Sunday News from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 15

MARK TWAIN IS COMING HOME AT LAST. After a Long Sojourn" in Europe he Returns, Bettered in Hecatn and Much More Prosperous in Finance. people to be crltielsedL Flnaily Bret Harte got Impatient and it all ended in one of those pleasant little squabbles of genius which are so apt to occur. It tide hoon tfnirH f-i- Mtrartf MrrMinnnd Income from their books. And, knowing nothing of business, he went down.

Steadily, was said, from the Anyway in a few years the publishing house came to grief, and Mark T.wain went abroad a ruined man, ycc not penniless. Mrs. Clemens, who was a rich young woman of Elmlra, New York, Btill had her income; and It is said that. uiuu mis sum uie entire Clemens family, including, the clever Mark, lived abroad. At that time, you' will recall, there Were subscriptions started for Mark TWaih.

But Mark, on hearing of them, returned the money with the characteristic argument, that his famjly would not allow him to accept it. He would have liked it for he said, but Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or as you probably knov him, "Mark Twain," returns to this country next month after a painful absence of several Mark Twain's absence from the land of his birth has been painful for hiarty reasons. DUrlng the time he was away be lost the last remnant of his once large fortune and has had to begin again; durihg that time, also, he lost his dctrly beloved daughter, the bril- llant Miss Clemens, who was about to go on the operatic stage to help her old father In his hour of need. Mark Twain crouched under the first blow ready to spring up again but under the second he fainted, and for a while Waa so weak of heart that hli friends wondered if he would ever revive. But revive he did, and Mark twain of to-day Is as lively and as humorous, as full of thct peculiar vital eccentricity as ever he was In the sixties when his "Innocents Abroad" Bt the world laughing.

Mark Twain's quaint say ings in that book have become current literature, and many or the funny thihga hfe how quoted by those who have never read the author. the family did not want him to take "SO please give Jt back to" the people," he said. And It was given back. Bret Harte, who has long lived in Londoa, is a. friend of Clemens family: And between the twd writers, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, It was agreed that a play could be written, one that would delight the world.

The plan in writing wis for Bret Harte to visit Mark Twain and the two, after a discussion "of the plot, were to word the dialogue together. At first it worked wel). Bref Harie, himself the' soul of method hdvjftfrt luamy, promptly arnveu ine AFTnR A GREAT DEAL OF URGIN Ci MARK TWAIN RETURN TO THE SCENE OF HIS EARLY TRIUMPHS. HIS NATIVE LAND, TO COMPLETE HIS BOOKS AND HIS LIFE HERE. MARK TWAIN A3 SKETCHED AT HIS DESK 1 HIS LOJDOI HOU3EBYOUK---RTISTABROALV ent who has visited Mark Twain lri London that he received them in in his night shirt, sometimes sipping his coffee; for Mark's breakfast is a movable feast and is served when he wakes, be it 9 or lfc.

The nresent wrltf remembers distinctly a' morning call early this summer, when the head of the Twain family reposed between Sheets, his shoulders well bolstered and his long thin arms clasped' outside tha' coverlid. Mark was as wide awake, as full cf ideas and as talkative, aroused from slumber at 11 in the morning, as he is later in the day when he presides over a family feast. And to more than one person it has been a wonder how-he wakes up so lively, so full of wit. so keen as If he had been sharpening his Eenses overnight br had drunk wine that moment. Fortune changes, like the tide? rind somehow, though ho one predicted ihet It would be so, the fortunes of Mark Twain changed; and he has found him- his feet again.

It Is sompthlng like a vear nrn that hnainpss frietirl tnnaunced that Mr. Clemen had paid! qn -every cmt of his Indebtedness, ami Was coihlng money, this time by leetuf-ing and writing, as before, but withodt engineering the financial bark htmselfv He is making money and is a rich man again. 1 The people of the United States' hav never felt that it was right for Mark Twain to take himself away from the land which had given him so'irtticff and which was so fond of arid for some time his many friends have been urging him to come back. This he. has at last decided to do and Lawrenc? Hutton, his most intimate friend, announced a few days ago that Mr.

