MARK TWAIN.
The San Francisco Alta says that this is how Samuel L. Clemens obtained the name which he had made famous, the explanation being given in a letter to Mr. John A. McPherson, of that city:
DEAR SIR: "Mark Twain" was the nom de plume of one Capt. Isaiah Sellers, who used to write river news over it for the New Orleans Picayune. He died in 1863, and as he could no longer need that signature, I laid violent hands upon it without asking permission of the proprietor's remains. That is the history of the nom de plume I bear.
Yours truly,
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS
May 29.
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