Silver Tailings: A Pig, a Dog and a Jumping Frog

“Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery,” wrote Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Clemens, better known to the world as Mark Twain, was friends with a Comstock prospector named Jim Gillis.  The pair met when Clemens was still trying to strike it rich as a miner.

Both men were first-class story tellers. They often spent their evenings at Gillis’ shanty telling each other whoppers.

Gillis was a “pocket” miner — one who goes out looking for deposits of minerals. And though it sounds like a whopper in itself — Gillis bought and trained a pig he named, “John Henry,” to help him find these pockets of minerals.

To train the pig, Gillis buried biscuits up and down Sun Mountain (now known as Mt. Davidson.)  It wasn’t long before John Henry caught on and started rooting around the rocky slope for himself.

Now trained, all Gillis had to do is lift his pick and John Henry was off, digging for biscuits. Gillis would then follow behind, looking for mineral deposits in the upturned earth.

Along with the pig, Gillis also had a dog, “Towser.” The two animals had a habit of wrestling when not out with their Master searching for his wealth.

One evening after telling stories, lies and sipping whiskey, Clemens laid down to get some rest. That’s when Gillis, also a practical jokester, opened the shanty’s door and in rushed John Henry and Towser.

The two jumped up on their favorite bunk and proceeded to wrestle — the one Clemens was currently sleeping in. Needless to say, Clemens awoke angry.

After getting away from the animals, Clemens started out the door, calling Gillis every name in the book. In order to calm his friend down, a still laughing Gillis promised to tell him, “the most incredible story you’ve ever heard.”

That story turned out to be one of the yet-to-be-famous Clemens’ first great literary successes — the “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”