The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-05

WI. FERST'S SONS CO., 0istribu 1tG

have been reading pamphlets and listen
ing to these addresses to-day. and l think
there is a whole lot of good in this sort
of thing. 1t surpr ses me to sc a school
where you have to drive the children
away and not in. That never was the
way in my time. I guess it never was the
way until you made them pay for it. I
just saw a class getting a dancing Lesson
downstairs, and each pupil was charged
two cents for the lesson. That's the rea-
son l never learned to dance.
But the thing that interested me most
was the Mont de Pete downstairs-the
pawnbrokers shop. l know more about
that kind of business than about some Of
the things you teach here. The ordinary
pawnshOp makes you pay interest of 3
per cent a month. Thet is a pretty oner-
Gus charge to pay although I've paid
more myself When people go to a pawn
shop it is because they need money des-
perately. l saw lot of wedding rings
just to-day in the shop here; that is pa
tbetic Those rings were pawned for
what?-just to enable some one to live
And that society charges only per cent
a month-and it is run in the right way
not for charity. but by rich men, who
clear per cent a year on their money
seem to sneak feelingly on that sub
ject. I do. The other day I was look
unpublished autobiography which I am
gradually building up for the instruction
of the world, and I ran across an incident
which happened about forty years ago in
son Francisco. I had been and was will
TO be a reporter-but others were not
GENTLY interested in me. That is.
was out of job. Aud all owned was
in the pawnshop Well, ran across an
other literary person. poet out of a job
There was a little romance about him,
love story-but that's the best part of
the story, and l guess I better save it
for the autobiography. Oaughter) one
day he told me he thought he was a fail
ure. / agreed with him. Oaughter) Oh,
he was a friend of mine, and it is al
ways best to speak frankly to a friend
Then he said he thought he'd commit
suicide. l approved the idea. ] admit
there was little selfshness in my ad-
vice. I was out of a job, and the idea
struck me that if l should have a scoop
on suicide I could get work. And that
could be spared-G aushter)-oh. verv WI.
So l kept the idea of suicide before him
you always have to do that suicides are
so very uncertain. He had an absurd
preference-people will have preferences,
you know. He wanted to blow his brains
out, but that was not to be thought Of
in our financial condition. Our Joint be-
loneinss were not enough to get a pistol.
Then he thought he would drown himself.
! went down to the bay with him-I lid
not want any mistakes. But then a
miracle happened. There was washed 70
shore. right at his feet. a life preserver.
Mr. Clemens told how a pawnbroker
was Induced to trade a loaded derring7r
for the life preserver and then he de-
scribed in accents of horror how the
young man put the pistol to his head and
fired. The audience had not expected any,
thing so serious, and was visibly shock
ed. The speaker continued:
When he pulled the trigger it made a
hole clean through his head. 1t cleaned
out all the gray matter-took il all-and
then he was just as good as new. Gaugh-
teri He had been nothing but a poet be-
fore. He Is alive to-day, and an orua-
ment to society. | wish ! could have the
same experience with a lot Of other poets
And l want all the poets to know it.
Mr. Clemens closed with a serious word
Of commentator for the Settlement So
ciety and a reminder that they were all
there to show their interest in some prac-
teal way He had intended to draw a
check himself, but since he had heard
the addresses he had decided TO send
few copies of strawberry Finn" and some
other books to the library. Mr. Reynolds.
in his address had told of the interest
In Mark Twains writings. on reader haV-
ing recently asked for strawberry
Finn"