It seems to me that these sorts of characters were central to how
Twain saw the world from a 19th century small, rural American town
perspective. Hucksters, quacks and cheats had their particular
attractiveness and appeal to young boys, and no doubt to many girls as
well. They contain the sort of spookiness that children are both
scared of and attracted to at the same time. The more colorful,
fanciful, or unbelievable the character the better. These sorts of
characters did in fact appear from time-to-time in small towns, both
announced and unannounced, and they relied on and employed the
imagination of others and also their gullibility to their advantage.
Twain was not introducing something new to the times but its clearly
hard currency for literary application. I am sure there must be
contemporary examples but none come to mind straight off at the
moment. Its too bad we no longer see many wandering mistrals or small
circuses. The Internet and cable TV are probably to blame, and our
generally modernized and mobile lifestyles. We are no longer captive
audiences waiting for something novel to appear in our neighborhood to
relieve us of our money and boredom.

Steve Crawford

Kulttuuriala, School of Cultural Studies
Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu
Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences
Pitkäkatu 18-22, FI-40700 Jyväskylä
FINLAND