St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 52

Pfl JT i i i -rrm-i pmMmo. r-r-mir ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, SUNDAY, DKCEMBEK 10, IKS. HIS WIT, bIKE GOOD WINE, IMPROVES WITH AGE. I I FROM POOR PILOT BOY TO FOREMOST HUMORIST OF HIS TIME.

A New Anecdotal Qiograpln? of the fllan Who Has $ldde Millions baugh His Boyhood, His Watf of "Always FoolinV' His First His Absent (Windcdncss, His Generosity, His Manliness, His Steady Ris? to Greatness. S. --jr Sni p-VR3. fcrif i r-'y 7 fir vrk letter In which is inclosed a cheek for a sum of money that icoonn her In comfort. These remittances only ceased when Mark Twain's publishing-house failed a few years ago, leaving the author in straitened cir cumstances, aney nave uwu ouuicu.

however. Mrs. Greening; Is Just the age of Mark Twain. She Is a small, quiet, agreeable little woman with a strong sense of humor and not a great appreciation of the work of her distinguished relative. Speaking of his HANNIBAL, the scene of Mark Twain's story of the "Adventures of Tom Sawyer and His Friend Huckleberry Finn." is one of the oldest town's on the Mississippi River.

In the palmy days of before the advent of the "Of; lovee was always lined with big sidewheelers. The old part of the town Is almost the same as it was xv hen Mark Twain lived in it. There are the same quaint old brick houses of a bygone day. with small window-panes and high sloping roofs. The house in which Mark Twain spent his boyhood, the printing ofiioe in which he learned his trade, the buildings in which he worked are all standing to-day.

unchanged. From the age of three years until he was nearly twenty and went on the river to learn to be a steamboat pilot, Mark Twain lived In this old town. Nine years ago. the occasion of his last visit to Hannibal, he looked about and wondered that It was the same. In Hannibal are many men and women who went writings, she said: "Yes, I reckon Sam is a great literary man.

I haven't followed his writings mucn. some one lent HANNIBAL MO and which resulted in the first of his really MRS. CLEMENS. Mother ov me a book he wrote called 'The Innocents Shucks, that's Just like Sam all over. It Is Just the way he used to talk anu toe: about things when he was a boy.

vVhy. that book was the biggest nonsense I ever read. The idea of his standing and weeping over Noah's grave, and stuff like that. But that was the way Sam used to make fun of things when he was a boy. "I remember when he used to come to our farm every summer.

He was a pale, sickly boy who did a lot more thinking than was good for He was a great tease. He used to catch those little green garter-snakes and hang one over a stick and chase me and the other girls around. Then, to show us that there was no harm them, he would take a snake to school with Mark Twain. These are old men now tholr memories are dulled, but all are proud of MARK TWAIN LAKE rlAHCJPiC tant literary achievements "The Innocents XI And now Mark Twain was famous. With all the English-speaking world Uugt" his book, and with audiences all over the land 1 ing for his voice, the humorist's position wma viable one.

But Mark Twain had tenderer Btr! think of. On the Quaker City excursion ha Olivia L. Langdon, daughter of Jervls tMZ Elmlra, N. and fame was of less oonseq him than her smile. In 18 he backed the publishing house of Char" Webster Co.

At the same time he was WOMEN WHO HAVE INFLUENCED HIS MPE. THREE the distinction of having been his playmates. Among the old landmarks of Hannibal shown with pride to visitors is the house in which Mark Twain lived, the printing office in which he worked, the old church in which he went to Sunday-school, the house in Craig's alley in which Huck Finn's prototype lived and Tom Sawyer's cave, a mile and a half below the ioriune in an ingenious typesetting macniK never reached the practicable stage. wnai witn tne proceeds or nis lectures, ait except to drawl out something funny once in a while. As he grew older, however, he began to pick up, and when he started to learn the printing business with his brother Orion in Hannibal he Mad grown quite strong and healthy.

"Sam had two brothers. Orion and Henry. Henry was the youngest. After Sam went on the river he teased his mother to let Henry learn to be a pilot too. She consented, and Henry set out with Sam.

One trip they went to New Orleans, where Sam got Into a quarrel with the captain and left the boat. Henry stayed by it, however, and when it got near Memphis the boiler exploded and Henry was badly scalded. Sam brought him to Hannibal, where he died a few days afterwarS. Had Sam not had his quarrel with the captain it is quite likely he would have met Henry's fate and the world would never have had its Mark Twain. The death of Henry was a great blow to Sam.

who always blamed himself as the indirect cause of his death in having persuaded his brother to go into the steamboat business. "When Sam was learning to print in Orion's oflice in Hannibal there was an apprentice there by the name of Jim Wolf. Jim was the butt of all of Sara's practical jokes. Sam used to sit up night3 thinking of tricks to play on Jim. It used to be Jim's work to make the composition rollers.

