But his career
in Carson City came to a sudden close when he challenged the editor of
the Virginia Union to a duel, the bloodless conclusion of which is
narrated in the Autobiography. But even a challenge to a duel was
against the new law of Nevada; and obeying the warning of Governor
North, the duellists crossed the border without ceremony, and stood not
upon the order of their going.
While Mark Twain was still with the Enterprise, he was in the habit of
reserving all his "sketches" for the San Francisco newspapers, the
'Golden Era' and the 'Morning Call'. He now turns his steps to that
storied city of "Frisco," and was not long in extending his fame on that
coast. He was incorrigibly lazy, as George Barnes, the editor of the
Call, soon discovered; and Kipling was told when he was in San Francisco
that Mark was in the habit of coiling himself into a heap and meditating
until the last minute, when he would produce copy having no relationship
to the subject of his assignment--"which made the editor swear horribly,
and the readers of 'The Call' ask for more.
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