Clemens would be back In this country before November. He Is to live at Princeton Inn, and should he feel like writing he will find a new fund of humor in the student life of the college. Truly, "Mark Twain is on: his' feet again." SOLDIER so frantically is heard far up and dotyn the river or to the farthest Umitg or. the poi.d. Almost before the hunter' is ready to receive his prey a black, ugly head appears on the the black, deadly eyes moving slowly from side to side, as if searchihg for the vociferous infant.

Up to this time he has been moving slowly, but as soon as he catches sight of the tempting morsel on the shore he increase "his speed until he is moving very rapidly toward the spot where the infant Is raising' his voice in loud lamentations. It is tl.is moment that tries the nerve of the hunter. The alligator has eyes only, for the screaming and kicking child, and the hunter realties how: Important Is the position in which he has placed A hliss Would mean death for tho, "caby but, It Is pleasing to record the fact, such mlsse aresel-domjnade. On the other hand,) soma of the. hunters are such crack shots that they allow the monster to come within a few feet of his prey before they send the single shot that causes instant death, directly Into his eye.

Some of the babies that are rented hut as bait in the alligator rftglona- of Florida have been "shot over'; so'many times that they do not mind the experience, but when a child has -never baited a 'gator before it is pretty thoroughly frightened when the ordeal is oyer. As a rule, however, the sound of the firearms scares the baby worse than the presence of tho monstrous Jaws and the rows of sharp and glistening teeth, but with gentle handling after the alligator has been killed the youngster quickly recovers his normal condition of careless repose. PRAISES GP FAME. AND GENERATIONS TO COME WILL SING THE fjt niR! rlo-lil' Vn'. S-l5 JS i 11 CORNELIUS? VANDERBILT ON HPW TO TREAT LABORING MEN.

ehs house, to be met by Mark In under-elothcj and. fur overcoat, a costume much affected by him when at leisure In his own house, to be ushered into the library to write. Here Mark would insist that Bret Harte take the desk! "Where will you write?" Harte would ask. HARTE AND TWAIN. "Upon a barrel," Twain would promptly reply; and sure enough from a corner he would roll out a sugar barrel and upon the head of the barrel he would write, and no other place.

Well, the play never was written. Day after day the two famous old wrijei would meet and get to chatting and smoking. There were so many points of interest In common, throughout the world; so many charm -tng books to be discussed; so many HUNT WITH THE Those who are, up In crocodll-s lore are well acquainted With the fact that in Asia and Africa babies are rented for belt to crocodile but there are few, Unless they have had' the actual experience, who would believe that a similar practice was in vogue In the south of Florida. It Is a fact, however, as any experienced hunter will attest. Ths alligator Is like the crocodle tn this respect.

He like to eat babies, not his own awkward offspring, but nice babies, fat and dimpled. To obtain such a delicacy for his palate an WHI travel far and risk much. This fact is so Well known that it has become the. practice for alligator or crocodile hunter to use babies as bait to lure the reptiles to death. A nice, fat baby Is rented for the occasion from the cracker mother to whom a half dollar is ample recompense for the Hsk that her child Is to run.

The baby Is then taken to the shore of some pond or river, where It is attached to a stake by means of a stout enrd that has been tied around Its waist, while the hunter conceals himself in the brushes or swamp grass near the place. This method of treatment is usually too much for even the self possession of a cracker baby, He Is used to being neglected and even Ill-treated, but being tethered to a stake and then left alone is rather more than he Is willing to stand, and he voices his Indignation to the full extent el his lungs. CALLING THE ANiMAL. This Is Just the part that he' is ex pected to play in the game of alligator! hunting. His voicing of, hli emotions 3 ttf oil i'-Tal-Wnh 'tbeLatt-Milliona A COUNTRY BOY.

when Bamuel tt Clemens started Mbii- thi roadway of life it was as ft little ehao lh Missouri. The town oi Florida was hot a metropolis in 1835, abd. little Bant hat. A Country boyhood. At the are of thirteen he found himself apprenticed to a printer In Hannibal; and then he began upon the work which he has followed all his life.