This was done in the back yard In a big kettle over a fire. Jim was very bashful, and when he saw a girl coming he nearly died of blushes. When Jim was out making rollers to town, but Orion found it embarrassing to satisfactorily explain his forgetfulness to his bride. years ago Orion was living in Keokuk. He neglected to come to bed one night.

His wife had left him writing In his study. She dropped asleep after a while and did not wake until morning, when she found her husband still missing. Thinking that he had forgotten to come to bed she went to his study and found him sitting at his desk, dead, with his pen in his stiffened fingers." dook -following; me equator, ciearea ore i gatlons of Charles L. Webster A and re; his own fortunes. Since that time he has lived In Europe, adec! courted by all sorts and conditions of I man of mark In Vienna, where his afto speeches are relished Just as keenly ss they rich and vivid impressions that were to give him his first bent for the use of a pen Instead of a composing stick.

But the civil war put an end to that. Clemens found his'occupation gone after running a blockade that ended in the chimneys of his proud side-wheeler being perforated by Federal cannon. I He Joined the Confederate forces under Gen. Tom Harris, and resigned after two weeks with the explanation that as a result of incessant retreating he was "incapacitated by fatigue." Orion Clemens was appointed Secretary of the new territory of Nevada, and took brother Samuel with him in the ornamental capacity of private In the raw-edged civilization of the frontier the future humorist acquired more highly colored experiences. He vainly sought fortune as a prospector and miner until his occasional letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise won for him the position of legislative correspondent at Carson In addition to which he was local editor.

in his hand and put It In his pocket. The snake would try to crawl out, and as soon as Sam would find it poking Its iead out he would stuff It back again. When we were children we used to think that the forked tongue of a snake was its poison stinger, but Sam knew better, and he used to terrify us girls by holding the snake's head in one hand and letting It throw its forked tongue against the back of his other hand. At the same time he would give us a comic lecture on the habits of the snake in his slow, drawling "As a boy Sam was also a great lover of cats. He" always had a cat of his own, and when he came to the farm every summer to visit us he would bring his cat with When he arrived at the farm father would lift his big carpet bag out of the wagon and then would come Sam with a basket in his hand.

TKIs BIOGRAPHICAL it aenverea in nis native tongue in Lonoon cr York. Among his warmest friends are the of Austria and But. then, all the world Is his friend! NE of Mark Twain's ancestors gave a vote' that 0' cost him his head. This was Gregory Clement, an adherent of Cromwell. He gave his voice to the condemnation of Charles When the Restoration came Charles II.

sent him to the scaffold for it. With the branch of-the family from which the King MARK TWAIN BEFORE THE CAMERA HUMAN DOCUMENTS SOME 3EEING Mark Twain light a fresK clrTT lately after throwing away the stufc: he had consumed, a bystander Inquire'; "Do you smoke all the time, Mr. ClemensT. "No, not the whole time," was the drawfcr. "I never could form the habit of stnoklrj sleep.

I only smoke when am awake." And then, after pause, he continued r' tween the vigorous puff that seemed to' inspiration In solemn drollery: city on the river bank. The island on which Tom Sawyer spent the night after he ran away from home is to be seen on the shining river below the city, and Holliday's Hill, Soap Hollow, Wildcat Corners and Lover's Leap are all places either connected with "Tom Sawyer" or Mark Twain's boyhood. Probably the most Interesting of all the boyhood friends of Mark Twain in Hannibal is Mrs. Laura Frazer, his first sweetheart. Mrs.

Frazer is a widow, and for a long time has been the matron of the Home for the Friendless. She is still a handsome, sprightly woman and speaks of Mark Twain with the utmost frankness and friendliness. When a lad Mark Twain was evidently very fond of her. although he was not a -oy given to seeking the society of girls. Mrs.

Frazer' name was Laura Hawkins, and she lived across the street from Mark Twain. The two children grew up together, together they went to school and Sunday-school, and they made mud pies and built houses from blocks. When they became old enough they went skating together on Bear Creek, and the boy patiently taught his little sweetheart to skate. He used to bring an old split-bottomed chair to the creek with him, and on It he would push the little girl along on the ice while the other boys guyed him. Mark Twain has never forgotten the little sweetheart of his boyhood days.

