January 20 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Fifth Ave Synagogue About 8.30 o’clock—Meyer / 150 girls—4 type, now 21 in a year. Carriage at 8” [NB 44 TS 4]. Note: Nathaniel Myers (1848-1921), corporate attorney, and President of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls [obit: NY Times, 31 Aug. 1921, p. 9].

The New York Times, p.4 ran this brief announcement:

Mark Twain at Temple Emanu-El.

Mark Twain will talk to the members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at the annual meeting of the school, to be held in the Temple Emanu-El to-night. Mr. Clemens will “say a few things” after the transaction of the routine business, election of Trustees, and reading of the annual reports. The public is invited.

Fatout writes about this school and Sam’s talk:

The Hebrew Technical School for Girls, a philanthropic institution incorporated in 1884, was the only one in the city offering vocational training to Jewish girls. At the annual meeting of the society, President Nathaniel Meyers reviewed the work of the school on Henry Street, and urged that people of means remember it in their wills. Mark Twain, as was to be expected, spoke to a packed house [MT Speaking 374].

Fatout (p.374-6) and the Times also reported Sam’s remarks:

MARK TWAIN SAYS WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

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Men Belong to Two “Petrified Parties,” the Humorist Declares.

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NEW YORK CITY A DISGRACE

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Mr. Clemens Makes an Address Before the Members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls.

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Expressing himself as strongly in favor of woman’s rights, in the past, the present, and the future, Mark Twain, at the annual meeting of the meeting of the members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls, last night said that he believed that if women had the right of suffrage such corruption as is said to exist in this city would be swept away. He predicted that the time would come when women in this city would be allowed to vote, and he contended that it would mean much for the purity of the city when such was the case.

The meeting at which Mr. Clemens made these predictions, in a speech of characteristic humor and wit, was held in the vestry room of the Temple Emanu-El, Fifth Avenue and Forty-fourth Street. Every seat was taken, long before the exercises began, with members of the society and its well wishers. Mr. Clemens entered with Nathaniel Meyers, the President, and as he took his seat on the platform there was a greeting of applause.

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An election of Trustees followed, and then Mr. Meyer introduced Mr. Clemens, saying that he was one who had no prejudices against any kind of man and adding:

“In one of his works he says that he has no prejudice, whether a man be white or black, Jew or Gentile, debtor or creditor, old or young. The moment he says he is a man he can’t say anything worse. But Mr. Clemens has not told us what he thinks of women. So we have asked him to come here and perhaps he will tell us that. He said he could not resist a request to help our cause.”

MARK TWAIN’S ADDRESS.

Mr. Clemens said that such help as he was able to give he gave willingly, but it was the kind of help that came from his heart through the mouth.

“Mr. Meyers has conducted this matter with distinguished ability,” he continued, “but at the end of this report I noticed a defect. He made such a strong appeal to those people who are going to make their wills. Some of you are here, you know. Such an appeal loosens your purse strings and you want to give. Well, when he was talking I thought, ‘Now he’s going to do it.’ When a man makes an appeal like that he ought not to make it for day after tomorrow. We are all creatures of impulse. It’s a great mistake to get everybody ready to give money and then not pass the hat.” After the laughter had subsided the speaker went on to tell a little story.

“Some years ago in Hartford,” he said, “we all went to the church on a hot, sweltering night, to hear the annual report of Mr. Hawley, a city missionary, who went around finding the people who needed help and didn’t want to ask for it. He told of the life in the cellars where poverty resided, he gave instances of the heroism and devotion of the poor. The poor are always good to each other. When a man with millions gives we make a great deal of noise. It’s noise in the wrong place. For it’s the widow’s mite that counts.

“Well, Hawley worked me up to a great state. I couldn’t wait for him to get through. I had four hundred dollars in my pocket. I wanted to give that and borrow more to give. You could see greenbacks in every eye. But he didn’t pass the plate, and it grew hotter and we grew sleepier. My enthusiasm went down, down, down—$100 at a time, till finally when the plate came round I stole 10 cents out of it. [Prolonged laughter.] So you see a neglect like that may lead to crime.”

Clemens then said that he though the President’s description of the Institution as “almost a model school” would be improved by the omission of the word “almost.” He added that in the statement of the neglect of the Virgin Mary he recognized the truth, though he had not read it recently.

“Man has made woman what she is,” he went on. “He has kept her down in her proper place. Your president sits here in that self-satisfied conceit of his, and assumes that I don’t know anything about women. Why, I’ve been in favor of women’s rights for years. I see in this school a hope for the realization of a project I have always dreamed of. Why, do you know, when I looked at my gray-haired old mother, with her fine head and noble thoughts, I really almost suspected, toward the last, that she was quite as capable of voting as I was. He’s got the wrong notion if he thinks I don’t know anything about women.

WOMEN MAY VOTE.

“I know that since the women started out on their crusade they have scored in every project they undertook against unjust laws. I would like to see them help make the laws and those who are to enforce them. I would like to see the whiplash in women’s hands. The suffrage in the hands of the men degenerates into a couple of petrified parties. The man votes for his party and gets the city in the condition this one is in now—a disgrace to civilization. If I live seventy-five years more—well, I won’t—fifty years, then, or twenty-five, I think I’ll see women use the ballot. It’s the possession of the ballot that counts. If women had it you could tell how they would use it.

“Bring before them such a state of affairs as existed in New York City today and they would rise in their strength at the next election, elect a mayor, and sweep away corruption.

“True, they might sit ten years and never use it, but on such occasions they would cast it. Or in the case of an unjust war. Why, war might even pass away and arbitration take its place. It never will so long as men have the votes.”

Mr. Clemens said that the contention that only vicious women would vote was absurd. “How many of our 600,000 women are vicious?” he asked. “Not enough to amount to anything. If women could vote, each party would feel compelled to put up the best candidate it could or take the risk of being voted down by the women. States are built on morals—not intellects. And men would never get any morals at all if the women didn’t put it into them when they were boys. If women could vote the good women would all vote one way. Men won’t do that. It’s a choice of evils with them.”

Mr. Clemens then said that he had noticed that the President had said that previous to a year ago the Institution had a lady Board of Managers, but now it had men.

“And now,” he added, amid laughter, “he says they have twenty-one typewriters, whereas before they had only four. Oh, I like that modesty. We men are all like that. Well, at any rate I hope a lot of us will die and leave something in our wills.”

Edward P. Clarke wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam asking his terms for working up CY into a comic opera. He also complimented Sam on his remarks on equal rights given at the Hebrew Industrial School for Girls

[MTP]. Note: Clarke misdated this Jan. 19, but Sam gave his talk at Hebrew School on Jan 20.