The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-02-01
THIS rs NOT HUMOK.
MARK TWAIN m GREAT POVERTY IN
LONDON.

\
Moved with Disappointment, He Ii strug-
Cling. Possibly In Vain, to Fay Debts.
His Trip Around the World . Failure.
A Pitifui Story OF . Iife's Labor Lost.
Mark Twain, the prince and diner at
the tables Of kings. is now impoverish-
ed and slave to a debt. He is in poor
health, confined to modest lodging and
burdened with age and the woes of a
broken heart. His determination is he
roic; but, in accordance with that fine
irony of the human race, the men and
women who We're anxious to boost him
when he was at the top and he did not
need them are missing, now that he
Ms lost and is at the bottom.
1t is probable that the end has come.
There is but a single hope for this
man, who for 90 years has shared the
field of American letters-as the Eu-
ropeans estimate American letters
with Bret Harte. He is home from
trip around the world. 1t began in Van
couver and ended in London-a failure
from the start. He has been working
for weeks on the manuscript of the
story, but the few who have hunted
him in the modest room fear that tho
inspiration has gone. He Is working
under forced conditions, and the predic-
tion is that the tale of the tour will be
like plant forced to blossom in unnat-
ural conditions.
1t is very evident that the man is
worse than penniless. All his fortune
went down with the publishing house
which used his name and spent his mon
ey and prospects in air castles and folly.
He would not stand the charge Of dis
honesty. Sacrificing his last dollar, he
is toiling night and day to meet the
debts yet unpaid to pay for the lodgings
which are more meager and less COM
Portable than the home he had when
he was writing odes to the editor of a
weekly paper in Missouri.
Mark Twain is 62 years old and
Handicapped by the fact that his best
efforts have not been his latest. There
has been a steady decline in his humor
since it became treadmill grind. The
sooner the end comes the fewer will be
the excuses when the record of his repu-
tation shall be written as a matter of
literary history. He seems to realize
this He has refused to see the few who
have hunted him up, and it is one of
the pathetic incidents in this city full
of pathos that the great circle of init
mates which went to the very edge of
the throne has dwindled to two OF three
faithful souls.
There is no question as to the posi-
tion he used to hold in the English and
continental estimate. No one has ever
divided his standing as the American
humorist. 1.-THE Innocents Abroad
was translated into the tongues of the
leading nations, and since 1869 all the
facts concerning his life have been
eagerly read. II was in looking for
these facts and searching for the early
incidents in the life Of the man that all
Germany has come to know the story
of Samuel l.. Clemens. The Importance
that those facts attached to Missouri
led many to imagine in the usually in
telligent grasp Of American affairs by
Europeans that Missouri is the capital
of the United States.
have gone. If he had the vigor and con-
fidence he had 30 years ago, the rally
might be easy. There was nothing i'm
possible, in his estimation, when he
was apprenticed as printer in the
Office of the Hannibal Weekly Journal
at the age Of 49, He was then full of
the spirit of push and self reliance
which is forced by life in a one story
house. He rompcd about Hannibal
There was no one III town who ever
dreamed the shaggy head Of brown hair
covered the brains which should later
make him welcome guest at the palace
of the German emperor.
There are many stories over. here
about his early adventures. The Lon-
doners know that he was once a pilot
ON the Mississippi, but they have but lit
tie notion Of where the Mississippi is
He is known as journalist, but the
most active journalism he ever talks
about is his term as city editor of The
Enterprise, published in Virginia City,
New, or as joint reporter and deputy
sheriff at Dutch Flats, in the Sierra
Nevadas. This was in 1862 and 1868,
while he was searching fame and wealth
in the west and before he had pushed
himself into the attention Of the east or
the admiration Of the critics and people
over here. "a
He came over the Atlantic first in
1867. He had previously rambled over
the islands OF the Pacific and had begun
the publication Of articles which were
beginning to attract attention. He re-
turned to America from the continent,
and "Innocents Abroad" in 1869,
rather placed him in the public eye as
professional humorist. II gave him tho
reputation for broad and healthy humor.
The first impression was that he would
not succeed in any other field
1t was about this time that Professor
Charles +. Richardson, in his book on
the literature Of the country, advised
Mark Twain to make hay while the sun
IL 81,