The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-04-22

fiict with his latest grief That his
health declined gradually from this
cause no one doubts, and Mark Twain
himself did not deny it.
Born In Missouri Cabin.
In 1895 while there were less than
million white inhabitants in the
great empire west of the Mississippi,
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born.
1t was November 80, and the scene
of his nativity was humble cabin
at Florida, Mo-, which at that time
marked the extreme fringe of from
tier settlement His parents were
John Marshall Clemens of Virginia
and his good wife, who was Jane
Lambton of Kentucky.
The father was a lienal descend
ant of Gregory Clement, one of the
three judges who condemned to
death Charles l. Clement, excepted
from the general amnesty following
] the restoration, lost his head in con-
sequence.
Jane Lambton's forbears strove
with Daniel Boone on the dark and
bloody ground" scene of her
4 birth twenty-nine years after the
/ building of the first log cabin within
4 the present confines s.1 chat common;
wealth. Even in the state famous as
a hot-house of feminine beauty Jane
Lambton became known as one OF
the most beautiful and brilliant
bellies of her time in the Bluegrass
state.
Clemens parents, victims of the
wanderlust, left their small property
in Lexington on the Cumberland riy
er in Tennessee. Next they Travelled
to Missouri passing ST. Louis, ther
city of 10000 souls, for what seemed
to them land of brighter promise
They settled at Florida. a hamlet
described by the author in later year:
as "the settlement that just divide:
the desert from the sown"
1t was there that the future Marl
Twain was born, and here it was alst
, that he first encountered that ca
PRECIOUS Fate, which at the age o
three wears foretold the anomalies 0
hiis career.
His father, an absent-minded soul
. wary of the scant opportunities al
, forded by his surroundings-mi
, from Florida without thought of tn
, little human baggage who laughe'
, and cooed in the delightful occupa
t ton of mud-pie baking in the sur
: bathed garden, oblivious to the dis
/ appearance of the household cava
cade across the sky line. Two o
a three hours later native foun
i the complacent youngster, overtoo
, the parents on the wagon road t
a Hannibal, and reminded them in n
r uncertain terms of the consequence
!. OF such carelessness. Who know
j but this incident was the turnin
point in little Samuels life-the il
q fiuence that set in motion that r'
/. morseless pendulum of Fate?
v The father served for some year
!. as magistrate in Hannibal, was elec
! ed county Judge, but died in 1874
n without assuming office. His deaf
n marked the end OF the youths syst
!. matte education which had preyiousl
; been Indifferent owing to his unce
: tain health.
). A brothr's print shop became h
q high school At intervals. shortly af
o er he was twelve years old, he edite
: the little newspaper to the amaz
! ment of the subscribers and the di
> comfort of the elder brother who's
=, responsibility as publisher bore til
brunt of hostile complaints again
% the personal journalism of the j
% yenile.
"a Refused to be Drowned.
Time and again in leisure hou
= the boy was fished out of the rive
Il.