Twain on the "Self-made Man"

Hey Folks,

I’ve been re-reading Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court and sharing pieces of Twain’s political commentary with you here (this is the 15th entry) .

His insights remain pertinent to this day. We haven’t changed much from Twain’s day – or from King Arthur’s, for that matter.

- Uke Man

Chapter 32 – The Yankee, still in disguise, sets up the blacksmith, a “self-made man” who is quite full of himself to blather on about his own importance.

Dowley was in fine feather, and I early got him started, and then adroitly worked him around onto his own history for a text and himself for a hero, and then it was good to sit there and hear him hum. Self-made man, you know. They know how to talk. They do deserve more credit than any other breed of man, yes, that’s true; and they are among the very first to find it out, too. He told how he had begun life an orphan lad without money and without friends able to help him [etc., etc. – until he achieved his present "high" station in life – at least compared to the other artisans in the village – that is, as he says] “Two times in every month there is fresh meat upon my table . . .and eight times, salt meat . . . [and] on my table appeareth white bread every Sunday in the year.”