The Topeka state journal., 1899-09-29
MARK TWAIN is COMING HOME AT LAST.
After Long Soourn in Europe he Returns Betteted
and Much More Prosperous in Finance.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens. or as
you probably know him, Mark
Twain" returns to this country next
month after a painful absence of sew
eral years.
Mark Twain's absence from the land
OF his birth has been painful for many
reasons. During the time he was away
he lost the last remnant of his once
large fortune and has had to begin
again; during that time, also, he lost
his dearly beloved daughter, the bril-
liant Miss Clemens, who was about to
go on the operate stage to help her old
father in his hour of need.
Mark Twain crouched under the first
blow ready to spring up again; but. Gn-
der the second he tainted, and for a
while was so weak of heart that his
friends wondered if he would ever re-
vive.
But revive he did, and Mark Twain of
to-day is as lively and as humorous, as
tu1 of that peculiar vital eccentricity
as ever he was in the sixties when his
laughing Mark Twain's quaint say
ings in that book have become current
literature, and many of the funny
things are now quoted by those who
nave never read the author.
A COUNTRY BOY.
When Samuel L. Clemens started
alon~ the roadway of life it was as
little chap in Missouri. The town of
Florida was not a metropolis in 1885,
and little Sam hau country bOyhoOd-
AT the age of thirteen he found him
self apprenticed to printer in Hanni-
pal; and then he began upon the work
which he has followed all his life. For
half a century he has worked at the
type" as Charles Dickens once said.
without intermission.
While working as a printer young
Clemens found it necessary to divert
hlmelf, as it We're financially. At one
time he was a pilot on the Mississippi,
a period which he has portrayed in
'Old Times on the Mississippi''
HIS first real prosperity came when
ms brother was appointed Territorial
secretary to Nevada, and he became
the private secretary of his brother.
Then he was the editor of a paper in
Virginia City, a sheet which did not
pay too richly; and so he alternated
between editing and mining. until final
" finding a gold mine in the nib of his
pen, he laid aside the pick forever and
from thence forward devoted himself
to digging money out of the ink bottle
with the aid of a pen.
In 1856 he made a then remarkable
journey to Hawaii and from that island
he wrote letters home that were famous
for their humor. At the age of thirty
one he found himself almost the only
humorous writer for the newspa pers of
America. and adopting the name of
Mark Twain" he continued sending
the letter and making them funnier
and funnier. He enjoyed writing them,
and the public enjoyed reading them;
and there was money in it.
HIS FIRST SUCCESS.
A trip through France. Germany,
italy and Palestine furnished the ma
terial for THE InnOcents Abroad - and
when the book was done the inhabi-
tants of those countries clamored so
loudly for chance to read it that it
was speedily translated into their
tongues and into Russian, Danish and
Japanese as well.
After his return to America Twain
was so popular that a lecture tour was
planned and those who attended the
lectures twenty years ago will remem-
Der Mark Twain and his readings from
his own works. It was estimated that
he cleared, in those days. upwards of
fifty thousand a year from his royalties
and the lecture platform,
Mark Twain's lamentable business
disasters came early in the eighties.
He started a book publishing firm. be-
lieving that authors should get a larger