Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-04-22
MARK twain, AMERICAS
GREATEST HUM0R|S7 DEAD
CAME RED DING CONN, At SIX THIRTY
THURSDAY EVENING - DEATH WAS PAINLESS - HAD BEEN
UNCONSCIOUS THREE HOURS AND A HALF - FEW RELA
T'vEs AT 4umoRsT HAD LIVED AN Ex.


Redding, Conn.,, April 21.-Samue
Langhorn Clemens mark Twain
died painlessly at $3.50 o'clock to.
night of angina pectoria.
He lapsed into coma at O'Clock
this afternoon and never recovered
CONSCIOUSNESS. 1t was the end of a
man, outworn by grief and acute
agony of body.
Yesterday was bad day for the
little knot of anxious watchers at
the bedside. For long hours the
grey, aQuiline, 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 this morning he
woke refreshed, even family cheer
full and in full possession Of all his
faculties.
He recognized his daughter, Clara
MRS. Ossip Gabrilovitch) spoke a
rational word or two and feeling
himself. unequal to conversation,
wrote in pencil, Give me my
glasses"
They were his last words. Laying
them aside, he sank first into rev.
erie and later into final unconscious
ness.
There was no thought at the time,
however, that the end was so near.
At 5 O'Clock DR.. Robert Halsey, who
had been continually in attendance
said, "Mr. Clemens is not so strong
at this hour as he was at the corres-
ponding hour yesterday, but he has
wonderful vitality and he NAV rallv
again."
Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark
Twain's biographer and literary ex-
exutor, said to a caller who desired
to call on Mr.. Clemens, IT do not
think you will have to call often
again." 80
Nevertheless. Mr.. and Mrs. E. E.
LOOMS, who had come UP from New
York to give their love in person,
left Stormfield, Mr.. Clemens house,
without seeing him, and only heard
of his death just as they were TAX
ing the train to New York again.
Mrs. Loomis was Mr.. Clemens fav-
orfte niece and Mr. Loomis is vice.
president of the Lackawanna rail-
road. Similarly Jarvis Landon.
nephew, who had run up for the
day, left even earlier and wholly un-
informed.
At the death bed We're only Mrs.
Gabrilovitch (Clara Clemens)), her
husband, Ossip Gabrilovitch, DR..
Robert Halsey, DR.. Quintard, Albert
B1ge1ow Paine, who will write Mark
Twain's biography, and two trained
nurses. Restoratives - digitalis.
strychnine and camphor-were ad-
min1stered, but the patient failed
to respond.
A tank OF oxygen still stands un-
called for at the Redding station.
oxygen was tried yesterday and the
physicians explained that it was of
no value, because the valvular &C.
ton of the heart was not disordered.
mere was only an extreme and in
creasfng debility, accompanied by
labored respiration.
Angina pectoris is paroxysmal !
affection of chest of battling and oh
scure origin, characterized by severe
paln' faintness and deep depression |
OF spirits. The pain is Of an op-
pressive, crushing or stabbing char
acter. The attacks progress in fire.
and severity with uncertain !
1ntermissions, sometimes of long du-
ration to a fatal termination,
Mark Twain d. not die in an
guish. Sedatives soothed his pain.
but in his moments of consciousness
the mental depression persisted. On
the way up from Bermuda he said
70 Albert Bigelow Paine, who had
oeen MS constant companion in ILL
ness: This is bad job; we'll never
pull through with it, On shore
once more and longing for the ser
entity of the New England hills, he
look heart and said to those who
noted his enfeeblement in sorrow:
Give me breath of Redding air
once more, and this will pass
But 1t did not pass, and tired of
body and weary of spirit the old
warrior against shams and snobs
said family to his nurses: "Why do
1ou fight to keep me alive? Two
lays of life are as good to me as
our
1t is certain to be recalled that
uark twain was for more than fifty
'ears an inveterate smoker, and the
irst conjecture of laymen would he
hat he had weakened his heart bv
in tobacco. DR.
ialsey said tonight that he was un-
ble to predicate that the angina
'ector1a from which Mark Twain
lied was in any way SEQUEL of
llcotine poisoning. Some constftu-
ions, he said, seem immune from
he effects of tobacco. This was one
4 them. Yet it is true since his
llness began the doctors had cut
[own Mark Twain's daily allowance
t twenty cigars and countless pipes
o four cigars a day.
No deprivation was a greater sor-
Continued on page two)