The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-04-22
MARK TWAIN DEAD
AGED "A AFTER
LONG ILLNESS
Greatest American HumOrist Is
No More
END CAME PEACEFULLY
Was Conscious Until Within Short
Time Of Death-only Child With
Him

Redding, conn, April 22.-Samuel
Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain
died painlessly at $3.50 o'clock tonight
of angina pectoris. He lapsed into
coma at o'clock in the afternoon
and never recovered consciousness.
He was in his 18th year and it was
the end CT a man outworn by grief
and acute agony of body.
Yesterday was a bad day for the
little knot Of anxious watchers at the
bedside For long hours the gray
aquiine features held a deathlike
mask, while the pulse sank lower and
lower. Then, late at night Mr. Clem-
ems passed from stupor into the first
natural sleep he had known since he
returned from Bermuda.
This morning he woke refreshed,
even family cheerful and in possess
ion OF all his faculties. He recogniz-
ed his daughter Clara, Mrs. Ossip Ga
briolwitsch; spoke a rational word or
two, and, feeling himself unequal to
conversation, wrote out in pencil:
Give me my glasses These were
his last words. Laying them aside
he sank first into reverie and later
into the final Inconsistencies. There
was ne thought at the time, however
that the end was so near.
The father of Mark Twain was
John Marshall Clemens who migrated
from Virginia to Kentucky and then
on to Adair county, Tennessee when
young man. There he married
young woman named Langhorne who
brought him family prestige and
many broad acres. But with the
prevalent spirit of unrest among pion-
GERS, the couple crossed over into
Missouri, settling at Florida, Monroe
County, where on November 30, 1885
their since-famous son was born.
Mark Twain's life. however, really
did not begin until three years later,
when the family moved to Hannibal.
Marion county. Hannibal has been
described many times as a typical
river town of that day sleepy place
filled with drawing. lazy, picturesque
inhabitants. black and white.
Young Clemens so the record runs
went to school there and, so also the
record runs. studied just as little as
he could, II he studied at all. He had
been painted in that period OF his
career as an incorrigible truant roam
ing the river banks and bluffs, watch
ing the passing steamboats, and lis
tening keenly to the trials that went
on In the shabby Office where the JUS
tice OF the peace, his father, settled
the disputes and punished the misde-
meanors OF his neighbors In that
period, while the ambition to be a
pilot on the great river burned in him
was stored In his memory the mater.
lal which in after years crystallized
into Tom Sawyer" "Huckleberry
Finn" and "Pudd'nhead Wilson"
Mark Twains school days ended
when he was ~. The father died
leaving nothing behind save the re
putation of being a good neighbol
and an upright man and his children
at once became bread.winners. Sam
was apprenticed as a printer at 81
cents a week in the Office OF the Han
nibal Weekly Journal, doing, as h,
afterward said. IA little OF every
thing" After three years with a cap
ital OF few dollars In his pocket h,
became what was then familiar
sight, wanderer from one printing
office 10 another About this perio,
he paid his first visit TO New York
having been drawn here by stories o
a great exposition then In progress
He worked here for a while, thei
moved TO Philadelphia. and later
obeying always the wandering in
stlnct which finally carried hin
around the world and into all lands
TO nearly all the larger cities OF tn
South and West. including New o.
leans. The trip down the rive
awakened the old desire to be pile
which had slumbered since the Han
nihal days and his career as prin
er was ended. He paid In cash an
promises $500 to n Mississippi pilC
TO take him on as an assistant an
teach him the river" He becam
pilot ard stuck to Il until the on
break OF The civil war. earning S2l
month. bu, chief OF all he got hei
his material for Life on the Missis
lppi"
His experience as a Confederai
soldier was brief and ingloriou
Hardly had he enlisted before he WI
captured. Released on parole !
broke TIE parole aud returned to q
ranks and soon was rocaptured.
was In imminent peril for recogniti,
meant immediate and ignominior
execution. but he got away and d
termlned never to take the risk aga
lie stopped flight only on reachii
Nevada whore several letters OF h
to The Virginia City Enterprise
suited In an offer from the editor
that paper OF place on the sta
From that day forward Clemens ear
ed he living with his pen. with 4
exception OF several excursions In
the lecture field to bring in imme
ate ard abundant cash when ere