The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-04-24
Body of Noted Author and HUI
morist, Mourned by Millions,
Consigned to Tomb.
SERVICES HELD in THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
EuIOgies Pronounced by Henry
Van Dyke and DR.. Joseph
TwitcheIl.
BY Associated Press.

NEW YORK, April 23.-The body Of
Mark Twain began today its last jour.
noy from the sunny chamber where it
had lain in Stormfeld to the spot in
God g acre, where it shall rest at last
beside those whom he ''loved long since
and lost awhile
Funeral services were said in the old
Brick Presbyterian church at Fifth ave
nue. and Thirtv-seventh street, this city,
by DR.. Henry A, Van Dyke. professor
| of English literature at Princeton uni
versity, this afternoon. The prayer was
pronounced by DR.. Joseph II. Twitchcll
! of Hartford, Conn, Mark Twain s old
friend and pastor.
Early tomorrow morning the body will
leave for Elmira over the Lackawanna
railroad.
In accordance with the wishes of the
| family, the services today were brief
and simple The only music was an
organ prelude, the death of Ase,' by
| Grieg. There was a modest display of
! white lilies, lilies -ofthe-valley, white
and red roses, orchids and sweet peas
about the coffin. Those who wished were
permitted to view the features Invi.
tatioD was by card, but after the
ed the church was well filed by the
general public. In all, the services took
but half an hour.
DR.. Van Dykes Tribute.
In his address, Dr. Van Dyke said
in part:
"This is not the place nor the time
for an eulogy of the famous writer,
the honored and representative Ameri-
can. Here we are all of us simply hui
man. The touch of grief is upon US.
We think of Mark Twain, not as the
celebrity. but the man whom we knew
and loved,
"Those who know his work as
whole, know that under the lambent
and irrepressible humor which was his
gift, there was a foundation of serious
thought and noble affections and de.
sires. The mark of his higher humcr
is that it does not laugh at the weak,
the helpless, the true, the innocent
only at the false, the pretentious, the
vain. the hypocritical.
''Mark Twain laughed many of the
world g false claimants out of court
and entangled many of the world IS false
witnesses in the net of ridicule. He
touched the absurdities OF life with no
unkindly mockery and made us feel
somehow the infinite pathos Of life s
realities. No one can say that he
ever failed TO reverence the purity,
lac frank, joyful, genuine nature of
little children. of whom Christ has said
OF such is the kingdom of Heaven. -
Recalls Other Tragedy.
A hearse among the green lanes of
spring is a sad thing TO see, and as
those waiting at Rcdding station today
saw the white horses and the black
van now and again between the pen
ciled tracery Of the willows, there rose
the memory of how the same hearse
had last wended the same winding road
from the same house-on Christmas
night. Jean Clemens had died on Christ
mas eve, while her Christmas tree stood
IN the liviDg~room at Stormfeld, fully
garnished and untouched. Her body
was sent TO Elmira on Christmas night.
That was Mark Twain 3 last Christ
mas.
No nows of the death had reached
the few scattered houses that are in
Redding, That Christmas night was
furiously stormy and the snow6ake5
drove like shot. The first intimation
the village had of Jean Clemens g
death was when tardy passenger
opening suddenly the door OF Redding
station, found himself confronted with
four tall, silent men in black, strug-
Cling in the snow with n coffin. It
was on this night that the newspapers
heard that Mark Twain was dying, and
sent him kilograms Of inquiry.
Characteristic Responses.
81 hear he wrote in reply, "that
the newspapers say ] am dying !
would not do such a thing at my time
of life, | am behaving myself as well
as ] can. Merry Christmas to every
body -
The storms beat upon the daughter;
the sun shone today on the father The
hearse plodded through the lanes; after
it followed Albert Bigelow Paine. the
cherished friend and biographer, with