Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-01-03
cracker efer coaxed a smile to der out
side uf der face ind kebt II dare.
by ROY L. MCARDEIL..

Bl ~ ~ NJ OAhfiNhl@'
Mark Twain was born IN the yea
1895, Under the name Of Mark Twaif
ard the roof OF his parents. Wha
month and what day Of tie month OF
| day Of the week. my encyclopedias
| (Which | purchased the same day al
the same department store | bought oul
| monkey, y--although heaven
knows had no need OF such q useless
! thing as an encyclopedia does not say.
Although born and ohristened Samuel
Langhorn Clemens. the object OF this
| postprandlal post-mortem biography
c9rly expressed a preference for an
alias.
He realized that he was too late to be
the father Of his country and he had
no ambition to become its Uncle Sam,
hence be called himself Mark Twain
That is Mark Twice-or Easy Mark.
But his heart hidden hope was, In this
regard, that by 80 naming himself peo-
pie would say as he passed
Mark, the upright man"
But, such Is the irony OF fate, he was
always a triile stoop shoulderedl
IA a boy and as a young man he was
somewhat shiftless, which is very en-
oouraging to contemplate to all Of us
who are thrall to the demon Lassitude.
He went steamboating on the Missis
sippl and became a pilot. The pilot
house deck on river steamboat Is
called the Texas. II was Mark Twain
who FIRST noted the fact that this con-
nectiOn OF places and occupation made
the pilot Texas Steer
Later he went west, drifting out to
California and becoming a printer. Get
ting tired OF sticking to work of this
type, he became a miner But this last
occupation did not pan out well. And
well meaning friend standing over
him while at work as a gold hunter
said,
Mark, you should have stuck to the
printing Office
To which the subject Of our obituary
remarked 1.-THE point OF his remarks Is
in capital letters to make 1t sharper)
You attend to your own business
and | will attend TO MINEl'
shortly after this Mark Twain be
cafne addicted to the habit of writing
books.
He wrote "Roughing It." "Tramps
Abroad, 'lnnocents Abroad" TON
Sawyer" "Huckleberry Finn" and
many others OF the six best selling
books OF the week.
BY LEE FAIRCHILD.
Here lies Mark Twain, stlll at his
wonted task His name--that Is, the
one he Is best known by--is not his
real name, but his ideal one Mark
Twain means that he made his mark
twice: once when he failed as q publish
er and once when he succeeded as a
writer However his greatest feat was
as a traveller, since the place he was
going to was as glad to welcome him
az the place he was leaving was to bid
him adieu.
Mark Twain was the author OF sew
eral books the best known of which
was entitled MARK Twaln's Scrap
Book" In fact, all his books are made
up largely of scraps" which our gen
ial author was led into by his hearers
not having as keen sense OF humor
as Mark supposed them TO have.
During the early part Of his career he
left his own country ostensibly for its
sake and went abroad. While feeling
his way, or, rather, while beating (for
he talked by gestures) his way through
Europe he had many narraw escapes
Upon his return he wrote book en-
titled Innocence Abroad, for the pur-
pose Of showing that none but the
guilty should follow in his footsteps.
Much to his surprise the book was
never taken in earnest This caused
cur author to give UP his life work as
he had planned It, which was "a His
tory Of the Pyramids as Seen Through
the Biographies OF the Mummles Found
and a translation, with foot
notes, Of the Book Of Job,