'Looking for the Drowned Dead: With a Loaf of Bread and Mercury?' An antiquated custom, which at one time was popular both in Europe and the United States, was the search for individuals who had drowned by using 'quicksilver,' an archaic term for the element mercury. The famed American writer, Mark Twain, in his familiar work, Huckleberry Finn, relates an example of the superstition of local villagers in Missouri, searching for a drowned corpse, by placing quicksilver in a loaf of bread. This was then thrown into the water near the site where the deceased individual's body was believed to have been submerged. Purportedly, the corpse would then float to the water's surface and thus be retrieved by the seekers. An early example of the above belief can be found in a prestigious London publication, that of The Gentleman's Magazine, for April of 1767. Newspapers throughout the United States during the 19th century, also printed examples of drowned persons being found by the same procedure as discussed in English publications.
Www2.potsdam.edu/neurott192/SECD210/Assign.3combined.pdf. Mark Twain quotations - Tom Blankenship. Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions: In Huckleberry Finn I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had. His liberties were totally unrestricted. He was the only really independent person--boy or man--in the community, and by consequence he was tranquilly and continuously happy and envied by the rest of us. And as his society was forbidden us by our parents the prohibition trebled and quadrupled its value, and therefore we sought and got more of his society than any other boy's. - Mark Twain's Autobiography Quotations | Newspaper Articles | Special Features | Links | Search.
Www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/huckleberry_finn.pdf. Story of the Bad Little Boy. Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 . Story of the Bad Little Boy Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library | Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage | Story of the Bad Little Boy. ONCE there was a bad little boy whose name was Jim -- though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday-school books. He didn't have any sick mother either -- a sick mother who was pious and had the consumption, and would be glad to lie down in the grave and be at rest but for the strong love she bore her boy, and the anxiety she felt that the world might be harsh and cold towards him when she was gone. Who teach them to say, "Now, I lay me down," etc., and sing them to sleep with sweet, plaintive voices, and then kiss them good-night, and kneel down by the bedside and weep.
Everything about this boy was curious -- everything turned out differently with him from the way it does to the bad Jameses in the books. Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain's Mississippi. Mark Twain Project :: Home.