The independent-reporter., 1910-04-28
SAMUEL LANGHORN
CLEMENS
The Passing Of " Mark
Twain +" at Stormfield
nied without Pain but Tortured In
Heart With Grief

Samuel LanRHOTn NleHens, MAIN
Twain" died painlessly at his home in
Redding, Conn, Thursday, April Il at
690 D. m. of angina p ctoris. He laps
cd into coma at o'clock and never
recovered consciousness. 1t was the
end of a man worn out by grief and
agony of body.
The day previous was bad one for
the little knot of anxious watchers at
the bedside. For hours the grey,
aouiline features lay moulded In the
inertia of death, while the pulse sank
lower and lower, but late at night
Mark Twain passed from stupor into
the first natural sleep he had known
since he returned from Bermuda and
the next morning he woke refreshed,
even fairly cheerful and in full posses
sion of all his faculties. He recogniz
ed his daughter Clara, Mrs. Ossip
Gabrilowitsch, spoke a word or two
and finding himself unequal to con-
yersation wrote out in pencil:
Give me my glasses"
They we're his last words. Laying
them aside he sank first into reyerie
and later IuIO uldl
There was no thought at the time,
however, that the end was SO near.
At o'clock, DR. Robert Halsey, who
had been continuously in attendance.
said:
MIR. Clemens is not so strong at
this hour as he was at the correspond
ing hour yesterday, but he has Won
derful vitality and he may rally
again
At the death bed were Mrs. Gabrilo-
witsch. her husband, DR.. Robert Hal.
sey. DR.. Quintard, Albert Bigelow
Paine, who will write Mark Twains
biography, and is his literary execu
tor end the two trained nurses.
estoratives-digitalis, strychnine
ana campnor-were administered but
the patient failed to respond.
Although angina pectoris is charac-
terzed by severe pain and deep de-
preston of spirits, Mark Twain did
not die in anguish Sedatives sooth-
ed his pain, but in his moments of
consciousness the mental depression
persisted. On the way up from Ber-
muda he said to Mr.. Paine, who had
been his constant companion in ill
ness:
through with it,
On shore once more, and longing
for the serenity of the New England
hills. he took courage and said to
those who noted his enfeeblement in
sorrow: Give me a breath of Red
ding air once more and this will pass. :"
But it did not pass, and tired of body
and weary of spirit the old warrior
against sham and snobbery said to his
nurses: Why do yoh.fight to keep me
alive? Two days of life are as good to
me as four"
Mark Twain was for more than so
years an inveterate smoker and the
first conjecture of the laymen will be
that he weakened his heart by over
indulgence in tobacco but DR.. Halsey
said that he was unable to predict
that the angina pectoris, from which
the humorist died, was in any way a
sequel of nicotine poisoning Yet it Is
true that after his illness began the
doctors cut down Mark Twain's daily
allowance of 20 cigars and countless
pipes to four cigars a day.
The death ct H. H. Rogers, a close
friend, was a severe blow to Mr.. Glenn
ems. The death of his daughter Jean,
who was seized with an attack of epil-
epsy last fall while in her bath, was
an added blow from which he never
recovered. 1t was then that the stab
bing pains in his heart began. Mark
Twain died as nearly as It can be said
Of any man of broken heart.
The last bit of literary work he did
was chapter of his unfinished auto
biography, describing his daughter
Jeans death. He sought diversion in
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.
Mr.. Paine said that Mark Twain
had put his affairs in order and that
he died we'll of, though by no means
rich man. He leaves considerable
unfinished manuscript in all stages Of
completion, many of them begun years
ago and put aside as unsatisfactory.
Mrs. Gabrilowitsch will aid in the fin
al decision as to what use shall be
made of these.