Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-25
BODY Of FAMOUS
HUMOR|ST LAID IN
CRAVE At ELM|RA
Samuel Clemens MARK TWain)
Buried Beside Wife and Chill
dren i'd Many Flowers
THOUSANDS SEND TRIBUTES
Simple Ceremony Held at Funeral
of Man Who Made Mil
lions Laugh
THOUSANDS SEND TRIBUTES
Associated Pressl

TLMIRA, N. Y, April 24-Under a
n tent on the grassy slope of the
- Langdon plot in Woodlawn ceme-
terry, with rain beating fiercely against
the canvas cover, a little group OF
mourners silently watched today as the
body of Samuel l.. Clemens mark
Twain) was lowered INTO an evergreen
lined grave beside the bodies of his
wife and children.
The Rev. Samuel 2. Eastman, pastor
of Park church, and a close friend OF
the late humorist, conducted a brief
and simple service, and Mark Twain $
final pilgrimage was at an end.
Tonight he lies sleeping under a
grave piled high with flowers, the
tribute of friends from far and near.
There were present at the grave only
members of the family party who came
from New York with the body a former
governess of the Clemens family. two
of her friends, the sexton and half a
dozen newspaper men.
Services had previously been held at
the residence of Gen. Charles J. Lang
don, where forty years ago Mark
Twain married the generals sister.
In keeping with Mr.. Clemens wish,
the ceremony was simple. There was
no music. no honorary pallbearers-
Just the brief address and prayer of
DR.. Eastman.
SCENE OF MARRIAGE
The body lay in state in the very
parlor where the marriage of forty
years ago took place, and some of
those who attended the wedding were
there today to look for the last time on
the face of their friend.
Neither the Rev. Thomas X. Beecher
nor the Rev Joseph Twitchell, who
performed the wedding ceremony, was
present, however Mr.. Beecher died
several years ago, and Mr.. Twitchell
was called to Hartford by the serious
illness of his wife, who died this morn
ing.
Among the floral gifts was a beauti-
full wreath bearing this inscriptions:
From 500 boys of the Louisville male
high school, in remembrance of Mr..
Clemens who has frightened their
lives with innocent laughter and taught
them squareness and grit and compass
sion TO the weak"
The services at the house were pub
lic but the attendance was not large.
Besides the funeral party that accom-
panied the body from Redding, the
little gathering included only a few
relatives and old friends.
Dr. Eastman said in part:
MINISTER'S SERMON
1--WE are not here at this time to
hence the whole world mourns, nor
to claim for him that place in the
halls of fame which time only can give.
We are here to weep with those that
weep, to give thanks with those whose
own he was in sacred bond of kinship
and family affection"
After the little group had looked for
the last time on the features of the
dead the coffin was clos i and was
borne to waiting hearst. Outside q
few curious onlookers stood in the rain
as the procession started on its way to
the cemetery a mile or more away.
Citizens of Elmira cherish fond MEM
ories of Mark Twain. With Mrs Glenn
ems and the children he had spent many
happy summers at Quarry farm on
East hill, overlooking the city, at the
home of Mrs. Susan L. Crane. Mrs
Clemens sister. A path from the Crane
house winds through the wooded
grounds to the summer lodge which
was Mark Twain's workshop. Here he
wrote "Roughing It." "A Tramp
Abroad" and oter works
Below this lodge, a short way down
in the woods. is another rustic struc-
ture with barked roof, which the
author built for his children. Here
may still be seen many of the undis-
turbed playthings of the little ones.
THERE MET LANGDoN
1t was during the Quaker City ex-
pedition In 1867, which Mark Twain has
immortalized in "Innocents Abroad"
that the humorist met General Lang
don, then a young man, the son of
Jervis Langdon, a distinguished and
wealthy Elmiran.
Langdon took kindly to young Glenn
ems, and the intimacy which grew out
of the meeting led to marriage Of the
author with Olivia Langdon.
'I saw her first" wrote Twain of
his wife in his autobiography, Sin the
form of an ivory miniature in her
brother Charles stateroom on the
steamer Quaker City, in the bay Of
Smyrna, in the summer of 1867, when
she was in her 22d year. I saw her in
the flesh for the first time in New York
in the following summer. She was
slender and beautiful, and girlish. and
she was both girl and woman. She re-
mained both girl and woman to the
last of her life."
over Mrs. Clemens grave, beside the
fresh one made today, stands a stone
engraved with this epitaph:
Warm summer sum- shine kindly here
Warm southern winds, blow softly here
Green sod above, lie light, lie light;