Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-11-24
MARK TWAIN'S VIENNA LECTURE
How His Structures the German Language Were by
Fashionable Audience-Effect of Democratic Amer
lean Austrian Society
By CHARLEMAGNE TOWER
United States Minister to Austria-Hunrary frop,
1897 10 ISOg ''''''

| THE publication by Messrs. Harper of
L the letters of Mark Twain is an event
! of very unusual interest, and it may be
| said of peculiar import ,nce to the literary
| world because of the oportunty which it af-
| fords us to make an intimate acquaintance
with one whom everybody knows in general
through "The Innocents Abroad" or "Huck-
leberry Finn" or a hundred other sayings
and writings repeated and reread these
many ye.rs,
All these became public property long
ago; but we have now an entirely new
presentation of the life and vicissitudes, the
lows and SORROWS of Samuel Clemens as
he passed through them and felt them as
he described them while their impressions
were still fresh upon his mind-which brings
us into contact, as never before, with the
man himself
Here is Mark Twain, portrayed uncon-
sciousy, we may say, by his own pen. A
life made up of every kind Of human ex-
periencc, immensely full of knowledge of
the world and acquaintance with men. The
narrative of it carries one through II whole
epoch of American history, and it is cosmo-
from his contact with natives of every race.
In turning over the leaves of these vol
umcs one is reminded through some of the
letters which they contain of an incident
that has frequently been recalled with
pleasure by those who knew Samuel Glenn
ems at the time, of the strangest
episodes of a sngularly varied career which
was certainly not lacking In startling sit
uations-Mark Trains visit to Austria,
where he spent the winter and spring with
his family in 1898 and 1899.
His appearance there was in itself
great surprise, for il seemed like con-
tradiction to find this fresh breeze from
the Sierras penetrating into the conserva-
tive and intensely old-world atmosphere of
Vienna and, indeed, Mark Twain had be-
fore that scarcely approached, either in
interest or intellectual sympathy, the orbit
in which those people move, nor had they
the least conception of him. Their tradi-
tions were not even vaguely known in the
world in which he had lived, neither was
he much acquainted with their habits of
thought of their daily life. And yet he
went there to lecture to the Viennese upon
the construction Of the German language!
Only Mark Twain Could Do This
Nothing in his whole literary achiever
ment exhibits so distinctly perhaps as this
undertaking the difference in character and
intellectual quality between Mark Twain
and other men; for it may be said that
IL another, who was governed by the or
binary rules of human conduct had planned
a similar enterprise 1t could have been set
down with confidence as failure from the
start. In the of Mark Twain IL
proved to be complete success.
For, in winning the attention, even the
attachment, of the public he was not sub
jected to the methods that are prescribed
for men In general 1t is inconceivabIe
that any one else could do as he did I'm
Vienna The boldness of his announced
ment in itself procured him an audience for
his first lecture from among the Journalistic
and literary inhabitants of the capital who
had some remote notions about the repu-
tation at home of the great American hu-
morist and not a few of those who are well
known socially at the court went. with a
certain curiosity more or less cynical TO
hear what he could possibly have to saw of |
their mother tongue which he did not know
much about himself So that at his first
appearance he faced roomful of peonIs
whose sympathy. to say the least, he had |
yet to win. |
He introduced his subject by expIain.
ing to them that the German language
il In fact essentially incomprehensibie
and that In its present form no human |
being can safely use 1t who wishes to be /
understood. He reminded than that mot ]
even they. who haA bean forced o. emnicy