# Roughing It — Character guide

> Key figures in Roughing It by Mark Twain.

- [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/narrator.md): He arrives west expecting adventure and finds it in stagecoach robberies, mining swindles, and lecturing halls where his carefully prepared pathos collapses into uproarious comedy. His chief tension is between the romant
- [Slade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/slade.md): Feared and whispered about along the Overland route, Slade is the desperado whose name alone can silence a stagecoach full of passengers. His peculiar tension lies in the way he can let an enemy alone for weeks, apparent
- [The Admiral](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/the_admiral.md): Aboard the westward steamer, the Admiral is the passenger everyone dreads and no one can refute, since he simply creates the history he needs to win. His flaw is a temper that erupts within minutes, driving his audience 
- [Mr. Winters](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_winters.md): A fellow passenger on the overland stagecoach journey.
- [Higbie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/higbie.md): Higbie is the reliable partner whose one lapse—chasing the seductive rumor of a cement mine—costs the pair their claim. His tension is between his ordinarily dependable nature and the mining fever that no old prospector 
- [Mr. Young](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_young.md): A passenger on the stagecoach, later a minor acquaintance.
- [Scotty Briggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/scotty_briggs.md): Scotty is a Virginia City miner whose loyalty to Buck Fanshaw drives him to seek a clergyman for the funeral, despite his own unfamiliarity with religious forms. His tension lies in the gap between his rough frontier spe
- [Arkansas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/arkansas.md): A quarrelsome and drunken passenger on the steamer.
- [Buck Fanshaw](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/buck_fanshaw.md): Buck is the beloved roughneck whose generosity and good humor made him a pillar of the mining camp, and whose funeral draws the whole community. His significance lies less in his own actions than in the elaborate, mismat
- [Mr. Ballou](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_ballou.md): Ballou holds no rank in the narrator's four-man cabin beyond age, yet he never claims exemption from cold ground, hard labor, or the communal blanket pile. His one vanity is vocabulary: he calls the exhausted horses 'bit
- [Capt. Ned Blakely](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/ned_blakely.md): Blakely is the harbor's most decisive man, a captain who arrests Bill Noakes by walking behind his quartermaster with a double-barreled gun rested on the man's shoulder and the warning 'you know me.' When the other capta
- [Tom Quartz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/tom_quartz.md): A clever and mischievous cat belonging to a miner.
- [Ollendorff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/ollendorff.md): Ollendorff carries the camp's bad luck and its softest heart: he turned over the canoe, led the party in circles through the snow, and has nursed a wound ever since Mr. Ballou called him a logarithm. Facing what looks li
- [Jack Williams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/jack_williams.md): A deputy marshal and passenger on the overland stage.
- [Col. Jack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/col_jack.md): A military officer and acquaintance in the Nevada territory.
- [Brigham Young](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/brigham_young.md): In the narrator's two-day pass through Salt Lake City, Brigham Young looms less as a man than as a system: a republican form of government on the surface, an absolute monarchy underneath, with a harem of twenty or thirty
- [Captain Cook](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/captain_cook.md): The famous British explorer, discussed in the Hawaiian section.
- [Mr. Street](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_street.md): A fellow passenger and later acquaintance in Nevada.
- [Horace Greeley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/horace_greeley.md): The famous newspaper editor, mentioned in a stagecoach anecdote.
- [Eckert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/eckert.md): A miner and friend of the narrator in the silver fields.
- [George Gumbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/george_gumbert.md): A miner and companion in the narrator's early Nevada days.
- [Hank Monk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/hank_monk.md): A famous stagecoach driver known for a wild ride with Horace Greeley.
- [Jim Blaine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/jim_blaine.md): A garrulous old miner who tells a long, rambling story.
- [Sugarfoot Mike](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/sugarfoot_mike.md): A minor character in the mining camps, often mentioned.
- [Capt. John Nye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/capt_john_nye.md): A captain and acquaintance of the narrator in Nevada.
- [Governor Roop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/governor_roop.md): A territorial governor and referee in a mining dispute.
- [Lan'lord](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/lanlord.md): The landlord of a hotel or boarding house in the mining town.
- [Boggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/boggs.md): A miner and acquaintance in the Nevada territory.
- [George Bemis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/george_bemis.md): A miner and friend of the narrator in the camps.
- [Dan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/dan.md): A miner and companion of the narrator.
- [Captain Fish](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/captain_fish.md): A sea captain encountered during the narrator's travels.
- [Reuel Gridley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/reuel_gridley.md): A man who runs a humorous sack of flour auction for charity.
- [Conrad Wiegand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/conrad_wiegand.md): A German miner involved in a notable incident in the camps.
- [Joseph Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/joseph_smith.md): The founder of Mormonism, discussed in the Salt Lake City section.
- [Billy Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/billy_brown.md): A miner and acquaintance of the narrator.
- [Philip Lynch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/philip_lynch.md): A miner and acquaintance in the camps.
- [The Dissolute Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/dissolute_stranger.md): A seedy, literary-minded stranger encountered in a bar.
- [John Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/john_smith.md): A common name used for a minor character in the camps.
- [Liholiho](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/liholiho.md): A Hawaiian king, mentioned in the Sandwich Islands section.
- [John B. Winters](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/john_b_winters.md): A general and acquaintance in the Nevada territory.
- [Mr. Lynch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_lynch.md): A minor character in the Nevada mining community.
- [Kaahumanu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/kaahumanu.md): A Hawaiian queen, mentioned in the Sandwich Islands section.
- [Baldy Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/baldy_johnson.md): A miner and acquaintance in the camps.
- [Whiteman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/whiteman.md): A minor character in the mining camp stories.
- [Mr. Goodman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/mr_goodman.md): A newspaper editor and acquaintance of the narrator.
- [Kamehameha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/kamehameha.md): The great Hawaiian king, discussed in the Sandwich Islands section.
- [Johnny K—](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/johnny_k.md): A minor character in the Nevada mining community.
- [Old Curry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters/old_curry.md): An old miner and acquaintance of the narrator.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/roughing_it_se/characters