A Tramp Abroad
by
Mark Twain
A Penn ⁄tate Electronic Cla77ic7 ⁄erie7 Publication
A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) is a publication of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable Document file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person usin...
A Penn ⁄tate Electronic Cla77ic7 ⁄erie7 Publication
,A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) is a publication of the Pennsylvania State
University. This Portable Document file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind.
Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or
her own risk. Neither the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, nor
anyone associated with the Pennsylvania State University assumes any responsibility for the
material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any
way.
A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), the Pennsylvania State University, Jim Manis,
Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18201-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing
student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access
of those wishing to make use of them, and as such is a part of the Pennsylvania State University’s
Electronic Classics Series.
Cover design: Jim Manis, (photo of Twain in the library at Stormfield, 1908-9)
The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity University.
, A Tramp Abroad
A TRAMP ABROAD
It was also my purpose to study art while in Europe. Mr.
Harris was in sympathy with me in this. He was as much of
an enthusiast in art as I was, and not less anxious to learn to
By paint. I desired to learn the German language; so did Harris.
Toward the middle of April we sailed in the Holsatia, Cap-
Mark Twain tain Brandt, and had a very peasant trip, indeed.
After a brief rest at Hamburg, we made preparations for a
long pedestrian trip southward in the soft spring weather,
(Samuel L. Clemens)
but at the last moment we changed the program, for private
reasons, and took the express-train.
First published in 1880
We made a short halt at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and found
it an interesting city. I would have liked to visit the birth-
place of Gutenburg, but it could not be done, as no memo-
CHAPTER I: The Knighted Knave of Bergen
randum of the site of the house has been kept. So we spent
an hour in the Goethe mansion instead. The city permits
ONE DAY IT OCCURRED TO ME that it had been many years since the
this house to belong to private parties, instead of gracing
world had been afforded the spectacle of a man adventurous
and dignifying herself with the honor of possessing and pro-
enough to undertake a journey through Europe on foot. Af-
tecting it.
ter much thought, I decided that I was a person fitted to
Frankfort is one of the sixteen cities which have the dis-
furnish to mankind this spectacle. So I determined to do it.
tinction of being the place where the following incident oc-
This was in March, 1878.
curred. Charlemagne, while chasing the Saxons (as he said),
I looked about me for the right sort of person to accom-
or being chased by them (as they said), arrived at the bank
pany me in the capacity of agent, and finally hired a Mr.
of the river at dawn, in a fog. The enemy were either before
Harris for this service.
3
, Mark Twain
him or behind him; but in any case he wanted to get across, noticed that this strange thing was the case in Hamburg,
very badly. He would have given anything for a guide, but too, and in the villages along the road. Even in the narrow-
none was to be had. Presently he saw a deer, followed by her est and poorest and most ancient quarters of Frankfort neat
young, approach the water. He watched her, judging that and clean clothes were the rule. The little children of both
she would seek a ford, and he was right. She waded over, and sexes were nearly always nice enough to take into a body’s
the army followed. So a great Frankish victory or defeat was lap. And as for the uniforms of the soldiers, they were new-
gained or avoided; and in order to commemorate the epi- ness and brightness carried to perfection. One could never
sode, Charlemagne commanded a city to be built there, which detect a smirch or a grain of dust upon them. The street-car
he named Frankfort—the ford of the Franks. None of the conductors and drivers wore pretty uniforms which seemed
other cities where this event happened were named for it. to be just out of the bandbox, and their manners were as
This is good evidence that Frankfort was the first place it fine as their clothes.
occurred at. In one of the shops I had the luck to stumble upon a book
Frankfort has another distinction—it is the birthplace of which has charmed me nearly to death. It is entitled THE
the German alphabet; or at least of the German word for LEGENDS OF THE RHINE FROM BASLE TO ROTTERDAM, by F. J.
alphabet—BUCHSTABEN. They say that the first movable types Kiefer; translated by L. W. Garnham, B.A.
were made on birch sticks—BUCHSTABE—hence the name. All tourists mention the Rhine legends—in that sort of
way which quietly pretends that the mentioner has been
I was taught a lesson in political economy in Frankfort. I
familiar with them all his life, and that the reader cannot
had brought from home a box containing a thousand very
possibly be ignorant of them—but no tourist ever TELLS them.
cheap cigars. By way of experiment, I stepped into a little
So this little book fed me in a very hungry place; and I, in
shop in a queer old back street, took four gaily decorated
boxes of wax matches and three cigars, and laid down a sil- my turn, intend to feed my reader, with one or two little
ver piece worth 48 cents. The man gave me 43 cents change. lunches from the same larder. I shall not mar Garnharn’s
In Frankfort everybody wears clean clothes, and I think we translation by meddling with its English; for the most tooth-
4
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