Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-05-11
MARK TWAIN"
CALLED HOME
Dean Of American HumOTistS
Dies Of Broken Heart
LOSS OF HIS DEAR FRIENDS

Measure of Honors, but Many Sor-
rows Which Were Borne With Silent
Dignity-His Fame and Influence
Will Remain as Legacy For Many
Generations to Come
Redding, Conn. April 22.-Samuel
Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain, j"
died painlessly at his home here at
$50 o'clock last night of angina pee
toris. He lapsed into coma at
O'Clock in the afternoon and never re-
covered consciousness. 1t was the end
of man worn out by grief and agony
of body.
Wednesday was a bad day for the
little knot of anxious watchers at the
bedside. For hours the gray, aquiline
features lay moulded in the inertia of
death, while the pulse sank lower and
lower, but late at night Twain passed
from stupor into the first natural sleep
he had known since he returned from
Bermuda and yesterday morning he
awoke refreshed, even family cheer
full, and in full possession of all his
faculties.
He recognized his daughter Clara,
Mrs. Ossip Gabrilowitsch, spoke a
word or two and feeling himself I'M
equal to conversation, wrote out in
pencil: Give me my glasses They
were his last words.
Laying his glasses aside he sank
first into reverie and later into final
Inconsistencies. There was no
thought at the time, however, that
the end was so near.
An Inveterate Smoker
Mark Twain was for more than fifty
years an inVeterate smoker, and the
first conjecture of the layman will be
that he weakened his heart by over
indulgence in tobacco, but DR.. Halsey
said that he was unable to predict
that the angina pectoris from which
the humorist died was in any way
sequel Of nicotine poisoning. Yet it
is true that after his illness began the
doctor cut down Mark TWain's daily
allowance of twenty cigars and count
less pipes to four cigars a day.
The last bit of literary work did
was chapter Of his unfinished auto
biography describing his daughter
Jeans death. He sought diversion in
Bermuda, where he was the guest of
the American vice consul, William H.
Allen, whose young daughter Helen
acted as amanuensis for what few let
tiers he cared to dictate.
His winter was gay but not happv.
When he heard of the successive
deaths of his two friends, William NJ.
Laffan of The Sun and R. w. Glider,
editor of The Century, he said sadly:
How fortunate they are. No good
fortune of that kind ever comes to
me-"
Life had no further allurements for
him. Mr.. Paine said last night that
the book Mark Twain took I'D from
the coverlet beside him when he asked
for his glasses was Carlyles History
of the French Revolution" his insep-
arabic companion and greatest favor
lite.
The burial will be in the family plot
at Elmira, N. Y, where lie already
his wife, his two daughters, Susan
and Jean, and his infant son, Lang
horne. No date has yet been set, as
/ the family is still undecided whether
| or not there shall be a public funeral
| first in New York city.
Through the lanes around Redding
the Innocent at Home loved to wander
| in his white fannels for homely Cos
sip with the neighbors. They re-
| member him best as one who above
all things loved a good listener. for
Mark Twain was a mighty talker
stored with fairy tales for the little
maids he adored, and ruder speech for
masculine ears. 1t is a legend that
he was vastly proud of his famous
mop of white hair and is said to have
spent the pains of court lady in get
ting it to just the proper artistic dis
array.
Last summer the walks began to
falter; last fall they ceased for good
a CLOSE
friend, was a severe blow. The death
of his daughter, Jean, who was seized
with an attack of epilepsy last fall
while in her bath, was an added blow
from which he never recovered. II
was then that the stabbing pains In
the heart began. Mark Twain died
rs nearly as it can be said of any
man, of broken heart.
Loss to Fellow countrymen
Samuel l.. Clemens countrymer
have lost a guide, philosopher and
friend; the world mourns beloved
sage. Wherever the printed page i,
turned his tales are read in a hundred
tongues and in lands beyond the seas
his writings cause tears to follow
laughter and laughter to follow tears.
Like Victor Hugo, he sensed the lif,
Of all mankind; like Moliere, he wa.
the foe of cant and sham; like Ger.