The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-08-11

Ill Ht~ir 'ADR1AtA+Asf vi FNtVtnt
81 the impression OF amplitude.
whieh. he asserted, contrary TO
The poets and artists OF all ages.
y most conveyed by the open sea. His
reason for holding to this opinion was
Tat at sea there is seldom any interven-
Ing object OF known magnitude by which
distance can be gagged. whereas the
elunp OF trees or the prairie cabin stand
cut as landmarks 70 deepen the perspec-
tive and sccentuate the reaches OF dis
lance that lie beyond them.
The eve, in fact. cannot Judge OF dis
lance unless ii has some familiar object
to set up a sort of gauge" continued
the great hurorist. and then, with that
peculiar drawl in his voice and twinkle In
his eye which stamp him as the prince of
facoateurs and herald the flashes of fun
for which he has become famous, he went
~ TO tell how once during his early life
On the plains he had stood with n group
Of comrades and gazed at "A mass of APP
preaching objects without single rock
or tres on which 10 base an estimate OF
distance. indians. suggested one of tho
party a kee.-siehted pioneer and expert
eEced hunter Wild horses. ventured an
other. Buffalo, hazarded a third. All
thought the objects fully two miles away.
And what do you think they turned out
10 beg'' asked Mark Twain. with as much
xest and animation as IL he were telling
8sost story 10 a wondering child. Then
With his peculiar drawl: "They were moth
Ing more than lot of j-a-a-a-ck r-a-a-b-
BITS"
Then. with all the soberness os a sworn
witness. he went on 20 tell how he once
saw n man in New Orleans stand on the
eifcwalk and declare he saw u squirrel
moving about In an upper room across the
street. and tho squirrel turned out to be a
louss on hair hanging from the mans
hat. With equal facility he reeled of a
yarn from the days when he was a pilots
ciih on a Mississippi river steamboat, He
and the pilot. side by side at the wheel,
each and 10th distinctly saw one night
what they supposed to be a man perform
Ing tire foo.hnrdy feat OF climbing the
whlstle-p!re. a slender tube that reached
FAR up the side of one OF the tall smoke
ssaelss OF the boat. some sixty feet from
the pilot house They commented on his
strange conduct. and, concluding he must
be luHat.c, were starting TO capture him
when he turned out TO be nothing but a
rat climbing "A bell rope only few feet
distant from their eyes.
The mention OF those old days OF pilot
ing naturally led the reporter TO ask Mr..
Clemens as 10 the truthfulness OF the cur.
rent story that tells how he came 10 take
his wel-known non de plume.
Like many others OF its kind" he an
tweFed, the story has become somewhat
warped from being ofsen told. The facts
are about these: old Isaiah Sellers. back
IN the sos. was by odds the oldest pilot
on the Mississippi, lie used 20 write up
Tire changing stages OF that tickle strear,
for tho columns OF the True Delta, and
now and then he would intersrerse his
short reports With startling statements
O. how things used 20 be fifty or sixty
years before 7 wrote my FIRST skit as n
hrfiesquc on his reports. IL covered n
column and a half IA the Delta. some time
IN 1851. II was n crude effort. but IL scrv-
81 It's purpose. II played sad havoc with
SINE Of old Sellers pet islands and chan
neis. fairly knocking them saliey-west.
and telling how some century or 50 ago
they used 10 occupy places in the far In
terror OF the country. The old man never
wrote another report. The name over
which he used TO write was Mark Twain.
Time rolled on. ard when the news or
Sellers death was borne TO me IN Carson
city. ] was doing UP the Nevada legisia-
ture. embalmlng the members in a week
~ letter They did not relish some or my
criticisms. and they were continually ris-
Ing 10 question OF privilege 20 denouncc
the fian whom they were pleased 10 cell
TIE 'uDrehOble correspondent of the Ter
rltorai Enterprise From the frequency
with which they denounced me, / con-
eluded II would save time u | gave them
shorter phrase than that, and when
heard that Isaiah Sellers was dead. de-
hherateiy robbed his corpse and signed
M next letter Mark Twain
Among the "reminiscences thus told by
Mr. Clemens "a tho train hurried onward
was another which, like the foregoing, -
Of more than passing interest. since IL Is
related 20 HIS life as a man OF letters IL
was TIE story OF how he came 20 write
Rni publish his first serious effort In
hamor" Artemus Ward was goiug 70
publish a book. lie met Mark Twain In
80. ard asked him TO contribute chap
tev, Mark promised. but the promise grew
six months old before he ran across the
story ~ the jumping frog. which ne heard
frst tn Calaveras county. Vie wrote X out
ena sent % 20 Carleton. Wards publisher
Wares book was already I'm press. and
Carleton would not take IL out. He
turned the now famous story isnoniinious-
~ ont. and Il criftef into the hands or
Nenry Clam. who wss then publishing
the Saturday Press. Ciapp published IL al
once. but that was the last issue Of the
paper IT my story did not XIII the pa
r-~. 70 a. least assisted at tho hufiai
SAID Marx Twain iaconically.
Thus No talked on In his bright ana
sunny temper. undaunted by the business
feverses that have come upon him IN ms
ole age, and apparently not one Wink
,aded hy the iong journey which Is 10 heep
him fun year longer from home. seStes
nncstensa tiously among the crowd or cas-
usl passengers. his plain dark SUIT ana
fusset shoes, his quiet manner MS faoa-
sSt tone. attracted no notice from str@hs-
srS. and it vas Only when the }1uhN
ffavehn~ can was laid aside that has
hnshy gray hair crowned MS pie@saht
face ana made him lock as be does N she