Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-04-23

fixture among the other rocks Of New
England"
Meets Financial Reverses.
This was in 1879, two years after he
married Miss Olivia l.. Langdon of
Elmira. N. Y, who brought him an In
dependent 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
PRACTICAL printer he had been part
owner of the Buffalo Express before
| his marriage-drew him into the firm
of G. L. Webster & Co., publishers.
| The firm bought out the memoirs Of
General Grant and paid his widow
$35O,OOO, but its prosperity was short
lived, and it failed with liabilities Of
$4,000. The failure had already suck
ed in $4,000 of Marks Twain's cash,
| but he determined also to shoulder the
debts, and to pay them off undertook
in 1856 lecture trip around the
world.
/ Mark Twain was an inveterate smo-
! ker and one of the most leisurely men
in the world. An old pressman who
was once printers devil in an Office
where Mark was editorial writer, tells
this ancedote of his habits of work.
\ zone Of my duties was to, sweep the
lroom where editors worked. Every day
Mark would give me nickel to get
away from him. He would rather die
in the dust than uncross his legs. One
da.- he gave me nickel to dot an p
in his copy for him. He certainly did
enjoy life, that man did"
Yet this easy going dawdler acquitt-
ed himself of prodigious deal of work
in his life, and bound himself volun-
tarily 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. cit don't make no differ
ence," he had Huck Finn say, "wheth-
err you do right or wrong, a PERSONS
conscience amt got no sense, and just
goes for him anyway. II l had yall.
or dog that didn't know no more than
a PERSONS conscience did, I'd pison
him. 1t takes up more room than all
the rest of a PERSONS. insides, and yet
amt no good nohow."
His Trip Around World.
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
humorist he became the kindly but
hooking moralist and philosopher OF
Puddinhead Wilson. His literary out
put became more occasional and,
though written with more finesse,
more critical and less creative. His
public appearances grew more fre-
Quent, his whimsical utterances gained
greater currency, and a whole htera-
ture of anecdotes about him grew up.
Yale gave him the degree of M. A.
and later Of L. H. D. in 1901; the In
iversity of Missouri, his native state,
followed with LID. in 1902, and IN
1907 the University of Oxford with
great ceremony made him Lift. D.
Indeed, serious appreciation OF Mark
Twain as an artist and not mere
jokesmith began abroad, but his true
worth has long been recognized In this
country. mark Twain's humor," said !
William Dean Howells, will live for
ever. He portrays and interprets real
types, not only with exquisite appreci-
alton and sympathy, but with force
and truth of drawing that makes them
permanent: He had the true humor-
lists tender heart and deep serious
ness. Like Bret Harte, with whom ne
worked, like the great west that bred
him, his most audacious sallies were
terse and sternly grave. AS a moral
list love of humanity, hatred Of sham,
and the sense Of duty informed his
most ironic and debonair preachments.
Four children were born to Mark
Twain, Of whom two, a son and o
daughter. died early. One daughter,
Jean, who had been an invalid for
life, was found dead in her bath tub |
last fall in her. home at Redding,
Connecticut Her tragic death greatly |
saddened her father who declined in
health from that moment. A thirc
daughter, Clara, is Mrs Ossip Gabril1
witch, wife of the pianist, whom she
married last year.
Leaves Unfinished Autobiography.
Mark Twain's first book was the
Jumping Frog. His best known In
this country was possibly 1nnocents
Abroad. His surest title to fame is
generally believed to be Tom Sawyer |
and its companion volume, The Adj
ventures of Huckelberry Finn In all,
his books had a sale Of more than |
500. 900 copies and we're translated in
to six languages. Others among the
better known are: A Tramp Abroad,
The Prince and the Pauper, A Yankee
at the Court Of King Arthur, Puddin-
head Wilson, (dramatized), Joan OF
Arc. A Doublebarrelled Detective
Story and Ewes Diary. He left an I'M
finished autobiography, portions OF
which had appeared serially.
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