Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-04-26
MARK TWAIN.
Interesting Facts In the Life of a Great
Author.


The mere chronology of Mark
Twain's life is soon told. Like most
dwellers in the imagination, his signi-
ficance to posterity lies not, as with
men Of action, in how he wrought upon
events but rather in how events
wrought upon him: for from such reac-
tions resulted his imaginative output
one of the most considerable Of mis- time
and, as it now seems, one Of the secur-
est.
Briefly, then, Mark Twain was born
Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Flor
ida, Mo-, on November 80, 1885, My
parents" he writes, in his own Bur-
lesque Autobiography, 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 chronicles have it that the
elder Clemens failed in business and
died, leaving mis- son the ample world to
make his fortune in.
Accordingly, Mark Twains acquaint-
ance 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 13 and
worked at his trade in ST. Louis, Gin
cinnati, Philadelphia and New York,
until at IS he could crafty a boyish
ambition to become cub to Mississip-
pi river pilot. Both these desperate
happenings 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
Sawyer" "Huckleberry Finn" and Life
on the Mississippi" regarded abroad as
his surest title to fame. 1T even sug-
gested his pseudonym for Mark
Twain" is linesman's cry to the pilot
in shallow stages. And his familiarity
with printing turned him naturally first
into newspaper work, then into crea-
tive writing, and finally into the pub
fishing business wherein, like Sir Wal
ter 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 making.
In due time Mark Twain became a
full-fledged pilot He tells the rest
l..x~ oh nf
Mississippi"
by and by the war came, commerce
was suspended, my occupation was
gone.
Il had to seek another livelihood.
So l became a silver miner, in Nevada;
next, a gold miner in California; next,
a reporter in San Francisco; next, a
special correspondent in the Sandwich
islands; next, a rowing correspondent
in Europe and the east; next, an in
structional torchbearer on. the lecture
platform, and, finally, became scrib-
bier of books, and an immovable fixture
among the other rocks Of New Eng
land"
This was in 1872, year after he mad
married Miss Olivia L. Langdon Of Ell
mira, N. Y, who brought him an inde-
pendent fortune. At that time, his
writings were in growing demand, he
had an assured income, his own home,
and seemed indeed a fixture. But In
1885 his popularity as an author and
his acquaintance with the mechanics
Of the publishing trade-besides being
a practical printer, ne had been part
owner of the Buffalo Express before
his marriage-drew him into the firm
Of c.. L. Webster G. Co., publishers. The
firm brought out the memoirs Of Cen
eral Grant, and paid his widow $780,
900, but it's prosperity was shortlived,
and 1t failed with liabilities Of $4,000.
The failure had already sucked in $685.
900 of Mark Twain's cash, but he de-
termined also to shoulder the debts, and
to pay them off undertook in 1856 a
lecture trip around the world.
Mark Twain was an inveterate smok- |
er and one Of tine most leisurely men
in the world. An old pressman who
was once printers devil in an office |
where Mark was editorial writer tells |
this anecdote of his habits Of work: |
lone Of my duties was to sweep the
room where 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 a nickel to dot
an Il in his copy for him. He certain |
ly did enjoy life, that man did"
Yet this easy-going dawdler acquit-
ted himself of a prodisiQus deal Of
work in his life and bound himself VOL |
UNFAIRLY to pay off debts that he could
have discharged without hurt to his
good name by passing through bank |
ruptcy. He did not practice as he |
preached. 1T don't make no differ |
ence," he had Huck Finn say, whether
you do right or wrong, persons con-
science amt got no sense. and just goes |
for him anyway. If had a yaller dog |
that didn't know no more than a per-
sons conscience did, I'd pison him. It
takes up more room than all the rest OF
persons insdes, and yet amt no
good nohow."
With Mark Twain's lecture trip |
around the world began his interna-
tional celebrity, and his gradual rise
into a figure taken in some sense to
typify the American spirit. From hu-
morist he became the kindly. but mock
ing moralist and philosopher Of Pud-
dinhead Wilson. His literary output
became more occasional and, though
written with more finesse, me crit
ical and less creative. His public ap-
pearances grew more frequent, his
whimsical utterances gained greater
currency, and a whole literature Of an
ecdotes abol.. him grew up.
Yale gave him the degree of NJ. A.
and later Of L. H. d. in 1901: the uni
versity of Missouri, his native state.
follOwed with LID in 1902, and IN |