WARTS AND TATTOO MARKS.

Western Star, Issue 1385, 31 August 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

WARTS AND TATTOO MARKS.

MAEK TWAIN DESCBIBES A BEMOVAL PEOCESS. Mark Twain writes to the New York Sun as follows :—I find the following suggestive derelict wandering about the ocean of journalism :—"l'd give a 1000 dollars," said a well-to-do New Yorker the othpr day, •' to bave that mark removed," and he held out a well-sihaped and well-cared-for hand, on the back of which, between the thumb and first finger, was tattoed A BIG BLUE ANCHOB. " When I was a little fool at school, with my head full of stories of adventure, my highest ambition was fio go to sea. An old sailor who lived in the village tattooed about a dozen of us on the sly, and I remember the lies I told my mother as I kept my hand done up in a rag, pretending I had cut it, till the sore healed. Then she gave me such a thrashing as broke up my plan, fortunately, to have a fine red and blue heart done on the back of the other. The disfigurement has caused me no end of annoyance since, and has cost me considerable money for gloves, which I always wear winter and summer, though I detest them in warm weather. But a man can't wear gloves at the table, and often at restaurants I catch people staring at my hand and I wonder If they think I have served my term in the fo'castle of some oyster scow or lumber schooner. A tattoo mark is easily removed. May I drop into personal history ? "When I was a small boy I had my share of warts. I tried in turn the 368 ways of removing them, but without results ; I seemed to get wartier and wartier right along. But at last some" body revealed to me the 369th way, and I tried it. Thus—l drove a needle down into the basement of the wart; then held the other end of the needle in the flame of a candle some little time; tbe needle became red hot throughout its length and proceeded to cook tbe wirt. Presently I drew the needle out ; if it had white atoms like nits sticking about its point that wart was done ; if the point was clear I drove it in aJaia and cooked till I got these white tilings. They were the roots of the wart. Twenty-four hours later the wart would become soft and flabby, and I removed it with a single wipe of my hand. "Where it had been there was a smooth surface now, which quickly healed and left no scar.

WITHIN TWO DAYS I WAS WARTLESS, and have so remained unto this day. Well, a long time afterward, when I was 16 years old, a sailor tattooed an anchor and rope on the bacfe of my left haud with India ink. The colour was a deep, dark blue, and extravagantly I was proud of it for a while, bu<-> by the time I had worn it nine years 1 was tired of it. I could find nobody who could tell me how to get rid of it; but at last my wart experience of near half a generation before occurred to me, and I got me several needles and a candle straightway. I drove the needles along just under the surface of the skin and tolerably close together, and made them include the whole tattoo mark, then 1 fired up on them and cooked that device thoroughly. Next day I wiped the device off with my hand. The place quickly healed, and left no pear. A faint bluish tinge remained, and I was minded to begin again and cook that out; but as it was hardly detectable and not noticeable, it did not seem worth the fuel, and so I left it there, and there it is yet, though I suppose I am the ouly member of my tribe that knows it.