n.

A few, however, knew the true state of his affairs. One of these one
night introduced him to Henry H. Rogers, the Standard Oil millionaire.

"Mr. Clemens," said Mr. Rogers, "I was one of your early admirers. I
heard you lecture a long time ago, on the Sandwich Islands."

They sat down at a table, and Mark Twain told amusing stories. Rogers
was in a perpetual gale of laughter. They became friends from that
evening, and in due time the author had confessed to the financier all
his business worries.

"You had better let me look into things a little," Rogers said, and he
advised Clemens to "stop walking the floor."

It was characteristic of Mark Twain to be willing to unload his affairs
upon any one that he thought able to bear the burden. He became a new
man overnight. With Henry Rogers in charge, life was once more worth
while. He accepted invitations from the Rogers family and from many
others, and was presently so gay, so widely sought, and seen in so many
places that one of his acquaintances, "Jamie" Dodge, dubbed him the
"Belle of New York."

Henry Rogers, meanwhile, was "looking into things." He had reasonable
faith in the type-machine, and advanced a large sum on the chance of its
proving a success. This, of course, lifted Mark Twain quite into the
clouds. Daily he wrote and cabled all sorts of glowing hopes to his
family, then in Paris. Once he wrote:

"The ship is in sight now .... When the anchor is down, then I shall
say: Farewell--a long farewell--to business! I will never touch it
again! I will live in literature, I will wallow in it, revel in it;
I will swim in ink!"

Once he cabled, "Expect good news in ten days"; and a little later, "Look
out for good news"; and in a few days, "Nearing success."

Those Sellers-like messages could not but appeal, Mrs. Clemens's sense of
humor, even in those dark days. To her sister she wrote, "They make me
laugh, for they are so like my beloved Colonel."

The affairs of Webster & Co. Mr. Rogers found a bad way. When, at last,
in April, 1894, the crisis came--a demand by the chief creditors for
payment--he advised immediate assignment as the only course.

So the firm of Webster & Co. closed its doors. The business which less
than ten years before had begun so prosperously had ended in failure.
Mark Twain, nearing fifty-nine, was bankrupt. When all the firm's
effects had been sold and applied on the counts, he was still more than
seventy thousand d