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08 - Mark Twain; his life and work. A biographical sketch by William M. Clemens · Mark Twain; his life and work. A biographical sketch

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Speaker 1: This is chapter eight of Mark Twain, His Life and Work,
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Speaker 1: a biographical sketch by William M. Clemens, read by John Greenman.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter eight
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Speaker 1: his later works. On September third, eighteen seventy nine, mister
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Speaker 1: Clemens and his family arrived in New York on the
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Speaker 1: steamship Galbeer, having been abroad for a period of sixteen months.
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Speaker 1: There said Mark to a friend as the ship left
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Speaker 1: quarantine and began her journey up the bay. The danger
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Speaker 1: is finally past when the ship begins to roll sideways
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Speaker 1: and kick up behind. At the same time, I always
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Speaker 1: know I am expected to perform a certain duty. I
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Speaker 1: learned it years ago on the Quaker city. You might
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Speaker 1: suppose that I would have forgotten my part after so
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Speaker 1: long a residence on shore, But there it is again,
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Speaker 1: its habit. Everything connected with the sea comes down to
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Speaker 1: a matter of habit. You might confine me for forty
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Speaker 1: years in a Rhode Island corn patch, and at the
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Speaker 1: end of that time, I'd know just as well what
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Speaker 1: to do when a ship begins to kick as I
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Speaker 1: do at this moment. The darkest night never confuses me
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Speaker 1: in the least It's a little singular when you look
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Speaker 1: at it, isn't it. But I presume it's attributable to
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Speaker 1: the solemn steadfastness of the Great Deep. As a conscientious
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Speaker 1: Republican in his political pres references, mister Clemens took an
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Speaker 1: active interest in the presidential campaign of eighteen eighty. While
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Speaker 1: visiting in Elmira, New York, in the fall of that year,
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Speaker 1: he made a short speech one Saturday night introducing to
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Speaker 1: a Republican meeting General Hawley of Connecticut. In the course
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Speaker 1: of his remarks, mister Clements said, General Hawley is a
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Speaker 1: member of my church at Hartford, and the author of
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Speaker 1: beautiful Snow. Maybe he will deny that, but I am
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Speaker 1: only here to give him a character from his last
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Speaker 1: place as a pure citizen. I respect him as a
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Speaker 1: personal friend of years. I have the warmest regard for
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Speaker 1: him as a neighbor whose vegetable garden adjoins mine. Why
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Speaker 1: why I watch him as the author of beautiful snow?
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Speaker 1: He has added a new pang to winter. He is
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Speaker 1: a square true man in honest politics. And I must
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Speaker 1: say he occupies a mighty lonesome position. So broad, so
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Speaker 1: bountiful is his character that he never turned a tramp
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Speaker 1: empty handed from his door, but always gave him a
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Speaker 1: letter of introduction to me. Pure, honest, incorruptible. That is
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Speaker 1: Joe Hawley. Such a man in politics is like a
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Speaker 1: bottle of perfumery in a glue factory. It may modify
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Speaker 1: the stench, but it doesn't destroy it. I haven't said
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Speaker 1: any more of him than I would say of myself.
