March 16 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Male teachers of N.Y.? 6.30. I better go at 8.15. / Irving Bacheller there. Hotel Albert. Van E. Kilpatrick. Carriage will call for me at 8.15. General topic, Training of a citizen” [NB 44 TS 7].
The whirl of speaking engagements continued with Mark Twain talking at the Hotel Albert for the monthly supper of the Male Teachers’ Association of N.Y.C. The New York Times, Mar. 17, p.2, reported:
MARK TWAIN ON TRAINING THAT PAYS
———
Speaks at the Supper of the Male Teachers’ Association.
———
He Says that He Intended to Build Sixty-five Libraries, but Changed His Mind.
———
The regular monthly supper of the Male Teachers’ Association of the City of New York was held at the Hotel Albert, East Eleventh Street and University Place, last evening. About 150 teachers from all the boroughs were present. George H. Chatfield, the President of the association, was the toastmaster, and the principal speakers were State Superintendent of Schools Charles H. Skinner and Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain.)
Dr. Skinner was the first speaker introduced, and he spoke on “Patriotism for the Young.” He told of the patriotic exercises used in all the public schools at least once a week. Among other things he said: “Our schools must make our citizens, and our richest assets are our children. In these times, under present conditions, citizenship means a great responsibility, a very great responsibility to put on our boys. Our Republic has changed its place from a doubtful position In the line to the first place among the nations of the earth. We have told the world that we care not for contest, but that barbarism cannot be practiced in the Western Hemisphere. Today we do not care to own Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines, but we do want to keep them from the dark rule of a barbarian people.”
Mrs. Clemens was then introduced, his subject being, “Training That Pays.” In part, he said:
“We cannot all agree. That is most fortunate. If we could all agree life would be too dull. I believe if we did all agree I would take my departure before my appointed time, that is if I had the courage to do so. I do agree in part with what Mr. Skinner has said. In fact, more than I usually agree with other people. I believe that there are no private citizens in a republic. Every man is an official; above all, he is a policeman. He does not need to wear a helmet and brass buttons, but his duty is to look after the enforcement of the laws.
“If patriotism had been taught in the schools years ago the country would not be in the position it is in today. Mr. Skinner is better satisfied with the present conditions than I am. I would teach patriotism in the schools, and teach it this way: I would throw out the old maxim, ‘My country, right or wrong,’ &c., instead I would say, ‘My country when she is right.’
“I would not take my patriotism from my neighbor or from Congress. I should teach the children in the schools that there are certain ideals, and one of them is that all men are created free and equal. Another that the proper government is that which exists by the consent of the governed. If Mr. Skinner and I had to take care of the public schools I would raise up a lot of patriots who would get into trouble with his.
“I should also teach the rising patriot that if he ever became the Government of the United States and made a promise that he should keep it. I will not go any further into politics as I would get excited, and I don’t like to get excited. I prefer to remain calm. I have been a teacher all my life, and never got a cent for teaching.”
The speaker then cited some incidents from his boyhood life which, he said, he had later incorporated in his books. The fence whitewashing incident in “Tom Sawyer,” he said, brought him in S4,000 in the end, when he never expected to get anything for teaching the other boys how to whitewash way back in 1849.
“I have a benevolent faculty,” continued the speaker. “It does not always show, but it is there. We have had some millionaires who gave money to colleges. Now we have Mr. Carnegie building sixty-five new libraries. There is an educator for you on a large scale. I was going to do it myself, but when I found out it would cost over five millions I changed my mind, as I was afraid it would bankrupt me.
“When I found out Mr. Carnegie was going to do it, I told him he could have my ideas gratis. I said to him, ‘Are the books that are going to be put into the new libraries on a high moral plane?’ If they are not, I told him he had better build the libraries and I would write the books. With the wealth I would get out of writing the books, I could build libraries and then he could write books.
“I am glad that Mr. Carnegie has done this magnificent thing, and as the newspapers have suggested, I hope that other rich men will follow his example and continue to do so until it becomes a habit they cannot break.”
Among the other speakers were Sydney C. Walmsley, Dr. Myron T. Scudder, and Magnus Gross.
Harper’s Weekly ran an affectionate poem in Negro dialect by “Uncle Ephe”: “To Mark Twain: A Southern Tribute” on p. 301 [Tenney 34].