Fot half a century he has at the type," as Charles Dickens once" Said, without Intermission, While working as a printer young Clfeftiena found it tiecesafv to divert himeif, a it vtm, fiftancia'ity. At one time he was a pilot on the Mississippi, a period which he has portrayed in "Old Times on the Mississippi." His first real prosperity came when his brother vas appointed Territorial Secretary to Nevada, and he became the private secretary of his brother. Then was the editor of a paper in Virginia City, a sheet which did not nay too richly; and So he 'alternated betrtsen editing and mining, until finally finding a gold mine In the nib of his peri, he. laid aside the pick forever and from thence forward devoted himself to. digging niohey out of the ink bottle With th aid of a (pen.

Irt 1866 h.e made a then remarkable journey to Hawaii and from that Island he wrote letters hoffie that Were famous for their humor. At the hge df thirty-bne he found himself almost the only humorous writer for the newspapers of America, and adopting the name of "Mark Twain" he continued sending the letter and, making" them funnier and funnier. He enjoyed writing them, and the publie enjoyed reading them; and there was money tn It. HIS FIRST SUCCESS. iK trip through France, Germany, Italy, end raleBtlna furnished the material for" "The Innocents Abr5d." and When the-; wag done the inhabitants of those eeuntrles clamored so fcrudfy for a chahce to read It that It was speedily translated Into their tongues and Into Russian, Danish and Japanese, as well.

Af tr his return, to America Twain was so popular that a lecture tour was planned those who attended the lectures twenty years'ago will remember Mark Twain and his readings from l)ls own works, it was estimated that he cleared. Jn those days, upwards of fifty thousand a year from his royalties and the lecture platform. Mark Twain's lamentable business disasters came early In the eighties. He started a book publishing firm, believing that authors should get larger AN ALLIGATOR i nt Tlfelment de- dared the other day that nothing kept the troops anve, wnue -t all inatnr hunting. AO- cording to his tell, the sport of shoot ing ap alligator the graceful deer or Wnta 117 iM A link.

STiorts- OOWu tile "7- men who had hunted the great reptile would oe sauaHiau less exciting. The fact that scientists' Insist that both the alligator and the crocodile are slowly but surely disappearing from .1.. ihth rr that hV th middle of tha next century taan will have an opportunity 10. eepiure men cwnyieie ttAtciiiuim.iu. study of this wonderful beast particu larly interesting, in Bpue oi an may be said iney iook jusi iui are, creatures oi prenisionij umei, when the earth was inhabited by monsters, strangely forgotten.

and left In the' passage of the centuries. havft infested the Nile down to the Mediterranean. A uaunsn pugnm oi mfo a whnii dlarv has been pre served, states that horses end oxen were irenuwm uc.y-.-- rr A hundred years ago, ren, they were 1 In the TIGichDOrtlOOu "Of oVIH 1 1 11 I 1 in Mil 1- in. JIUL uiivwi.ii" Cairo; but to-day ine signs 01 ,1 1 mil tm WIH111I11LU11 Travellers who pass up the Nile' now seldom see a crocodile, ine iaci is that they are Beasts who have nothing in common with civilisation and that ventlomi hare appeared I they nn red or tneir own nr --v pose In more, quiet spt. Further south they have gone anu man ('" lowed thern they have retreated so It Is safe to sy that It will be many vears before they Will etase to exist al- The same rule applies tn the alligator and the single species of crocodile that i india-pnoua to Florida.

Years aeo they were very plentiful and were multiplying rapidly, but aa the State has become populated their number has dew creased. Many have been killed, of course; but this will not ftocovlnt for the remarkable dedlln In the population. it (ci but annther ntnrv nf.the experience In Africa told over again. At the coming of man and the accompanying steamboat they have retreated and within half tt century they will probably entirely disappeared. TUB MASCOTS.