Long after he left Hannibal and began to write, the impress of their association was upon him, and he embodied her childish character in Becky Allison in "Tom Sawyer." Later again he used her in "The Gilded Age," and this time he used ber name, Laura Hawkins. Mrs. Frazer says that there are many points of resemblance between her life and that of the Laura Hawkins in the book up to her twelfth year, when the character in the book diverges from that of the original. In speaking of Mark Twain's boyhood she says that she recognizes many of his own boyhood pranks in the story of Tom Sawyer. The story of how Tom won the bibles in Sunday-school by swapping tickets is absolutely true.

When Sam Clemens was between nineteen and twenty years of age he left the printing shop and went with Capt. Bart Bowen to learn to be a pilot. This apprenticeship consumed two years, and Sam "learned the river" between St. Louis and New Orleans and picked up many of the quaint sayings that later appeared in his writings, along with his nom de plume, "Mark Twain," a river phrase. After he took to the river Sam Clemens seldom visited Hannibal.

The last time he was there was to attend the funeral of bis mother. At that time he drove about the town looking at all the landmarks familiar to his boyhood days and visiting his old friends. Just before leaving town he borrowed a hatchet and drove to his old home on Bird street. There he chopped a piece of clapboard from the side of the house and bore It away with him as a souvenir of his early boyhood. began smoking I used to be "You know I eight years old.

printer's devil where there was a Beegle. This in a little tobacconist Beegle would give us devils exchange paper would l- we him. We kept him well supplied reading matter used to give about fifty papers a week In for as many cigars. "That's how I learned smoke. They were not the best I have smoked.

He used to CH Tweie's damnedest. But the Ar twnnA enougn T.in'ii courtship was not all plat for Olivia Langdon parents were at nrst irn.iw.'.ionod bv love, the naturally timid one morning penetrated Jervls Langdon prtt1 fice at Klmlra and stammered, with the lr who wishes to draw attention to an Interesting phenomenon: "Mr. Langdon have you noticed thing between your daughter me?" "No." roared Langdon. wheeling In his chili denly that his gaunt visitor beat a preclplttti ELLIS. to the door.

A QUEER FAMILY. UrWN.I I SO am used to get the girls together and snd them out of Laughter was destined to spring, the name CTJyNr mo at a time to eret Jim to explain the process of I ment becamn mnriifipri to nirniMi. John Marshall I 1 Sam used to get the girls together and snd them out one at a time to get Jim to explain the process of Of Laughter was destined to spring, the name CI ment became modified to Clemens. John Marshall "Then," said Mark Twain, as turned tl 6NCf. v.

ohlest livuig friend of Mark Twain to-day making roller composition to them. Thil rattled Jim so that he never got through with the Job. In preparation for a swift exit, "if you a sharp lookout ma tr Clemens in 1830 or thereabouts took up 80,000 acres of land In Tennessee, and fondly pictured himself a territorial patriarch. I is his cousin. Mrs.

Tablthra Greening, who lives in Palmyra, twenty miles from the place in io a statistical friend, who wrote to Ml Question. Mark Twain replied: which they were both born. John Clemens and John Quarles married Jane and "The books that have most Influenced my 4 Martha Lamnton in Kentucky and moved to Missouri nleasure. This Is the list- The Innocents To his political letters, which were biting in their personal reflections, he first signed tb. pseudonym that was to become famous.

The words "mark twain" were a danger signal when soundings were being taken from Mississippi boat, for they indicated that the water was only two fathoms deep. The fitful energy that had enabled him to become a pilot did not serve him here. At the end of six months this was in 1864 he and his employer by mutual consent ceased trying to reconcile his temperament with routine newsDaner work. Tn th mrlnr Sam used to send Jim out after 'strap oil" and a 'round and he used to show him type flee and other well-known printers' tricks. They used to Jell me all the tricks Sam played on Jim, but I've forgotten them.

Well, Jim was a good boy and he didn't want to lose his position, but one day he turned In and he gave Sam an awful blow on the nose and made It bleed, and after that Sam couldn't think of any more tricks to play on him. His son Samuel was born In the hamlet of Florida, on Nov. 3. 1835. While he was, yet a morsel of a child his father moved to Hannibal, another Missouri village.

It is related by a relative that the elder Clemens, who was very absent-mindd, drove off with his elder children and his household belongings, quite overlooking small Samuel, who was Slaking mud pies at the rear of the Rouirhlng 'A Tramp Abroad," Tft In 1835 they settled In Florida, Monroe County, and in that year were born Samuel L. Clemens and Tabltha basket he would allow no one except himself to carry. In the basket would be his pet cat. This he had trained to sit beside him at the table. His cat always had very good manners, and Sam would feed it at intervals and not allow it to help itself or become impatient at the table.

