Mark Twain and the Good Old Days

I was listening to an audio book of Mark Twain’s "Life on the Mississippi" . As he was telling about a trip from New York to the Mississippi River, he observed that the further one traveled from New York, the more plain people seemed to be. Although the clothing plain people wore may have come from the same New York manufacturers as those worn by the most sylish New Yorker, the choice of attire became more conservative in style and color as distance from the Big Apple increased.
So, what the hell does that have to do my blog? Well, Mark Twain went on to say that those people who were most plain and conservative were so out of touch that they actually believed the literal biblical timeline. That observation was made about a trip in the 1880’s. Imagine that. When Mark Twain wrote those words he knew that suggesting that people were young earth creationists would be viewed by his readers as the height of ignorance. And in the 21st cen. such an admission can get you elected president.