The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-11-29
MARK TWAIN

MARk NV VAIN, whose birthday falls upon
November S0th. has been dead eleven years, but,
according TO the concenSuS OF literary opinion. his
work will live forever. His is handled reverently by
the scholars and specialists who have written the
third volume of The Cambridge History Of Ameri-
can Literature. "In a book which has been hailed
as a great history of American literature, and which
stands for all that is finest in American criticism,
Mark Twain is given the place OF honor. The fol-
lowing paragraphs speak well for the permanent
place which the great humoriSt has won for himself,
not only in the hearts of the people, but in the esti-
nation of the most critical and scholarly men in
America:
Samuel Langhornc Clemens, more widely known
as Mark Twain, was OF the bully breed which
Whitman had prophesied. Writing outside the
eenteel tradition he avowedly sought to please the
masses, and he was elected to his high place in
American literature by a tremendous popular vote,
which was justified even in the opinion of severe cri-
tics by his exhibition OF a masterpiece or so not I'M
worthy OF lie Sage or Cervantes, Time will diminish
his bulk as it must that OF every author Of twenty
five volumes; but the great public which discovered
him still cherishes most OF his books; and his
works, his character, and his career have now, and
will continue to have, in addition to their strictly
literary significance, a large illustrative value, which
has been happily emphasized by Albert Bigelow
Paine's admirable biography and collection OF letters.
Mark Twain is one OF our great representative men.
He is a fulfilled promise OF American life. lie
proves the virtues OF the land the society in which he
was born and fostered. lie incarnates the spirit OF
an epoch OF American history when the nation, ter
ritorially and spiritually enlarged, entered Justify
upon new adventures. In the retrospect he looms
for us with Whitman and Lincoln, recognizably his
countrymen, out of the shadows OF the Civil War, an
unmistakable native son of an eager, NOV
ing people-unconvemional, sclf-reliant, mirthful,
rrof,ua rea1;etir cvnicaI hoicterouc nonular tender
hearted, touched with chivalry, and %permeated to the
marrow of his bones with the sentiment OF demo
cratic society and with loyalty to American insti-
tu:ions.
In his last wears he spent a good deal OF time in
New York and Washington. and a variety OF causes
kept him pretty steadily in the public eye as a figure
OF national interest: his valiant assumption OF his
debts, his great tour, his growing habit of COM
men;ing on public affairs. the publication OF sec
tons Of his Autobiography, his domestic bereave-
ments. and the foreign tributes and honors which
gradually assured his somewhat incredulous country
men that he was a great man OF letters. His first
academic recognition had come from Yale Univer-
sity, which created him Master OF Arts in 1888; in
1901 Yale, and in 1902 the University OF Missouri,
conferred upon him the degree OF Doctor OF Let
lers; but the browning academic glory fell in l9W
when the University OF Oxford called him across
The sea and robed him in scarlet and made him
Doctor OF Literature, amid, as he noted, a very
satisfactory hurrah' from the audience. On his
return from a trip to the Bermudas, he died April
y. 1910.
Mark Twain's literary independence is generally
Except for a certain flavor OF Dickens IN
The Gilded Age there is hardly an indication OF any
relationship between him and modern
He was a lover Of the elemental in the
OF the reiinements OF an English and an
american Victorian Age.
In his prose as in The verse oil Whitman there IS
appearance OF free Improvisation concealing a
more or less novel and deliberate art. so far AS |
wrote W. ID. Howells, i'll 1901, Mr.. Clemens Is
he first writer to use in extended writing the fashion
we all use i'll thinking. and TO set down the thing
that comes into his mind withou. lear or favor oil the
thing that went before. or the thing that may be
about to follow Besides this assertion OF 4 Spon-
.aneiy approaching artlessness let us pW Professor
Matthews caution, His c~olloquial ease should not
from us his mastery OF all the devices OF
rhetoric. Pr by permission OF q. 7, Putman's
Sons)
Which reminds us that there are hut three sure
things in this lie: death, taxes and Christmas.
--O-
The hand that holds the pocket book is first 20
shout about the ruthlessness OF Santa Claus.
Its just about that line OF year when the iall
bride learns two chairs are necessary.