The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1910-04-22

wrought upon him; for from such rt
actions resulted his imaginative out
lput-one of the most considerable O
his time and. as it now seems, one o
1.-THE securest.
Briefly. then, Mark Twain was borl
samuel Langhorne Clemens, in Flor
Ida, Mo-, on November 80, 1885. IN,
parents" he writes, in his own Burles
que Autobiography, were neither yer,
poor nor conspicuously honest.
The earlist ancestor the Twains have
any record of was a friend of the fam
lily by the name of Higgins The
county chronicles have it that the eld
INr Clemens failed in business and died
leaving his son the ample world to
make his fortune in.
Accordingly, Mark Twain's acquain-
tance with literature began in putting
words into type, not ideas into words.
Educated only in the public schools.
he was apprenticed to a printer at
thirteen and worked at his trade in
ST. Louis. Cincinnati, Philadelphia and
New York, until at eighteen he could
crafty a boyish ambition to become
cub to Mississippi river pilot. Both
these disparate happenings reacted
profoundly on his later life. Varied
and eventful as that life was, it might
almost be said that only two things
happened to Mark Twain-he learned
the river and he learned to set type.
His knowledge of river life. acquir-
ed when he was pilot, took form in
Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and
Life on the Mississippi, regarded
abroad as his surest title to fame. 1t
even suggested his pseudonymn. for
Mark Twain" is 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 suffered a
disastrous to everything
but his honor. and like Sir Walter
again, paid off his pen debts not of his
1wn making.
IN due time Mark Twain became
.ull hedged pilot. He tells the rest
himself, in chapter of Life on the
BY and by the war came, commerce
vas suspended, my occupation was
zone.
l had to seek another livelihood. So
became silver miner, in Nevada
lext, a gold miner. in California, next
reporter in San Francisco; next. a
pecial correspondent in the Sandwich
stands; next, roviug correspondent 1
n Europe and the East; next. an In
torch-bearer on the lecture
latformi and, finally, became a
of books, and an immovable
xture among the other rocks of New
'ngland.g .
This was in 1872, year after he
ad married Miss Olivia T. Langdon.
Elmira, N. X. who brought him an
dependent fortune. At that time
is writings were in growing demand. 4
9 had an assured income, his own J
ONE, and seemed indeed fixture. 4
ut in 1885 his popularity as an author |
nd his acquaintance with the me- IS
lanics Of the publishing trade-be- t
des being a practical printer he had 7
cen part owner Of the Buffalo Exs p
'ess before his marriage-drew him
to the firm of c. L. Webster & Com t
my, publishers The firm brought [
1t the memories of General Grant t
I'd paid his widow $35O00O, but its Is
osperity was shortlived, and it fail r,
with liabilities of $4,000. The fail e
e had already sucked in $4,000 Of b
ark Twaif's cash. but he determin-
also to shoulder the debts, and to Al
y them off undertook in 1856 a LEI
cture trip around the world. tt
Mark Twain was an inveterate smok- ee
and one Of the most leisurely men Leg
the world An old pressman who th
IS once printers devil in an Office az
Iere ldark was editorial writer tells m
IS aneeedote of his habits Of work. th
ne Of my duties was to sweep the N
'm where editors worked Every
Mark would give me a nickel to at
away from him. He would rather ca
(Gontinned on Last Page.l nj