The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-07-15
MARK TWAIN ON NEVADA.
. His Charity Lecture at Hartford.
EARLl FRONTIER EXPERIENCES
Tie Climate and tie PyOaHciioaS-Ho7V
{ he Escaped Fighting Duel
u. Ills Ex6ey1ence With a
A3' BHekiMg NIUE.
LFrom the Hartford % courant

Mark TWaln's lecture In aid OF Father
Hawley's charity fund, last evening, was
singularly entertaining one, and the
audience, which was the largest of the
season, had the double satisfaction of a
good thing for the poor, and for them
selves by their attendance, Twain is a
hard man to report, for fully half the
charm Of lis humor consists m his pecu-
liar delivery of his pungent sayings, but
the humor ofsome passages of his lecture
can be we'll appreciated by reading them.
y went to Nevada, said he, in stage
coach, and it was perfec! pleasure trip.
On the way out drank from spring
way up in the mountains, half of whose
, waters ran to the east and emptied finally
into the Gulf of Mexico. The other half
ran westward and poured at last into the
I Pacific. suppose they meet somewhere
in the Gulf stream, when they have cir
culated thirteen thousand miles, and are
old and tired Of it like the rest of u.s. l
made short stop at Salt Lake City.
There l saw Mormon wedding, or a
part of it. could not wait for details,
for l found that the man was to marry
the whole family. Finally reached
Canon City, They called every place
there city which contained two men
and a dog. 1t is picturesque country,
a beautiful country. There are vast tracts
of sand there, miles in extent. But way
up in the mountains is the most beauti-
ful lake on the face of the earth 1t lies
Just on the border between California
and Nevada, and is over seven thousand
feet above the level of the sea, and is
named Lake Taho. used to 60 up there
with comrade just for the pure Joy of
floating about on its surface Then we
tented Oh the shore at night, and would
spend days on the waters of the lake,
drifting Just wherever our little craft
might happen to. We never did anv-
thing and hardly exercised enough to
keep ourselves awake. Our only exercise
was to play seven up, an interesting, in
tellectual game. Now l don't believe in
playing cards. A man never ought to
play unless he can make something by
it. The waters of that lake are as clear
as the sky. At the rim of it they are
fifty feet deep, and one can see the peb-
bles at the bottom as clearly as though
he held them in his hand. In the mid.
die part of the water is an indigo blue.
That is owing to their depth. They are
often fifteen hundred feet deep. If you
should pile all the church-steeples in
Hartford on the top of each other you
would be able to hang your hat on the
top Of the last one. But in some places
xhe water is Two thousand feet deep.
Church steeples couldn't reach the bot
tDIn in these places They wouldn't be
anywhere You could take the whole
State of Rhode Island and stand it up on
end, and it would hardly touch bottom.
The inhabitants might climb up on it
and hang out their upper lips on the
edge, Another peculiarly of the water
was that you could not swim in it very
well on account Of its lack OF buoyancy.
A body would sink in for few feet and
there hang The water was so cold, too,
that nothing would decay in it. If you
had friend drowned in it, you could 90
there years afterward and fish him out.
The climate about that lake was mag
niRcent. If there is an invalid in the
audience | would advise him togo there.
1t will cure him, / don't care what ails
him. If it don't / will bury him free of
expense, and will do it with pleasure.
know a man there. He was once man,
but he had dwindled down till he was as
thin as the shadow of lightning-rod.
He was clean gone. He was always talk
ing about orphans and funerals He
would sit days and draw plans of eof1ins.
Theplan which suited him best, which
he thought most Of, you would think was
for telegraph pole He was cheerful
lot. Well, that man breathed the pure
air of heaven, and it was his salvation.
He grew better fast His clothes, which
used to flap all about him, began to grow
tight, and, as soon as he began to exer-
cIse, those garments begal to rip, and
you could hear them for rods. Before he
got away he weighed well, he weighed
a ton. I weighed him myself l took
him to the ay-scales, and, TO see that
everything was done fair and square,
dozen Of us stood on the scales while he
was weighed. You think am exagger-
ating this thing, but it is so, The hunt
ing grounds about that lake were superb.
You could hunt days and not find any
thing. The only animal there was the
mountain sheep. He is a cousin 10 the
chamois Of the Alps. He was the only
game there except seven-up. You could
see one of these sheep now and then
with telescope. Yet the country there
was the finest in the world.
Carson City was unique place. There
were thieves, lawyers and backlegs,
highwaymeh and clergymen. One day ]
was walking along with elergymanand
Judge, and we met the most noted des-
pefado in Nevada, Jack Harris. 0faourse
fhad to be introduced. After the intro.
dHction Harris rode away to barn near
by,where man named Julian was mend
ing whip. He never spoke to him, but
drew out his revolver and began TO make
few remarks with it. Julian got up,
also drew,a revolver, aud began to reply
toiwhst Harris had to say. Pretty soon
Harris came riding back, two Or three
crimson spots showing where he had
been. particularly struck with JuIian's
remarks He was looking for a doctor
oekti undettA Akerss The two go together
pretty we'll We'll, thu country was so
healing that in few days he was as
well as ever he had been. But it mf de