The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-23

II h joyful newf that Marx Twain has
decided TO publish at once extracts from
his autobiography. The nrst instalment
appears In the current North American
RSvtse.
According 70 the editor 'Mr. Clemens
began 10 write his autobiography many
years ago, and he continues 70 add to IL
day BY day. II was his original intention
70 permit NJ publication OF his memoirs
until after his death, but alter isaving
Pier No. TO he concluded that n on
siderable portion might now suitably be
given 20 the public
He has written about q quarter Of q
million words at present. He expects to
complete the million before he finishes his
story, no portion Of which will be published
In book form during the authors lifetime.
He begins at the beginning, though he
announces that he does not propose to be
consecutive, but to hop, skip and jump as
much an ever he pleases- Back OF the
Virginia Clsmenses,' he says, lis a dim
procession OF ancestors stretching back
70 Noeh's time. According to tradition,
some Of them were pirates and slavers in
ElixAbsth's time. Also according to tradi-
ton one Of them-Geoffrey Clement by
name-helped to sentence Charles I. to
death.
sIhave not examined into these traditions
myself, partly because l was indolent and
partly because I was busy polishing up
this end Of the line, trying to make IL snowy.
But the other Clemsnses claim to have
made the examination. Therefore I have
always taken for granted that l did help
| Charles out Of his troubles, by ancestral
| proxy.
This has not had a good effect upon
| me, for Il has made me vain, and that Is a
| fault IL has made me set myself above
people who we're less fortunate in their
! ancestry than / and has moved me to take
thUmr down a Q upon occasion and say
things TO them which hurt them before
x case Of the Kind happened in Berlin
several years ago. William Walter Phelps
wns our Minister at the .Emperor's court
then, and one evening he had me to dinner
10 meet Count g., Cabinet Minister. This
nobleman was OF long and illustrious
descent.
sOf course I wanted to let out the fact
/ that I had some ancestors too, but l did
not want TO pull them out OF their graves
] by the ears, and Inever could seem to get the
chance to work them in In a way that would
look sufficiently casual.
Il suppose Phelps was in the same dif1-
| guilty. In fact he looked distraught now
and then-tust as q person looks who wants
10 uncover an ancestor purely by accident
and cannot think Of a way that will seem
sBut at last, after dinner, he made a try.
He took US about his drawing room, showing
US the pictures, and finally stopped before
Q rude and ancient engraving.
TT was q picture Of the court that tried
| Charles I. There was a pyramid Of Judges
IN Puritan SLOUGH hats, and below them
\ three bareheaded secretaries seated at a
1 tablS. Mr.. Phelps put his finger upon one
Of the three and said, with exulting In
| difference:
An ancestor Of mine.'
Il put my I'm ger on a Judge, and retorted
with scathtng languidness:
Ancestor Of mine. But y is a small
matter. have others
stt was not noble In me to do IL. l have
always regretted IL since. But iteIanded
him. / wonder how he felt2 However, IL
nAAO no difference In our friendship, which
shows that he was fine and high, notw'th-
standing the humbleness OF his origin.
And Il was also oroditable In me, too, that
I could overlook II. / made no change in
my bearing coward him, but always treated
nv mother was a native Of Kentucky
and married my father in Lexington IN 1928
when she was % years old and he "a.
Neither Of them had an overplus OF property.
She brought him two or three negroes, but
nothing else. think.
cluded village Of jamestown, In the noun
tAin soiitudes Of east Tennessee. There
their first crop Of children was born, but
asI was Of later vintage l do not remember
poged 70 MissoHri. Missouri was an un-
known new State and needed attractions.
Il think that my eldest brother, OrionI
my sisters Pamela and Margaret and my
brother Benjamin were born In jamestown.
There may have been others, but as TO that
! am not sure. II was a great lit for that
| little village 70 have my parents come there.
IL was hoped that they would stay, 30 that
It would Become a city. 1t was supposed
that they would stay.
sAnd 90 there was a boom; but by and
by they went away, and prices went down
and IL was many years before jamestown
got another start. ! have written about
jamestown In The Gilded Age a book Of
mine, but 1t was from hearsay, not from
personal knowledge.
my father left a fine estate behind him
In the region round about Jamestown
over 100 600 acres. When he died IN l847
he had owned II about twenty years. The
the whole), and he had always paid them
regularly and kept bis title perfect. He
had always said that the land would not
become valuable In bis time, but that il
would be a commodious provision for his
Il wish I owned a couple Of acres Of tho
land now, In which case l would not be
writing autobiographies for a living. My
tathefB dying oharHo was, NlnR 10 the land
and wait lot nothing beguile IL away from
/ you Ny mothers favorite cousin, James
Hampton, who figures In The Glded Age
40 Col. Sellers, always said OF that land
and said 1t with blazing enthusiasm, too
"Thsre's millions In it-millionsl'
Il 10 true that he always said tina about
eveRything-and was always mistaken, too;
but this time he was right; which shows
that O man who goes around With a proph-
eCy gun ought never TO get discouraged:
II be will keep up his heart and fire at every
thing be sees he is bound to hit something
By and by.
many persons regarded Col. Sellers al
Q fiction, an invention, an eXtravagant
l~npossibility, and did me the honor to call
him Q creation; but they were mistaken.
merely put mn on paper a. he was; he
ses not q person who could be exaggerated.
Tho incidents which looked most extrava-
giant, both in the book and on the stage,
were not inventions Of min but we're facts
Of his life; and l was present when they
were developed.
John T. RAymOnd's audiences used to
come noar to dying with laughter over the
turnip eating scene; but, eKtravagant as
the scene was, IL was faithful to the facta
l. ~ "a 49, s- TT Ill -