The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-04-21
MARK TWAIN
 WHILE WEAKER
 STILL SMOKES
Hand So shaky that He Found It Difficult to
 Write One Word
Especial from United Press.)

' Bedding, April 21.-Despite his in creased weakness Samuel l.. Clemens (Mark Twain) is today brighter than
 he has been in a. week. According to his own statement given out for the comfort of the household domestics who await the sad news of their mas ters death with finger lip,
 he is today thinking as well as ever,' meaning his illness had not yet reached the stage where conscious ness makes the end peaceful.
 The patient is today being piled with stimulantS to keep up the heart action. Oxygen was used during the night but this morning this expedient was abandoned for milder stim ulantS. pr. Halsey, attending physician, how ever, keeps the stimuIant at the patti ent's bedside, ready to revive him whenever the humorist's condition becomes more than ordinarily alarm ing
 greatest trial of his illness is that he cannot see his friends. No one save Mrs. Gabrielovitch, his daughter, her husband and the physician and nurses are allowed to enter the sick cham Der. After being excluded from her fathers bedside all yesterday after Gabrielovitch was only allowed to see him this morning after she inpor- tuned pr. Halsey with tears in her eyes. Even Albert Bigelow Paine, who has been MT. Clemens assistant in his literary Iabors for years, was refused permission to see the sick man today.
 Conflicting tales. are heard in Red ding about the humorist and his life long friend-his cigar. Some are saying he is allowed to smoke in mod eration even in his extreme illness. Others deny the truth of this That he is smoking in great moderation, however, seems probable since ser wants in the house admit having talk en cigars on. several occasions during the past three or four days to the door of the sick chamber. One of the domestics in Stormfie1d was ask ed about his smoking today and said ira dVentent1y:
 Yes, MT. Clemens is smoking a, lit- tie; that is, I think he is."
 Evidently having been warned not to give out any more information about the cigars the servant then ''closed up" and refused to say any thing further.
 Telegrams of inquiry are pouring of the country from the dying mans friends. The telephone, which at MT. Clemens request has never been list ed in the directory, is now thrown to ask after the humorists condition, a servant being stationed in the hall all day long to answer the calls Miss Mary,''S the housekeeper, who was at the telephone this morning, when asked as to her masters condi- tion, almost broke down as she said:
 l love MT. Clemens as much as his household does. But to love him more than we do would be inpossf- ple.''
 Dr. Qu1ntard, accompanied by Jer- wis Langdon and B. l.. Loonfs, from New York, both nephews of the humorist arrived on the noon train and drove at once to t'Stormfield' where they were permitted to be with the sick man a short while. The other members of the household were also admitted to the chambeF for brief visit.
 At 12:3O o'clock MT. Clemens was not perceptibly weaker than when the bulletin was issued at O clock. Toward noon the patient be- came restless in bed and asked Dr. Halsey for som mething, but his voice was so weak that the physician was unable to understand what he want- ed. The humorist then motioned to the table for his writing pad and on this he wrote the word 'tspecta cles' in so shaky hand, however, that it took som etinae to decipher the word.
 Propped up on his pillows the humorist made a few scratches with 1 his pen on the pad evidently intend l ing to put down some sentiment that 1 flashed through his brain. But his | hand was too feeble to form the let 1 ters and after several irIeffectual at | tempts he handed the pad back to a | nurse and reclined on his pillows.