The Washington herald., 1910-12-01

''He was so pleased with his eonceit
that later along he wrote a novel and
called II The Claimant 1t is the only
one OF his books-though l never told
HIM sO-that I could never read. Many
years after ! happened 20 see upon a
hotel register In Rome these entries: The
Earl of Durham, and IN the same hand
writing. just below il. Lady Anne Lamb
ton and The Hon. Reginald Lambton.
So the Lambtons-they spelled II with 4
10 instead OF a 'p'-were yet in posses
sion The next time I saw Mark Twain
/ rated him on the deception. He did
not defend himself-said something about
lis being necessary to perfect the joke.
Did YOU ever meet this present peer and
possible usurper?' 7 asked No he an
swered; I never did, but II he had called
on me ! would have had him come up
cone" OA HaIstead.
mark Twain was the life Of every
company and all occasions. j remember
a practical joke OF his suggestion played
upon Halstead. a party OF US were
supping after the theater at the Old Bre-
wort House. a card was brought 10 me
from a reporter OF the World. / was
about TO deny myself when Mark Twain
said: Give it 10 me; I'll fix it. and left
the table.
Presently he came 20 the door and
beckoned me out e represented myself
as your secretary. and told this man.
said he. that you were not here. but
that If Mr. Halstead would answer just
as well I would fetch him The fellow
lg as innocent as a lamb and doesn't
know either Of you. I am going 10 in
trOdUce YOU as Halstead, and we'll have
some fun
mo sooner said than done. The re-
porter proved 10 he a little bald-headed
cherub, newly arrived from the isle of
dreams. and I lined out 10 him a column
or more OF very hot stun, reversing Hal
stead in every expression OF opinion. /
declared him in favor OF paving the
national debt IN greenbacks Touching
The sectional question. which was then
the burning issue OF the time. l made the
mock Hastead say. The bloody shirt
IS only a kind OF Pickwickian battle cry.
IL is convenient during political cam
paigns and on election day Perhaps you
do not know that ! am myself of dyed
in-the- wool Southern ana secession stock.
Ny father and grandfather came 20 Ohio
from North Carolina just before l was
born. Naturally, / have no sectional
prejudices. but 1 live in Cincinnati. and
l am a Republican.
There was good dSal more OF the
same sort, How it passed through the
World Office / know not. but il actually
appeared on returning 10 the table I
told the company what Mark Twain and
l had done They thought I was joking
Without word 10 any or US, next day
Halstead wrote a note TO the World re-
pudatng the Interview, and the World
printed his disclaimer with a line which
said When Mr. Halstead talked with
our reporter he had dined.' 1t was too
good 10 keep. John Hay wrote an anus
ing story for the Tribune. which set
Halstead right and turned the laugh on
me.
Mark Twain's Historic Place.
"They are all gone now only the
American Ambassador in England and
myself are left TO tell the tale. 1 am
warned by the terms of the summons
which has brought US together against
anything sorrowful, especially anything
lachrymose. Yet when my mind goes
back TO those bygone days and nights,
the lines of the Irish bard spring IN
hidden to my heart:
The walks We have rnamed without firing.
The songs that together we've sung
The iests b. whose merry inspiring,
Our mingiing OF laughter hath rung:
Oh uifCs like these become precious.
Emtalmed in the memory Of years,
And the smiles Of the past so remembered
How often they vaken our tears!
Mark Twains place in literature it is
not for US to fix. We are here the rather
TO commemorate his character and his
personality; his courageous and upright
manhood. as strong as SCOTS. as primi-
tive as Carlyle's. as unassuming and
simple as Irvings and Whittiers; in
tegrity the bedrock. hard and fast, quite
hidden under the verdue of sentiment and
the flora OF the loyal and the gentle.
with the fine. unerTing phrasing of his
penerative insight Mr., Howells calls
him the Lincoln of our literature 1t Is
striking title. and as suggestive and
opposite as striking. The genius of Glenn
ems and the genius of Lincoln possessed a
kinshp outside the circumstances of their
early lives; the common lack of tools TO
work with: the privations and hardships
TO be endured and TO overcome. the way
ahead through an unblazed and trackless
forest: every foOtstep over a stumbling