Mexico Missouri message., 1915-12-30

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of the house where the famous author
was BORN:
1T should be preserved and guarded
as shrine for the American people:
for 1t was here that the foremost
American-born author-the most
Enthusiastically American in every
thought and word and action of his
life-drew his first fluttering breath,
caught bliRkingly the light of world
that in the years to come would rise
up and in its wide realm of letters
hail him as a king"
Well evidently our Floridan friend
Mr.. Violet has thought along the line
indicated by Biographer Paine, since
he is carrying out thatsuggestion. The
birth-house stood originally on the
east side of Mill street, the main thor
oughfare of the village. 1t was la
flat place. Mr.. Violet has removed
the house to lot across the street,
on higher ground, where it faces the
east.
Thehouseis oftwo rooms, with oak
weather boarding and evidences of
having been built without the aid of
an architect. The partition betwe W
the two rooms is of walE ut boards. rEe
rooms are c, lied thr mghout WIFI. oak
, -.ards. Originally there was . clap
board roof, which M Violet has e.
placed v. th o new roof of oak c.cp-
:. ,'ids, which he L~oe in III oIi
fashioned way, splittil them with
froc. Wien Mark Twain was 10,
there was lean-to fitchen, wifi h
'as disappeared. 1t is believeI thst
the great writer was bNrn in the small
er OF the wo rooms. which was ue,.t
"a a 'edI DOM, the l"rt er being ;'e
general Irving room an,; no doubt al
so the sleeping chamber of tn. oth-r
Clemens children and the black girl
who served the household.
81 intend" said Mr.. Violet, "to FUR
nish this old house with articles of the
olden time. No piece Of furniture will
be less than rs years old, and some
of them will be much elder. This will
serve to make the interior of the
house something like it was when
Mark Twain was born here"
1t is Mr.. violett's purpose to give
the Ladies Aid societies of tns two
local churches the privilege of meet
ing in the Mark Twain house, and the
members will be responsible for TAX
ing care of the premises.
The child Samuel L. Clemens lived
in this house but few months. The
family had become so large that more
room was needed, so new house was
built. Many years afterward photo
graph of this larger house was shown
to Mark Twain who was requested to
identify it as his birthplace.
mo, it is too stylish, it is not my
birthplace" wrote Mark Twain at the
bottom of the picture. This house,
which was notmuch more stylish than
the other, was burned many years
ago.
Mr.. Violet says he has conclusive
documentary evidence that the two
room house which he is preserving is
the actual birthplace. In the middle
of cross street few rods from the
house stands Missouri's monument
to Mark Twain bronze bust on
high pedestal, built from a fund of
$1,000 appropriated by the Legisla-
ture. The inscription on a bronze
tablet below the bust reads:
MARK TwAIN-In this village
was born November Thirtieth, 1895,
Mark Twain. He Cheered and Com
forted Tired world Erected by
the State of Missouri, 1918.
On November 80, the 18th ami
versary of the birth of Mark Twain,
moving picture concern sent repre-
sentatives to Florida and made films
of the activities in the town, includ-
ing the local celebration Of the birth
day, which will be shown thruout the
world.