama and is preparing material for a tourist guide." }, { "name": "Winona", "aliases": [ "We-no-na" ], "description": "Maiden in the Maiden’s Rock legend, daughter of a chief’s family. She escapes an arranged marriage, survives a leap from the rock, and is said to marry the man she loves." }, { "name": "Winona’s lover", "aliases": [ "true love" ], "description": "Unnamed warrior whom Winona loves; according to the legend, he later marries her." }, { "name": "Winona’s parents", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed parents who arrange Winona’s marriage to another warrior; in the lecturer’s version, they are dashed against the rocks when she jumps." }, { "name": "Peboan", "aliases": [], "description": "Personification of Winter in the allegory of the seasons; an old man who melts away in the warmth of Seegwun." }, { "name": "Seegwun", "aliases": [], "description": "Personification of Spring in the allegory of the seasons; a handsome young man whose warmth brings flowers, rain, and returning birds." }, { "name": "Iamo", "aliases": [], "description": "Hunter who lives alone with his sister; after she breaks his instructions, he asks her to cut off his head, which remains alive and directs her." }, { "name": "Sister of Iamo", "aliases": [ "Iamo’s sister" ], "description": "Unnamed woman who lives with Iamo; she accidentally breaks his prohibition during her illness and later keeps his severed head in a sack." }, { "name": "Mudjikewis", "aliases": [], "description": "Third brother from the eldest among ten brothers in “The Undying Head”; known for oddities and eagerness for a war excursion." }, { "name": "Youngest of the ten brothers", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed young man who fasts, has propitious dreams, and summons his nine brothers to join a war excursion." }, { "name": "Nine brothers", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed brothers who agree to join the youngest brother’s war excursion; Mudjikewis is among them." }, { "name": "C. P. Ferguson", "aliases": [], "description": "Planter near Red River Landing whose plantation is flooded; he reports suffering in the area." }, { "name": "General York", "aliases": [], "description": "Relief organizer on Black River during the 1882 flood; he directs boats and supplies to rescue people and livestock." }, { "name": "Widow Taylor", "aliases": [ "Mrs. Taylor" ], "description": "Unnamed woman sheltering with her son in a flooded house; she declines the offer to leave." }, { "name": "Widow Taylor’s son", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed son sheltering with his mother on a raised scaffold in their flooded home." }, { "name": "Mr. Tom Ellis", "aliases": [ "Mr. Ellis" ], "description": "Planter whose flooded, failing house shelters his sick wife, seven children, and livestock; he initially refuses evacuation." }, { "name": "Mrs. Ellis", "aliases": [], "description": "Feeble in health and trapped with her family in a flooded house; she appears at a partly submerged window." }, { "name": "Children of the Ellis family", "aliases": [], "description": "Seven unnamed children trapped with their parents in the flooded Ellis home; the oldest is under fourteen." }, { "name": "Major Burke", "aliases": [], "description": "Times-Democrat figure who sent the Susie to Black River to evacuate flood victims." }, { "name": "Old planter on Black River", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed planter who had lived on the river since 1844 and says the flood was unprecedented." }, { "name": "Old man with cattle on Black River", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed cattle owner who says willow leaves sustain his cattle but are hard on his hogs." }, { "name": "Youth paddling a pirogue", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed youth who paddles a pirogue carrying a fifteen-year-old girl and asks the relief boat for a newspaper." }, { "name": "Girl of fifteen in the pirogue", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed girl with black eyes and demure manners, riding in the bow of a pirogue during the flood." }, { "name": "Little girl paddling a canoe", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed child, no more than twelve, who deftly paddles a tiny canoe and gathers willow leaves for livestock." }, { "name": "General Gilmore", "aliases": [], "description": "United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "General Comstock", "aliases": [], "description": "United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "General Suter", "aliases": [], "description": "United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "Professor Henry Mitchell", "aliases": [], "description": "United States Coast Survey hydrographer identified as an authority on hydrography and a member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "B. B. Harrod", "aliases": [], "description": "Louisiana State Engineer and member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "Judge Taylor", "aliases": [], "description": "Indiana judge named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission." }, { "name": "Wife of Mudjikewis", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed wife of Mudjikewis, who questions why he needs his moccasins before the brothers’ war excursion." }, { "name": "First old manito", "aliases": [ "old man in the first lodge" ], "description": "Unnamed guardian spirit who shelters the war party, enlarges two small black dogs to fight the mammoth bear, and dies in the encounter." }, { "name": "First black dog", "aliases": [], "description": "One of the two magical dogs enlarged by the first old manito to fight the mammoth bear; it dies in the combat." }, { "name": "Second black dog", "aliases": [], "description": "One of the two magical dogs enlarged by the first old manito to fight the mammoth bear; it dies in the combat." }, { "name": "Second old manito", "aliases": [ "old man with the war-clubs" ], "description": "Unnamed guardian spirit who shelters the pursued brothers and fights the mammoth bear with magical black-stone clubs; he is killed." }, { "name": "Mammoth bear", "aliases": [ "mishemokwa", "manito" ], "description": "Enormous supernatural bear pursued by the ten brothers after they take its wampum belt. When the brothers destroy it, small black bears spring from its remains." }, { "name": "Chief of the village", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed chief whose warriors keep watch over Iamo’s severed head in the council-lodge." }, { "name": "Old man who helps Iamo’s sister", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed villager who escorts Iamo’s sister to the council-lodge and helps her escape after she finds her brother’s head." }, { "name": "Boastful young warrior", "aliases": [], "description": "Unnamed warrior in the council-lodge who falsely claims he often courts Iamo’s sister, inadvertently giving her a plausible reason to be there." }, { "name": "Youngest brother’s wife", "aliases": [ "female magician" ], "description": "Unnamed magician who marries the youngest of the ten brothers and eventually retrieves Iamo’s head, helping restore him to life." } ], "analysis": { "sourceSha256": "d8c8aeaf440f85ab5cbec184a94ade6f599679c900ee0a63d330aebd17b4fd58", "generatedAt": "2026-10-24T11:29:11.324438+00:00", "partsProcessed": 11, "extractionWarnings": [], "promptSha256": "ef6b30afebc4d1ea57690ea5b456465684c74b7af125ea8d48e25e6ba2004d41", "model": "gpt-6-luna", "pipelineVersion": 1 } }