MARK TWAIN AT REST; BURIED BESIDE WIFE
Simple Ceremony Held in the Home of His Brother-in-Law, General Langdon.
SCHOOL CHILDREN'S TRIBUTE
The 500 Boy Pupils of Louisville High School Send Floral Piece - Rev. Samuel
Eastman Officiated.
Special to The New York Times.
ELMIRA, N.Y. - April 24. - In a heavy downpour of rain the body of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) was buried this afternoon in Woodlawn Cemetery beside that of his wife.
The body was brought to this city at 9:30 o'clock this morning in the private car of Vice President Loomis of the Lackawanna. In the party accompanying it were Mark Twain's daughter, Mrs. Ossip Gabrilowitsch and her husband; Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, Mr. and Mrs. Jervis Langdon, Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Collier, Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder, Major Fred T. Leigh, and F. A. Duneka. At 3:30 o'clock funeral services were conducted at the residence of Gen. Langdon, brother of the departed wife of Mr. Clemens. The Rev. Samuel Eastman, who succeeded Thomas K. Beecher as pastor of the Park Congregational Church, officiated.
In keeping with Mr. Clemens's wish the ceremony was simple. There were no music, no honorary pallbearers - just the brief address and prayer by Dr. Eastman. The body lay in state in the very parlor where Mr. Clemens's marriage of forty years ago was held, and some of those who attended the wedding were there today to look for the last time upon the face of their friend.
The services at the house were public, but the attendance was not large. Besides the funeral party which accompanied the body from Redding, the little gathering included only a few relatives and old friends. Dr. Eastman said in part:
"We are not here at this time to speak of the great man whose going hence the whole world mourns, nor to claim for him that place in the halls of fame which only time can give him. We are here to weep with those that weep, to give thanks with those whose own he was in the sacred bonds of human kinship and family affection."
The last visit of Mr. Clemens to Elmira was two years ago, when he came especially to be present at the dedication of the new organ in the Park Church. It was suggested then that he go to the old home on East Hill, where he wrote many of his early stories, but he demurred, replying that such a visit would awaken sorrowful thoughts. He had not been to that former abode since before the death of his wife.
It was recalled today that forty years ago Mr. Beecher held Sunday afternoon services at the Elmira Opera House, engaging a brass band, and thus shocking the Protestant Ministers' Union, which suspended Mr. Beecher from its rolls. Mr. Clemens came to the defense of Mr. Beecher and the methods he employed to elevate the masses, writing several articles on the subject for the local press. Just south of the Langdon residence in the park stands the Beecher statue. On the occasion of his last visit here Mr. Clemens viewed the statue.
Just before the hour of the funeral there arrived a large floral design with the following card attached:
"From five hundred boys of Louisville (Ky.) Male High School. In remembrance of Samuel L. Clemens, who has brightened their lives with innocent laughter and taught them squareness and grit and compassion."
The piece receive a conspicuous place at the bier. Much sorrow was expressed when it was learned that the wife of the Rev. Mr. Twichell, who officiated at the services yesterday and who expected to assist Mr. Eastman here today, was dead.
MRS. TWICHELL DIES.
Wife's Illness Kept Minister from Mark Twain's Funeral.
HARTFORD, Conn., April 24. - Mrs. Julia Cushman Twichell, wife of the Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, for nearly fifty years pastor of the Asylum Avenue Congregational Church, died early today at the Hartford Hospital following an operation for stomach trouble. Mrs. Twichell was 67 years old, and leaves besides her husband two sons and three daughters.
Mrs. Twichell was taken ill suddenly on Saturday while her husband was attending the funeral services of Mark Twain, in the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, and the latter returned to Hartford instead of going to Elmira, N.Y., where he was to have conducted the services at the grave.
Mrs. Twichell was a life-long friend of Mrs. Clemens, the latter having been a member of the Asylum Avenue Congregational Church while a resident of Hartford.
AKED CALLS TWAIN A SEER.
Pastor Says He Looked Deep Into the Soul of Things.
The Rev. C. F. Aked at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church last night, in a sermon on Mark Twain, said he was as great as any of the Hebrew prophets, and was not a humorist, as Americans felt, but a philosopher and a seer, as he was regarded in England. The text was Samuel I, ix., 9: "For he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer."
"A prophet," said Dr. Aked, "is a man who speaks for God. A seer is a man who sees into the very soul of things. Tonight I'm going to talk about a great servant of humanity who was also a great seer of humanity, Mark Twain, a man who has deserved to be called as truly as any man of the Hebrew race, a seer.
"He saw into the very depths of things, beneath the forms of things, deep into the soul. He refused to look through a guidebook, either when seeing Europe or looking through its art galleries. This was characteristic of the man from the first work he produced down to the last time he let the pen fall from his hand. This is why he was so much to the peoples beyond the seas. In this country Mark Twain is regarded as a humorist, buy not so by the British people. Maybe, of course, the British can't appreciate humor. That is one of your most cherished delusions."
Dr. Aked then went on to tell of the dispatches quoting German and English papers on Mark Twain's death, all of which spoke of his deep passion for humanity and his wide sympathy and insight into humanity.
"It was this," said Dr. Aked, "that made him so loved by the British. It was not the rollicking humor that took them. Here it was the great, rollicking, magnificent humor of Mark Twain that made him popular. He has added to the gayety of nations. His humor was clean. I can't recall to mind one unclean jest of Mark Twain's. His humor was boisterous, extravagant, rollicking. It verged upon the profane, but isn't American humor always verging upon the profane?"
Without answering this, Dr. Aked told "an unpublished story of Mark
Twain."
"It was told me by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe," said Dr. Aked.
"A young man was at a party at which Mark Twain was a guest. Mark Twain
had at his service a long string of blasphemous oaths of his Mississippi
pilot days. The young man said he would have to leave. 'Why?' asked Mark
Twain. 'Well,' replied the young man, 'I don't like some of your language,
and I'm sure my mother wouldn't like it.' 'My boy,' said Mark Twain, 'you'll
never hear an oath while you're in this party.' 'Thank you,' said the young
man."
The story ended with Mark Twain living up to his word.
"Respect for women and reverence for womanhood is in everything Mark Twain ever wrote. He was pious beyond the meaning of his will, and builded better than he knew, this fine heart of gold."
Dr. Aked quoted from many of Mark Twain's books at length to illustrate his sermon.
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