The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-04-22

Accordingly, Mark Twatns Hcquaint-
ance with literature began In putting
words into type, not ideas into words.
Educated only in the public schools.
ne was apprenticed to a printer at 10
and worked at his trade in St Louis,
Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New
York, until at Is he could crafty a
boyish ambition to become cub to a
Mississippi rivor pilot Both these
happenings reacted profoundly on his
later life. His knowledge Of river life,
acquired when he was a pilot, took
form in Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry
Finn and Life on the Mississippi, re-
garded abroad as his surest title to
fame. It even suggested his pseudon-
YIN, for Mark Twain" is a linesman's
cry to the pilot in shallow stages. And
his familiarity with printing turned
him naturally first into newspaper
work, then into creative writing, and
finally into the publishing business,
wherein, like Sir Walter Scott, he suf-
fered a bankruptcy disastrous to every
thing but his honor and like Sir Walter
again, paid off by his pen debts NOT CT
his own making.
Became River Pilot.
In due time Mark Twain became a
fullfedged pilot. He tells the rest
himself. in a chapter of Life on tho
Mississippi, 'by and by the war came,
commerce was suspended, my occupa"
ton was gone.
ct had to seek another livelihood. So
became a silver miner in Nevada;
next, a gold miner in California; next,
reporter in San Francisco; next, q
special correspondent in the Sandwich
islands; next a rowing correspondent
in Europe and the east; next, an In
structural torch bearer on the lecture
platform, and finally became a scrib-
Ter of books, and an immovable fixture
among the other rocks of New Eng
land"
This was in 1872, a year after he
had married Miss Olivia L. Langdon
of Elmira N, Y. who brought him an
independent fortune. At that time his
writings were in growing demand, he
had an assured income, his own home,
and seemed indeed a fixture. But in
1885 his popularity as an author and
his acquaintance with the mechanics
Of the publishing trade--besides a
practical printer he had been part
owner Of The Buffalo Express before
his marriage draw him into the firm
Of c. L. Webster e. Co.. publishers
The firm brought out the memoirs Of
General Grant and paid his widow
$350,000, but it's prosperity was short
lived and ii failed with liabilities O.,
$4,000. The failure had already
sucked in $65,OOO OF Mark Twains
cash. but he determined also to should
err the debts and to pay them off
undertook In 1866 a lecture trip
around the world
Was Inveterats Smoker.
Mark Twain was an inveterate
smoker and one OF the most leisurely
men in the world. An old pressman
who was once a printers devil in an
office where Mark was editorial writer
tells this anecdote OF his habits of
work:
zone Of my duties was TO sweep the
room where the editors worked. Ev-
cry day Mark would give me nickel
to get away from him. He would
rather die in the dust than uncross his
legs. One day he gave me nickel
to dot an 4 in his copy for him. He
certainly did enjoy life that man did"
Yet this easy -goin dawdler ac-
quilted himself of a prodigious deal
of work In his life and bound himself
voluntarily to pay off debts that he
could have discharged without hurt
to his good name by passing through
bankruptcy. He did not practice as
he preached.
1T don't make no difference" he
had Huck Finn say; whether you do
right or wrong, a persons conscience
amt got no sense, and Just goes for
him anyway II I had a yaller dog
that didn't know no more than o per-
sons conscience did, I'd pizen him. It
takes up more room than all the rest
OF a persons insides, and yet amt
no good nohow.''
Fame Was international.
With Mark Twain's lecture trip
around the world began his inter-
national celebrity and his gradual rise
into a figure taken in some sense to
typify the American spirit. From
humorist he became the kindly but
hooking noralist and philosopher OF
Puddinhead Wilson. His literary out
put became more occasional and,
though written with more finese, more