Annotations for _Roughing It_ (UCal Press, 1993), p. 702 state the "mendicant Blucher" was identified by Clemens in a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks of 29 June 1871 as John Henry Riley. Annotations for _Mark Twain to Mrs. Fairbanks_ (Huntington Library, 1949) p. 155 indicate that Clemens apparently tried to delete the name Riley from the letter and substituted Blucher, the name being used in a lectures Clemens was writing titled "Reminiscences of some Un-Commonplace Characters I have Chanced to Meet." The character Blucher/Riley is not to be confused with Blucher from _Innocents Abroad_, the ingenious youth in _Innocents Abroad_. Barb