June 9 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Call at 20 at 5.30. GOUT FOOD. / Savage Club 6 p.m. with MacAlister. / Afterward, the dinner to Irving at the Savoy—8.30 or 9 will do, I guess” [NB 43 TS 15]. Note: “Call at 20” likely refers to an address.

Sam attended a welcome home dinner for Sir Henry Irving after his American tour at the Savoy Hotel in London. From the June 10 N.Y. Times, p.4

WELCOME HOME TO IRVING.

Ambassador Choate in a Witty Vein—

Mark Twain Speaks.

LONDON, June 9.—At the Savoy Hotel to-night a complimentary dinner was given to welcome home Sir Henry Irving after his American tour. D’Oyly Carte presided, and among the 200 persons present were United States Ambassador Choate, Henry White, Secretary of the United States Embassy, Bradley Martin, the Earl of Craven, F. Burnand, Reginald Ward, Charles Frohman, Maurice Grau, Bret Harte, Lord Russell, [Sir Laurens] Alma Tadema, Anthony Hope, and Mark Twain.

Sir Henry was given a tremendous reception when he rose to respond to the toast of his health, but the features of the evening were the speeches made by Ambassador Choate and Mark Twain.

….

Mark Twain’s speech, in which he described his experience as a dramatist, was received with continuous laughter. [Note: see the text of Mark’s short speech in Fatout, MT Speaking p.338-9].

Note: Sam’s toast preceded Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s (1855-1934), playwright of The Gay Lord Quex: A Comedy in Four Acts, which Sam would later see in N.Y.C. on Nov. 14. In his toast Sam said of Pinero: “He has not written as many plays as I have, but he has had the God-given talent, which I lack, of working them off on the manager” [Gribben 547].