The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-11-11
THERE'S MILLIONS ElN IT.
Original Colcnel Sc!icr. Lived as:4
E1cuCiShcG IN Missouri.

<CsCNSi SSskCEs i-aH IA -G'@2
F1cuCiShcd IN IIi%*oEri.
One hears almost annually CT some
person who was Mark Twa;n's in
spiration'' for the famous character Oh
Colonel Mulberry Sclic:s-that wonder
ful optilnist who has delighted two gen
erations, taught tho lesson Of human
kindness and loving charity as it was
never taught by mortal man and given
mingled happiness and merrlment 70
untold thousands of our time. Just
how many persons have received this
enyiable distinction we shall not un-
dertake to say. They arc innumcrable
by this time. and We shrink from the
task Of asserting and classifying them
with anything like care. Indeed We
are relieved Of that laborious and tu-
tile undertaking by the sure know!-
edge that Mark Twain had originally
in mind the late Thomas y. Harris OF
Pewee Valley, Ky, some fifteen or
twenty miles to the north Of Louis
vile.
General Harris was a Missourian. 4
man Of travel, education, wide expert
ence. indomitable courage and enGaG-
ing manners and appearance. Gifted
far beyond ordinary men in brains, ad-
dress and noble instinctS.-he was be-
loved in private, successful IN AFFAIRS.
admired, respected and confided IN by
all who knew him. he made millions
like a genius and spent them like 4
prince. He was a soldier, poet, an
orator. q bold and shrcwd speculator.
No one ever lost a dollar through trust
ing him. His failures and disappoint-
ments touched himself alone. Mark
Twain knew him we'll in the old days
before the civil war, thrilled responsive
TO his sublime conceptions and the al
Turing cloQuence with which he gave
them shape and substance. recognized
his fine character, his noble purpose,
his chivalric soul, felt the full charm Of
his amazing personality. And Mark
Twain in painting Colonel Mulberry
Sellers merely utilized the pathos and
the humor and the splendid and beauti-
full benevolence Of the mans unique
and brilliant nature.
Senator Vest remembers dear old
Tom Harris. 1t was he who in the fall
Of 1861, when Price was besieging Lex
ington, Mo, and when all efforts failed
to dislodge AIulligan and bis immortal
Chicago brigade" conceived the eN-
pedient of the hemp bales and put the
Confederate army behind them, rolling
the movable breastworks up the hill
and over the Union Notifications TO VIC
tory. But for Harris genius Lexington
would never have been taken. Thrice
the force that Price had at his COM
mand could not have successfully
stormed that formidable height. a
year or so later Harris was in Rich
mond seeking y command. While there
he fell out Of q fourth story window,
alighting face downward on q pile Of
bricks. Vest said Of it afterward, "1t
would have killed a snowbird-' In
Harris case there were only a nose
split right down the middle and scar
which everybody thought had been
made by saber in some desperate
hand to hand conflict with hated foe.
Harris was always the kind and
courteous and clean handed gentleman.
He loved his fellow. man. He was
ready to share his last dollar with any
one who seemed to be in distress or
sorrow. Great thoughts issued from
his fruitful mind Prodigious schemes
and enterprises were the children of
his intellect Untold millions in which
he had no share have been the crea-
lures Of his light, suaye suggestions.
He never wrcnged man or woman. He
was incapable Of deceit or pretense.
But when he talked all men listened.
Out Of the crumbs of his opulent sug-
gestion others gathered fame and for
tune. And he died poor! he had made
many men rich. He had distributed
succor, hope, encouragement, as the
sower fings his seed. But he always
saw the bread upo: the water. and he
never lost his faith N man. e was
Mark Twain's Sellers. rs.-Wa. ngton
Post.