A letter to Sam's best friend from Hannibal possibly provides the best portrayal of his life there:

Sunday Afternoon,
At Home, 472 Delaware Avenue,
Buffalo Feb. 6, 1870.

My First, & Oldest & Dearest Friend,

Hannibal has had a hard time of it ever since I can recollect, and I was "raised" there. First, it had me for a citizen, but I was too young then to really hurt the place. Next, Jimmy Finn, the town drunkard, reformed, and that broke up the only saloon in the village. But the temperance people liked it; they were willing enough to sacrifice public prosperity to public morality.

We rumbled over the plains and valleys, climbed the Sierras to the clouds, and looked down upon summer-clad California. And I will remark here, in passing, that all scenery in California requires distance to give it its highest charm.

Chapter 54 from Roughing It:

Chapter 52 of Roughing It:

"Six months after my entry into journalism the grand “flush times” of Silverland began, and they continued with unabated splendor for three years. All difficulty about filling up the “local department” ceased, and the only trouble now was how to make the lengthened columns hold the world of incidents and happenings that came to our literary net every day.