The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-10
vvox JUMPS ON EARK TWAIN.
Add Criticises oeverely Some of Bis
Theories.

Nrw YoRK. Jan. 9.-Mark Twain has
--.e.sn a magazine article OF ten pages of
,.h.t he calls mental telegraphy. He uses
rbole column as a preface, in which he
..,,,ss the reader that he is not making
= lint that he is in dead earnest and
.Sasns exactly what he says. To demon
..-sts that this is fact be tells how he tried
- at magazine to publish the article,
GENEROUSLY, thirteen years ago, because
:. tboupht that if be signed his name to il
~ rn6lic would think it was joke.
lave read the article and l am perfectly
-.t;sfad that he considers it q serious, sober
..atsmeut Of what he believes to be facts. |
-. sorry. on his account that he did not let
- tbint that the whole thing was a Joke.
Gasavs he has waited thirteen years be-
t,Te nablishiug this piece Of guazy lunacy.
Tbirteeu is said TO be an unlucky number.
!, might have been better if he had kept on
-roiring until the golden harp was ready
for bjn above, before be concluded to pub
iisb his views on metal telegraphy.
when Mark Twain is in humorous vein
t;s work is so good that it is beyond criti-
Ism To use an overworked commonplace
- Is Hinimitable.n But when be attempts
- write logically, seriously and coherently
no strengthens the belief held by some peo-
ME that there is a weak spot in the brain
Of all men.
wants to receive letter from a friend he
s,ts down and writes to his friend, knowing
hat the fact that he is writing will in some
way. through mental telegraphy, influence
bisfrlaad to write to him on the same day
and At the same moment. He says this
"yaneraly" happens So thoroughly does
nc believe this that he makes his letters
mort because he feels that there is no use
In writing at length on the subject inter-
a,ting to himself and friend for their letters
win certainly cross each other in the mails
He cites numerous instances in which this
has hgppeued. Even in business matters he
saws il works He tells how, week after
week. he waited in his Hartford home for
q New York house~furnisher TO send man
IN mend some electric bells, and how, at
last he wrote to the New York firm, know
inc that the moment ne wrote, through
mental biography, thoughts of him and his
business would flash through the brain Of
the house furnishing company, if it had a
brain, or its director, manager or clerk, il
anv OF them had a brain, and the result
would be that a man would Immediately be
DISPATCHED to Hartford TO monkey with the
refractory bell. Here is what he says about
1t.
MANY time l got ready to write and
than postponed it; but at last l sat down
one evening and poured out my grief to the
. extent Of a page or SO, and then cut my
letter short, because strong instinct told
me that the firm had begun to move in the
matter. When l came down TO breakfast
next morning the postman had not yet
taken my letter away, but the electrical
h man had been there, had done his work,
aud was gone again! He had received his
orders from his employers the previous
nt,A w nj fra in
Mr. Twain, further on, referring to this
Incident SAYS IF this was an accident, it
took about three months toget it up in good
shape"
Ihave had such things as this happen to
me, and so has every man, but, acco ding
to Mr.. Twan's theory, they should have &C.
Cured about 100000 times. while the fact
remains that the number Of their happen
ings does not exceed a bakers dozen.
For instance, there is my genial friend,
Maj Delcastro Of South Carolina, who in
troduced himself to me at Coney Island last
summer, and with whom spent pleasant,
not to say festive, evening. The major was
short at his bankers, " as he expressed it. l
gave him $50 until he could get home"
Well, have written him four letters since,
and no letter from him, either with or with-
out $50 inclOsure has crossed mine.
Possibly, the major is not a good sup
Jet" for mental telegraphy; probably, in
financial matters, he is not Sympathetic"
be certainly ls not reciprocal.
Twain goes on TO show that sometimes he
has received letter and, before opening it,
some peculiar instinct tells HIM word for
word what his correspondent hes written.
be gives samples Of this mind reading feat,
and Tells now he called his family around
MN before breaking the seal of the letter,
and rected to them verbatim, OF course,
but the grist of it.
That's nothing. Lots Of us can do that,
and there's no instinct about it at all.
have letter IN a pigeon-hole in my desk
That received a week ago. / have not
opened II. Why should 1? I know the
contents as ii had read them. When
oIen Tiff | should ever bother to do so-it
Will read something like this:
J. ANNOY KNOB
Une pair trous 49, 81
Please remit
Twain hos load of these superstitions.
DE tells how he was in Washington--in a
cigar store-buying cigar, when he sud-
uenly thought of his friend, Mr.. o. But
s1ali give you his own words, you might
@InK was slandering him if l didn't.
suddenly the spirit OF prophecy came
upon me, and | said to myself. Now l
VIII go out at this door. turn to the left
wax ten steps, and meet Mr.. O.. face to
Nce.' did it, too"
Ihen no goes on to tell how men invent
We same things at the same time, and he
aes the case Of the electric telegraph be,
Jug invented by several men in different
IuutrleS at the same time. He believes,
Essays, that Beautiful Snow" may have
uSeu written by two people, at the same
uoulent, whose brains were connected by
mental telegraphy.
~ no one should be surprised at what are
saI7u condolences. 1t would be surprising
S Saa unnatural If there were no coinci-
VAN shows that electric telegraphy was
persons >i'-O''' " gov -
so " na' about the millions of other inven-
az Ou Us 'nst were not invented by two people
t. .ue same time9 Would it be strange
o ora' ID million cases there would not be
Sao or two of these SO called "uueer coinoi-
ICES, They prove nothing.
tbo s "lUe to friend and he writes to me
ltis ' au. DAY 1t is interesting, that is all.
moDt 10y strange, queer, or odd. In the last
Tia Thu l nave written to over 800 people.
h r,e were 299 Of them that did not write
vs ,llo o On The day l wrote to them. 1t surely
VIII uo " strange that one did write to me
man. was writing to him. II it was
wba a.al geography that caused him to write,
lnes h "as the matter with the telegraph
n; oet"een me and the other 299?
Atr course all OF us have been surprised
1m I,Tosll man on the street that we had
49, ueht ago been thinking of. Yes. GER