The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-04-11
The House That Mark Built.

Hannibal.
The House That Mark Built.
The next home of Mark Twain which
history records and which still stands
is shack in the town of Aurora Es-
meralda county, New, on the cactus
desert 1t is stated by lady journal
list Of San francisco that Mark Twain
built this house with his own hands.
That may or may not be true. Let us
not take issue with lady. The shack
is built Of clapboards and other things.
with little board porch in front and
a stovepipe sticking up through the
roof. Here dwelt Sam Clemens and his
partners, subsisting upon canned beans
and hope while they tried to discover
silver in the rock regions roundabout.
1t is of record that they failed. Mark
Twain moved out, went to San Fran
cisco, Honolulu and scores of other
places, not to forget Virginia City,
New, where he began to write for the
newspapers and found his calling.
Of course Mark Twain had many
temporary homes along the Mississippi
river, from Hannibal to the gulf. be-
tween trips as steamboat pilot or help
er. But they do not count. He has
said himself that when you stay a cou-
pie of months in a place it begins to
look familiar, but that it requires at
least two years to make a place your
home. In his wanderings he seems to
have adhered consistently to this the
DRY, for he lived two years each at half
a dozen places in Europe-London,
Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Florence, Ven
Ice and so on. This was after his mar
rage. Each Of those cities now has q
Mark Twain home to show to future
generations.
One feels like Offering an apology to
the public for mentioning the first
home of Mark Twain after his mar
rage, because the story has been told
SO often: But as this is a veracious
chronicle Of Mark Twain's homes the
present writer must hew to the line
That home was in Buffalo. The BRIDE
groom's father-in-law gave it to him
as little wedding present. am de-
term1ned not to say word about that
familiar story of the young newspaper
man and his bride being detained some
where by unreliable friends while 9TH
er tricksters lighted the gas in all the
rooms Of the new home and the cook
prepared and spread a savory supper
I shall not even mention how Mr.. and
Mrs. Clemens finally were permitted to
drive up to the house, supposing they
were visiting friends, and were told
when seated at the tdble that the
house and all it's fixtures were theirs.
When Connecticut Gasped.
Mark Twain had third interest in
the Buffalo Express, but by that time
"Innocents Abroad" had made him so
famous that he could not afford to con-
tinue in newspaper work. He moved
out Of the gift house and away from
Buffalo. Fur overcoats, he said, had
something to do with his quitting that
climate on the lake shore. The family
dwelt for brief time in Eln7ira, the
girlhood home Of Mrs. Clemens, but the
charms of Hartford, Conn.,, were not to
be resisted. A literary colony in that
city lured Mark Twain thither. Charles
Dudley Warner was neighbor. Har-
riet Beecher Stowe was another.
The house built by Mark Twain in
Hartford was so far In advance Of the
age that Connecticut gasped. It was
like thrusting twentieth century Uni
tartan into the New England atmos-
phere of Jonathan Edwards. That
house was built for comfort. It had
enough windows to let in the light
where the light would do the most
good. 1t had plenty of ventilation 1t
had porches suited to all climates,
which it needed in Connecticut, and it
had no regard whatever for the con-
ventional New England architectural
lines of the period. ..N
In this house the Clemens family
resided for the larger part CT twenty
years. It began to look as though Mark
Twain had settled down. But appear
ances were deceiving. The wanderlust
microbe was still working. The fam
lily pulled up stakes and went abroad.
Mark Twain rode around the earth on
the equator, wrote, lectured, establish
ed biennial homes here and there, occu-
pied houses for the summer in the Adj
irondacks, on the Maine shore, in the
New Hampshire mountains and few
other regions.
Early in 1902 he purchased a hand
some country place near Tarrytown,
N. Y. not far from Mr. Rockefeller's
house. But this place he never occu-
pied. The family went to Italy in the
hope Of restoring the health Of Mrs.
Clemens. After the bereavement of
her death Mark Twain returned to the
United States and took house on
Fifth avenue, in New York He is
living there now, or, at any rate, he
was until he packed up and went off to
Bermuda few weeks ago. The Fifth
avenue house is quite close to the
Washington arch and Washington
square,
Where He Will Settle Down.
$50 Mark Twain has settled down at