In spite of this, howevei there are Still many alligators In the South Just as there are crocodiles in Africa if one sets out to find them. Durihg the War with Spain, whn the United States troops were encamped In Florida there Were several exciting experience with these brutes. At one time a soldier whd wa in swimming found hlmheif face to With an alligator. The brute's hiouth Was open and it was only by most fortunate circumstances that hi escaped being by tha brute. 1 On another" Oceanian the' member of the 71st Regiment of New Ywk found one embedded In' the sand, where he had gone to spend the The saurian was speedily captured and was adopted fcs the macot of the regiment, but when, a few week Ikter.

he wandered ihto One of the tents aftJ started to attack an offleef, he was upeediiy dispatched by a bullet. The skin was preserved, however, and was carried as a mapeot all through th Santiago campaign1. itli fin Terrible illness oi two ear i ears. -i- ,1 1 COLUMBIA'S TABLET OF TIG HERO WHO IS TO-DAY dat Before he was Stricken Vbeople said that I would have to stop fny, familiarity with the men after I president, but it has gone oh just th Same. If they had a grievance they ivould tell me about it before striking; if they were near enough to 'New York.

to do so." Smiling- again that slow, serious imiie, trie man of millions, held out la hanu again and passed on. Into the directors' room, A SAD MAN. he had gone I learned that bo whose money1 could purchase many ft nation of Europe was beset with cares; DEATH UA8K OF CORNELIUS VAN TAKEN HI OUR rf UPON a UPON OUR PROUD SH0RE3. that nights his lleJit burned lcie In the green library on Fifty-seventh street; and days he worked steadily and ate little. He was all ready for the stroke of paralysis which was sloVvly.

over his system. If ever a man was living exponent of the theory that paralysis Is gradual, culminating In a final severing of sensation called e. "shook," that man was Cornelius Vanderbilt that day. Even his eyes showed it; for he looked long before reoognl-ing. Of spotless character, of faultless integrity, of great Industry, hone had a harder Itfe than he.

An old friend of the faniily seated in the office that day told me liow Mr. Vanderbilt had reared four sons and two daughters, and heW sad Had been his lot. The child 6f A wealthy but penurious father, he had worked over a ledger on a small salary until some years after he became of age, then, at his father's death, he had suddenly come into unmanageable wealth. His sisters, Mrs. Mrs.

Tworably, Mrs. Sloano nd Mrs. DEHB1LT, FKOM'A riiU-fvi SfiCCIAL ARTIST. i f. fwe; property 6V his Qeorge; waa In tofi pwn little growing to him.

i Kaver had so great a ret tponsibilityj and' ha was the man As the sons grew to mathodd h4 eldest. was the most- promising. Hewa3j1jgfathes.c0nsUnt,companiOn. When he left to go to eollege Coi'nellug Vanderbilt School boy Without his chum: the poy was brought bome frond college tvith typhoid f.ver. He lived ft tfeeK.

Theh Cornelius, 3td rew upr but hs f-r-d his father never hltcholl. They things diKerentiy. fiov niahy bdys do see things differently, from thair fathers. Young cVuellus was -one, and it wasn't always his -When Cornelius left eollege he Was engaged to Miss urace Wilsoh, one of the rme Vilson family, ar.d Cornelius, the elder, did not approve, 'ine young lady had been out in society sdme years, and young Cornelius was very inexperienced. That waa ths only publia knowledge of the bails of disapproval.

That night before the stroke of paralysis Cornelius and his It cut." and after the young Wan left the library, the father. sat there stunned. That autumn, while the father fitfug-glea with death young roan married and the two, father and sort, agreed to go different ways. Who bhail say which was right? Can one blame the dead? Yet Is hot the living a worthy naff, upright, hard-working, steady! ALONE At LAST. When Cornelius Vanderbilt died the other nicnt In his mansion, the most expensive in New York, there were Only those around hihl who had been summoned from bed at midnight.

