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Show Tom Sawyer Celebrates 100th Anniversary federate soldier, silver miner, gold miner, newspaper reporter, special corresponent in Hawaii and Europe, lecturer , editor, businessman, and finally , as he put it, "a scribbler of books." and a public celebrity. During his latter days , he was considered the image of the United States, at home as well as overseas. All the world loved and honored him. He recieved several honorary degreees, one of which was doctor of letters from Oxford University. But toward the end of his life, he also became very cynical. "If Christ were here now, ther is one thing he would not be-a ," was one of his philosophies, and the "the human race consists of the damned and the ought-to-be- m damned." Before Twain died, his wife, two of his daughters and one son died. Perhaps part of his cynicism could be attributed to that. Everything human," he wrote, "is pathetic. The secrety source of humor is not joy but sorrow." Twain was so funny for the very reason that his life was filled with such sorrow. When Halley's comet returned on April 21, 1910, Samuel Clemens died, but because of the wide variety of his talent, Mark Twain lives on. Why do people constantly keep reading Mark Twain? It is because he is so contemporary that the things he wrote still parellel with today's generation. Sure he wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (which celebrates the 100th 1 anniversary of its publication this month, ( but hopefully we will never again overlook the hun dreds of other things tne wiuic and did that made, and must keep him the on and the only Mark Twain. by David Moore "Mark Twain," a student at Cedar High reflected, "wasn't he that old man who wrote Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and some other books for little boys?" It was a typical answer, given innocently enough, but it wasn't a complete one : It was like saying, A cow? Isn't that an animal that has two eyes and ears? It's true that Mark Twain, who is 141 years old as of November 30, was much more than just the creator of the immortal im-mortal Tom and Huck. Twain was also the author of "Letters from the Earth," a scathing attack on conventional religion, not published until 1962, 52 years after his death, because of its content. There is a vast constrast in the bounds of his greatness. , "Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry," he taught and he lived his teaching to the fullest. Halley's Comet was shining in the sky the night Twian was born, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was his given name. The bright comet was, perhaps a prophecy of the great life he would come to live. He grew up in Hannibal, Mo., where he led the eventful life he immortalized in Tom and Huck. After running away from Hannibal at . the age of 17, he gained much experience in nearly every trade. For short intervals, he was a printer, riverboat pilot, con- |