Sunday, May 16, 2010

famous pit bull owners: the mark twain edition


Mark Twain and cat
very early in my research of mark twain, i discovered this man had a deep love for cats. i immediately began to have doubts about the pit nutters inclusion of him on their famous list. of all of the famous people that i have researched so far that were erroneously included on the famous list, Mark Twain is by far the most amusing. Mark Twain didn't even care for dogs all that much. but don't take my word for it. read on and be sure to check the links.

from Mark Twain, a Biography: the Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Albert Bigelow Paine volume 2 p 685:
i especially like this sentiment, "By what right has the dog come to be regarded as a "noble" animal? The more brutal and cruel and unjust you are to him the more your fawning and adoring slave he becomes;…" this leads me to believe that Mark Twain would have reserved his greatest disdain for the american pit bull terrier.

also from Paine's biography:

even though Twain seemed to have a general dislike of dogs, he at least a good sense of dogs and genetics, unlike the pit nutters of today:

further evidence that indicates he was not fond of dogs. Mark Twain made the following statement at a dinner commemorating Benjamin Franklin:

it does appear that Mark Twain owned at least one dog. well at least it appears that his daughters owned at least one dog.

i do have a theory how Mark Twain ended up on the pit nutters' list. he references dog fighting and baiting in his fictional work. in The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, there is a character by the name of Jim Smiley who likes to bet on dog and cock fights. and then there is this excerpt from Huckleberry Finn
The hogs loafed and grunted around everywheres. You'd see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, where folks had to walk around her, and she'd stretch out and shut her eyes and wave her ears whilst the pigs was milking her, and look as happy as if she was on salary. And pretty soon you'd hear a loafer sing out, "Hi! SO boy! sick him, Tige!" and away the sow would go, squealing most horrible, with a dog or two swinging to each ear, and three or four dozen more a-coming; and then you would see all the loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight, and laugh at the fun and look grateful for the noise. Then they'd settle back again till there was a dog fight. There couldn't anything wake them up all over, and make them happy all over, like a dog fight -- unless it might be putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting fire to him, or tying a tin pan to his tail and see him run himself to death.



SPECIAL THANKS TO CKING. without this individual's help, discrediting the pit nutters' claim that Mark Twain was a pit bull owner may not have been possible.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow you really need to get a life. seriously, talk about "pit nutters" you have got to be the biggest nut job on the surface of this planet, not mention your little cult followers. Idiots

scurrilous amateur blogger said...

i struck a nerve :)

Friends Administrator said...

As usual whenever you discover the truth and blow these f*****s outta the water, Craven. One by one they fall.

Anonymous said...

Another pit bull advocate comes here to say that dead children and adults are perfectly acceptable so that those with the Nazi mentality can own a fighting breed

PIT BULL ADVOCATES LIKE DEAD PEOPLE!

Bagheera Kiplingi said...

Another one bites the dust! Picking off the "famous" pit bull owners one by one. Good job, you too Cking!

It's funny how these pit nutters work overtime to defend their dogs. And defending their dogs, involves lying. But that's okay. When efforts are made to expose their lies, then we are nut jobs!

I'm not sure advocates LIKE dead people so much as they don't mind dead people. Like our dogs and horses and cats, it's just collateral damage to them. Take Louis P.Colby for example. NORMAL people would probably never own another dog after a fatality. But not pit nutters and their ilk, the deaths don't even phase them.

Anonymous said...

Im surprised these pit bull advocates still come to your blog. Guess they can't get enough of themselves.

Anonymous said...

Mark Twain really did have a Pit Bull, it says so right here, it even has a picture
http://www.precisesecurity.com

It's the 4th paragraph down

Bud Savoie said...

I can find no reference to Twain or the Pit Bull on the site provided by Anonymous.

Unknown said...

I have found a photo of Twain with what appears to be a Pit Bull. It is on page 170 of the book *Mark Twain for Dog Lovers*, which volume should be in the hands of all lovers of the canine species. Alas for the Pit nutters, the dog was just one of several he encountered on a trip to Bermuda; and while Twain liked dogs much more than is generally believed, he would not have carried one with him by ship to Bermuda. Most of the dogs in the Twain household were actually the property of his daughter Jean, a true animal lover and activist for their welfare.