Show Mark TwainTs Cats New Yark Times When Mark Twain lived at Quarry Farm a picturesque home high up on a southern New York mountain says a writer in St Nicholas he did most of his writing in a little eightsided summer sum-mer house which he called his PilotHouse Pilot-House in memory of the days long ago when he was a pilot on the Mississippi Missis-sippi river Cosily nestling In a great chair or snuggled comfortably upon an old lounge in this literary workshop at almost any time of the day could be found Mark Twains pats They were allowed there because they had the good manners to keep quiet while he worked If they had presumed to jump upon the desk and put their feet upon the manuscript or tip over the ink they would not have been allowed al-lowed to remain The cosy little Pilot House was very popular with these cots It may have g been because it was such a nice sunny place having windows upon all of its sites Being upon the tiptop of the great hill it received the wonnth of the first and last rays of the sun of which these pets were quite as fond as was the humorist himself Mark Twain knew that although cats are said to have nine lives the time must come when even his petfe and he would have to part so one day he summoned Mr Van Aken the photographer b S A jealous dog did his best to prevent the photograph being taken but in vain and two good views of them were obtained ob-tained Mark Twain himself thus sings the requiem of his pets Hartford Coma I dont know as there is anything ot continental or international interest to communicate about those cats They had no history They did not distinguish distin-guish themselves in any way They died early on account of being over weighted with their names it was thought Sour Mash Apollinaris Zero aster Blatherskite names given them not in an unfriendly spirit but merely to practice the children in large and difficult styles of pronunciation It was a very happy ideaI mean for the children MARK TWAIN |