Mark Twain quote about his father's surprising maturation (antedating attrib circa 1915) (req paper verification)

[Garson O'Toole]

Victor Steinbok said
> On the other hand, I did verify the following as authentic. Note, in
> particular, that it enters yet another set of ages with distinct language.
>
>  From The Man in the Country, by Dr. Harry R. McKeen, Missouri State
> Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin, Vol. 14, No. 1, Jan. 1916, p. 56
>
> http://bit.ly/7KaoAj
> "Somthing like Mark Twain. At the age of seventeen Mark says he thought
> his father the most ignorant man in all the world and just couldn't
> stand him about. At the age of twenty-three he found that his father
> knew a few things and he could put up wit him occasionally. At the age
> of twenty-seven he knew that his father was the smartest man in all the
> world and he just doted on having him around."

Sam Clements said
> Victor--
> It WAS from 1916, but the Feb. issue(No. 2) They bound more than one monthly
> issue in that book.  Typical Google Book problem.

Paging backwards from the relevant text suggests that the quotation
appears in the March 1916 issue. The cite is fantastic. Thanks!

The 1903 date for the Proceedings of the Annual Convention, Volume 30
by National Ice Association is suspicious as Victor Steinbok notes.
The Google metadata is almost certainly bogus in my opinion. The
University of California copy linked has matches for dates such as
1947, 1940, and 1933.

The earliest cite listed in my initial post is in a document that
should be in the public domain, but Google restricts access to it.

Citation: Circa 1916, The Square Deal, Volumes 17-18, ‎Page 160,
Citizens' Industrial Association of America. (Snippet view.)

A document with The Square Deal, Volume 18 is available with full-text
access, but it does not contain the quote.
http://books.google.com/books?id=mk9IAAAAYAAJ&

Since The Square Deal, Volume 18 covers February to June 1916. It is
possible that The Square Deal, Volume 17 covers 1915.

Garson

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