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The elder Bliss has heart disease badly, and thenceforth his life hangs
upon a thread.
Yr Bro
SAM.
But Howells could not bring himself to print so frank a confession
as Orion had been willing to make. "It wrung my heart," he said,
"and I felt haggard after I had finished it. The writer's soul is
laid bare; it is shocking." Howells added that the best touches in
it were those which made one acquainted with the writer's brother;
that is to say, Mark Twain, and that these would prove valuable
material hereafter--a true prophecy, for Mark Twain's early
biography would have lacked most of its vital incident, and at least
half of its background, without those faithful chapters, fortunately
preserved. Had Onion continued, as he began, the work might have
proved an important contribution to literature, but he went trailing
off into by-paths of theology and discussion where the interest was
lost. There were, perhaps, as many as two thousand pages of it,
which few could undertake to read.
Mark Twain's mind was always busy with plans and inventions, many of
them of serious intent, some semi-serious, others of a purely
whimsical character. Once he proposed a "Modest Club," of which the
first and main qualification for membership was modesty. "At
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