Evening star., 1935-02-03
CHAPTER XII.
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

L They will probably be contin-
ued as long as interesting and
valuable material can be secured.
Among other articles which have been
engaged is humorous one by Mark
Twain, which describes his war career.
He was three days in the service as
Confederate soldier and was, believe,
forced into 1t.
Mark Twain has more good points
about him than the world gives him
credit for. We look upon him as a
very humorous, decidedly irreverent,
slightly vulgar, fun-loving fellow
without very much else than his fun
to recommend him. He is, however.
generous, whole -souled and charitable,
and the beauty about this part Of his
nature is that he does not wear it on
his sleeve and keep continually point
ing to it with the gesture of the
PhariSee.
Twain takes delight in hunting out
promising young men-almost as
much as Alexander Stephens did
and in helping them to make some
thing of themselves Young Gerhardt,
the sculptor who has done such ex-
cellent work on Grants bust and
death mask, is a product Of Mark
Twain's generosity. 1t was Twains
money that educated him and devel-
oped the talents which, as young
machinist at a thousand dollars a
year, he was struggling to use.
Another product of Twain's purse is
William Gillette, the young actor who
made such success of THE Profess
sor" last season, where he made the
world laugh until its very sides ached
with the effects of his ,"go-loshes"
and his do yew noo?" Both of these
proteges have done well. They are by
no means the only ones Mark Twain
has tried his hands on. but they are
the only ones who have succeeded to
any great extent.
Mark Twain can afford to have
proteges. He is the literary Midas
of the United States Everything he
touches turns into gold He is now
worth about million and his income
varies. running high into the thou
sands of dollars yearly. I am told by
a friend OF his that he made $4,000
as his share Of the Twain-Cable read
ings last year, and that "Hucklebarry
Finn" has brought somewhere in the
neighborhood of $4,000. He expects
to make pile off the Grant memoirs
and, in order to get them for publica-
ton, he made terms with the Grants
that other publishers did not dare to
make. AS Twain said, They did not
appreciate the magnitude of the occa-
sion." Mark Twain's scrapbook, in
vented for his own use and then pat
ented, has brought a fortune to its
makers, nearly q million copies of 1t
having been sold in the past eight
years.
In November of this year Mark
Twain will be so years old. When he
wrote "Innocents Abroad here in
Washington less than 20 years ago, he
was living in a second-class boarding
house, in little back room heated
with a sheet iron stove. Now he has
an elegant residence in Hartford,
Conn. filled with treasures of furniture
and pictures which he has gathered
in his journeys over the world. In
this home at Hartford, Mark Twain's
workshop is in his billiard room at
the top of the house, and when he
grows tired of pushing his pen he
rises and eases his muscles by making
some scientific strokes with the cue
A Hartford man told me the other
day that he was calling on Mark
Twain in this room at one time DUR
ing the past year, when the fire in
the crate threw out some sparks upon
the floor. These caught some loose
paper and the room for a moment
promised to break out in flames.
Mark Twain was playing billiards
at the time," said this man, "and he
did not stop his game. He rang for
the servants. lazily told them to ex-
tinguish the fire and then leaned over
the table and made champion'S
stroke with his billiard cue Mark
Twain never gets excited. He walks
slowly, talks with a drawl, and acts
as though he did not care much for
life or anything in it. He looks
sleepy, but he is the most wide-awake
man that I know. He understands
how to make a bargain and he is one
of the best advertisers in the United
States"
Newspaper Progress.
Rapid changes are taking place in
the newspapers and newspaper work
all over the country. The phenom-
email success of the New York World
is talked of everywhere 1t has now
circulation of nearly 100000 for its
Sunday edition and it has cut deep
into the hearts of the other New York
papers. The Boston Globe has also
jumped into circulation approxi-
mating 100000 within the past few
years, and there is no doubt but that
newspaper readers as well as news
paper enterprises are on the increase
The papers are furnishing much bet
ter reading to their subscribers than
in the past Within the last three
years, the newspaper has become q
magazine of literature, science, fiction
and, I might almost say, art. BY CO.
operation, novels from the most emf
nent authors are now given to the
public through the newspapers. They
are copyrighted and the newspapers
pay their writer's quite as well as dc
the magazines.
A young man named Mcclure who
has been connected with the Cen
tury and other literary establishments
has syndicate of papers to which
he furnishes short stories from the
best writer's, and Allen Thorndyke
Rice, the very rich editor of the North
American Review, is at the head OF
another syndicate which is furnish
ing the country large amount of
valuable historical material, written
by men who were actors in the events
they describe.
The pictorial feature of newspapers
has grown prodigiously during the
past two years. There are a number
of firms who send out cuts to PAPERS
all over the country at such rates that
even the small rural weekly can buy
sap away the strength from the whole
6porc;ol ctr1Icturo time en- 1ahOri01,S1y