Who was Blucher in The Innocents Abroad?

Mark Twain uses a fictional character in The Innocents Abroad to help him tell representative stories based on different passengers on the Quaker City. In his original Alta letters, he used a character named Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown shows up roughly twenty one times in the Alta letters (roughly because it depends how you divide up the mentions in each letter). Seven of those times, Brown becomes Blucher in The Innocents Abroad. One time Brown become a more generic ‘thoughtful old pilgrim’. Two times Brown’s stories in the Alta letters become Jack’s stories in the book.

Blucher shows up twice in a letter written to the New York Tribune, in the same role as Mr. Brown. Those two instances remain Blucher in the book.

Blucher shows up twice in the book in new stories, such as visiting a store on Broadway in New York before the Quaker City left. None of the original letters dealt with the time before the trip.

In addition to the two Brown stories that were attributed to Jack in the book, there is one Brown/Blucher story we know is based on another passenger. In a letter to his mother (Jan 8, 1868), Twain tells the story of Major James Barry riding his horse towards a mosque, the same story that was told as being Brown in an Alta letter (published 1867-09-01), and then as Blucher in The Innocents Abroad.

The following is a table showing where Brown shows up in the Alta letters, where Blucher shows up in the New York Tribune letter, and how they show up in the book. A dash (‘-’) means that story doesn’t show up.