Mark Twain's dream

In the late 1850's young Mark Twain and his brother Henry worked together on the riverboats then playing the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans.

One night during a stay at his sisters house in St. Louis, Twain had an unusually vivid dream. In it he saw his brother's corpse lying in a metal coffin in his siter's sitting room. The coffin rested on two chairs, and a bouquet with a single crimson flower at its centre had been placed on Henry's chest.

When Twain awoke, he was quite convinced that his brother had died and was lying in the sitting room. He dressed, thought of visiting the corpse, but decided to take a walk first. He left the house and had gone half a block before he realized he had been dreaming. He then returned and told his sister of the dream.

A few weeks later Twain and his brother were together in New Orleans but took different boats back to St. Louis. Henry's passage was on the 'Pennsylvania', whose boilers exploded not far from Memphis, killing many people. Henry was badly injured and taken, in great pain, to Memphis, where he died a few days later.

Although most victims of the accident were buried in wooden coffins, a number of Memphis woman, moved by pity for the young man, raised the money to provide a metal coffin. Thus, when Mark Twain came to say his last farewells to his brother, he found the body lying in a metal coffin. just as it had been in his dream. The bouquet, however, was missing. But as Twain stood beside the body a woman entered the room and placed on Henry's chest a bouquet of white flowers. At its centre was a single red rose