Evening star., 1928-11-14
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
AN INTERVIEW.
BY MARK TWAIN.

Il
%sh cens Tan @ rsss sss naS a sgrcsn Ss SAMUEL Sal
moTist Of internatiailsl tame Ills works i in3 j;
"Innocents '. Abroad. ETC. @o'>''' ''
The nervous, dapper, pert" young
man took the chair offered him and
said he was connected with the Daily
Thunderstorn1, and added:
Hoping it's no harm, I've come to
interview you.
Come tD. what2
Interview you"
"How do you spell it?"
Spell what?"
Interview"
my goodnessI What do you want to
spell it for?"
It don't want to spell it. I want to
find out what 1t means"
well, this q astonishing, I must
say. I can tell you what 1t MEANS il
you-if you--"
%An right! That will answer, and
much obliged to you, too.'
MY dear sir, beg your pardon. /
mean no harm in the least, but you do
not look aS-as-intelligent as had
expected you would. No harnl-I mean
no harm at all.
"Don't mention i'll It has often been
said, and by people who would not
fatter and who could have no induce
ment to flatter, that I am quite re-
markable in that way. Yes--yeS; they
always speak Of 1t with rapture"
"I can easily imagine it. But about
this interview. You know, 1t is the
custom now to interview any man who
has become notorious"
Indeed? I had not heard of it be-
fore 1t must be very interesting.
do 40 ~ f4yifI 9S
ut ought to be done with club in
some cases, but customarily 1t consists
in the interviewer asking questions and
the interviewed answering them. 1t is
all the rage now. VIII you let me ask
YOU certain questions calculated to bring
out the salient points of your public and
private history7"
with pleasure. have 9 very bad
memory, but I hope you will not mind
that. That is to say, it is an irregular
memory -singularly irregular. Some
times it goes in Q gallop, and, then
again. it will be as much as fortnight
passing given point. This is a great
grief to me-"
1T is no matter, SO you will try to
do the best ~ou can
"I will. I will put my whole mind
onto it,
4AICAA tAAC 4AA0e AhSStSSAA Ao' @@S" S~N ~~~~
you?"
A. Nineteen in June.
@. Indeed! would have taken you
to be 35 or SO. Where were you born?
A. In Missouri.
Q. When did you begin to write9
A. In 1886.
are only 10 now?
A. I don't know. It does seem curl
q. It does. indeed. Whom do you
consider the most remarkable man you
ever met?
A. Aaron Burr.
O. But YOU never could have met
Aaron Burr, if you are only 10 years
A. Now, if you know more about
me than do, what do you ask me Tor:
@. Well, it was only suggestion;
To- nothing more. How did you happen tC
meet Burr?
A. Well, I happened to be at his
funeral one day, and he asked me tC
make less noise. and
@. Good Heavens! If you were al
his funeral, he must have been dead
and if he was dead, how could he care
whether you made noise or not?
A. I don't know. He was always q
particular kind Of man that way.
@. Still, don't understand it at all
You say he spoke to you, and that HI
was dead.
A. 1 didn't say he was dead.
@. But wasn't he dead?
A. Well, some said he was and sons
said he wasn't.
@. What do you think?
A. Oh, it was none OF my business
It wasn't any Of my funeral.
@. Did you-however, we can neve
get this matter straight. Let me asl
YOU something else. What was tn
date of your birth?
A. Monday, october 81, 1898.
@. What! Impossible! That wOul'
make YOU hundred and eighty year
old. How do you account for that?
A. / don't account for it at all.
O. But you said at first you wer
only 10, and now you make yoursel
out to be 1s0. It is an awful discrep
ancy. -.
(Shakirg hands.) Many time it ha
seemed to me like a discrepancy. bu
somehow l couldn't make up ~ mine
How quick you notice thing
O. Thank you for the compliment,
FAR as it goes. Had you, or have yol
anv brothers or sisters?
A. Eh! III think so. Yes-bU
I don't remember.