The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-26

house. Why should anybody shy bricks
at. a poor humorist or advise him to
stick to his trade when he tries to say
sensible thing?''
Even the English90 I suggested.
Value Of Humor.
"The English don't deserve their
reputation insisted Mr.. Clemens.
'EThey are as humorous a natisn as any
in the world. Only humor, to be COM
prehensible to anybody, must be built
on foundation with which he is IA
miliar. If he can It see the foundation
the superstructure is to him merely
freak-like the Flatiron building with
out any visible means of support-some-
"You couldn' It, for example, under
stand an Eskimo joke, yet they have
their jokes-plenty of them. There IS a
passage in Parkman that tells Of the
home life Of the Indian-describes him
sitting at home in the wigwam with his
squaw and papooses-not the stoical,
icy Indian with whom we are familiar,
who wouldn It make a jest for his life
or notice one that anybody else made,
but the real Indian that few white men
ever saw-simply rocking with mirth at
some tribal witticism that probably
wouldn't have commended itself in the
least to Parkman.
"And, so you see, the quality of hu-
NOR is! not a personal or a national
monopoly. It's as free as salvation,
and, [ am afraid, far more widely dis
tributed. But it has it's value, I think.
The hard and sordid things Of life. are
too hard and too sordid and too cruel
for US to know and touch them year
after year without some mitigating in
J f1uence, some kindly veil to draw over
/ them, from time to- time, to blur the
craggy' outlines, and make the thorns
less sharp and the cruelties less malig-
nant:'' " =.
I Mr.. Clemens doesn It mind being 70
years old, but he ism especially gay
about it.
"When. our. anniversaries roll up too
high total,' he said, eve don't feel
in, particularly celebratory mood. We
often celebrate the wrong anniversaries
and lament the ones we ought to cele
brate'
| ! Where He Lives.
This particular anniversary finds hin
domieiled within sight of the Washing
4 tons arch in one Of those. dignifed ole
nan mansions sHio5hhs Of lover Fifth avenue that
have set their kindly, patrician ole
ffaces sternly against the maraudins
march of skyscrapers and business lof
/ and hotel: Everybody knows that Hart
ford; was for many years his home, thu
in the summer intervals various noun
tain or, seaside cottages got in some O.
| their dread work, while so recently a
! a summer or two ago an Italian vii;
added strange new items to the sun
total of his ,domiciliary experience.
His latest solution of the summe
question. is Dublin, N. II. There NJ
was last summer, and there he hopes t.
be again. His own account OF how n
reached so satisfactory a solution l
entertaining, and may be instructive.
ts:Yes.'yshe said, "I have tried mum
ber of, summer homes, here and in Eu
rope together -.@
: II The seas Disadvantages:
HEach of3these homes had charms O.
it's own; \, charms and delights OF it
own. and some Of 5them-even in Europ
|-had< comfort Several Of them ha|
conveniences, Goo: They all had
1 view. .. : q: - .x,-}}-s...,
i Kt, is my conviction that ther
& should always.be some water in vie7
Ia lake or a river, but not the ocean
if you are down on its. level. thin
that when you are down on it's level j
!. seldom infames you. with. an ecstas
81 which you could not get out of a san
4 fat. tbs like being on board ship owe
+ again; indeed it is worse than that, fo
I there's three months Of it. On boar
ship one tires of The aspects in a coupl