The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-27
Mark Twain Happy
in His New Home

among them shacks in Missouri and
Nevada, while establishments in Lon
don, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Buffalo,
New Haven and New York were look
ed upon by him as home. The last of
these-the one which he sought and
established upon the termination of his
last lecture tour around the world,
made necessary because of the sweep,
ing away at one fell swoop of all his
savings of a lifetime-was in lower
Fifth avenue, New York, and here
New Workers had hoped that Mark
Twain, would remain and live out his
life. About two years ago, however,
Wanderlust proved too attractive, and
he started forth to found home after
his own heart, and this he has done at
"The Glen," as his Connecticut estate
is called.
Early Days in Missouri.
There is more to be told of Mark
Twain s early days in Missouri than is
to be found in the pages of "Tom
Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. ;"
Few, perhaps, know that the old house
in Florida, Monroe county, Mo-, which
had been gradually torn to pieces by
relic hunters under the belief that it
is Mark Twain S birthplace, is not the
house where the humorous lecturer
was born. The real birthplace is some
distance away-a two-story wooden
dwelling that was materially changed
after the Clemens family left it. Here
the author was born seventy-three
years ago. with his parents, "Sam, :"
when but three years old, moved to
Hannibal, Mo-, where the old home is
still standing at Hill and Main streets.
Hannibal is the land of "Tom Saw
yer' and "Huck Finn, and consider
ably more than half the adventures
of these most popular American boys
were taken from Mark Twain s own
life. 1t was in 1870 that Mark Twain
moved to Buffalo, and there bought a
home, shortly thereafter marrying
Miss Olivia L. Langdon of New York,
but between Hannibal and the new
home on Delaware avenue, Buffalo,
there We're years of ceaseless wander
ing for Mark Twain. He had been a
printer devil in Missouri, and for
five years a pilot on the boats of the
Mississippi river. He served five
weeks in the Confederate Army, and
then tried gold mining in Nevada. He
built a shack for himself there, which
could almost be slowed away in the
fireplace of his present New Redding
villa. This shack he graphically de-
scribes in "ROughing IT, as dwell
ing built in crevice, between two
rocks. The roof was a canvas, left
open at one corner to serve as a chin
ney. Cattle tumbled through the hole
every now and then, smashing his
furniture and disturbing his slumbers,
so he moved. After writing for the
Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, a
Nevada newspaper, he journeyed to
the Sierras, went to Honolulu the fol
lowing year, returned to America,
crossed the continent to New York,
and in 1867, sailed for Europe on the
Quaker City. "Innocents Abroad y
was the result of this trip, and on his
return trip Mr.. Clemens and Miss
Langdon met on the ship, and their
wedding speedily followed.
Mark Twain was an editor in Buffalo
for about two years. Referring to
this period of his life he said:
CT could not live in Buffalo because
of the frequency of fur overcoats.
In Hartford, CT.
In 1871 his comfortable home in
Hartford, Ct, was purchased, and there
the family lived for fifteen years. Here
were some of the happiest years of the
authors life. He was idolized by his
neighbors and he was surrounded by
every comfort until thirteen years ago
| financial ruin overlook him, and once
more this wanderer was compelled to
start forth on lecture tour, that he
might be able TO settle with his credit
ors and begin life anew. AS a means
I to this end he elected to make a
world 5 lecture tour and set forth as
sured of the sympathy of every man,
woman and child who had learned to
| love him and look upon him as the
one who had done more to perpetuate
/ the literature of the New World than
any other American author.
Although man of sixty at that time
he set forth with all the ardor and
! enthusiasm of a boy on his first out
| ing in a world all strange In many
ways the task he had set for himself
was more difficult than that of Sir
! Walter Scott when he wrote some of
| his best-known works while hampered
| by a burden Of debt.
Twain as a Lecturer.
Mark Twain s popularity as a lectur-
er had not suffered from his long years