River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-04-28
MARK Twain IS DEAD
6AMUEL L. CLEMENS GOES TO
JOIN HIS FRIENDS, ROGERS,
LAFFEN AND GLIDER.
THE END COMES WITHOUT PAIN
Writer Never Recovered From Blow
of His Daughters Death.-Pre-
dicted the End on Way From
Bermuda.

Redding, Connecticut - Samuel
Langhorn Clemens, Mark Twain"
die0 painlessly of angina pectoris. He
lapsed into coma at 8 o'clock in the
afternoon and never recovered con-
| seriousness.
1t was the end of a man outworn by
grief and acute agony of body.
Wednesday was bad day for the
little knot of anxious watchers at the
bedside. For long hours the grey,
aquiline features lay mounded 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
he woke refreshed, even family cheer
full, and in full possession of all his
faculties.
He recognized his daughter, Clara
(Mrs. Ossip Gabrilovftch), spoke ra-
tional word or two and feeling himself
unequal to conversation wrote out in
pencil: Give me my glasses"
They were his last words.
Laying them aside he sank first into
reverie and later into final uncon-
seriousness.
At the deathbed were only Mrs. Ga
brilovitch, her husband; DR.. Robert
Halsey, DR.. Quintard, Albert Bigelow
Paine, who will write Mark Twain's
biography and the two trained nurses.
Restoratives, digitilas, strychnine
and camphor-were administered but
the patient failed to respond.
Mark Twain did not die in anguish.
Sedatives soothed his pain but in his
moments of consciousness the mental
depression persisted. On the way up
from Bermuda he said to Albert Bige-
low Paine, who had been his constant
companion in illness: "This is bad
job; we'll never pull through with it."
Last summer his walks began to fall
ter, last fall they ceased for good. The
death of III. III. Rogers was a severe
blow; the death of his daughter who
was seized with an attack of epilepsy
last fail while in her bath, was an add
ed blow from which he never recov-
cred. 1t was then that the stabbing
pains In the heart began.
Mark Twain died as truly as it can
be said of any man, of broken
heart.
When he heard of the successive
deaths of his two friends, William M.
Laffen, of the Sun, and R. w. Glider,
editor of the Century, he said sadly:
How fortunate they are: no good for
tune of that kind ever comes to me-"
The village of Redding Connecticut
was in mourning for it's benefactor,
or, Mark Twain, who had endeared
himself by his kindly good nature and
generosity, and when the body was
taken to the station to be placed on
the train for New York where funeral
services were held in the Brick church
Saturday, business was suspended and
the villagers and farmers from the
surrounding hills assembled to pay
their last tribute to the dead.
mahogany casket.
The body was prepared for burial
and, dressed in the white flannel
which he constantly wore in the later
years of his life, and placed In a plain
mahogany casketfl
Many messages of comfort were re-
ceived by Mrs. Ossip Gabrilowitsch,
Mark Twain's only living daughter.
Among them were kilograms from
President Taft and former President
Roosevelt. A message was also re-
ceived from the authorities Of Hanni-
bal, Mo-, asking that Mr.. Clemens
body be brought there for burial, to
which Mrs. Gabrilowitsch replied that
as the family burial grounds was in
Elmira, N. Y, it was thought best
that the body be taken there.
On the arrival in New York it was
taken to the Old Brick Presbyterian
church, where services were conduct
ed by Rev. DR.. Henry Van Dyke, as
sisted by Rev. Joseph H. Twitchell Of
Hartford, Conn, the latter a lifelong
friend of Mr.. Clemens. At the con-
clusion Of the New York services the
body was taken to Elimira, N Y. In
Lake Forest, the private car Of e. e.
Loomis, vice president of the Della
ware, Lackawanna and Western rail-