Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-04-22
Passes Away Painhss|y at $50 P. NJ
Thursday at Home, Technically from
Angina PeCtoris, But Almost Lit
orally from a Broken Heart.

bermuda, where he was the guest of
the American vice consul, William H.
Allen, whose young daughter Helen
acted as amenuensis for what few let
ters he cared to dictate.
His winter was gay but not happy.
When he heard of the successive
deaths of his two friends, William NJ.
Laffar 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 nc further allurement for
him. Mr. Paine said tonight that the
book Mark Twain took up from the
coverlet beside him when he asked for
his glasses was Carlyle's History of
the French Revolution, his inseparable
companion and greatest favorite.
The burial will be in the family lot
at Elmira, n. Y, where lie already his
wife, his two daughters, Susan and
Jean, and his infant son, Langhorne.
No date has yet been set. as the fam
lily is still undecided whether or not
there shall be a public funeral first in
New York City. 1t is probable that
Stormfold will he kept as summer
place by Mrs. Gabrilowitsch. who is
very fond both Of the house and the
| country
Mr.. Paine said tonight that Mark
Twain had put his affairs in order and
that he died well off, though by no
means a rich man. He leaves consider
able unfinished manuscript in all
STAGES of completion, many of them
begun years ago and put aside as un-
satisfactory Mrs. Gabrilowtsch VIII
aid in the final decision as to what use
shall be made of these.
rhe mere chronology Of Mark Twain's
life is soon told Like most jewellers in
the ina gination. his significance to pos
| terity lies not, as with men of action,
-, how he wrought upon events but yath-
or in how events wrought upon him; Tor
from such reactions resulted his 1magln-
alive output-one of the most consider
able of his time and. as 1t now seeHs'
one of the SecureSt.l
| Briefly, then, Mark Twain was born
Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida,
Mo, on Nov. 80, 1885. MY parents
he wrote, in his own Burlesque Auto
biography, were neither very poor nor
conspicuously honest The earliest
| ancestor the Twains have any record
of was friend of the family by the
name Of Higgins" The county chroni-
cles have it that the elder Clemens fail
ed in business and died. leaving his son
the ample world to make his fortune ln
| Accordingly, Mark Twain's acQualn-
lance with literature began In putting
| words into type, not ideas into words
Educated only in the public schools, he
| was apprenticed to a printer at IL ana
worked at his trade in st. Louis, Gin
cinnati, Philadelphia and New YORK, I'M
til al IS he could crafty boyish am
bition to become cub to MISSISSIPPI
river pilot. Both these disparate hap
penings reacted profoundly on his later
life. Varied and eventful as that life
| was, it might almost be said that only
two things happened to Mark Twain
he learned the river and he learned to
set type,
HIS knowledge of river life, acquired
when he was pilot. took form in Tom
Sawyer" 'IIuckleberry Finn and Life
on TIE Mississippi" regarded abroad as
his surest title to fame 1t even sug-
gested his pseudonymn, for Mark
Tv ain" is q linesman's cry to the pilot
|
with printing turned him naturally first
into newspaper work, then into the pub
fishing business wherein, like Sir Walter
Scott he suffered a bankruptcy disas-
trous to everything but his honor, and
like Sir Walter again. paid off by his
pen, debts not of his own making.
In due time Mark Twain became full
hedged pilot He tells the rest himself,
in a chapter of Life on the Mississippi
pi."
by. and by the war came, commerce
was suspended, my occupation was gone.
| IT had to seek another livelihood. So
became silver miner in Nevada, next
a gold miner, in California: next, a re-
porter in San Francisco; next, a special
correspondent in the Sandwich Islands;
next a rowing correspondent in Europe
and the East next, an Institutional
torch bearer on the lecture platform
and finally, I became a scribbleri of
books, and an immovable fixture among
the other rocks of New England"
This was in 1872. two years after he had
married Miss Olivia L. Langdon Of Ell
| mira. N. Y, who brought him an inde-
pendent fortune. At that time, his writ
ings were in growing demand. he had an
assured income. his own home and SEEM
ed indeed a fixture. But in 1885 his pop
ularity as an author and his acquaint-
| ance with the mechanics Of the publish
ing trade--besides being practical
| printer he had been part owner of the
Buffalo Express before his marriage
drew him into the firm of c. L. Webster
& Co., publishers. The firm brought out
the memoirs of General Grant and paid
his widow $35O.o00, but its prosperity
was shortlived, and 1t failed. with liabil-
tiles Of $4,000. The failure had al