A Letter From Mark Twain.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 362, 24 April 1889, Page 6

A Letter From Mark Twain.

The following letter to ai\ English contemporary refers to an article whick was printed on 18th January, under the heading " Mark Twain as an Inventor," the invention attributed to him being a type-set-ting machine: — To the Editor. But you do me quite too much honour I I did not invent that type-setting machine. In my letter to my English friend I did speak of it as ' my ' machine, and of course that ia what misled him. When I own part of a piece of property I always speak of it as 'mine.' This is merely for grandeur. I ignore the other proprietors. On the same principle, I always speak of America as my country. It is a misleading expression. Some think I own it all, others think I invented it. These are errors, but they do no particular hharkm k and I allow them to pass. But in the case ot this machine ib doesn't seem quite fair to left it pass. Mr J. W. Rni«>3 invented it, and has spent 18 toilsome years upon it. It was promising to place him at the head of the world's procession of inventors, when all of a sudden I seem to step in and claim his miracle as my performance ! Indeed you would not like that yourself ; nobody would. No, no, I must beg you to take back that great compliment which you have paid me ; it is not deserved. I have built this machine at my private expense, and have been three formidable years at it. I do claim a good deal of credit for that — 1 don't know any particular reason why, yet)I do — but I stop there. Mark Twain. Hartford, U.S., 23th Jan. ( A correspondent (says the * Pall Mali' Gazette ') learns that the marvellous ma-r chine which is to revolutionize the printing world is not yet completed, and the,, wondrous achievments mentioned in a previous article were, so to speak, nothing by t t a preliminary canter. The machine is said to be ' finished '< only in the sense tb?,t its parts and functions are proven, and t'ne inventor claims that all doubts of ccmplete ultimate success are dispelled. T here remain now a number of adjustments to be made, and then, if the report be r/erifr /er ifi e( j b y results, the great majority of compositors can put on their coats, fox* thf ,\v ' frames ' will know them no more. Mark Twain is, or has been, a practical printer ; he has 'worked afc the case,' and knows all the details of the craft. He cannot, therefore, have been misled' by an en thusiastic inventor; and it is not at all likely that he would devote three years of his life and many thousands of pounds to the development of an invention unless his technical knowledge had convinced., him that the machine would ultimately prove successful. y *" uvt? H™ til pro ,^ bl y be *<>me considerable kme before this phenomenal type-setting machine sees the light. «We cari afford f? pondenfc; 'there is no hurry; there is nocompetition; no competition is

A philosophical Kansas man remarks . It is nob the drinking that hurts a mm > ' it is the dunking between drinks " '

house that lie knew of. Hit* mother never kept an % \ medicines in the house to his knowledge. Only a very little of the S( . Jacob's oil referred to was used to rub on his mother's chest. This w.is the most severe attack of cramp he had seen his inotherha\e,buthedid not suppose her life was in danger. MrsNowill, wiieof thepioprietor of tho Waihi Hotel, was the next witness called, and in the course of her evidence said : I was sentfor abouthalf -past seven onFiiday morning by Earnest Hutton, a son of deceased, who said histnothei was very ill, and asked me to come to her. lat once went to see Mrs Ilatton, and found her lying at home in bed very ill, and complaining of being in great pain in her stomach. I applied hot flannels, and gave her some hot milk and water to drink which socmed to give her great relief ; but "~he soon began to complain of the pain again. In reply to my enquiry as to what had brought on this illne-s, she told me she hnd done a lot of wishing tho previous day, h id pot her clothes very wet (passing her hand acnvs her stomach as s-he spoke), had neglected to change her wet flannels, and attributed hei illness to thi^ wettingand the neglect in not changing her wet clothes. About "unch time she complained of pains in h<M- bend a'eo. and said s.hr> felt very bid and thought she would not get over this illness. She askr-d me fora tablespoonfnl of castor oil, w hicli I <ra\ c her in somn hot milk and water, but she soon afterwards tin ew it off her stomach. She asked me to put some cold bandages to her head, also to tnm her on her hack and rub her back with my hand a^ the pun seemed to have gone light thiough to her back. I did as she requested ; and she seemed a little relieved theieby. She next com plained of her breath getting short; although I did not observe she had any difficulty in breathing ; but her hands felt vuit cold and I bathed them with hot water. Shoitly befoie two o'clock in the afternoon I asked a miner named Lewis Lewis who was passins: to come in and see her, and tell me what he thought of her condition. He did so and said to me Mrs Hatton WuS dying. She was lying very still at the time with her eyes closed, and I thought she was was dozing. A Mrs Jackson, a friend of deceased, came in about this timeandalso said she thought Mrs Hatton was dying. When J first went to Mrs Hattor. on the Friday morning, and she told me how very wet her clothes had got, and of neglecting to change I considered that naturally accounted for her illness ; and Mrs Hatton told me she blamed this alone for her illness. I am aware she slipped off her horse on Monday when near Waihi, returning from Paeio.i ; but she was not hurt by the fall, and I asked her when she was ill if the fall fiom her hor^e had anything to do with it, and she replied no. Duiinc all the time I was with her she onl} T retched one 1 , and that was whf»n she threw off the cantor oil, and she never complained to me of having retched at all previously. So far as I know she had no medicines or drugs in tho hou>e, nor had sho tak^n any. Hairy CJordon denoted to seeing Mrs Hatton fall off her hnr&e on the previous Mond-iy aft moon near Waihi, when letinning home. Ho went to assist her to mount her hoise again, but observing the saddle she was iidi"g was a very old one with one pommel biouen, which made it a bad one to ride on, he advised hei to get up in a trip (which was passing at the time), and lide the rest of the way home, which she did. She did not seem at a'l hurt b} the f all, and in reply to bis enquiry eaid she was not hurt. Alfied J imes Mitchell, police constable, stationed at Paeroa, deposed lie had nvtde every enquiiy with respect to the death of deceased, and bad not the sli^hte'-t ground for believing that it was due to other than natural cau^e-*. The Juiy without retiring weie unanimous in returning a verdict to the effect that deceased died from natural causes, Deceased was buried the same afternoon in Paeroa Cemetery ; Key. Father Keo«h officiating ; the funeral being very largely attended. Mr Henry Dance, who resides nt Waitekauri, is a son of deceased ; who lived with four other sons, viz., Henry and Aithur Dance, and John and Plainest Hatton.