Mark Twain Fails as a Miner and Works as a Reporter

1862
Twain Travels West
In an adventure later chronicled in the book Roughing It, Twain travels to Nevada with his brother Orion, who had been named the secretary to the territorial governor. He tries his hand at mining and other schemes, without much success, before becoming a reporter for the Virginia City (Nev.) Daily Territorial Enterprise.

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