Abnormal Interests

The other is from Alta California, March 3, 1868, Mark Twain on His Travels where he offered a critique of "The White Fawn":

I think these hundreds of princely costumes are changed every fifteen minutes during half the night; splendid pageants are filing about the stage constantly, yet one seems never to see the same dress twice. The final grand transformation scene is a vision of magnificence such as no man could imagine unless he had eaten a barrel of hasheesh.

Neither of these are unambiguous references to Twain having used hash. By the way, if you haven't been to the Mark Twain Quotes, site it is a must.

There is also this from the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, September 18 1865, p. 3:

It appears that a "Hasheesh" mania has broken out among our Bohemians. Yesterday, Mark Twain and the "Mouse-Trap" man [Tremenheere Lanyon Johns] were seen walking up Clay street under the influence of the drug, followed by a "star," who was evidently laboring under a misapprehension as to what was the matter with them. The "experiences" of the twain may be looked for in the next number of the Californian. [apud Robert Hirst via email on the Mark Twain Forum].

As Kevin Mac Donnell observes in an email, this may have just been one journalist getting back at another.

An interesting detail with regard to Twain and hash comes from another line of speculation. In 1857, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, published a (in)famous book called the Hasheesh Eater. Paine, in his Biography of Mark Twain , tells of a now lost letter supposedly to Twain's mother. The relevant part of the letter reads as follows:

And if Fitzhugh Ludlow (author of the ‘Hasheesh Eater’) comes your way, treat him well. He published a high encomium upon Mark Twain (the same being eminently just and truthful, I beseech you to believe) in a San Francisco paper. Artemus Ward said that when my gorgeous talents were publicly acknowledged by such high authority I ought to appreciate them myself, leave sage-brush obscurity, and journey to New York with him, as he wanted me to do. But I preferred not to burst upon the New York public too suddenly and brilliantly, so I concluded to remain here.

Not much meat here either. The real question is, was Twain ever actually in Ludlow's company in San Francisco. The evidence is at best ambiguous. It is indeed possible that Twain had a copy of Hasheesh Eater in his personal library. Or at least some scholars think he did.

I suppose the preponderance of the evidence is that Twain messed around with hash while in San Francisco. If so, he would not be the first or the last. That being said, Twain's preferred drug was tobacco. He likely had a taste of whiskey. Whether or not Twain ever said, "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over" is still debated.