The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-08-02
Mark Twain in Keokuk

/ in Keokuk
concerning the publication of the two
articles and the refusal of Mark
Twain to write further at a reduced
rate.
1t is q peculiar fact that in all his
writings Mark Twain mentions Keo-
kuk but once. That is in his Life on
the Mississippi,'' where he refers to
the city in passing on steamboat.
The fact that his brother lived there
for many years, and that his mother
spent the last years of her life, and
finally went to her reward there,
make it odd that the city should have
been omitted from any of the writings
of a personal nature put forth by Mr..
Clemens. This fact and the rather
harsh manner in which Mr.. Clemens
referred to his brother Orion, in the
recent published extracts from his
autobiography, aroused the people Of
Keokuk to a point of protest. While
they thought it strange that Keokuk
should have been so ignored by the
humorist, they deeply resented in par
ticular the apparent slight on the
brother. They pointed out to Mr..
Paine while he was there this week
the fact that the brother had done a
great deal for Sam, and given him a
home, and had appointed him private
secretary when he was chosen terri
torial governor of Nevada, paying the
secretary's salary out of his own
pocket.
Mr.. Paine, who is an inordinate adj
mirer of the man of whose life he is
preparing history. explained many
things concerning Mr. Clemens. He
said that out of the great amount of
correspondence, which he had accum-
ulated, written between Samuel and
Orion, and their wives, he had come
into possession of absolute proof that
it was not Orion who was the bene-
factor, but Samuel. According to let
tiers passing between the two BROTH
ers it Is made clear that Samuel gave
his brother 5000 which had been
saved from the wages as river pilot.
1t was this money which financed the
trip to Nevada. Orion could not have
accepted the governorship without the
financial aid given him by Samuel.
Mr.. Paine said he was sure there was
| no intention on the part of Mark
Twain to slight Keokuk in his writ
| ings In fact, the humorist has not
| mentioned any of his boyhood homes
/ by name in any of his writings. In
/ his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckle-
berry Finn, the scenes of which were
laid in and about Hannibal, Mo-, the
boyhood home of Mark Twain, the city
! had been given a fictitious name II
was only the cities of his later life
which he placed in his writings unre
/ servedly. This has been the custom
| of nearly every writer who has used
i his boyhood home for the scene of his
story. In Thomas Bailey Aldrich,s
STORY of a Bad Boy the home O
"Tom Bailey was 'tRivermouth, ;
| fiction for Portsmouth. where Aldrici
spent his boyhood days. i
i Mr.. Albert Bigelow Paine is ma
] tive of Iowa. He was born at Bent
i onsport in Van Buren, county, am
lived there until he was four year
4 of age, when he went with his parent
into Illinois. He relates distinct recol
1ections of Keokuk in those days
forty-five years ago. He says tina
one day when he was about tire
years OF age he went to Keokuk wit
: his mother who bought him a stor
book The book was lost en- rout
!, home, and his mother afterwards trie
! to get another copy, but could nc
find duplicate. She bought some
thing just as good but 1t did nc
suit the youngster, Paine. who Ion
, afterwards mourned the loss of TIL
original purchase. Mr.. Paine says tn
= first editions of Mark Twain's books
5 "Innocents Abroad and "Roughin
| It'-are becoming rare and valuabl,
\ They were printed by the G. l.. Wei
ster company and bound in blac
: cloth with gold ornamentation. The
: are therefore called the BLACK ed
2 tons of Mark Twain. Those VIII
t have these volumes should treasur