Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13, 1895. MARK TWAIN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5180, 13 November 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13, 1895. MARK TWAIN.

) Tin: inimiiible " Mark Twain" is now in Non Zealand, and lias apparently accomplished the proverbial surgical operation by making the » Scotchmen of Dunedin understand lii.s peculiar humour. Since the death of "Artcmus Ward," and we may say also of "Charles Dickons," Mark J. wain lakes rank as the first humourist of the English-speaking races of the Globe. In his old age he lws possibly gone oil a little, and b it might bo impossible now for him •to ™te a (ale like "The Jumping r I J-' ''°gi but he is still a master of the r ,delightful Mark Twain patter which '! many people lind to be a harmless jand most exhilarating tipple. Eor | example, the other day lie was culled s upon for a little speech at a Mol. ' bourne banquet. The toast of "the ■ I chairman " was relegated to him, and I he did justice to it in the following felicitous maimer:— ° [I I desiro," lie said, "to propose the .: health ot the chairman. Ido not know the I particulars of the chairman's history at all, I but on an occasion ot this kind it would not he gracious, it would not Lo p'casant, it I would not uc in good tasle to expose that. ) (k° u( ' laughter), Let us overlook his past. II —ltciiewcd laughter), Lot us consider that , I whatever lie has been before this evonipg ,' that lias nil gone by, and from this time out ; lie is a reformed mau.—(Continued laugh ; j tcr). So now let us drink his health—not j as the health of tlio man wo bad known 1 heretofore, but as the man who is going to rise infinitely superior to anything ho has beon before, and whose character will now I shine from this time out with a refulgent i .fight.—(Great laughter), I don't know what | ' refulgent light' is, but it is a gool cxpres- ] lion, and good words make eloquence, whether they mean anything or not. Let i us drink with enthusiasm to this' reformed case.' "-(Laughter and clicors). 1 There is not very much in a little < speech of this kind, but it takes a c Mark Twain to make it, and it ) admirably answers its purpose. 1 Pleasant are the memories of Mark Twain stored up by nil who have s read, seen or heard of him, and < pleasant memories are a boon to man- * kind. In person ho is said to bo } insignificant, and his health is f reported to bo indifferent, so much so that a carbunolo recently com- v polled him to " hilariously contem- c plato wall papers," but he is Ike f Mark Twain whose jokes people v havo reiterated for the past thirty '' years, and when he opens his lips to jj address an audience in his own dry, quaint fashion, there is 110 mistaking „ liim for any other living man. I «