'Following the Equator'--[In England, More Tramps Abroad.]--had come
from the press in November and had been well received. It was a
large, elaborate subscription volume, more elaborate than artistic
in appearance. Clemens, wishing to make some acknowledgment to his
benefactor, tactfully dedicated it to young Harry Rogers:
“With recognition of what he is, and an apprehension of what he may
become unless he form himself a little more closely upon the model of
the author.”
Following the Equator was Mark Twain's last book of travel, and it did
not greatly resemble its predecessors. It was graver than the Innocents
Abroad; it was less inclined to cynicism and burlesque than the Tramp.
It was the thoughtful, contemplative observation and philosophizing of
the soul-weary, world-weary pilgrim who has by no means lost interest,
but only his eager, first enthusiasm. It is a gentler book than the
Tramp Abroad, and for the most part a pleasanter one. It is better
history and more informing. Its humor, too, is of a worthier sort, less
likely to be forced and overdone. The holy Hindoo pilgrim's “itinerary
of salvation” is one of the richest of all Mark Twain's fancies, and is
about the best thing in the book. The revised philosophies of Pudd'nhead
Wilson, that begin each chapter, have many of them passed into our daily
speech. That some of Mark Twain's admirers were disappointed with the
new book is very likely, but there were others who could not praise it
enough. James Whitcomb Riley wrote:
DEAR MR. CLEMENS,--For a solid week-night sessions--I have been glorying
in your last book-and if you've ever done anything better, stronger, or
of wholesomer uplift I can't recall it. So here's my heart and here's
my hand with all the augmented faith and applause of your proudest
countryman! It's just a hail I'm sending you across the spaces--not to
call you from your blessed work an instant, but simply to join my voice
in the universal cheer that is steadfastly going up for you.
As gratefully as delightedly, Your abiding friend,
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
Notwithstanding the belief that the sale of single subscription volumes
had about ended, Bliss did well with the new book. Thirty or forty
thousand copies were placed without much delay, and the accumulated
royalties paid into Mr. Rogers's hands. The burden of debt had become a
nightmare. Clemens wrote:
Let us begin on those debts. I cannot bear the weight any longer. It
totally unfits me for work.
This was November 10, 1897. December 29th he wrote:
Land, we are glad to see those debts diminishing. For the first time in
my life I am getting more pleasure from paying money out than pulling it
in.
To Howells, January 3d, Clemens wrote that they had “turned the corner,”
and a month later:
We've lived close to the bone and saved every cent we could, & there's
no undisputed claim now that we can't cash. There are only two claims
which I dispute & which I mean to look into personally before I pay
them. But they are small. Both together they amount to only $12,500. I
hope you will never get the like of the load saddled onto you that was
saddled onto me 3 years ago. And yet there is such a solid pleasure in
paying the things that I reckon maybe it is worth while to get into that
kind of a hobble after all. Mrs. Clemens gets millions of delight out of
it; & the children have never uttered one complaint about the scrimping
from the beginning.
By the end of January, 1898, Mark Twain had accumulated enough money to
make the final payment to his creditors and stand clear of debt. At the
time of his failure he said he had given himself five years in which to
clear himself of the heavy obligation. He had achieved that result in
less than three. The world heralded it as a splendid triumph.
Miss Katharine I. Harrison, Henry Rogers's secretary, who had been in
charge of the details, wrote in her letter announcing his freedom:
“I wish I could shout it across the water to you so that you would get
it ten days ahead of this letter.”
Miss Harrison's letter shows that something like thirteen thousand
dollars would remain to his credit after the last accounts were wiped
away.
Clemens had kept his financial progress from the press, but the payment
of the final claims was distinctly a matter of news and the papers made
the most of it. Head-lines shouted it, there were long editorials in
which Mark Twain was heralded as a second Walter Scott, though it was
hardly necessary that he should be compared with anybody; he had been
in that--as in those peculiarities which had invited his disaster--just
himself.
One might suppose now that he had had enough of inventions and
commercial enterprises of every sort that is, one who did not know Mark
Twain might suppose this; but it would not be true. Within a month after
the debts were paid he had negotiated with the great Austrian inventor,
Szczepanik, and his business manager for the American rights of a
wonderful carpet-pattern machine, obtained an option for these rights
at fifteen hundred thousand dollars, and, Sellers-like, was planning to
organize a company with a capital of fifteen hundred million dollars
to control carpet-weaving industries of the world. He records in his
note-book that a certain Mr. Wood, representing the American carpet
interests, called upon him and, in the course of their conversation,
asked him at what price he would sell his option.
I declined, and got away from the subject. I was afraid he would
offer me $500,000 for it. I should have been obliged to take it,
but I was born with a speculative instinct & I did not want that
temptation put in my way.
He wrote to Mr. Rogers about the great scheme, inviting the Standard Oil
to furnish the capital for it--but it appears not to have borne the test
of Mr. Rogers's scrutiny, and is heard of no more.
Szczepanik had invented the 'Fernseher', or Telelectroscope, the machine
by which one sees at a distance. Clemens would have invested heavily in
this, too, for he had implicit faith in its future, but the 'Fernseher'
was already controlled for the Paris Exposition; so he could only employ
Szczepanik as literary material, which he did in two instances: “The
Austrian Edison Keeping School Again” and “From the London Times of
1904”--magazine articles published in the Century later in the year. He
was fond of Szczepanik and Szczepanik's backer, Mr. Kleinburg. In one of
his note-book entries he says:
Szczepanik is not a Paige. He is a gentleman; his backer, Mr. Kleinburg,
is a gentleman, too, yet is not a Clemens--that is to say, he is not an
ass.
Clemens did not always consult his financial adviser, Rogers, any
more than he always consulted his spiritual adviser, Twichell, or his
literary adviser, Howells, when he intended to commit heresies in their
respective provinces. Somewhat later an opportunity came along to buy an
interest in a preparation of skimmed milk, an invalid food by which
the human race was going to be healed of most of its ills. When Clemens
heard that Virchow had recommended this new restorative, the name of
which was plasmon, he promptly provided MacAlister with five thousand
pounds to invest in a company then organizing in London. It should be
added that this particular investment was not an entire loss, for it
paid very good dividends for several years. We shall hear of it again.
For the most part Clemens was content to let Henry Rogers do his
financiering, and as the market was low with an upward incline, Rogers
put the various accumulations into this thing and that, and presently
had some fifty thousand dollars to Mark Twain's credit, a very
comfortable balance for a man who had been twice that amount in debt
only a few years before. It has been asserted most strenuously, by those
in a position to know least about the matter, that Henry Rogers lent,
and even gave, Mark Twain large sums, and pointed out opportunities
whereby he could make heavily by speculation. No one of these statements
is true. Mr. Rogers neither lent nor gave Mark Twain money for
investment, and he never allowed him to speculate when he could prevent
it. He invested for him wisely, but he never bought for him a share of
stock that he did not have the money in hand to pay for in full-money
belonging to and earned by Clemens himself. What he did give to Mark
Twain was his priceless counsel and time--gifts more precious than
any mere sum of money--boons that Mark Twain could accept without
humiliation. He did accept them and was unceasingly grateful.--[Mark
Twain never lost an opportunity for showing his gratitude to Henry
Rogers. The reader is referred to Appendix T, at the end of the last
volume, for a brief tribute which Clemens prepared in 1902. Mr. Rogers
would not consent to its publication.]