Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-16
Mark Twnin's Tour.

The real secret of Mark Twain's tour
around the world is the publication of
new book of travels. His lecturing will
pay his expenses and will net him a small
sum. but in all probability not enough to
pay his debts. new book of travels will
bring him tens of thousands of dollars,
and it will have a sale all over the world.
Mark Twain's experience in book publish
ing has given him a knowledge of what
sells best, and he has great faith in travel.
Not long ago l called upon him at Hart
ford to get his advice to book of this
kind. In answer, he drawled oct the fol-
lowing:
"There-is-only-one- NATURALIZATION -
that will -sell-better-than -book-of -
travels-and-thats- a-pious-bOok."
He then went on to tell me some thing
about his own experiences in travel work
and gave me lar different story as to
some of them than that generally believed.
He told me that the publishers. and not the
authors, made, as a rule, the most of the
mooev on. of book. and he said he got
royalty of only per mt on THE Innocents
Ahroad,' or from fifteen to twenty-five
cents per volume. He will do better with
his Round the World Travel" for he will
probably publish 1t himself. He told me
that the company that published THE In
nocents Abroad" made a fortune out of 1t.
and upon my asking him if his royalty was
not very small one, he replied:
mo, not as such things usually go.
though L tt ought it was when 1 made the
L
ever, by my friend. A. D. Richardson. who
told me that be only got per cent for
writing Beyond the Mississippi and that
!. per cent was a good royalty.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand
copies of THE Innocents Abroad were
sold within three years after it was pub
lished, and the Hartford Publishing Com
lany. which ISSUED it, made more than
S10O.GOO out of it. 1 doubt whether Mark
Twain got S25.pO, and it was probably
through his desire to remedy such an I'M
just division of the profits that he went
into the publishing firm of Chas. l.. Web
ster & Co, through which he issued many
of his books. and in connection with which
he lost hts fortune.
How 'The InnOcents Abroad" Was
Written.
It was here in Washington that 1.-THE
IEnocents Abroad" was written. 1t was
away back in 1858. when Mark Twain was
thirty-twe years old. He was at the time
writing letters for the San Francisco news
papers and adding to his income by a sal
airy of S. day as a clerk of one of the
committees of the United States Senate.
Senator Stewart, the famous advocate of
the silver gu estion, was the chairman of the
committee, and he gave Clemens the job
in order that he might have the leisure to
write the book. There was little work
connected with the committee, and Senator
Stewart hired a man at 500 per month to do
that. He had seen Clemens notes of his
TRIP WITH tHdt party Oh pliSTli1lS VINO went
through the Holy Land, and he believed
with him that the book would be a success
However hard a worker he may have become
afterward. Mark Twain at this time liked to
loaf as well write, and it was all that
Senator Stewart and his friends could do
to get him at his work After he got
started, however. he kept it up like steam
engine. He wrote from noon till midnight
every day, and he finished the book in two
months. Every line of it was penned with
his own hand, and he had no stenographer
or typewriter to help him along. This is
the way he does most of his work, and
when he has a book on hand he makes it
a principle to stick to it until he gets
through, writing a certain amount every
day. He was very particular in the COM
position of The Innooents Abroad" and
he tore up many chapter before he got
the matter into the shape in which it was
published. He wrote the book in a little
back room on street. in a part of the
city which has since been given up to
business, and a man who knew him at the
time tells me that Mark Twain had about
The d:Ttest room he ever saw.
1T was heated" said he, by a little