The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-11-25
MARK TWAIN STEAKS W..
Says n Pew Things ON the Disap-
penrance OF Literature.

From tho New York sun.
Mark Twain was guest 81 the Nine.
teenth Century Club at its first meeting
OF the season at sherry's last evening.
lie talked 10 the members ana their other
guests on The Dlsappearsnce Of I.ltsra-
ture" Or Eigln u. l.. Gould presided.
DR.. Gould Eaid IN Introducing Mr. Glenn
ems that when he was IN Germany he
had 20 do a lot OF apoioslEins for an
what the Germans thought were uniuo
liberties with their language. Afr Glenn
ems started ia by saying;
1T wasn't necessary for your chairman
10 apologize FOR me m Germany. II wasn't
necessary at an Instead Of that he
ought 10 have impressed upon those poor
beniehted Teutons tho service rendered
them. Laugtierl Their language hid
needed untanglins Tor good many YEA
Nobody else seemed ~ want 10 take the
Job. ana 80 I took u naushterl. and I
hatter myself that ! made pretty good
job OF a. The Germans have an inhu-
man way Of cutting 40 their verbs Now.
a verb has n hard time enough Of Il in
this world when its al together. nauzh-
ter) It's downright inhuman 10 spiit il
up nut that's just what those Germans
%. They take part Of verb and put
IL down here like a stake. and they take
the other part Of u and put d away
over Wonder like andghsr stake ana be.
tween these two limits they iust shovel
in German. ] maintain that there 4 M
necessity for ap0loEizing for n man VINO
helped IN small way 10 stop such rnu-
tilati0n.
we have heard discussion tonight
on tho disappearance Of literature. ThatH
no new thing. NauRhterJ That's what
certain kinds Of literature have been DO.
ing FOR several years. The fact g.. my
friends. that 'he fashion In literature
changes. and the literary tailora have 10
change their cuts or go out % business
Prof. Winchester here. II remember
fairly correctly what he tsid. remarked
that few. n any. 81 the novels produced
to-day would live az long ar che novels
Of walter Scott That may be hia notion
Maybe he ~ right, but 10 far as / am
concerned don't care II they don't
(I.auGhter)
PROT Winchester aiso said something
about there being no modern eplcs ike
Paradise Lost I guess he's right he
talked az II he was pretty familiar with
that piece Of literary work. ana nobody
would suppose that ~ never had read Il
CTsaughterJ / don't believe any OF you
have ever read Paradise Lost and you
don't want 10. That's something that you
just want 20 take on trust. It's a classic.
just as Prof Winchester says. and Il
meets his definition OF a classlo--sosno-
thing that everybody wants 20 have and
nobody wants 10 read.
PROT Trent also had a good deal 70 say
about the disapp~arance Of lnefa iure He
said that scott would outiive Ell his crit
ics. ! gaess that's true. The fact 81 The
business n. you've got 20 be one OF two
ages 10 appreciate Scott. When you're Is
you can read Tvanhoe' and You wSnt 70
wait until you are 20 to read some o. the
rest. " takes pretty well-reguiated. al.
stemious critic 40 live ninety years.
"Isut a. much as these two gentlemen
have talked about the disappearance of
literature. they didn't say anything about
my books. Maybe they think they've diG-