ABSTRACT
As a rule authors who can write anything better than mere humor strive by every means in their power to show the world that they have other and higher gifts than those of the mirth-provoking order. Twain belongs to this class, and oflater years he has been striving to obliterate the memories of his first success, the success that made him famousThe Innocents Abroad. It is safe to assume that the best things he has written since then have been produced under the spur of a determination to show the world that the court jester can take off his cap and bells and say a striking thing seriously.
