The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-09-12
MARK TWAIN BACK AGAIN.
Freely Expressing His Opinion About
Various Things. 4 &.
New York Sun, srd.1

is as nasal and as deliberate as ever.
His hat, as he stood on the deck OF the
incoming Cunarder Gallia, yesterday,
was of the pattern that English army
officers wear in India, and his suit of
clothes was such as merchant wears
at his store. He looks older than when
he went to Germany, and his hair has
turned quite gray. His wife returned
with him, and his brother-in-law came
on board at Quarantine. $780," as
Mark Twain said, ssI shall let him
take care of my lug-eage and
fight it out with the Custom
House offc-ers.'' a. s ....
GIVE had good time," said he,
tsduring tie seventeen months I've
been abroad. You remember / went
out on a Dutch steamer-the same one
that Bayard Taylor went on. He got
out at Plymouth, and I never saw
him again. While he was at Berlin I
corresponded with him, and we made
an appointment to meet in the fall. I
stayed on the Continent most of the
time" =,tt .,.-
nHow far have you got in sOllen-
dorf'?" he was asked.
teOh, I don't speak German" re-
piled the humorist. tsIts enough that
I've endured the agony of learning to
read it. I made two or three speeches
in German at Heidelberg-in my Pc
culiar German. I stayed at Heidel-
berg four months. could have writ
ten my book in German; but then, you
see, want the book read. So wrote
it In English. English is about the
cleverest language ever handled. I
like English ........ .......-.... K.
. Somebody nudged Mark Twain and
introduced to him man who said that
H. nr1 @f H., h 10
writings, but had never had the pleas
ure, &c.
eyes" said Mr.. Clemens, tsI stayed
a long while in Heidelberg and in
Dresden and Munich and Venice and
Paris, and about four weeks in Lon
don. Wherever I stayed a month I
went to work on my book. It's fin
ished, and will be published in No
vember. I don't know what the name
of it is, but I know what it's about.
It's about this trip I've taken. No, it
isn't fiction-it's about my journey,
like the tInnocents Abroad all seri-
ous-an facts and wisdom. I say it's
finished, but it isn't The first half is
done, but I've got to go through the
last half and throw whole RATS of it
away. After that may run through
the first half and throw away lots of
ter. Pm going to have it published
by the same folks that published all
my things"
Here a young man intervened be-
tween Mr.. Clemens and the reporter,
and said he'd often read of Mr.. Clemens
and seen his writing, but that this was
really the first time,. &c.
ssSome of the places went to-" Mr..
Clemens continued, tfI had been to be-
fore, but most of them were new. I
suppose New York's changed. I used
to go up block or two above the
GiIsey House to see the men work on
the elevated railroads.&c. see how fast
they slung the iron together. Before
went away Dan Slote and parted one
afternoon, and next day Dan told me
that he wanted to hurry up town, so
he started for the elevated railroad
ming then. Well, he got a thinking,
and he thought that it was risky for
man with family and good busi-
ness to trust to one of those roads. So
he turned on his heel, and walked
away to get bus. Well, there was
a woman washing windows near the
| top of four-story house, and down
she came, so close to Dan that her
| heels took the buttons off his coat and
| her head creased his shoulder. She
was killed, of course, and Dan had
narrow escape. The moral of that is,
in my opinion, that a man whois look
ing out for his life might as well trust
to his first impulses"
At this point there was introduced to
Mark Twain robust seafaring man
who said he had often heard of MIR.
Clemens, but had never read a word;
and then he corrected himself and said
he had never bad the extreme pleas
ure, &c.
nWhen I sailed in the Batavia"
said Mr. Clemens to the It 2
81 had a different opinion of the
Cunard line from that which L now
entertain. I objected to the prunes. 1
suppose you know that when the Gu
| narders changed from sailing to steam
| power, they maintained some of their
old sailing ideas ON the new steam
propelled ships. Prunes was one of
these old ideas. Why, they had regu-
| e. -,