The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-05-13
MARK TWAIN
CoodWin's Weakly

Icooa,,;,,. wooLly
A thousand people have wondered
what the especial charm of Mark
Twains writings is. 1t is that he
was different from any other writer
that ever lived. His marvellous sense
of humor followed him to every place
and shone out in print in light new
err dreamed of before. We will try
to make this clear by simple Incl
dent. An earthquake is generally
! held to be serious affair, and the
more men see of them and their eff
fects the more serious they seem.
| Well about 10 a. m. one Sunday
morning in the COS, severe shock
was felt in San Francisco and vicinity.
! At that time Clemens was in that city,
and he wrote g description" of the
quake to the Virginia Enterprise.
From an imperfect memory, we copy
few sentences, as follows:
"All at once the old world seemed
to be seized with cramps. The plums
in California are just getting ripe;
you may remember what half-ripe
plums did to you when as boy you
used to steal them. Men, for the
moment, lost their wits, apparently,
Indeed there was only one man in
San Francisco who showed any pres
ence of mind, and he was a preacher
over in Oakland He did just what
| would have done had | been given
chance. He went down out of his
pulpit and embraced woman. The
papers say she was his wife and may
be she was, but if she was it was a
pity. | would have shown so much
more presence of mind to have en-
braced some other gentleman's wife.
| "a young man came down from
the fifth story of house on Stock
ton street. He had on no clothing
except knit undershirt, which came
about as near concealing his person,
as does the tin-foil champagne bot
tie.
Men yelled at him, small boys
shouted to him, while women be-
sought him to take their sun bonnets,
their parasols, their aprons, their
hoop skirts-anything, to cover him
self up and not stand there distract
ing peoples attention from the earth
quake.
THE young man gazed all around,
then gazed down at himself, and then
he went upstairs. | am told he went
up lively. 80
"Pete Hopkins-he weighed 400
pounds-was shaken off Telegraph
hill onto a three story house. The
papers, always disappearing things
ascribed the destruction of the house
to the earthquake -
In that strain he wandered on
through column and half of. those
long, wide columns which the Enter
prise was published in. He did it,
too, while the thousands around him
were still shuddering from the menu
DRY of the quake and fearing repeti-
ton of it. ..," -' ..
When w. H. Shaw Josh Billings)
pa passed &hroug ;e.e 8. his wv way to to
1JS 4lfornia-where he died ~ +hrouph
later-he said that coming A<x,tel
| New York he went to Clemens ~
and was told that he was over in Jer~
:. say, had gone over to lecture and
would be back that night late. Then
Shaw asked for the key to Marks
room. He was we'll known so the key
was given him. Mark came in about
2 a. m. Turning up the gas he went
to the bed in which was Shaw and
looking at him said. Hello, Josh. y
| Shaw returned the hello and then
| asked where Mark had been. Been
over in Jersey lecturing,' was the re-
spouse. Had a good time?" asked
| Shaw. Had hi of time said
, Mark, and then explained: Before
J the lecture a young man came to me,
led me to the curtain, throughaa hole
= in the curain, showed me an old de-
crepit gray-haired man in one of the
orchestra chairs, and said in a sor-
rowful tone, "Mr. Clemens, that is
9 my father; he has had settled mel
ancholy for years, and If you say
! anything to arouse him, it will be
: an immense comfort and satisfaction
to our whole family | said All
right" The curtain went up; in a
2 little while I fired joke at the old
cuss. 1t did not phase him; after a
while | shot another at him, didn't
+ phase him; then gathered myself up
= and fired my old shore-shaker at him,
which generally catches EN-, but he
~ just stared blankly at me. Conclud-
> ing that something was due the audi
= ence that ! could not devote the
= whole evening to one man, went on
and finished my lecture. Then the
young man came again and asked in
. nocently, but earnestly, if I had sue
!, ceeded in arousing his father. I told
= him no, that he sat there as though
= he did not hear word" 81 suspect
= that must be true" said the young
. reprobate. He has been deaf as a
post for twenty years. And I had
, no weapons with me.
Cork, Ireland, is literary center,
- having among it's people some of the
finest scholars and writer's in the
). United Kingdom. Mark Twain went
. there to lecture The announcement
of his coming was hailed with delight,
but the people there are Irish and
like to do little joking on their
own account sometimes, so they quiet
ly agreed among themselves that they
would make no sign, no matter what
Twain might say The evening ar
rived, a packed and splendidly dress
ed audience greeted him with pro-
- lonroJ opplonca bo arOco RI cnnak