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Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, this is General Hawley. In November eighteen
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Speaker 1: eighty a charity fair was in progress in Buffalo, and
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Speaker 1: during its course a small journal called The Bizarre Bulletin
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Speaker 1: was published. In one number of this paper appeared a
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Speaker 1: contribution from the pen of Mark Twain entitled A Tale
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Speaker 1: for Struggling Young Poets. Well, Sir, there was a young
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Speaker 1: fellow who believed that he was a poet, But the
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Speaker 1: main difficulty with him was to get anybody else to
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Speaker 1: believe it. Many and many a poet has split on
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Speaker 1: that rock. If it is a rock, many and many
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Speaker 1: a poet will split on it, Thank you God. The
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Speaker 1: young fellow I speak of used all the customary devices,
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Speaker 1: and with the customary results to it. He competed for
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Speaker 1: prizes and didn't take any He sent specimens of poetry
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Speaker 1: to famous people and asked for a candid opinion, meaning
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Speaker 1: a puff, and didn't get it. He took advantage of
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Speaker 1: dead persons and obituaried them inostensible poetry, but it made
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Speaker 1: him no friends, certainly none among the dead. But at
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Speaker 1: last he heard of another chance. There was going to
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Speaker 1: be affair in Buffalo, accompanied by the usual in offensive paper,
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Speaker 1: and the editor of that paper offered a prize of
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Speaker 1: ten dollars for the best original poem on the usual
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Speaker 1: topic of spring. No poem to be considered unless it
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Speaker 1: should possess positive value. Well, sir, he shook up his muse.
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Speaker 1: He introduced into her a rousing charge of information from
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Speaker 1: his jug, and then sat down and dashed off the
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Speaker 1: following madrigal, just as easy as lying. Hail beauteous gladsome Spring,
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Speaker 1: A poem by S. L. Clemens, Number one thousand, one
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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three, Hartford, Connecticut, November seventeenth, George P.
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Speaker 1: Bissell and Company, Banker's pay to missus David Gray, or
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Speaker 1: order for f ten dollars household account s. L. Clemens.
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Speaker 1: Did he take the prize? Yes, he took the prize.
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Speaker 1: The poem and its title didn't seem to go together
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Speaker 1: very well. But no matter, that sort of thing has
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Speaker 1: happened before. It didn't rhyme, neither was it blank verse,
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Speaker 1: for the blanks were all filled. Yet it took the prize.
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Speaker 1: For this reason, no other poem offered was really worth
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Speaker 1: more than four dollars and fifty cents, whereas there was
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Speaker 1: no getting around the petrified fact that this one was
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Speaker 1: worth ten dollars. In truth, there was not a banker
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Speaker 1: in the whole town who was willing to invest a
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Speaker 1: cent in those other poems. But every one of them
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Speaker 1: said this one was good, sound, seaworthy poetry, and worth
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Speaker 1: its face. Such is the way in which that struggling
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Speaker 1: young poet achieved recognition at last and got a start
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Speaker 1: along the road that leads to lyric eminence, whatever that
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Speaker 1: may mean. Therefore, let other struggling young poets be encouraged
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Speaker 1: by this to go striving. Mark Twain. Not long after this,
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Speaker 1: mister Clemens acted as an auctioneer at the last sale
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Speaker 1: at a bazaar or fair held in Hartford. In opening
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Speaker 1: the sale, he said, well, now, after a week of
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Speaker 1: work by these ladies, who have handled an immense amount
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Speaker 1: of money without putting a penny into their private pockets.
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Speaker 1: I their mere clerk propose as clerk's will sometimes to
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Speaker 1: knock down something. It was at this time that the
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Speaker 1: humorist wrote a letter to a friend in Tennessee expressing
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Speaker 1: his admiration for Artemis Ward, as follows, Dear Sir, one
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Speaker 1: of the first questions which Londoners ask me is whether
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Speaker 1: I knew Artemis Ward. The answer yes makes them my
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Speaker 1: friends on the spot. Artemis seems to have been on
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Speaker 1: the warmest terms with thousands of those people. Well, he
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Speaker 1: seems never to have written a harsh thing against anybody.
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Speaker 1: Would neither have I, for that matter, at least nothing
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Speaker 1: harsh enough for a body to fret about. And I
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Speaker 1: think he never felt bitter toward people. There may have
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Speaker 1: been three or four other people like that in the
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Speaker 1: world at one time or another, but they probably died
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Speaker 1: a good while ago. I think his lecture on the
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Speaker 1: Babes in the Woods was the funniest thing I ever
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Speaker 1: listened to. Artemis once said to me, gravely, almost sadly, Clemmons,
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Speaker 1: I have done too much fooling, too much trifling. I
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Speaker 1: am going to write something that will live well. What
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Speaker 1: for instance, in the same grave way he said, A'll lie,
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Speaker 1: it was an admirable surprise. I was just getting ready
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Speaker 1: to cry. He was becoming pathetic. Yours truly, S. L. Clemens.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty two, mister Clemens wrote The Stolen White Elephant,
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Speaker 1: and the same year visited Bermuda. The following winter, James R.
