New-York tribune., 1907-11-03

Louis thousand dollars in gold for two nights in oro,
have declined them all Just as usual though soTsI
tempted as usual
audience but because tI) travelling alone so her
breakngy dreary, and (2 shouldering the whole sbo
such cheer killing responsibility
Therefore now propose to You what DrOposal.
in November, ISo7,-ten years ago (when / was un
known vz-That You should stand on the platform and
make pictures, and stand by you and biackguard The
audience should enormously enjoy meanderiHg arornS
to big tOwns-dont want to go to little Onej with Won
for company
The letter includes schedule of cities and the nurt
Of appearances planned for each
This is as it should be. This is worthy of .u
praise say it myself lest other competent persons
Should forget to do it. 1t appears that four of nv
ancient letters sold at auction, three Of them
at twenty-SeVen dollars, twenty-elght dollars and
twentv-nine dollars respectively, and the one men
toned at forty-three dollars There IS one verv
gratifying circumstance about this, to wit thai
nv literature has more than held IT, own as regards
money value through this stretch of thrty-siy
wears / Judge that the fOrty-three-dClar letter
must have gone at about ten cents a word, whereas
if | had written it to-day its market rate would be
thirty cents; so / have increased in value two or
three hundred per cent / note another gratifving
circumstance: that letter of General Grants sold
at something short of eighteen dollars. / can't rise
to General Grants lofty place IN the estIUa tOn Of
this nation; but it is a deep happiness to know
that when it comes to epistOlary literature Ire can
sit in the front seat along with me.
This reminds me,-nlne years ago, Nnen H-e were
living IN Tedworth Square London, a report was
cabled to the American journals that l diving
was not the one. 1t another Clemens. q cousin
of mine-Dr. !. Ross Clemens, now of St. -us-
who was due to die but presently escaped, t- some
chicanery or other characteristic OF the c~-be of
Clemens The London representatives of the Arner-
can papers began to flock in with America cables
in their hands to inquire into my condition There
was nothing the matter with me, and each j his
turn was astonished and disappointed 10 h1d me
reading and smoking IN my study, and worth next
TO nothing as a text for transatlantic neUs One
of these men was a gentle and kindly and gra and
sympathetic IriShman, who hid his sorrow the best
he could, and tried to look glad, and told ue that
his paper, The Evening Sun had Cabled hi that
it was reported in New York that was dead y hat
should he cable IN replys | said:
Say the report Is greatly exaggerated
He never smiled but went sOlemnly awe md
sent the cable in those words The remark b the
world pleasantly, and 10 this day It keeps tuning
up now and then IN the newspapers when I-C PIE
have occasion to discount eXaggeratiOns.
The next man also an Irishman. He haa his
New York cablegram in his hand,-frOm The New
York World and he evidently trylr- to
get around that cable with invented sOftnesse nd
palliations that my curiosity aroused and l
wanted 10 what 1t did really say So when
occasion offered slipped 1t out OF his hand II ID:
q" If Mark Twain dying. send hve hundred words;
# dead, send a thousand
Now that old letter Of mine sold Yesterday OF
forty-three dollars. When l dead 1t VIII e
worth eIghtV-SIX.
Zc ts ccc-rae9 ret Sar1Gy