Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-05-18
MARK TWAlN'S ST0GIES.
The Effect They Produced on the A''e'
Dinner Festivities.

Ono NIGHT at TIE Hartford Monday
pran,np club meeting George, our col
ored butler. came to me when inc sup,
ner was nearly over, and l noticed 'ha'
he was pale. Normally his complexion
r,oo q clear black and very handsome
hut now 1t had modified to OLD amoe''
He said: H.. 60
0NIr Clemens. what are we going 10
do9 There is not a cigar in the mousse
hnt those old Wheeling long MINES:
can't nobody smoke them but you'
They kill at thirty yards. 1t is 100
late to telephone-we couidh I se' any
cigars out from town-what can we
az Amt it best TO say nothing anu
,et ON that we didn't think
"No." | said, that would not DC
Aonost Fctch out the long mines"
which he did. ,,oo
nod inst come across those long
mines" few days or week pelore'
7 hadn't seen a long nine Tor years
Whom was a cub pilot on the MIS-
s;ssinni in the late fifties l had had
,,,aot affection for them, because they
we've not only-tO my mind-perlec''
hrt Won could get baSketful OF them
fer u cent-or n dime. They didn use
ccnts OFT there in those days. So when
saw them advertised in HartIoru
cont for thousand at once. Ihey
came ont II me in badly battered ana
d,srcnutnhle looking old square paste
hoard boxes. 200 in box. George
hroucht box. which was caved III on
ou sides. looking the worst II couiu'
and bean to pass them around. Inc
conversation had been brilliantly AMI
mated M to that moment, but now Il
frost fell upon the cOmpany-that Is u
sov not all of a sudden, but the FROST
Pol unon each man as he took up q
cigar and held it poised in the air-anu
there in the middle, his sentence broke
off That kind of thing went on all
oround the table until when George
had completed his crime the whole
nloce was full of thick sOlemnity ana
silence
Those men began to light the cigars
Rev DIR Parker was the first man tC
Tight He took three or four heroi'
'whiffs. then gave it up. He got III
with the remark that he had to go L
the bedside Of a sick parishioner III
started out. Rev. DIR. Burton was tn'
next man. He took only one whil
and followed Parker. He furnished
pretext. and you could see by IN
sound of his voice that he didn't thini
much of the preteXt and was VeXe'
With Parker for getting in ahead Wit
q fictitious alling client Kew. MI
Tvichell followed and said he had I
% NOW because he must take the mo
night train for Boston. Boston wa
the first place that occurred to him.
suppose. =, .ho
It was only q quarter TO IL "he
they began to distribute preteXtS' y
ton minutes to II all those people wer
ont Of the house. When nobody wa
loft hut George and me. l was cheel
ful. | had no cOmpunctions or col
science. no griefs Of any kind. bu
George was beyond speech because u
held the honor and credit of the tamll
above his own, and he was usA"lne
that this smirch had been put upon
told him to 80 to bed and try to slice
II off l went to bed myself. At Dreal
fast in the morning when George We
passing a cup of coffee l saw it trel
BILE In his hand. knew by that sic
that there was something on his MIN
He brought the cup to me and asKt
impressively: =,
"Mr. Clemens, how far is it from Il
front door to the upper gate"
I said. at is Il hundred and twent
FIVE steps,
He said, MIR Clemens, you can sta
at the front door, and you can
plumb to the upper gate and tread
one of them cigars every time"
1t wasn't true in detail, but in esse
tials it was.-Mark Twain's AutoDlo
raphy in North American Review.