The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-01-30
From the Times-Herald

FrOHl lHe IluleS-f1eTdlu.
London. Jan. 15.-Mark Twain, the
prince and diner at the tables of kings
is now impoverished and u 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 heroic, but, in accord
ance 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 has 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 twenty years has shared
the field of American letters-aS the
Europeans estimate American letters
with Bret Harte. He is home from
trip around the world. 1t began in
Vancouver 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 the inspiration has gone. He is
working under forced conditions and
the prediction is that the tale of the
tour will be like plant forced to bios
som in unnatural conditions.
LAST DOLLAR SACRIFICED.
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
money and prospects in air castles and
folly. He would not stand the charge
of dishonesty. Sacrificing his last dol
lar, he is toiling night and day to meet
the debts yet unpaid to pay for the
lodgings which are more meager and
less comfortable 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 handi-
capped 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 1t is one
of the pathetic incidents in this city
full of pathos that the great circle of in
Inmates which went to the very edge of
the throne has dwindled to two or three
faithful souls.
ONCE WITHOUT A PEER.
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 1859 all the
facts concerning his life have been eag-
erly read. 1t was in looking for these
facts and searching for the early Incl
dents in the life of the man that all
Germany has come to know the story or
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.
His enthusiasm and ability to succeed
have gone. If he had the vigor and
confidence he had thirty years ago the
rally might be easy. There was nothing
impossible, in his estimation, when he
was apprenticed as a printer in the
office of the Hannibal Weekly Journal,
at the age of 49, He was then full of