Mark Twain, ca. 1860. Bret Harte has related the story of how he first met Mark Twain while working at the San Francisco Mint. George Barnes, a fellow journalist, introduced him to the young Twain who Harte describes as follows, “His head was striking. He had the curly hair, the aquiline nose and even the aquiline eye — an eye so eagle-like the a second lid would not have surprised me — of an unusual and dominant nature …” Harte and Twain became friends for a time, collaborating on a play based on one of Harte’s stories.