The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-04-26
MARK TWAIN DEAD.
Brilliant and Re7ered American Au-
thor and Humorist Has Passed
to the Great Beyond.

died painlessly at 6 80 O'Clock tonight
Of angina pector1s. He lapsed into
coma at 3 o'clock this afternoon and
never recovered consci business. It was
the end Of man outworn by grief
and acute agony Of body.
Yesterday was a bad day for the
little knot Of anxious watchers at the
bedside. For long hours the gray,
aquiine features lay moulded in the
inertia of death, while the pulse sank
lower and lower, but late at night
Mark Twain passed from stupor into
the first natural sleep he had known
since he returned from Bermuda, and
this morning he woke refreshed, even
faintly cheerful, and in full posses
sion Of all his faculties.
The Last Words.
He recognized his daughter, Clara,
Mrs. Ossip Gabrilowitsch, spoke a
word or two and, feeling himself IN
equal to conversation, wrote out III
pencil:
tGive me my glasses -
They were his last words. Laying
them aside, he sank first into rever:e
and later into final unconsciousness.
There was no thought at the time;
however, that the end was so near. At
5 o'clock DR.. Robert Hallsey, who had
been continuously in attendance, said:
"Mr. Clemens IS not so strong at
this hour as he was at the CORE
spending hour yesterday, but he has
wonderful vitality, and he may rally
again.
Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark
Twain's biographer and literary
executor, said to a caller, who desired
to inquire after Mr.. Clemens:
IT do not think you will have to
call often again"
Nevertheless, Mr.. and Mrs. E. E.
LOOMS, who had come up from New
York to give their love in person, left
Stormfeld, Mr.. Clemens,s home,
without seeing him and only heard Of
his death just as they were taking the
train to New York again. Mrs. Loom
is was Mr.. Clemens's favorite niece,
and Mr.. Loomis is vice-president of
tho Lackawanna railroad. ...
Similarly, Parvis Langdon, neph-
ew, who had run up for the day, left
even earlier, and wholly uninformed.
At the Death Bed.
AT the death bed were only Mrs.
Gabrilowitsch l(Cara Clemens), her
husband, DR.. Robert Halssy, DR..
Quintard, Albert Bigelow Paine, who
will write Mark Twain's biography,
and who is his literary executor, and
the two trained nurses. RestoratiVes
were administered but the patient
failed to respond.
A tank Of oxygen still stands un-
called for at the Redding station. The
valvular action Of the heart was not
disordered. There was only an ex-
treme and increasing debility, accom-
panied by labored respiration.
Angina pectoris is paroGsmal at
lection Of the chest, of battling and
obscure origin, characterized by severe
pain, faintness and depression Of the
spirits. The pain is severe and Of an
oppressive, crushing or stabbing char
acter. The attacks progress in fire.
quency and severity, with uncertain
internissions, sometimes Of long dura-
ton, to a fatal termination.
End Peaceful.
Mark Twain did not die in anguish,
Sedatives relieved his pain, but in
his moments of Consciousness the men
tai depression persisted. On his way
up from Bermuda he said to Albert
Bigelow Paine, who had been his con-
slant companion in his illness.
'@'This is bad job; we'll never pull
through with it, ,
On shore once more, and longing
for the serenity of the New England
hills, he took heart and said to those
who noted his enfeeblement in sor-
row: - ~
"Give me a breath Of Redding air
once more and this will pass. f"
But it did not pass, and, tired Of
body and YEARLY of spirit, the old
warrior against snobs and shams, said
family to his nurses:
"Why do you fight to keep me live?
Two days of life are as good to me
as four.'
1t is certain to be recalled that
Mark Twain was for more than so
years an inveterate smoker, and the
first conjecture Of the laymen would
be that he had weakened his heart