Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-10-04
MARK TWAIN AN EASY MARK.
How the Hum0rist's Money Came and
Went--and Came Again.

secretary to Senator "Jim" Nye, Of
that State, in Washington, in the lat
ter sixties, served to provide an in
teresting background for the pros
perity which came to him as soon as
"Innocents Abroad" was published.
He came to Hartford, says the Hart
ford Times, to have his. books put on
the market, and he was as poor when
he first arrived here as he was rich
very soon thereafter. His marriage
to Miss Langdon, of Elmira, allied
him with well-to-do family, and he
stances ever afterward, in spite Of the
impression to the contrary which was
allowed to prevail for a time after
The failure of his book publishing en-
terprise-for business reasons.
The eminent humorist built his
home in Hartford in the early seven
ties, and he has told in his reminis-
cences how he started out with the
idea of spending $4,000, and ended
by putting six or seven times as
much into the Pennington avenue
! establishment, now owned by Mr..
Bissell, of the Hartford Fire lnsur-
ance Company. Nothing rery beg
carly about that. 1t may be we'll to
add few facts about his subsequent
financial experiences, since there is
SO much carelessness in dealing with
| the subject in some of the newspaper
| Offices.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars
came to Mark Twain in the years he
spent in Hartford--say from 1872
until 1890. His friend, the late
| Henry G.. Robinson, was fond of tell
| ing Of game Of billiards he played
| in Mark Twain's house with the
owner Of 1t. During the game Wis
itor was announced The servant
was told to show him into the bill
lard room. Mr.. Clemens talked with
him without delaying shot on the
billiard table. The errand of the
visitor, who was a publishers agent,
was to offer him $4,000 for a series
OF short stories which could be
brought out in a single volume, after
being published serially. The amount
Of material asked for was compare
lively small. Clemens rejected the
offer quickly-almost abruptly. Mr..
Robinson ventured, when the visitor
WIS Eon" TO exnress his surprise that
! tAG hu'horist could turn down
! what seemed like prodiWuus sum
! ior . slnail amount Of "c0py Bot
Mark iwain diamiSard the incident
| hohIhai.At!y.
He had the narrowest kind of es-
cape from becoming a multimillion-
aire. He missed his chance to win
a great fortune when he "put his
money on the wrong horse" by back
ing the Paige typesetting machine
against the linotype machine. He
was besought by the men who invest
ed Altogether 100000 in developing
the linotype idea between 1875 and
1890 to come into that enterprise
But he thought his Judgment was
better than theirs, and he sank $685.
600 in the Paige apparatus for set
ting up movable types. The machine
was not a success. With the same
money he could have had controll-
Ing interest in the linotype company,
and the investment would have left
as large an estate when he died as
that Of his friend, Henry II. Rogers.
nj .
the good things" in Hartford that
caught him for round sums. Proba-
bly, he sank half million in that
| way altogether. Then came the Grant
book-a brilliant idea-and the pub
fishing firm Of Webster & Co., whose
fnal failure, together with his other
heavy losses, took all he had and in
VOWED him temporarily in debt But
the books which he wrote and pub-
llshed between 1890 and 1900 and
the lectures he delivered brought him
another fortune, out Of which the OBJ
legations of Webster & Co. were cas-
lly taken care of.
That. in spite of the loss of for
tune after fortune in business ven
lures, he actually left accommodations
of over 100000, all gained from
his books, and the copyrights which
Will long bring handsome annual
income to his daughter. shows what
literary genius he was. If he had
been cunning investor he would
have been the richest writer the
world has ever produced.
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