Mark Twain and Carnegie TWO citizens of the world, residents of the United States ofAmerica, one a native and the other an adopted son, successful in their quest for distinction one achieving fame, the other acquiring fortune will be remembered this week on the hundredth anniversaries of their birth. Andrew Carnegie, known in Great Britain as the star spangled Scotchman, was born at Dumfermline, Scotland, November 25, 1835. Five days later, Samuel L. Clemens, known to the literary world as Mark Twain, was born in the little hamlet of Florida, in the state of Missouri. Neither one knew of the other until one accumulated a fortune and longed to shine in literature; and the other had scaled the heights as an author and sought financial independence. This is the centennial year and week of these two great men who gathered wealth and wisdom to scatter both with lavish hands before passing from the scene of their activities and triumphs. Mark Twain was never dull, but many of his books were biting with sarcasm, for he liked to puncture pretense and to humble arrogance. His boyhood stories are the best delineations of the average small town lad that ever will be written, because his childish heroes were real boys performing pranks that have always been practiced or planned or dreamed about by these little fathers to big men. His western sketches will preserve and perpetuate traditions rapidly fading from documents written by less gifted pens. His story of the great river that rolled by his home town of Hannibal, is a classic of steamboat days. His personal recollections of Joan of Arc is a beautiful tribute to a patriotic victim of brutal intolerance and will hold a permanent place in literature. Royal College of Physicians of London Chartered in 1518 by Henry VIII on petition of Thomas Linacre, royal physician, and Cardinal Wolsey, for the improvement and more orderly exercise of the art of physic and the repression of irregular, unlearned and incompetent practitioners. Andrew Carnegie was another kind of literary light. He amassed one of the largest fortunes ever controlled by a single brain. At the age of 65 he retired from business with wealth estimated to be in excess of 300,000,000, and began to carry out a plan and promise made 30 years before, when he said: The man who dies rich dies disgraced. He dispensed dollars for what he considered the most direct way of aiding the greatest number of people striving for intellectual advancement. He was not concerned with proferring temporary assistance to those he might contact. He strove to extend opportunity for the masses to read and improve their minds, to get acquainted with the worlds leaders of thought in all ages. To place books within the reach of every man, woman and child was his hobby, his obsession. He built, equipped and supplied public libraries without requiring recipients of his bounty to identify him with the buildings or books. In some states having scores of Carnegie libraries, not one bears that name. He gave colleges and universities organs and scholarships; established foundations for historical and scientific research; created hero funds for families of men whose lives were lost in saving others; fostered symphony orchestras; and in these and similar ways had disposed of 90 per cent of his wealth when death put an end to his liberality. This week the centennial of their birth is observed. They knew and liked each other. Carnegie suggested the plot of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court. In a speech, Mark complained that he had loaned Andrew a quarter once which had never been returned. Two great Americans, one a native, the other an adopted son. Both citizens of the world who left as heritages to humanity the products of exceptional genius. Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. ADAM SMITH WARNERS CALENDAR OF MEDICAL HISTORY