The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-04-23
DEATH OF FORMER
NEVADA WRITER

"Mark Twain" died Thursday after
noon, April 81, at his home in Red
ding, Conn.,, in his 18th year.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Lang
horn Clemens, in Florida, Mo-, Novem-
!. Der 80, 1885. my parents" he
writes in his burlesque autobiography,
'were neither very poor nor conspicu-
ously honest. The earliest ancestor the
Twains have any recollection Of was
friend Of the family by the name of
Higgins"
The county chronicles have 1t that
the elder Clemens failed in business
and died, leaving his son the ample
world to make his fortune in. Accord
ingly Mark Twain g acquaintance with
literature began in putting words into
types, not ideas into words.
Educated only. in public schools, he
was apprenticed to printer at 13 and
worked at this trade in st. Louis, Gin
cinnati, Philadelphia and New York,
until at Is he could crafty boyish
ambition to become cub to a Mis-
sissippi river pilot. Both these hap.
penings reacted profoundly in his later
life. His knowledge of river life, ac-
quired when he was a pilot, took form
in "Tom Sawyer Huckleberry
anu Lie oH Tue u1bslSSlppl,
regarded abroad as his first title to
fame. 1t even suggested his pseudo
nym, for "Mark Twain is leads.
man s cry to the pilot.
His familiarity with printing turned
him naturally first into newspaper
work, then into creative writing, and
finally into the publishing business,
wherein, like Sir Walter Scott, he suf-
fered bankruptcy disastrous to every
think but his honor, and, like Sir Wal
ter again, paid off by his pen debts not
of his own making.
In due time Mark Twain became
full -fledged pilot He tells the rest
himself in a chapter of "Life on the
Mississippi:' Obi and-by the war
came, commerce was suspended, my oc.
cupation was gone.
81 had to seek another livelihood,
so / became a silver miner in Nevada,
gold miner in California, next a re-
porter in San Francisco next spe-
eial correspondent in the Sandwich
islands, next rowing correspondent in
Europe and the east, next an instruc-
tional torchbearer on the lecture plat
form. and finally / became a scribbler
of books and an immovable fixture
among the other rocks of New Eng
land -
This was in 1872, two years after
he had married Olivia l.. Langdon, of
Elmira, n Y, who brought him an
independent fortune. At that time his
writings were in great demand, he had
an assured income. his own home and
seemed indeed fixture. But in 1885
his popularity as an author and his
acquaintance with the mechanics or
the PUBLISHING trade. besides being a
practical printer--he had been part
owner of the Buffalo Press before his
marriage--drew him into tie firm of
G. l.. Webster & Co., publishers. The
firm brought out the memoirs Of Gen
eral Grant and paid his widow $780,
600; but it's prosperity was short
lived. and it failed, with liabilities Of
$4,000. The failure had already taken
$65 900 of Mark Twain's cash. but he
determined also to shoulder the debts,
and to pay them off. and undertook
in 1885 lecture trip around the
world.
With Mark Twain's lecture trip
around the world began his interna-
tional fame and his gradual rise into
figure taken in some sense to typify
the American From humorist he be-
came the kindly, but mocking moralist
and philosopher of "Pudd n-head
Wilson, His literary output became
more occasional and although written
with more fnesse, it was more critical
and less creative. His public appear
ance grew more frequent. his whimsi
cal utteranees gained greater currency
and literature anecdotes grew up about
him.
Vale gave him the degree of NJ. A.
and later of LII. d., in 1901 the Uni
versitv of Missouri. his native state,
followed with LII. ID. in 1902. and in
1907 the University of Oxford with
great ceremony, made him Lift d. In
deed, serious appreciation of Mark
Twain as an artist and not mere
jokesmith, began abroad but his true
worth has long been recognized ir this
country.
"Mark Twain's humor.' said Will
liam Dean Howells, twill live forever.
He portrays and interprets real types,
not only with exquisite appreciation
and sympathy but with force and
truth of drawing that makes them
permanent. He had the true humor-
lists tender heart and deep seriousness
Like Bret Harte. with whom he
worked; like the great west that bred
him. his most audacious sallies were
terse and sternly grave. As a moral
iSi, ioNt VI y. HdtFcu VI cHdH
and the sense of duty formed his most
ironic and debonair preachments. -
Four children were born to Mark
Twain, of whom two, a son and q
daughter, died early. One other daugh
ter, Jeane, who had been an invalid fol
life, was found dead in her bathtul
last fall in her home at Redding, Conn
Her tragic death greatly saddened hel
father, who declined in health from
that moment. A third daughter, Clara
is Mrs. Ossip Gabriolowich, wife of tn,
pianist, whom she married last year.
Mark Twain y first book was eth,
Jumping Frog Of Calaveras. His bes
known book In this country possibl,
was "Innocents Abroad His sures
title to fame generally is believed T.
be "Tom Sawyer and its companion
volume, "The Adventures of Huckle
berry Finn In all, his books had
sale Of more than 100000 copies, an
UyA~ Ia -