Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1910-04-27

Il Ho4A1S W. 80 -'
lust the proper stage Of artistic dis
array.
Two Deaths as Blows.
Last summer the walks began to
~falter, last fall they ceased for good.
The death of H. H.. Rogers, a close
friend, was a severe blow.
The death of his daughter, who
was seized with an attack of epilepsy
last fall while in her bath, was an
added blow from which he never re-
covered. 1t was then that the pains
in the heart began. Mark Twain
lied truly as can be said Of any mai
IF o broken heart.
Last Literary Work.
The last bit Of literary work he
lid was a chapter of his unfinished
autobiography describing his daugh-
Ter Jeans death. He sought diver
zion in Bermuda, where he was the
guest of the American Vice-Consul,
William Allen, whose young daughter
Helen acted as a manuensis for what
Few letters he cared to dictate.
His winter was gay, but not happy.
| When he heard of the successive deaths
If his two friends-William Laffan,
IF the Sun, and R. W. Glider, editor
If the Century-he said sadly:
"How fortunate they are; no good
fortune of that kind ever comes to
mel"
Life had no future allurments for
1im. Mr.. Paine said that the book
Mark Twain took up. from the cover
let beside him when he asked for his
glasses was Carlyle's ~"History of
he French Revolution" his INSOFAR
able companion and greatest favoritc.
The body Of Samuel Langhone
Clemens was laid to rest at Elmira,
N. Y, where lie already his wife, his
Two daugbters-Susan and jean
and his infant son Langhorne.
Sketch Of Marx Twain's Life.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Amer
ica's foremost humorist, and known
The world over as Mark Twain, was
born in the little town Of Hannibal,
Mo-, on November 80, 1885, His
father, John Marshall Clemens, came
from an old Virginia family.
Here he attended the little school,
but not being of a very studious dis
position, he learned far more from
contact with the rough companions
whom he immortalized in later years
as "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom
Sawyer" and others of their Type.
At the age of twelve his meagre school
education was brought to a sudden
close by the death of his fat!er.
His older brother, Arion S. Glenn
ems, was the proprietor of a printing
shop in the village, and young Sam
Clemens began his journalistic career
there as a printers devil" In the
course of a few years he learncd the
trade as a composition, and ir 1853
be left his native town and began
a wandering existence. lie returned
home in o few years in rather
Strengthened circumstances.
The life Of a steamboat pilot had
always appealed to his youthful mag
nation, and now that he had grown
to manhood he resolved to realize his
ambition.
At the outbreak of the Civil War
steamboating came to a s%tandstill,
and young Clemens enlisted. in the
Confederate army. A soldiers life,
however, was not to his liking, and
after a few weeks service he joined
his brother Arion, who had received
an appointment as secretary of the
Territory of Nevada. He acted as
secretary to lis. brother.
| In 1862 he began his first regular
literary~work on the staff of the Vir-
ginia City Enterprise. These artic-
les he signed with tho nom de plume
"Mark Twain" which he had heard
sung out on the Mississippi steamers
to let the pilot know that the sound
ing showed two fathoms Of water.
He resigned his position in Virginia
City and went to California, where
he worked on the Sacramento Union,
but after a brief period he left his
deck and went to Hawaii to write up
the sugar interests.
In March Of 1867 Twain published
his first book, "The Jumping Frog
of Calaveras County" Tt attracted
the attention, however, of the editor
Of the Alta Californian, who sent
the author out as a newspaper CORES
pondent on a steamship excursion of
Southern Europe and the Orient.
1t vas on his trip in the Mediter-
ranean that Mark Twain met Olivia
L. Langdon, of Elmira, N. Y. They
fell in love with each other and in
1870 were married. Their married
life was one of perfect harmony, and
four children blessed their union.
Mr.. Clemens resided in Buffalo for
a year after his marriage, and was
nominelly the editor of the Buffalo
Express. In 1871 he joined the. lit
erary colony at Hartford, Conn,
where he lived for a great many years
and where he did the greater part of
the working that has made his am
immortal.
As an after dinner speaker he was
always in demand, and in his unique
costume Of white fannels he made q
StrIkinr onnaoron.o IT, ~