The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-03-08
MARK TWAIN
AT CLOSE
RANGE.
BY William Griffith.

Would you like to see Mark Twai,
the real Mark Twain? He is SITTING +.
a big leather chair before the firenla..
in his library as we enter the room
Just imagine a man with eyes 4
name of grizzled hair, a brown mn..
tache. slightly silvered and GOVERNS !
mouth as delicate as that of a woma.
Then imagine rather spare fiaor.
dressed in comfortably fitting dars|
clothes, which are quite lost sight of AL
the most genial, beaming smile in Ira
world begins to dawn.
He has risen from the capaeion.
depths of his chair. and, advancin,I
across the room, you find a souarsI
hand shaking your own, and the Slow.
est. calmest, LATEST voice in the worJs]
addressing you. 1t does not mattel
much what the voice is talking about
whether it is about lightning rods ~
twenty dollar gold pieces-the wNsdsl
are wholesome words brushed from II
table of wisdom. Happy are we q
whose ears they fall.
Mark Twain has been a journeynanI
printer lin those days he wandered
from the banks of the Missouri even Ia
New York;, pilot cub and full blown
pilot, soldier of the South, for three
weeks only; private secretary to a Me-
vada governor, miner, editor, humoristi
and historian. In all except the lastz
two he fell short of success. 1t is be- !
cause he is a success in the last two
and has made the world smile that wei
want to see him in his own home-this'
man who makes us laugh and whose
hand is always raised to brush away
the darkness.
Meanwhile, he has reseated himself
and is treating his interviewer asI
though under different circumstances
he might be his equal. For Mark
Twain is nothing If not democratic. Hef
has supplied the jest that has made al I
men kin-in his presence.
Still imagine yourself with him, with
the greatest humorist of the age. ever
a million of whose books have scatter-z
ed sweetness and light about the waste
places of the earth, and then try 90
realize yourself smoking a cob pipe3
with him Ga Missouri meerschaum 81
the best smoking in the WORLD. If yOuI
can do this you have imaginat ton andf
deserve to be where you are-in thsf
same room.
Behold, Mark Twain has curled him-I
self up in the big armchair, and we arI
smoking reverently, as BELTS one in the
presence of his superior. The first im-I|
preston is that he is an elderly mani
but this is soon found to be a mistake{I
True, he has gray hair, but that is anu
accident. He is quite young. We ara
shaking his hand. We are smoking hi4
pipe-and he is talking. Attend thu
words of the oracle through this IN
medium transmitted. He VIII
never be able to imagine the long. slow
surge of the draw and the deadly
gravity of the countenance, the quainH
quicker of the body. one foot throw
over the arm of the chair, the yellow
pipe clinched in one corner of tf9l
mouth and the right hand abser1E
caressing the square chin.f
is my Life on the Mississippi auto
Yes, as near as it can q
when a man is writing to book an
about himself. But in genuine autob
,graphy I believe it is impossible for &
nan to tell the truth about himself oH
lvoid impressing the reader with To
ruth about himself.
Il made an experiment once. ] 90
trlend or mlne-a man palnluilH
;iven to speaking the truth on all ocE
man who would never dreaf&
# telling a leland / made him wrta
lis autobiography for his own amuse# an
rent and mine. He did it. The man21
lscript would have made an octav u
-Olume, but-good, honest man that
vas in every single detail of his ii I'm
hat l knew about he turned out, on}j
,aper. a formidable liar. He could nfHa
,elp himself. In every little businef A
hat had been to his discredit he mad /,
himself out to be the better man. II =,
yer attempt to write my autoblosS :.
Apply 1 shall doubtless do the samE' "
hing"
In this vein did Samuel l.. Clemefx
ak in his book room up in Riverdai H.
lie was saying low bridge when
udience of one Involuntary loweref-
IS head he did not mistake ii for 4 r
ow. for as the audience passed dow I
he wide hall it heard Mark Twal
9uOh That laugh was an echo or on |