He would play contentedly with a cat for hours, and his cats were very fond of him and very patient when he tried to teach them tricks. "The thing I remember best about Sam as a boy was his habit of walking in his sleep. This was a terror to the whole family, and they could not break him of the habit. He would get up in the middle of the night and take all the bedclothes and hide them very carefully from the robbers he thought were going to steal them. Then he would go to bed and lie Pauper, 'Huckleberry Finn.

Tom at the Court of King of Joan of 'Pudd'nhead Quarles. The little Tabltha of years ago Is now Mrs. J. W. lowing the Equator, and the publication Greening and a grandmother, and still the friend of xtorir Twain.

Once a month the author, wherever he "Not that it cured him of his prankishness, by any deserted house. The little fellow's maternal grandfather discovered him and rode with him eight miles Co." 4 of 11865 he became interested with Bret Hart In the firm of Charles u. weosier at may be, remembers her and their youth by writing a THE. tKE. ENTRANCE means only it taught him a lesson he has never forgotten, I guess; and that is not to keep a Joke going too far.

"When Sam's brother Orion was marrfed the young couple were going on a wedding journey in the stage. Orion left his wife in a room In the hotel while he i went to make arrangements for th trip. In the arter the migrating family. John Marshall Clesiens died in 1847. Just after his election as county judge.

That was the end of Sam's education In the academic sense. It became his duty as well as diversion to haunt the office of the village newspaper conducted by Orion Clemens, his eldest brother. i To the student of cause and effect the year 1S57 stands out as one of the most momentous in his en To the student of cause and effect the year 1X57 CAVE -AT there shivering In his sleep until the cold woke him up, when he would cry and call for his mother. It would tako her an hour huntinir through the house to find the bedclothes again, so carefully would Sam hide una me Dencioines again, so careiuiijr iSs-v 'sr KW I SSCCW SSSfn i 1 jfr If Cajlfornian, and wrote some humorous sketches good enough to be copied in Eastern papers. Then his nomadic Instincts led him into the Sierras to seek gold.

Returning to civilization with indifferent resources In 1866 he gladly availed himself of an opportunity to journey to the Sandwich Islands in order to "write up" the sugar Industry for the Sacramento Union. On his return from the Islands Mark Twain's admirers in San Francisco prevailed upon him lecture on his experiences. It was with the deepest reluctance that he confronted his first audience gaunt, shaggy, hesitating of speech, awkward of gesture. Of his writings at that time the "Jumping Frog" leaped into Instant popularity. This led up to his excursion to Europe in 1867 on the Quaker City, which he undertook as correspondent of the Alta California, journey io tne oanawicn maims in orarr in write RueaP for the Sacramento Union.

tur on his experiences. It was with the deepest re- luctance that he confronted his first audience-gaunt. of hls at tnat time tn "Jumping Frog" leaped into Instant popularity. This led up to his ex- curion to Europe In 1867 on the Quaker City, which he undertook as correspondent or tne Aita vanrornia, mean time the stage came along, and Orion absent-mindedly got aboard and went away it. He was a mile out of town before he suddenly thought of his wife.

The stage driver good-naturally turned back i rnr. mean time the stage came along. an Orion absent tire career, for it was then that he launched himself upon the waters of the Mississippi, to acquire those I SCENES IN HANNIBAL MADE FAMOUS BY MARK TWAIN. SCENES IN HANNIBAL MADb FAM)tJcs BY MARK TWAIN. i III them.

One night my father found Sam out me stable in his nightgown. He was astride the old gray horse. He was yelling like a wild Indian and thought he was running a race, while old Gray Just pricked his ears and paid no more attention to Sam's fool tricks than the rest of us. Sam's Suleet Disposition. "Sam had the sweetest disposition of any boy I ever knew.

He was sickly all the time, but he never complained, and Just loafed around and didn't say much them, rw mht mv father found Sam out in the ears and oaid no more attention to Sam's fool tricks "Sam had the sweetest disposition of any boy I ever knew. He was sickly all the time, but ne never com- LlpJned. nd lust loafed around and didn't say much III I -ZZ fPfCw 1 1 1 1 I 1 sfr W) 1 1 1 II XTl I i i ii i sU I TV VVf 1 2jf I fi Br SI lM 1 1 If 2f3li SJI -iSl 3 itiwm Zv5jrr5v li wr? Ml ITsrxSlS -'V yhUJv L-t kV9 IMilll llTV 111 LEARNED "JZX II OOKIiMQ ToWAWrTT42jCr- ClS 1 I I I ll iNTUItltfr II tl- W- -r-s-ssS WWTMW. HWV AM BMTKU OWCW tH OR KWAlt I rrtWHTTOTtFT I.