The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-07-10
MARX IWAlN's sTOGIEs.
The Effect They Produced or the After
Dinner Festivities.

The Effect They Produced or the After
Dinner Festivities.
One night at the Hartford Monday
Evening club meeting George, our col
ored butler, came to me when the sup
per was nearly over. and noticed that
he was pale. Normally his complexion
was clear black and very handsome,
but now it had modified to old amber.
he said:
''Mr: Clemens. what are We going to
do? There is not / cigar in the house
but those old Wheeling long mines.
Can't nobody smoke them but you.
They kill at thirty yards, 1t is too
late to telephone-we couldn't get any
cigars out from town-what can we
do? Amt it best to say nothing and
let on that we didn't think:
40" said. that would not be
honest Fetch out the long mines. y
which he did.
had lust come across those long
mines" q few days or 1 week before.
hadn't seen i long nine for years
wben was a cub pilot on the Mis-
sissIppi in the late fiftIes l had mad a
nreat affection for them. because theT
were not only-to my mind-perfect.
but YOU could get 4 basketful of them
for a cent-or q dime. They didn't use
cents out there in those days. So when
T saw them advertised in Hartford 1
sent for thousand at once. IleE
came out to me in badly battered and
disreputable looking old square paste
board boxes, 200 in a box. George
brought a box. which was caved IN on
all sides. looking the worst 1t cotla'
and began to pass them around. Inc
conversation had been brilliantly AMI
mated up to that moment. but no" i
frost fell upon the companE-thal IS "
say. not all Of sudden. but the 1roSI
fell upon each man as he TOOK up Il
cigar and held it poised in the air-and
there, in the middle. his sentence proSe
| off That kind Of thing went on all
aroml the table until Mhen George
had completed his crime the whole
place was full Of thick solemnity and
silence.
Those men began to light the cigars.
Rev: DR.. Parker was the first man te
light. He took three Or four herolc
whiffs, then gave it up. he got up
with the remark that he had to so tc
the bedside of sick parishioner. lie
| started out. Rev. DR.. Burton was the
next man. He took only one whit
and followed, Parker. He furnished
pretext, and YOU could see by tho
sound of his voice that he didn't thlni
much of the prctext and was vexed
with Parker for getting in ahead witt
q fictitious ailirg client. Rev. Mr.
Twichell followed and said he had t
90 now because he must take the mid
night train for Boston. Boston was
the first place that occurred to him,
suppose.
It was only a quarter to IL wher
they began to distribute preteXts. A
ten minutes to II all those people were
out of the house. When nobody wa:
left but George and me, l was cheer
full. I had no compunctions OF con
science, no griefs Of any kind. Bu
George was. beyond speech because hi
held the honor and credit Of the family
above his own, and he was ASHAMED
that this smirch had been put upon II
told him to 90 to bed and try to sleel
it off. I went to bed myself. At break
fast in the morning when George VIC:
passing cup of coffee I saw it uem
hle in his hand I knew by that sigI
that there was something on his mind
He brought the cup to me and asked
ilnpressively:
Mr.. Clemens, how far is it from Tit
front door to the upper gate:.
I. said, TT is a hundred and twenty
Ave steps"
He said, Mr.. Clemens, you can star
| at the front door, and you can 81
plumb to the upper gate and tread OF
one of them cigars every time"
1t wasn't true in detail, but in essen
tials it was.-Mark Twain's Autobiog
raphy in North American Review.