MARK TWAIN AND HIS DAUGHTER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 448, 16 March 1912, Page 7

MARK TWAIN AND HIS DAUGHTER.

Not very long ago Mark Twain contributed his autobiography to one of the American monthlies. In one instalment Mark is concerned with his little daughter Susy's biography. The biography was begun in 1885, when Mark Twain was in the fiftieth year of his age and Susy was just entering the fourteenth of hers. The biography was done in her bedroom at night, and kept in hiding but one day it was filched and read. The story commences : "We a re a very happy family. We consist of papa, mamma, Jean, Clara, and me. It is papa lam writing about, and I have no troubld in not knowing what to say about him, as he is a very striking character." "The spelling," said Mark, "was frequently desperate, but it was Susy's a nd it shall stand. I love it, and cannot profane it. To me it is ?old." Another extract is in these word 3 : "Papa has a very good figure—in short, he is an extrodinarily finelooking man. All his features are perfect, except that he hasn't extraordinary teeth. His complexion is very fair, and he doesn't ware a beard. He is a very good man, and a very funny one. He has got a temper, but we all of us have in :his family. He is the loveliest man I ever saw or ever hope to see—and oh, so absent-minded. He does tell perfectly delightful stories. Clara and I used to sit on each arm of his chair and listen while he told us stories about the pictures on the wall." "Papa," the little biographer adds 'uses very strong language, but I lave an idea not nearly so strong is when he first married mamma."