Show MARK HARK TWAIN T TBS BS A RAP BAP AT POSTS POETS New Kew York Tribune Mark Twain was th leading attraction I I yesterday afternoon at the meet l big of the University Settlement society i of Now York which was w held at the 1 I Settlement house hOUR Eldridge street MarK did not rot talk politics but he cre created creAted a 8 sensation with a recital In which the themes were 14 Ps suicide and ami anda a poet Seth Low the president of the society ty presided In Mr Clemens who was waa th the la last t er he said that the humorist t had suggested ted the advisability advisability of t adjourning alt ait Clemens spoke in substance s as I made marie that suggestion lu in good food faith falCh for the hour is tate 1 I am wining wilLing to stand here an Ith and talk for two hours but butI I was thinking ot or you That is the way I was wa from my ray earliest years to think first ot others i 1 have b been en trying ever since to spread that ide idea ide broad abroad chiefly by proxy lor br that is the easiest way wa waIt It is astonishing how much ignorance a man can tarry arry about without its burst bursting bursting burstIng ing his clothes Ten days ago alO I knew nothing at st all about University Settle Settlement Settlement ment work and I am sin now astonished at atthe atthe atthe the magnificence tn of ot my own ignorance But I have been reading pamphlets and listening to these addresses addres toda today and I think there is a whole lot of good in this sort 01 ot o thing thang It suri surprises rises es me to see a aI school where you have to drive the chil chilI children I i I dren away and not in That never was wasI the way w y m in II my time I Iguess guess It never was the way until you made them pay I for it I just jt t saw a class getting etting a dane dancing dancIng ing lesson downstairs and end each pupil was charged 2 Z cents for the le 1 son That s the rhe reas reli reason on 1 never learned to dance But the thing that Interested me most I was the Mont de do Piete downstairs the pawnbrokers shop I 1 know more about I I that kind of business than about some someI I of the things you teach here The ordinary ordinary nary nar pawnshop makes you ou pay interest of 3 per cent a month That is a pretty I onerous charge to pay although Ive paid more myself When people go to a pawn pawnshop pawnshop pawnshop shop it is if because they need money des ties desperately I I sawS saw a lot Jot of wedding rings just today in the shop hero here that is pa pathetic pathetic Those rings were pawned for tor what just to enable someone to live And that society charges only 1 par pm cent centa a month and it Is run in the right way not for charity charit p but by toy rich men who clear 6 per cent a year on their money moneyS mont y yo o S 0 S 5 I seem to speak feelingly on that sub subject subject subject I do The other day I was looking over some manuscript some of that un unpublished unpUblished unpublished published autobiography Which I am aim gradually building up for the Instruction of the world and I ran across an inci mci incident incident dent which happened about forty years ago in San Francisco I had been and was willing to be a reporter but others were not sufficiently interested in me That Toot is I was out of ota a job And all aU I owned was In the pawnshop Well I ran across another literary person a poet out of a job There was a little romance about him a u a love story but the best part of the tha th story and I guesS I had better save It for the autobiography Laughter Lau One day he told me he thought he was a failure I agreed with him Laughter Oh he be was a friend I of mine and it is always well to speak frankly to a friend Then he lie said iid he thought hed commit suicide I approved the idea I admit there was a little sel selfishness selfishness selfishness In I was out of a job and tho the idea Idt struck me inc that if I should have a scoop on a suicide I could get work Anti And the poet could be spared laughter oh very wet weft So SQ I kept the idea of suicide before him ou always have to do that suicides are Bre so very un uncertain uncertain uncertain certain He had an absurd preference people will have preferences you ou know He wanted to blow his brains out but that was not to be thought of in our financial condition Our joint belongings were not enough to get a pistol Then he thought he would drown himself I went down to the bay with hint himI did not want any mistakes But B t then e a miracle hap happened happened happened There w was ua s washed to shore right at his feet a 8 a life Ufe preserver 5 3 0 3 Mr Clemens told td how flow a pawnbroker was induced to trade A loaded derringer r fo thu th lite preserver and then he de tie described scribed in accents of horror how the young man put the pistol to his heed head and fired The Tha audience had not expected anything so serious and was nas visibly shocked s The speaker continued When hen he pulled the trigger It made a ahole ahole ahole hole clean through his head It cleaned out all the gray matter took it alland 11 and then he was just as sa good as new Laugh Laughter ter He had been nothing but a poet be before before before fore He Is alive aUva today and an ornament to society I wish I could have the same me experience with a lot of other poets And AndI I want all the poets to know it Mr Clemens closed with a Ii serious of commendation for the Settlement so o society clety and Ii nd a reminder er that they were all there to show their ther interest in some practical way WRy He H had bad Intended to draw a check cheek himself but since e he had heard the addresses addre es he lie had decided to send a afew afew few lew copies copie ot of Strawberry Finn and some other books bo ks to the library Mr Reynolds In his hie address had bad told toM of the interest in Mark Twains Twain writings one reader having recently asked for Straw berry Finn Richard Gilder arose in the name of the society to move a voe v re of ot thanks to the speakers He said saidI I not apply appl to Mr Speyer for any of the pistols in the e pawnshop laughter but I want it distinctly understood that there Is no occasion In my case It has been judicially determined that I am not nota a n poet 1 The he first order of business was vas the elec tion of the following aa as members of the council to serve three years yrs Stephen H Olin Franklin H Frank Prank J Goodnow Seymour L Cromwell and Ed Edwin Edwin win R H A Seligman 1 Mrs Edward Edwerd R H R Hewitt made R l report on behalf of the theorn comens orn ns auxiliary of which she is vice president She said Mid that they were soon to have a building specially constructed for lor the music school Mrs Irs Thomas the manager of the Settle SettIe Settlement Settlement ment house for tor women work s a at 30 King street described the workings of that institution and the success in reorganizing reorganizing gangs Addresses wore were also made by James B Reynolds the head had worker of or the Set Franklin H Giddings of Colum Celum bia his University and William H IL Bald Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin win jr r f |