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Speaker 1: Osgood and Company of Boston issued The Stolen White Elephant,
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Speaker 1: with which were incorporated some rambling notes of an Idle Excursion,
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Speaker 1: Punch Brother Punch, and other sketches. About this time, the
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Speaker 1: humorist was asked to contribute to the Bartholdy Pedestal Fund.
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Speaker 1: Here was his response. You know my weakness for Adam,
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Speaker 1: and you know how I have struggled to get him
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Speaker 1: a monument and failed. Now it seems to me here
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Speaker 1: is my chance. What do we care for a statue
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Speaker 1: of liberty when we've got the thing itself in its
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Speaker 1: wildest sublimity. What you want of a monument is to
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Speaker 1: keep you in mind of something you haven't got, something
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Speaker 1: you've lost. Very well, we haven't lost liberty, We've lost Adam. Well,
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Speaker 1: look at Adam. What have we done for Adam? What
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Speaker 1: has Adam done? For us. He gave us life, he
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Speaker 1: gave us death, he gave us heaven, he gave us hell.
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Speaker 1: With trifling alteration, this present statue will answer very well
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Speaker 1: for Adam. You can turn that blanket into an ulster,
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Speaker 1: part the hair on one side, or conceal the sex
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Speaker 1: of his head with a fire helmet, and at once
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Speaker 1: he's a man. Put a harp and a halo and
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Speaker 1: a palm branch in the left hand to symbolize a
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Speaker 1: part of what Adam did for us, and leave the
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Speaker 1: fire basket just where it is to symbolize the rest,
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Speaker 1: my friends, The father of life and death and taxes
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Speaker 1: has been neglected long enough. Is it but a question
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Speaker 1: of finance. Behold the enclosed paid bank checks. Use them
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Speaker 1: as freely as they are freely contributed. Heaven knows I
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Speaker 1: would there were a ton of them, I would send
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Speaker 1: them all to you, for my heart is in this
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Speaker 1: sublime work. S. L. C. In a eighteen eighty two
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Speaker 1: While Mark Twain was collecting retrospective material for his life
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Speaker 1: on the Mississippi, he stopped one day at Arkansas City.
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Speaker 1: He had years before known the place as Campbell's Bend,
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Speaker 1: and naturally had a desire to poke about unattended by
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Speaker 1: persons who would be likely to break in upon his musings. So,
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Speaker 1: avoiding the committee that had been appointed to receive him,
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Speaker 1: he wandered off into the woods. He thought nothing of
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Speaker 1: the distance he was traversing. There was music among the
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Speaker 1: tree tops, and flowers rich in deep coloring perfumed the air.
