March 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Andrew Carnegie’s / 2 E. 91st st. 8 p.m. / to meet Sidney Lee. / [Horiz. Line separator] / John P. Jones / 237 Stuyvesant / Bet. 16 & 17th & 2d & 3d ave” [NB 46 TS 13].
Sam spoke at the Sidney Lee dinner with Andrew Carnegie as host. Sidney Lee (1859 -1926), assistant editor of England’s The Dictionary of National Biography (1883-1890), and chief editor (1891). He was also an Elizabethan scholar, publishing several works on the Bard. In MTE: 331-8, Sam described the extreme shyness of the guest of honor and the hemming and hawing of such practiced speakers as William Dean Howells, Carl Schurz, Richard Watson Gilder, and Melville Stone, all of whom seemed affected by Lee’s timid nature.
Fatout: “Brander Matthews remarks, The Tocsin of Revolt :272, that ‘When Mark’s turn came, he soared aloft in whimsical exaggeration, casually dropping a reference to the time when he had lent Carnegie a million dollars. Our smiling host promptly interjected: “That had slipped my memory!”And Mark looked down on him solemnly, and retorted: “Then the next time, I’ll take a receipt” [MT Speaking 672-3].
The New York Times ran a notice on p.9 of a Mark Twain play in Paris, France:
“The Stolen White Elephant” as a Play
PARIS, March 27.—The French dramatization of Mark Twain’s “The Stolen White Elephant” will be given at the Odéon Theatare to-morrow. The Authors are MM. Alex and Max Fischer. Mr. Clemens has sent to the management the following characteristic telegram, which will be read at the performance: “Best compliments to the dramatists. I hope the detectives will shed glory on a cruelly slandered profession.”