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The New York Times, July 23, 1901

LETTER FROM MARK TWAIN
He Must Begin the Dignity Appropriate to Coming Senility.

KANSAS CITY, July 22. - Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain), in a letter received here today by the Secretary of the Jubilee Association, which is planning a huge celebration to commemorate the admission of Missouri to the Union, regrets his inability to be present at the exercises in Kansas City on Aug. 10. The letter is dated "Among the Adirondack Lakes," July 19, and reads in part as follows:

"I am admonished in many ways that time is pushing me inexorable along; I am approaching the threshold of age; in 1977 I shall be 142. This is not time to be flitting about the earth; I must cease from the activities proper to youth and begin to take on the dignities and gravities and inertia proper to that season of honorable senility which on its way and imminent- as indicated above.

"Yours is a great and memorable occasion, and as a son of Missouri I should hold it a high privilege to be there."

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