He arrived home from Newport ih the evening; at 13 the household was alaxhfed. There had been another shock from whlfch he never rallied. Rec-inairt the youngest son Was called, and Miss Gladys, a girl of sixteen, and Mrs. Vanderbilt. Alrred the elder son was Journeying around the world; Mrs.

Harry Payrie Whitney, the oldest daughter was at Newport. So, in the mansion which might hare sheltered a score vi siaiim-niiuren, ana which Was undoubtedly built for the families or all the sons and daughters, the millionaire basfled iiwav with hla children at Ms side The Writer well remembers a remark made to him by Mtv Vanderbilt some years ago. It was "Youhg man live quietly, fry to go to church; try to do your duty; walk In the right. There Is happiness there and if you do right always intelligently, the money will Don't worry, flon't quarrel and the money will I CLARENCE 8. 'RUSSELL.

r6LfiSS DOORWAYS. An unnecessary doorway 'In small apartment be made use of for books and bri-a-brac so as to be very ornamental. Place two uprights and a ftw shelves Jrws(de the door and Main- or rfathrthern the Color of the Woodwork. With brass-headed-halls Tauten-op the edges of the upper shfives a-ftamw leather trimming" sUch-Jad may be bought for the purpose. On the secotid shelf from the bottom a.

range a brass rod and hang pretty silk or cretonne curtains Upon it that will reach the floor. This will be found an excellent place to stow away old magazines and newspapers. rThe Cornelius an-drbUt, was wo. years ago last Aug-ust. He stoqfi hi: the big centre office the, Ovand Central Station pulling: aft nis gjUKea acv.preparuig to get 0 The next day theyi were strewing tan bark in front of hia nouse, mai smiou pile erected by himself at the corner or Fifth avenue ana Fifty-seventh Btreet, and the solemn butler in liveried green at the door said that Mr.

Vanderbilt Was slowly sinking. The August day was Ideal; yet the head of tho house of Vanderbilt, the owner of a hUhdred tnillldns or more, looked singularly worried. His face wao very white and he had the pinched look around the mouth that presages illness, and which always comes -with doath. If you had pinched him by the nose until it was white and bloodless, and had taken a pencil and with heavy Hnes drawn the furrows In his brow, yeu would have made his face as it was that day. Truly, thought money does not brinor Happiness! I had gone to the Grand Central to Irterview Mr.

Vanderbilt upon the subject cf strikes. There 'Were strikes in land, and workmen and people wished to know how the largest railroad employer tn the world viewed the railroad striker. A. PKRHONAli TALK. it roi With some uiificulty that I saw Mr.

Vanderbilt. for Mr. Du Val, his secretary, said he was "very busy," and another secretary came hurrying out to say that Mr. Vanderbilt would see no one. But Just as they were talking, Mr.

Vanderbilt came walking in, hurrying because he had been delayed past the hour for the direotors' meeting. He (stood facing me a mlrtute pulling off tiia gloves with a slow, wondering look In his face, as though he did not understand. Then he held out his hand and said In that very low tone characteristic of him: "How do you de? Oiad to see you. Can I do anything for you?" "Only an interview," I said, "I want yur opinion on strikes." Ji. weary look pased over the face of tUe millionaire as though he were taking up a vexatious subject.

"You know I do not talk for print," said he. "Y9, I know. But you will talk for your employees. What would you do If they were to 1 don't think said quietly. "In fact I am sure they will not.

Yitt see "ws differently aliu-ated. We give the men what' they want: hey gt short bonrS godd Vat and fthe treatment, That m4ks man out of a 'workman. They Would not strike; or at least, -bqf ore ddlngr-so. thy would see "I da not r----i Mr. Vanderbilt smiled his smooth smile.

"Maybe not," said he, "but yon haven't grown up en ha, road I hare. When I was a young fellow he men got In the habit of telllnnr hie their troubles and when I became a Diddle aged man they kept it up. Some BOLDIERS CAPTURING A BTO At LIGATOR WHICH ttEPT AJ3 A MASCOT.