Sierra County advocate. [volume] (Kingston, N.M.) 1884-1960, 1892-12-16
MARK TWAIN LIES DEAD.

was cut down in the full prime {
bis vigor, at the age of about $50
years, and = part of him is now be
ing placed ON exhibition at tn
American Museum of Natural Hi.
tory, for which institution he wa
killed. In addition to being $50
years old, Mark Twain was trifi
over 300 feet high, 30 feet in diam
eter and some 80 feet in circumfer
ence.
The Mark Twain in question wa
one OF the biggest of the stupendou
and famous trees of Cslifornia
known under the scientific name o
"Sequoia glgantea," and which
stood, in life, in the Kings River
Grove of Sequoia, $50 miles south
OF San Francisco.
Mark Twain's nearest neighbors
in life were the Grizzly Giant and
Ben Franklin. Thousands of trav-
elers each year have stood silent
and aweftruck at the base Of those
great still living relics of a past age
and gazed upwards at the monarchs
of the centuries.
Now Ben Franklin and the Griz-
Fly Giant stand alone, for their
comrade for thousands of ysars has
fallen and measured his mighty
length upon the mountain side
with mighty crash and roar that
shook the earth about him.
Science did what the earthquakes.
the avalanches, the hurricanes ard
the lightning had not accomplished.
For the sake OF science was this
monster dismembered, a part OF
him brought across the continent
into city built by race which
did not exist when frst he began
to stretch upward.
This wonderful and famous tree,
but recently destroyed while still
in full vigor, aud section Of which
will soon be on exhibition at the
American Museum Of Natural His
tory, was little over 300 feet in
height, and its roots extended for
200 feet each way from its trunk.
The trunk, which was 30 feet in
diameter at the ground, and over
80 feet in circumference at the
same point, tspered to 81 feet In
diameter at height of 12 feet from
the ground, where it began to taper
by very slow degrees toward the
top. The trunk was not marred
by any injury or malformation,
and, being pine tree, the monarch
grew straight toward the clouds.
Not a branch m.rred its symmetry
for more than 200 feet, and in the
upper third of its height it bran
,hed into limbs and foliage.
The section now boing placed on
exhibition at the Museum of Nat
lral History was cut from the
runk at II feet from the ground,
b 21 feet in diam nter and 63 feet
n circumference. The section is
bout 6 feet thick and weighs 80
ons, or $4,000 pounds. The bark
) from inches to 1 foot thick.
Beginning at the cora of the
runk, the radius, or one-half the
iameter of the section, is 105 feet,
r l26 inches. This radius con- 1
aims an average of 20 rings" or
nnual growths, to the inch, or q
20 rings altogether, which lndi- j
stes very closely the age of the
roe, as the statement OF the bo;an- Z
Vt shows.
Assuming that the tree MAS $500 t
ears old when cut down, it was t
lore than $50 years old when Alex s
nder the Great was born. l, was {
trong and sturdy when the ancient I
ruled the commerce OF 7
ne known world from their cities Q
Tyre and Sidon. 1t was perhaps .
DO feet high when Babylon was I
her glory. 1t kept on growing
ntil Julius Caesar was born and 8
led, and still kept on. 1t was U
yer 700 years old when Pompeli !
as buried in the ashes of Vesuv t