Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-11-07
Ar ILtt MAXI / j, -.
The April Fool Applications Mad
for the ,Humorist's Autographs.
George w. Cable. the Novelist. Said
2t@ TO Re tho aaxSester Of the.
IT, y -ss@s5 f$'E E#''+:S ~
$ Job Extracts from .
zf~ Letters. -: 49, +.
Hartford Comm Letter.l

r .ssl sr$ tk1art1ord tConn.) Letter. II - t'@
The sensation Of the day il the April Fool
joke put up on Mark Twain BY his friend,
George w. Cable the novelist, who arranged
with $50 Of the leading authors, stage peo-
pie, and notables to leave their letters, ask
ing the great humorist for his autograph,
until April !. Twain was overrun with the
letters, and they have not ceased to come.
He takes the joke practically, and proposes
to send the signatures to the requests to Bar
mum to be exhibited In his show. A few ex-
tracts from few of the letters are eappended:
4 John Hay wants Mark Twain to take a
leisure hour or two and copy for him few
hundred lines of "Young,s Night Thoughts, "
and an equal an,ount of that other dry poem
known as Pollok's "Course OF Time" Col
Hay closes his letter by renarking that he
wants his boy to form a taste for serious and
elevated poetry, and that the quotations
suggested would be of considerable CONNER
cial value il in the handwriting Of the great
humorist.
Clara Louise Kellogg sends dainty note
asking for an autograph and Clara's mother
writes that she is suffering for one. Henry
Irving. sends a typical letter from the Bre-
voort house, saying that the possession of an
autograph OF Twain is matter of life and
death with him, while Ellen Terry's applica-
tion is brief and to the point Napoleon
Sarony writes over the dash Of the pen that
he calls his trades mark for an autograph.
Modjeska drops into "reminiscences She be-
gins her application in English and winds up
in Polish. Edmund Clarence Sted1nan's let
ter is good take-of on the average school
girl who fills in her time in writing to noted
people for their autographs Mr.. Stelman
not only wants q sentiment in his handwrit.
ing, but few pages from "Roughing It," the
"Princes Ahroad,' or "The Innocsnts and
Pauper." Boyesen writes from Columbia
college, and as an inducement mentions
that the autograph, if forthcoming,
would have the conlpanionship of the sig
natures Of Noah, Dante, William Tweed.
Martin Luther, John Kelly, Copernicus,
and other worthless. Daniel Frohrnan offers
to dramatize and adopt an autograph tor
the stage. Bunner, of Puck, wants an auto.
graph for his 2-weeks- old granddaughter,
adding: "The little innocent abroad in this
strange world Of OURS will value your gift
when she is old enough to appreciate it."
Joe Howard, Jr, recalls meeting Mr..
Clemens twenty-four years ago, In front OF
the New York city hall, and then makes an
appeal for tho autograph. Thomas ". Knox
has a royal commission from the king OF
Siam for autographs for the kings 25s chill
dren, and suggests that the order had better
be filed for 800, as the kings family is in.
creasing. Stephen Fiske wants q Mark
Twain autograph for friend who il
going abroad, who wishes to take it
along as a mascot, and Mrs Fiske So
lcats $50 tor church fair booth. Mr.. Whit.
ing, OF The Springfield Republican, want.
Mark Twain to let him know by mail
whether the latter had any traditional
ground for the story of Edward Wis inter
change OF identity with boy Of the slun,a
Lawrence Hutton wants to complete his COL
lection OF manuscripts by adding the original
Of Mr. Clemens latest and most charming
work, "Jean." As Jean is the Youngest
child in Twain household, she will probably
not be forwarded.
Henry Ward Beecher mentions that he is
curmudgeon about answering autograph let
ters He wants TWO from Twain, however,
ono of the real name and one of the
pseidonyn. c. c. Buel, OF The Century
Magazine, wants humorous article for pub
hcation with Clemens signature attached to
every paragraph, SO that the copy could be
sold. r. w. johnson, OF The Century, wants
an autograph for a lame boy, whose mother
has interested him in things spiritual by en-.
couraging him to make an autograph collec.
ton, to be raf1ed for at fair, the proceeds
to go to the society for the suppression OF
the toy pistol G. Y Beach, of Bridgeport,
bases his claim FOR an autograph on an ex.
change of linen busters by mistake at Pough-
Aeepsie few years ago. hi. 8. Beach, writ
ing from Brooklyn, alludes to the prominence
Mr.. Clemens has acquired through his rela
tions with Capt. Duncan Co.. Fairchild, of
Boston, wants a signature for an uncle Hor.
ace E. Scudder, of Boston, wants something
"a holograph, he thinks
J. hyatt Smith, Of Brooklyn, wants Mark
Twain to notify him by mail if he objects to
sending his autograph. T.. B. Aldrich
wants the autograph because it would be
that Of the man who wrote Gabriel Conroy."
Henry Peters, Of New York, wires Mr..
Clemens for two carloads of his heaviest
waterproof autographs. Bloodgocd n. Cut
ter, the Long Island farmer-poet, makes his
request in poor rhyme, and Henry F. Gillig,
of the American exchange In Europe, tele-
graphs to have NIL. Clemens be sure to save
him signature. a University club writer
wants to secure enough of Clemens auto
graphs to start out seven daughters as auto
graph hends. One Of the best of the lot SAYS
it's writer wants Mark Twains signature to
put in a cornerstone. Another applicant
lauds Mr.: Clemens as the author of 1.-THE
Bread Winners The applications of Julian
Hawthorne, Charles Dudley Warmer, and
George P. Lathrop are included in the e'eluge