The Washington critic., 1889-01-11
TWAIN in WASHINGTON.
THE ROOM IN WHICH HE WROTE
"THE IoNNoOENTs ABROAD"
How He Appeared in the Early Days
When He Was Not a Noted and Wealthy
Author-The Impressions of Ono of His
Associates.

After Twains return from his great
trip on the Quaker City as one of the
"Innocents," Ramsdell used to relate, he
came to Washington. This was, think,
some time In 1867 or early in 1868. No
body knew him, and nobody cared rap
for him. He was with Reilly Git may
have been Riley; / think it was; / am
sure it was) nearly all the time, and was
addicted to John Barleycorn. lie made
his headquarters at the tribune Bureau,
and was not always welcome, for he was
never good-natured, and was sometimes
absolutely offensive, so much so that the
correspondents did not always like to see
him about--like George III, Butler, for
example. know that John Russell
Young, who was then the managing
editor of the New York Tribune, happen
ing in Washington, lodged Twain, just
rs we now dodge Butler under certain
circumstances. / believe he was all this
time writing letters TO the Alta, although
Riley was the regular correspondent.
Shortly after the time l speak of left
Washington for several months. When
l came back the late Henry d. Cooke
gave great banquet at his magnificent
house ut was palace) III Georgetown to
a lot of newspaper men. He had heard
of Twain and he Crwain) was one of the
guests. So was |. To my surprise l
saw Twain, who was in evening dress,
looking as much the gentleman as any
one at the board; and jerome Stillson
was there, the handsomest man | ever
saw-at that time. And General Sher-
man was there and q lot of distinguished
fellows 1t was the first great dinner l
ever attended, and, remembering 1t now,
1t seems to me that it was the finest |
ever attended, though Heaven knows 1
have had enough of them since.
TWAIN IN SOCIETY.
AS it happened Sherman knew Twain,
ana called him out. on the toast of,
woman, God Bless Her." the same
toast Twain responded to at the New
England dinner. Again l was surprised
for prettier speech / never heard
mind now this was in 1868 As now re-
call it, it was little coarse, but there
was no ladies present and Twain was not
conspicuous enough to be reported.
A'SNopupCl iNON1 hONONtly bhdb blLlO
paid little attention to Mr. Clemens.
am bad on dates, but it appears to
me that very soon after the dinner Riley
spoke to me of his wonderful boarding
house, and l went to look at it, 1t
pleased me so much better than the one
was in that l took quarters at once.
To my surprise / found Clemens among
the boarders. He appeared glad to see
me, and / was certainly glad to see him.
He was not good d-natured, but then he
was an old acquaintance, and that was
something. l was modest then-as l
am now-and | was greatly interested in
the little quarrels between Townsend
and Twain. They were both very ag-
gressive aud very opinionated and
neither liked to give up. said nothing
| was very "green" then, and did not
think l knew as much as | really did
know. am quite different now. So |
became quite intimate with TWAIN, for L
respected him for his travels, his men,
ory, for the dangers he had wrought and
for his droll humor. At that time we all
did our work in our rooms, and when
one of us got tired we went to the room
of one of the others. If the other fellow
was working hard, he snubbed the visitor;
If he was idling he welcomed him. 1t
was here became very good drinker
and very good smoker
AT Twain's room, however, the visi-
tor was always welcome, for by nature
Twain is so lazy that he will not work If
there is an excuse for loating. He had q
little back room that was a novelty, q
museum, hermit's cave, den for a
wild animal, and the wild animal was
there. In this room Clemens wrote his
"Innocents Abroad" / wish you could
see it to-day, in the light of Mark
Twain's present reputation and his half.
million of money. am rather hardened
now, but | remember it shocked me al
the time.
HOW ''INNocENTs ABROAD" WAS WRITTEN.
The little drum stove was full of ashes,
running over on the zinc sheet, which
was covered all over; the bed seemed tc
be unmade f or week, the slops had moi
been carried ont for fortnight, the
room was sour with tobacco smoke, the
floor, dirty enough to begin with, was
Uttered with newspapers, from which
| Twain had cut his letters Then there
We're hundreds of pieces of torn manu-
scripts which had been written and then
rejected by the author. A dozen pipe;
were about the apartment-on the wash
stand, on the mantel, on the writing
table. on the chairs-everywhere that
room could be found. And there was
tobacco, and tobacco everywhere
One thing, there were no flies. The
smoke killed them, and | am now sur
prised the smoke did not kill me too
| Twain would not let a servant come into
his room. He would strip down his sus
penders (his coat and vest, of course be
ing Off and walk back and forward in slip
pers in his little room and swear and
smoke the whole day long. OF course
at times he would work, and when he
did work it was like steam engine al
full head. / do believe that il Clemens
had not been under contract to write fol
the Hartford firm his "Innocent'
Abroad" he never would have done it.
OF course, at that time Townsend
Stilson, Riley and myself never thought
that Twain's book would amount to any
thing, and probably he did not think il
would either, but he was writing Tor the
money his naked MS. would bring from
his Hartford publishers. He needed
that money and so he wrote. He is glat
he did write now, for that "lnnocent'
Abroad" written in that little bacl
room, in Indiana avenue, in Washing
ton. has been the making of the fame
and fortune of Mark Twain. Whethel
he smokes the same sinking old pipes
whether he wears the same soiled under
shirts; whether he heats his room will
the old unclean stoves; whether h,
swears at his own OF other peoples ser
wants, whether he mopes and snarls anC
whines-well, don't care. lie is ricl
and aristocratic,