The Westminster Budget from London, Greater London, England • Page 30

28 THE WESTMINSTER BUDGET JULY 2, 1897 MARK TWAIN. of a new THE TESTIMONIAL TO MARK TWAIN. WHY NOT ENGLAND ALSO? It has occurred to us that a great many English, people would 3ike to know more of the effort which is being made in America through the instrumentality of the New York Herald to raise a testimonial to Mark Twain. It has been known for some time past that Mr. Clemens has suffered heavy pecuniary losses.

Upon that matter he has not taken the public into his confidence, and he is the last man in the world to ask their assistance. But, speaking roughly, the facts are, we believe, that some years ago he became a publisher in the firm of Charles L. Webster and Company, of New York, of which on the death Mr. Webster he became, the controlling member. In this capacity he had a measure of success, but Ije became concerned in certain outside ventures, among them the production typewriter, which brought and made an assignment necessary.

This was about three years ago, and the upshot was to leave him as poor as when he began work thirty years earlier. The York Herald adds a rumour that he became personally responsible for over £40,000 of the firm's debts, and it was to earn the money with which to pay these off that he undertook his subsequent extensive lecturing tour. A little later iit was reported that he was dying in poverty in London, but this happily is an exaggeration. Mr. Clemens is, indeed, in London, but he is not dying, and if in poverty, he bears it with stoicism.

But let hear his own account as given to an interviewer of die New York Herald: Of course, I am dying." And Mark Twain smiled grimly. But I do not know that I am doing it any faster than anybody else. As for dying in poverty, I had just as soon die in poverty here in London as anywhere. But it would be a little more difficult, because I have got quite a number of friends, any one of whom I believe would be good for a month's and that would drag out the agony a fairly long time. "Poverty," he said, "is relative.

I have been in poverty so often that it does not worry me very much. A more serious matter is the money owing ko other people, not by any fault of mine, and yet owing to them by me. But I do not trouble about the rumours that go about in regard to me. Why should I The rumour will die itself if you will only give it three days. Start any rumour, and if the public can go with its curiosity unsatisfied for three days something else will spring up which will make the public forget all about first one.

Therefore, when people talk about my dying, or as, really happened a few days ago about my being dead, I do not take the slightest notice. I know perfectly well that the public will forget all about it if I let it alone. I keep on ploughing away and working and working and hoping and hoping, but the idea of being in poverty does "not either trquble me or frighten me." The discerning reader need not be told to read between the lines of this passage. The simple truth, as the New York Herald tells its readers, is that MarkTwain has been, and is still, greatly embarrassed by his losses of three years ago. We might add that in the interval he has suffered a far heavier trouble still in the death of a daughter to whom he was deeply attached.

He may be assured that he speaks truth when he says that he has. over here quite a number friends, any one of whom would be good for a month's provision number, we are confident, whom he has never met or seen, but who owe him a debt for innumerable happy hours which can never be paid in meal or in malt. The English-speaking public cannot hear with indifference that a writer who has helped to lighten the load of life for an entire generation is himself bowed down by care. Mark Twain is something more than a jester. He has tilted at sham and humbug with wholesome laughter, and, as Mr.

Howells reminds us, he portrays and interprets real types, not only with exquisite appreciation and sympathy, but with a force and truth of drawing that makes them Everyone with tincture of humour in his composition enjoys him, and the best critics know better than any the value of his best works. We have had no communication with Mr. Clemens, and we should tthink it an impertinence to bring his affairs before the public if a leading American newspaper had not made this appeal to his, own But since that appeal has been made, we feel sure that the English readers of Mark Twain would like to know what is going forward and to have an opportunity of joining. That Mark Twain is an American, and that his own countrymen have a first claim upon him, are propositions which we do not in the least dispute. But his books are a household word in this country also.

We feel quite certain that a great many English readers will be glad to join in any testimonial that is being organised for him. We shall ourselves be pleased to acknowledge and forward to the Am York Herald any subscriptions that may be sent to this office, and it is of course also open to the reader to send subscriptions direct to the office of the New York Herald. The career of Mark Twain has been characteristically American. If anyone want to know how he got that extraordinary knowledge of out-of-the-way types and local detail which appears, say, in 1 Huckleberry Finn and Tom the answer is that he is describing his own life and youth. Born in Florida, brought up in Hannibal, he had tried life as printer, reporter, and river pilot by the time he was eighteen.

For no less than seven years, according to the New York Herald, he was a river pilot on a steamboat plying between St. Louis and New Orleans. And though one of the best pilots the'old Mississippi ever knew, he found time to write for newspapers, and has left a lively account of this period in his "Piloting on the Mississippi." According to his biographer in the Herald, it was at this time that he got his nom de plume Mark Twain This is how it happened He had been signing his sketches Iosh," a name which came to him he knows not how, but which he never cared for. One day while in the pilot house pondering as to what name he could substitute for Iosh," he heard a "big buck nigger," who was taking soundings of the river, call out Mark twain The phrase caught the young writer's fancy, and he determined then and there that henceforth he would sign his "stories" with the pen name "Mark Twain." He left piloting to edit a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada, and at the same time to act as clerk to his brother, whom Lincoln had appointed Secretary of that territory. Here he got an extensive knowledge of Western life such as it was at that time, and even worked for day wages at a quartz mill.

Thence he came to San Francisco, and shortly afterwards joined Bret Harte in producing the Californian. We should imagine that copies of the paper which resulted from that famous partnership are now a fare and valuable possession. It lasted but for a short time, however, and then the two partners deserted their Californian, and struck out for the mines. Mark Twain was soon back in and departed to Hawaii, as special correspondent for a San Francisco paper. On his return he lectured on his experiences, and cleared 1,400 dollars from his first appearance.

Following up this success with a tourof the Pacific States, he found himself at length in a position of comparative prosperity, and sat down to write books. In 1867 "The Jumping Frog' 1 appeared, and its author was almost immediately a of mark. Then came the European tour, followed by "The Innocents Abroad," "The Tramp Abroad," and in due course, "Tom Sawyer," Huckleberry Finn," Life on the Mississippi, and other works, which are read to this day in both continents and wherever English is spoken. From 1868 to 1894, when the financial disaster which involved him took place, he had almost unbroken prosperity. For mdst of the facts contained in this slight sketch we are indebted to the New York Herald, which also adds some details of his forthcoming book.

As already stated, Mark Twain has recently made a tour of the world, and is now engaged in writing his experiences in a volume which is to appear about Christmas. We are well aware that this year of Jubilee is a lean one for testimonials of all kinds. Nevertheless, since the American testimonial has fallen at this time, we do not think it ought on that account to pass without some notice in this country. Mark Twain has readers in every corner of the United Kingdom, and if the facts can only be brought to their notice, we feel sure that not a few of them will feel it a privilege to be allowed to join, in however modest a manner. We would respectfully suggest to some of our provincial contemporaries that they should lend their aid to this end..