The Boys Life Of Mark Twain.

This is a story of a boy, born in the humblest surroundings, reared almost without schooling and amid conditions such as today have no existence, yet who lived to achieve a world-wide fame; to attain honorary degrees from the greatest universities of America and Europe; to be sought by statemen and kings; to be loved and honored by all men in all lands, and mourned by them when he died, It is the story of one of the world's very great men--the story of Mark Twain.

A long time ago in the early years of another century, the year was 1835 and Mark Twain's arrival into the world on the tail of "Halley's Comet", in Florida, Missouri, the fifth surviving child of father John and mother Jane. At this time the children were; Orion, Pamela, Margaret, Henry and Sam (as we know him-Mark Twain), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

He made it a habit of running away, usually toward the river. "You gave me more uneasiness than any child I had," his mother once said to him, in her old age. Mark Twain used to say that he had had nine narrow escapes from drowning. His mother started him in school at the age of five. He never liked school he said to be shut up with a Webster spelling book and a cross teacher was more than human nature could bear, he did learn somhow, for he could read, presently, and was a good speller for his age.

His father was a lawyer, a man of education, but a dreamer, full of schemes that usually failed. Now at nine years old "Sam" as his family referred to him, was "grown up" and wise for his years. Not that he was old in spirit or manner-he was never that, even to his death, but learned a great many things, many of them of a kind not taught at school. He had learned a good deal of natural history and botany, his books bear evidence of this early study.

In his home town of Hannibal there was many violent acts of murder, which he witnessed most of them, these early things were evident in his books and formed a large portion of the author's early education. Sam's days were not all disturbed by fierce events, they mostly filled with pleasanter things. He loved to watch the steamers pass by, he reflected once, "to a boy in those day's, shut in as we were, to see those steam boats pass up and down the Mississippi River and never take a trip on them." One day he slipped aboard and crept under one of the boats on deck, he came out to view the river, it started to rain and he slipped back under the boat, but his legs were sticking out, he was caught and set to shore at the next stop.

His adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain says, "most of the adventures recorded in this book really occured," and he tells us that Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, actuall being a composite of three boys whom Mark Twain had known. The three boy's were himself, John Briggs and Will Bowen. Almost all Mark Twain's books are drawn from life, accumulated from his early life on up to his last books.

When Sam decided he woul go out into the world, his mother made him renew his promise to her not to drink and play cards. Sam first worked as a printer and wrote many articles for magazines. His journey would take him back to the river boat, it started when Horace Bixby pilot of the Paul Jones ask him if he would like to lern the river, in those day's pilots were allowed to carry learners. In the early day's, to be a pilot was to be "greater than a king."

War was breaking out among the states and it was not safe to be on the river. He said he was not willing to get up into a glass perch and be shot at by either side, he said, I'll go home and reflect. When he arrived at Hannible he decided , like Lee he would go with his State. Sam was a Lieutenant in the army and he devveloped a very severe boil, he had sprained his ankle and it was swelled badly. He had a high fever and was put to bed, so the army left him there, presently the army disbanded and he did not enlist again.

In 1863 he started writing for a newspaper, at this time he chose Mark Twain, which he took from a Capt. Sellers who had just died and who had signed himself "Mark Twain." This is the name he chose for his articles, it is an old river term, a leadsman's call, signifying two fathoms-twelve feet. The name Mark Twain was first signed to a Carson letter, February 2, 1863, and after that to all of Samuel Clemen's work.

We know of the books he wrote such as; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Gilded Age, The Prince and The Pauper, and many others. He met his wife Olivia Langdon at St Nicholas Hotel in New York, they were engaged February 4, 1869 and they were married in 1870. Olivia's father gave them a home, furnished, in Buffalo, New York, her father dies right after their marriage. Their son Langdon born 1871, second child, Susy in 1872 and son Langdon dies of diphteria and a cold. 1874 a daufhter Clara born, in 1880 another daughter Jean. In 1896 his daughter Susy died of meningitis. Feb. 2. 1903 is 33rd wedding anniversary, Olivia very ill, they sailed for Italy and Olivia dies there. His daughter Clara marries Ossip Gabrilowitsch a pianist. His daughter Jean dies, she had epilepsy, she died from a cold.

On Thursday evening April 14, 1910 we carried him up to his room, he lived a week from that day and hour. We did not know it then, but the mysterious messenger of his birth year, Halley's comet, became visible that night in the sky. Mark Twain died April 21, 1910 in Redding Connecticut of angina pectoris. The noble head turned a little to one side, there was a fluttering sigh, and the breath that had been unceasing for seventy four tumultuous years had stopped forever. The worn out body had reached it's journey's end; but his spirit had never grown old, and today still young it continues to cheer and comfort a tired world.
Wrote By: Albert Bigelow Paine