The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-03-19
[From the Evansville Courier.l
The Original OF Colonel Mulberry
Sellers.

Mark Twain's Colonel Mulberry Sell
lers is proving himself one of those hap
py creations of fancy which, upon closer
acquaintance, assumes an identity pecu-
liaTly its own. He is the pronounced
embodiment Of that element In our ma
ture which is strongest during the hal
cyon DAYS of youth, and which tempts
to the building Of castles in the air
Colonel Sellers' There's millions in il"
is beginning to be as much quoted and
as popularity applied as wilkins Micaw-
der's "Waiting for something to turn
up"
This old visionary and inflated bal
loon is q happy creature. His b0Hhom-
ME opens for him the way amongst men,
and makes him welcome gnost, and bis
sanguine temperament keeps him, like a
cork, on the top of life even when most
piDched by poverty and reverses. lie is
withal a genius, and is as ready-witted
and fertile in subterfuge AZ Pope's May
when dealing with January. her old aud
suspicious husband. What can lie more
mastery in strategy than the turn he
gives matters when Washington Hawk
iHs surprises him and his family dining
on raw turnips and wafer2 Any ordi-
nary mortal, covered with shame, would
have owned mp 10 his abiect poverty and
acknowledged himself beaten, but the
intrepid old easometer instantly recovers
himself. and insists that Washington
shall join in the meal. Tie digniies
these diaphonOus articles Of diet by call
ing them "Tbe carly Malcombs," which
can't be produced except in one orchard
in New Jersey, from which he has inn
ported them himself and the supply is
never mp 10 the demandi Why IL IL that
they have raw turnips for dinner, and
nothing but cold water with them? IL
il because there il nothing elae in the
house, as Washington would naturally
suppose? Bless you, no, no! II is be-
cause the plague, which depopulated
London two hundred years ago. you
know, is following the Gulf stream, as il
always does, and il setting this nny, and
becanse disa of this flnit IL a Eure pre-
ventive Of that fatal disease. especially
when you drink plenty Of cold water 70
make them ferment, you know. His
friend, the Russian Baron Poniatowski.
always ate mustard with his tnrnips, and
nsed to insist that a man can't know what
tnrnips are in perfection without mus
tard.
The Colonel Mulberry Sellers in the
play, although the same Sellers, is not
Mulberry in the novel But when Glenn
ems Mark Twain and Warner issued
their first edition Of the "Gilded Age"
they called him Eschol-Col0nel Eschol
Sellers Now this name Is, with many
of our citizens, a name Of familiar sound,
as it belongs TO an individual actually in
the flesh who is well known 10 many of
the readers Of the Courier. The proto.
type Of the renowned hero Of the book,
is proprietor Of large coal mine and
mineral lands on the Lower Ohio, below
Shawneetown, Illinois, in which enter
prise Philadelphia capitalists, among
whom ex Secretary Of the Navy Borie is
most prominent, are concerned with him.
IL is said that Mark Twain met this gen
tleman in the East somewhere, and from
the peculiarities Of the man wasinduced
10 appropriate his name. When the facts
became known TO Mr.. Sellers through
the distribution Of the first edition, he
Immediately went East, and protested
against the unauthorized uRe Of his name
and the authors were compelled 10
change the name so far ~ to substitute
Bcriah for Eschol, and at a cost to them
il is said, Of fifteen thousand dollars, rs
part of the second edition was then
nnder way and had 10 le destroyed. No
doubt the observing eve Of the novelist
must have detected much Of that in the
man Sellers, which the Colonel Sellers
in the book expresses ~ forcibly and apt
ly in the short and pithy sentence,
There j. millions in it!' Mr.. Sellers
of Sellers Landing, is an inventor, md
all the world knows that inventors are.
and must be, idealists and enthnaiasia
We, OF the every day routine Of life. can
hardly appreciate the inner feelings of
the inventor and the poet; and their va
carries, 10 our dull ewes, seem bat ton OF.
ten vain vaporings and bubbles. while tn
them they are realities-the children of
their brain-of each one Of which ihev
feel justified in declaring to everybody
seeking investment, "Thcre are millinrs
in it," A number Of wears ago Mr.
Sellers erected papcT-mill in the knobs
nf Hardin county. Illiuoia, overlooking
the Ohio river opposite the town Of Ca
SEVILLE, KY, bnilt small town and cv-
tablished n postofiice, and called the
place Sellers Landing, like Stone.
Landing, in the book after tho failure of
the Salt Lick and Pacific Railroad ia
now deserted, and grass grows in its mud
paved streets.
Mr.. Sellers, however Is man Of cui-
ture and refinement. He il Of old Qua
ker stock, and the name stands well in
the city Of Philadelphia. Mr.. Sellers
is a man of much and varit d informa-
tion, and like most enthusiasts, a fluent
talker. But we protest that Mark
Twain indulges in an unwarrsHtcd, tho
poets license, when he makes his name
sake in the book tell Young Hawkins
that he and the Rothschilds are going TO
bny up ll3 wildcat Banks IN Ohio, In
diana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri,
and make forty millions by H. And the
picture IL overdrawn when the Colonel
utterly dnmbfounds Hawkins, whose
mouth begins 10 water at the prospect Of
making S350,000 profit ont OF 100000
bottles of eye-water to be sold hy them
in the United States, by the assertion
that "the Republic Of America is no
country for eve water at ALL" "Whv,
Washington. my boy" SAYS the Colonel,
ain the Oriental countries, people swarm
like the sands Of the deeert; every square
mile of ground uPholds its thousands
upon thousands Of struggling human
creatures, and every separate and indi-
vidual devil Of them's got the opthal-
mia! It's as natural 10 them as noses are
and sin. It's born with them. il STAYS
with them, its all that some Of them
have left when they die. Three years
Of Introductory trade in the Orient, and
what will be the result? Why, our head
quarters would be in Constantin7ple, and
our hindquartcrs in Further India. Fac.
tories and warehouses in Cairo, Ishpa-
han, Bagdad, Damascus, Jerusalem,
Yeddo, Peking, Bangkok, Delhi, Bonn
hay and Calcutta Annual income
we'll. God only knows how many mil
lions snd millions apiece ~
-@-@-@
~