TWAIN PLEADS FOR THANKS.
Asks Uncle Joe to Get It from Congress - Quickly, Too.
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON Dec. 8.- Mark Twain, who is here doing what he can to get the new copyright bill passed finds that he is handicapped as a lobbyist by not being able to go on the floor of the House and talk to Congressmen while the House is in session. He finds that aside from ex- office holders the only outsiders who can get in are persons to whom the thanks of Congress have been extended. So he wrote the following letter to the speaker today:
"Dear Uncle Joseph:
"Please get me the thanks of Congress - not next week but right away! It is very necessary to accomplish this for your affectionate old friend-right away! By persuasion if you can; by violence if you must. For it is imperatively necessary that I get on the floor for two or three hours and talk to the members, man by man in behalf of support, encouragement and protection of one of the Nation's most valuable assets and industries - its literature. I have arguments with me-also a barrel with liquid in it.
"Give me a chance. -Get me the thanks Congress. Don t wait for others. There isn't time. Furnish them to me yourself and let Congress ratify it later. I have stayed away and let Congress alone for seventy-one years and am entitled to its thanks. Congress knows it perfectly well and I have long felt hurt that this quiet proper and earned expression of gratitude has been merely felt by the House and never publicly uttered. Send me an order on the Sergeant at Arms quick! When shall I come? With love and benediction,
"MARK TWAIN"
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