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Speaker 1: After a long walk, he came to a cabin, and,
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Speaker 1: upon entering, found an old and tangled bearded man sitting
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Speaker 1: near the empty fireplace. The old fellow glanced at Twain,
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Speaker 1: and then, springing between the visitor and the door, snatched
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Speaker 1: down a gun, cocked it and said, so I've got
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Speaker 1: you have I I don't understand you. Twain gasped, Oh no,
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Speaker 1: I reckon not here. Man never understands a thing when
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Speaker 1: you don't water. I didn't stop your steamboat down yonder
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Speaker 1: below the Bend the other day and steals sixty sheep
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Speaker 1: that belonged to me, did you? I will swear upon
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Speaker 1: the honor of a gentleman that I did not. I
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Speaker 1: haven't been in this neighborhood before in twenty years. Sit down,
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Speaker 1: bar Twain obeyed. The old man continued. It would have
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Speaker 1: been have been a good while since you was here
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Speaker 1: before the other day, but you got here just in
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Speaker 1: time to steal them sheep. And I'm going to have
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Speaker 1: your scalp. Hear me, my dear sir, you are laboring
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Speaker 1: under a frightful mistake. I never owned a sheep in
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Speaker 1: my life. No, I don't reckon you ever did own
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Speaker 1: one in mine that nobody else ain't have to own,
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Speaker 1: marry one or where you hang out. Yes, I'll come
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Speaker 1: right here and tuck my sheep. And her mom was
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Speaker 1: her pet lamb that my little granddaughter loves better and
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Speaker 1: she does her life and she ain't slept her wink
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Speaker 1: since for crying about it. Oh, you needn't blink, for
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Speaker 1: I am going to hold you here till my little
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Speaker 1: gal comes, and then I'm going to blow your head off.
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Speaker 1: It won't be long before she comes. And if you've
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Speaker 1: got any prize that you reckon ought to be sad,
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Speaker 1: why you better saying that's all? My dear sir, don't
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Speaker 1: hear sir me. I've got you and I'm going to
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Speaker 1: use you. But how do you know that I stole
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Speaker 1: your sheep? You know how I know it? You know
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Speaker 1: that just as soon as you see her becoming. You
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Speaker 1: shoved off, and moh that you know that? When I
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Speaker 1: jumped in the canoe and started to paddle out out here,
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Speaker 1: why you shot at me? You know all that? Well enough,
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Speaker 1: merciful heavens, Twain exclaimed, Yes, I as that's about what
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Speaker 1: I allowed. But the boat puffed on away. A stick
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Speaker 1: snapped outside, Great heavens, Twain thought, is the girl coming? No,
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Speaker 1: it was only a calf. The expression on the old
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Speaker 1: fellow's face grew harder. There was a cruel twitching about
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Speaker 1: the corners of his mouth. Oh don't you fret she'll
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Speaker 1: be here directly, my friend, said Twain, with an effort
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Speaker 1: to be calm. If you will go with me over
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Speaker 1: to Arkansas City, I will prove to you that I
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Speaker 1: would not steal a sheep. I don't want no proof
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Speaker 1: that comes from that place. You'd tell a lie, and
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Speaker 1: them fellers are there would swear to it. I see
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Speaker 1: my little dal comin through yonder as I said, just now,
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Speaker 1: have you got any pars you want? Said I reckon,
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Speaker 1: you'd better say him. Would you commit murder? Would you
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Speaker 1: steal a sheep? Surely not? Ah ha, And surely I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't be committing murder by killing such a fellers. You
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Speaker 1: er don't move now, for if you do, I'll drop you.
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Speaker 1: Come quick down before the gal comes. Tell me if
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Speaker 1: you know who did steal them sheep, that is, if
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Speaker 1: you didn't, I think I do. Twain quickly rejoined, and then,
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Speaker 1: remembering the name of a steamboat engineer whom he'd known
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Speaker 1: before the war, he added, Joe Billings stole your sheep.
