Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-01-16
MARX rwAIN's YOUTH.
His Early Days In the Cumberland Rive
Valley and His Relatives Of To-Day.
Glasgow (Ky.j Times.

NAeoboh ny - AAAuNofi
Recently, several different state
ments of the birthplace Of Samuel l.,
Clemens, or Mark Twain, as he is
better known, have been given to the
public, accompanied by the statement
that each was correct. One of the
stories was to the effect that Twain
was born in the neighboring county OF
Adair. Another in Fentress county,
Tennessee, and another in Hannibal,
Missouri. Knowing that it was one Of
the impossiblities for the celebrated
humorist to be born in more han one
of these places, We applied the inquis-
itorial pump to James Bryan, who,
besides being a staunch business man
and one of the foremost merchants of
our town, is second cousin, by blood,
OF the renowned humorist. Mr.. Bry-
an says that Mark Twain was born iu
Tennessee, Fentress county. The re-
port of his birth in Adair county is
owing to the fact that his parents left
there for Tennessee only a few months
before he saw the light. And the ac-
counts of his having come into the
world at Hannibal, Missouri,
are explained by a SINH
lar removal to that point from Ten
nessee before he had been promoted
to the dignity of breeches. MI. and
Mrs. Clemens, father and mother of
the funny man. were married in Adair
county, and lived there for some
time. Many of Marks nearest rela-
tives are still residents of that section.
Mrs. Clemens, the maternal ancestor
of Mark, visited Adair and this place
some two or three years since on a
tour among her kinspeople. Mrs.
Clemens stated that Mark was always
an incorrigible boy, filled with rowing
im~aginations from his very earliest
age, and could never be persuaded or
forced to attend to his books and
study his lessons as other boys did.
When about fifteen years ofage he n
day came in from school and asked
her to give him five dollars. On be-
ing questioned as to what he wanted
with it, he said that he wanted it to
start out travelling with. He didn't
get his five dollars, but he assured his
mother that he would so, all the same,
and forthwith really disappeared, nor
did the good lady ever set eyes on him
again until he was grown.
Many Of the most %ludicrous scenes
in his works are taken from real oc-
currences-embelished to suit-of his
life. The steamboat scene in Col.
Sellers adventures was witnessed by
him while on his aimless wanderings.
His adventure with a dead man in
his fathers Office, at Hannibal. Mo.
was also literally true. He had played
hockey from school all day and far
into the night and rather than go
home and be greeted with a flogging.
raised a window and climbed into the
Office with the intention of resting all
night on a lounge there. His descrip-
ton of the horror creeping over him
as he saw a CHASTITY hand lying in the
moonlight; how he shut his eyes and
tried to count, and opened them in
time to see the dead man lying or
the floor stiff and stark with
a ghastly wound in his side,
and last now he beat a ter
rifed retreat through the window,
carrying the sash with him for con-
v~enience." is wildly remembered by
every reader of THE Gilded Age
Mrs. Clemens asserts that the whole
thing transpired as Mark recorded it
mar was killed in a street fight
almost in front of Mr.. Clemens door.
was taken in there while a post NOR
TEN examination was held, and there
left until next morning. During the
night Mark came in, and the scene he
has so l~udicrously but graphically de-
picted was enacted.
Mr.. Clemens seems to have well
nigh forgotten his kith ED kin among
the hills of the Cumberland, and it is
little comfort for them to know that
their illustrious relative has a summer
villa on the Hudson, two or three
winter residences in the cities, a rich
wife and no end ofmOney.