The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-12

cottage is tenantless, and as dreary look ing as the old water mill on Salt river. Some persons say Tom Blankenship of this place was the original of Huckle- berry Finn, while at Stoutsville they lay 1t on to Barney Farthing, of Paris. The latter is a jolly good natured fellow of seventy and says that he Is willing to stand for anything in Tom Sawyer ex- cept "1njun Joe"
 George Moore, clerk of the United States court and known to have been a playmate of Samuel Clemens, was asked what sort of boy he was.
 "I don't remember much about him., said MT. Moore. leaning back in his chair and tapping his speetacles refectively against his desk; "of course I was living here when his folks came from Florida in about 1S45, I think and I was pretty well acquainted with him, but he was a good deal older and I didn't run in his crowd Suppose you see Judge Bacon-he'n know"
 'I don't understand why so many peo- pie come to me about Mark Twain" said Judge Bacon. T didn't know much about him. He was much older than l am, and I was not associated with him inti- mately. But I'll tell you what-you sec George Moore, clerk of the federal court. He's about Twain's age and he'll tell you"
 The attempt to find man as old as Mark Twain" was abandoned, and an associate of Clemens In his printer days on the Hannibal Union, Alexander H. Lacy, was hunted up and asked what was the best yarn that Twain had ever written. The question put the veteran printer to studying
 One of TWaIn's Yarns. Well" he said, T can tell you the one that made me laugh the most, but l don believe he ever printed 1t in any of his books, and l have read most of 'em. It was about Jim and the tom cat. l was working on the Union with him when the thing happened, but I never read it until Sam wrote it for some paper in the west, in San Francisco. I believe I recog- nized the incident. and knew there was nobody out there but Sam who could have told it.
 Jim was printer, and he roomed with | Sam. who he thought was the smartest ' boy that ever lived. One night the girls in the house gave a candy pull and a | lot of stick molasses candy was laid on | the back porch to cool before pulling The young folks were raising high Jinks down
 stairs and Jim's tom cat was out on the , back fence singing an accompaniment. | Sam couldn't sleep. and he told Jim to I get up and murder his cat. Jim would |, have committed suicide If Sam had told nlm to, ana without taking the trouble to put on his clothes, he climbed out on | the trells, intending to make connections | with the fence. But the trellis was fragile and Jim was a good healthy boy. The | thing gave way with a crash, and poor
 Jim was precipitated on that hot mo-
 lasses candy
 l ''he gave a shriek that brought all the
 boys and girls out on the porch and the 1 landlady kindly fetched lamp. Jim was
 never very pretty boy, but at that mo-
 ment everybody thought he was the sweetest thing earth The candy hung 1 to his naked legs and breast like barn.
 aeles to an ocean derelct. It broke up the
 party and everybody blamed Sam for it. Well, he touched up that yarn in a way
 that made it even funnier than it was, and l then l knew that the careless, fun loving
 lad had struck his gait-that he was really | good for something"
 The citizens of Hannibal are completing
 an edifice which they think Is worthy of i the reputation of their former townsman. 1 It is a large modern hotel, called the | Mark Twain. to cost more than $60.000. and
 it will be one of the handsomest build | ings of the sort for a town of Hannibal s
 class. The building will be thrown open | to the public some time next spring and 1 1t is hoped that Mark Twain" himself | will be present.