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Speaker 1: The old fellow looked sharply at him and replied, are
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Speaker 1: you sure. I am certain? Was you on his boat
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Speaker 1: at the time, Yes, and tried to keep him from
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Speaker 1: stealing them, but could not be help me find him. Yes, well,
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Speaker 1: then scoot quick before the gal comes. When Twain reached
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Speaker 1: Arkansas City, he found a perplexed and disappointed committee. He
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Speaker 1: was nervous and depressed. While he was standing in the
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Speaker 1: office of the hotel, someone said, mister Clements, you used
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Speaker 1: to know Joe Billings, didn't you. Twain felt an uneasiness
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Speaker 1: crawling over him. Yes, he replied, there he is. Twain
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Speaker 1: looked around and started. The old fellow who had held
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Speaker 1: him in the cabin, came forward, snorted, and then said, Sam,
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Speaker 1: I are a shot you for not knowing me, but
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Speaker 1: I reckon I've changed some sheep. I never had won
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Speaker 1: my life, Come fellows. Here's to Sam and his ability
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Speaker 1: to steal hedge on the truth. Life on the Mississippi
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Speaker 1: appeared in eighteen eighty three. It was a volume of
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Speaker 1: reminiscences of his youthful days as a steamboat pilot on
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Speaker 1: the Father of Waters. This volume was followed in eighteen
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Speaker 1: eighty five by The Prince and the Pauper, which was
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Speaker 1: a remarkable performance and a surprise even to the friends
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Speaker 1: of mister Clemmons. For many years he had been a
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Speaker 1: conscientious and untiring student of language, literature, history, not merely
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Speaker 1: making up for deficiencies of early education, but laying solid
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Speaker 1: foundations and building on them a broad and liberal culture,
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Speaker 1: which made him a man of letters in the true
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Speaker 1: sense of the term. His thorough knowledge of English and
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Speaker 1: American literature is supplemented by a knowledge of that of
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Speaker 1: various other languages, of which he has acquired a thorough command.
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Speaker 1: The story of The Prince and the Pauper, for instance,
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Speaker 1: reveals somewhat the extent and fidelity of his study of
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Speaker 1: early England, and is a story that, at the beginning
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Speaker 1: of his career he could not either have thought out
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Speaker 1: or appreciated, and yet it is very distinctly marked with
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Speaker 1: his peculiar, native genius and humor. The Adventures of Huckleberry
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Speaker 1: Finn were published in eighteen eighty six. The manuscript was
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Speaker 1: completed many months before the book appeared, owing to complications
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Speaker 1: and differences with the publishers, and finally was published by
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Speaker 1: mister Clements himself. In this book, Mark Twain was at
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Speaker 1: his best. The London Athenaeum, in reviewing the work, said,
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Speaker 1: it is such a book as he and he only
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Speaker 1: could have written. It is meant for boys, but there
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Speaker 1: are few men, we should hope, who, once they take
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Speaker 1: it up, will not delight in it. It forms a
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Speaker 1: companion or sequel to Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn, as everybody knows,
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Speaker 1: is one of Tom's closest friends, and the present volume
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Speaker 1: is a record of the adventures which befell him soon
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Speaker 1: after the event which may him a person of property,
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Speaker 1: and brought Tom Sawyer's story to a becoming conclusion. They
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Speaker 1: are of the most surprising and delightful kind imaginable, and
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Speaker 1: in the course of them we fall in with a
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Speaker 1: number of types of character of singular freshness and novelty,
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Speaker 1: besides being schooled in half a dozen extraordinary dialects. We
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Speaker 1: shall content ourselves with repeating that the book is Mark
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Speaker 1: Twain at his best, and remarking that Jim and Huckleberry
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Speaker 1: are real creations and the worthy peers of the illustrious
22:35
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer later appeared a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
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Speaker 1: Court and other volumes. In all of his books there
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Speaker 1: is common sense, and love of justice, and hatred of
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Speaker 1: cant and a vein of serious earnestness, even in his
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Speaker 1: most comical writings, that will for all time make him
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Speaker 1: near to the people. As the London Daily News once
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Speaker 1: said of him, his gravity in narrating the most preposterous tale,
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Speaker 1: his sympathy with every one of his absurdest characters, his
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Speaker 1: microscopic imagination, his vein of seriousness, his contrasts of pathos,
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Speaker 1: his bursts of indignant plains speaking about certain national errors,
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Speaker 1: make Mark Twain an author of the highest merit, and
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Speaker 1: far remote from the mere buffoon. End of Chapter eight,
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Speaker 1: read by John Greenman,