Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1909 — MARK TWAIN DECLINES [ARTICLE]

MARK TWAIN DECLINES

Too Indolent to See Mississippi Pilot Command a Battleship. Natchez, Miss., April 27.—The city of Natchez will present suitably inscribed gold watch fobs to each officer of the battleship Mississippi, while silver watch fobs of the same pattern will be struck off for every man on the vessel. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) declined to attend the battleship celebration in the following characteristic letter: , “I know quite well what I am losing. Among other delights, 1 am losing the chance of seeing—for a blessed once In my life—a Mississippi pilot in supreme and unchallengeable command of an American battleship. “But I am old and indolent and must humbly sacrifice my desires to my necessities.”