The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-04-27

ipl III III jim sawyer, IluthitbtIi
Finn and Life on the Mississippi, re-
garded abroad as his surest title to
fame. 1t even suggested his pseudo
nym. for Mark Twain" is a lines
mans cry to the pilot in shallow
stages. And his familiarity with
printing turned him naturally first in
to newspaper work. then into creative
writing, and finally into the publish
ing business, wherein. like Sir Walter
Scott, he suffered a bankruptcy dis
astrous to everything but his honor,
and. like Sir Walter again, paid off
by his pen debts not of his own maxi
ing.
In due time Mark Twain became a
full fledged pilot. He tells the rest
himself in a chapter of Life on the
Mississippi.
by and by the war came. COM
merce was suspended, my occupation
was gone
II had to seek another livelihood.
So | became a silver miner in Nevada.
next a gold miner in California. next
a reporter in san Francisco. next a
special correspondent in the Sand
Wich islands. next a rowing cores
an instructional torch-bearer on the
lecture platform and, finally. | be-
came a scrbbler of books. and an
immovable fixture among the other
rocks of New England"
This was in 1872. year after he
had married Miss Olivia l.. Langdon
of Elmira, n. Y, who brought him an
Independent fortune. At that time
his writings We're growing in demand
he had an assured income. his own
home. and seemed indeed fixture
But in 1885 his popularity as an au-
thor and his acquaintance with the
mechanics of the publishing trade
besides being practical printer he
had been part owner of the Buffalo
Express before his marrage-drew
him into the firm of &. l.. Webster &
Co., publishers. The firm brought
out the memoirs of General Grant
and paid his widow $35O,OOO, but its
prosperity was short lived. and it
failed with liabilities of $4,000. The
failure had already sucked in 5000
of Mark Twain's cash. but he determ-
to pay them off undertook in 1856
u lt'tulV UP lllt "OIlu.
Mark Twain was an inveterate
smoker and one of the most leisurely
men in the world. An old pressman
who was once printers devil in an Of
flee where Mark. was an editorial
writer, tells this anecdote of his hab-
it's of work. lone of my duties was
to sweep the room where the editors
worked. Every day Mark would give
me a nickel to get away from him.
He would rather die in the dust than
uncross his legs. One day he gave
me IL nickel to dot an 'i' in his copy
for him. He certainly did enjoy life,
that man did"
Yet this easy going dawdler acquit-
ted himself of a prodigious deal Of
work in his life, and bound himself
voluntarily to pay off debts that he
could have discharged without hurt to
his good name by passing through
He did not practice what
he preached. 1T don't make no diff
ference" he had Huck Finn say,
whether you do right or wrong, a
persons conscience amt got no sense,
and just goes for him anyway. If |
had a WALLER dog that didn't know no
IIlblt lIldH ii DtISbIl > COIfStltIlte ulU,
I'd pson him. 1t takes up more room
than all the rest of persons insides,
and yet amt no good nohow."
With Mark Twain's lecture trip
around the world began his internal
tional celebriety, and his gradual rise
into a figure taken in some sense to
typify the American spirit. From
humorist he became the kindly but
hooking moralist and philosopher of
Puddnhead Wilson. His literary out
put became more occasional and,
though written with more finesse,
more critical and less creative. His
public appearances grew more fire.
quent, his whimsical utterances gain
ed greater currency, and Il whole lit
erature of anecdotes about him grew
up.
Yale gave him the degree of NJ. A.
and later of l.. Fl. d. in 1901; the Uni
versity of Missouri. his native state,
followed with Ii. ID. in 1902, and in
1907 the University of oxford, with
great ceremony, made him Lift. d.
Indeed, serious appreciation of
Mark Twain as an artist and not
mere jokesmith began abroad, but his
u ut WI III Il'tS IollS bttIl recognized
in this country. mark Twain's hui
NOR said William Dean Howells,
will live for ever. He portrays and
interprets real types, not only with
exquisite appreciation and sympathy,
but with a force and truth of draw
ing that makes them permanent. He
had the true humorist's tender heart
and deep seriousness. Like Bret
Harte, with whom he worked, like the
great west that bred him, his most
sallies We're terse and
sternly grave. AS a moralist, love of
humanity, hatred of sham and the
sense of duty informed him most iron
ic and debonair preachments.
Four children We're born to Mark
Twain, of whom two, a son and a
daughter, died early. one other
daughter, Jean, who had been an in
valid for life, was found dead in her
bath tub last fan in her home at Red
ding, Conn. Her tragic death greatly
saddened her father, who declined in
health from that moment. A third
daughter, Clara, is Mrs. Ossip Gabril-
ovitch, wife of the pianist, whom she
married last year
Mark TWains first book was the
Jumping Frog. His best known in
this country was possibly lnnOcents
Abroad. His surest title to fame is
generally believed to be Tom Saw
yer and its companion volume, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In
all, his books had a sale of more than
100000 copies and were translated
into six languages. Others among
the better known are: A Tramp
abroad. The Prince and the Pauper
a Yankee in the Court of King Ar
thur, Puddinhead Wilson, Gdrama-
tized), Joan of Arc, A Doublebarreled