Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1901 — Short Personal Stories. [ARTICLE]

Short Personal Stories.

Mark Twain tells thus the story of his first great London banquet, at which, by the way, there were 800 or 900 guests. He admits that, not having been used to that kind of dinner, he felt somewhat lonesome. “The lord mayor, or Bomebody, read out a list of the chief guests before we began to eat. When he came to prominent names the other guests would applaud. I found the man next to me rather a good talkel\ Just as we got up an Interesting subject there was a tremendous clapping of hands. I had hardly ever heard such applause before. I straightened up and set 'to clhpplng with the rest, and I noticed a good many people round me fixing their attention on me, and some of them laughing in a friendly and encouraging way. I moved about in my chair and clapped louder than ever. “ ‘Who Is it?’ I asked the gentleman on my right. “ ‘Samuel Clemens, better known In England as Mark Twain, ’ he replied. “I stopped clapping. The life seemed to go out of me. I never was In such a fix In all my days.” Mrs. Edwin Gould Is one of the most ardent collectors In America and at one time she declared that If she could only get hold of the club with which Cain pommeled Abel she would be the happiest of women. On a recent visit to New Orleans she explored the French quarter of that city and was rewarded by " finding numerous relics of- days long before Andrew Jackson whipped the British there. She also

picked up many valuable articles dating back to the Napoleonic period, one being a solid sliver piece which once had been the property of Jerome Bonaparte. About a year ago Mrs. Alfred Schermerhorn, a society woman of Brooklyn, lost her fortune In speculation. Nearly all of her swell friends manifested sucfS strong disposition to drop her acquaintance that Mrs. Schermerhorn took the initiative by dropping theirs, and being a woman of sense began to look around for some means of self-support-She hit upon the idea of

operating a laundry and opened such an establishment In Southampton, L. I-, whore the faithful among her former friends are helping to make the venture a success.