Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1920 — GOT MARK TWAIN STIRRED UP [ARTICLE]

GOT MARK TWAIN STIRRED UP

Humorist, Tired of Listening to Series of Remarkable Stories, Rose a to the Occasion. A naval officer said at a banquet In New York: “Some of the war stories that I hear remind me of Mark Twain. Mark, you know, once sat In the smoking room of a steamer and listened for an hour or two to some remarkable lies. Then he drawled: “'Boys, these feats of yours that you’ve been telling about recall an adventure of my own tn Hannibal. There was a fire In Hannibal one night, and old man Hankinson got caught in the fourth story of the burning house. It looked as If he was a goner. None of the ladders was long enough to reach him. The crowd stared at one another with awed eyes. Nobody could think of anything to do. Then all of a sudden, boys, an idea occurred to me. “Fetch me a rope!" I yelled. Somebody fetched a rope, and with great presence of mind I flung the end of it up to the old man. “Tie her round your waist I” I yelled. Old man Hankinson did so and I pulled him down.’ ”