e for
the English productions of my books. When you hear men talking of Bret
Harte's works and other works and my books being pirated, ask them to be
sure of their facts. I think they'll find the books are paid for. It was
ever thus.

"I remember an unprincipled and formidable publisher. Perhaps he's dead
now. He used to take my short stories--I can't call it steal or pirate
them. It was beyond these things altogether. He took my stories one at a
time and made a book of it. If I wrote an essay on dentistry or theology
or any little thing of that kind--just an essay that long (he indicated
half an inch on his finger), any sort of essay--that publisher would
amend and improve my essay.

"He would get another man to write some more to it or cut it about
exactly as his needs required. Then he would publish a book called
_Dentistry by Mark Twain_, that little essay and some other things not
mine added. Theology would make another book, and so on. I do not
consider that fair. It's an insult. But he's dead now, I think. I didn't
kill him.

"There is a great deal of nonsense talked about international copyright.
The proper way to treat a copyright is to make it exactly like
real-estate in every way.

"It will settle itself under these conditions. If Congress were to bring
in a law that a man's life was not to extend over a hundred and sixty
years, somebody would laugh. That law wouldn't concern anybody. The man
would be out of the jurisdiction of the court. A term of years in
copyright comes to exactly the same thing. No law can make a book live
or cause it to die before the appointed time.

"Tottletown, Cal., was a new town, with a population of three
thousand--banks, fire-brigade, brick buildings, and all the modern
improvements. It lived, it flourished, and it disappeared. To-day no man
can put his foot on any remnant of Tottletown, Cal. It's dead. London
continues to exist. Bill Smith, author of a book read for the next year
or so, is real-estate in Tottletown. William Shakespeare, whose works
are extensively read, is real-estate in London. Let Bill Smith, equally
with Mr. Shakespeare now deceased, have as complete a control over his
copyright as he would over his real-estate. Let him gamble it away,
drink it away, or--give it to the church. Let his heirs and assigns
treat it in the same manner.

"Every now and again I go up to Washington, sitting on a board to drive
that sort of view into Congress. Congress takes i