November 29 Thursday – Sam wrote his famous “Salutation-Speech from the 19th Century to the 20th” heading it “(For Red-Cross Watch -Night)”. After discovering that the Red Cross Society was doing advance advertising using his name he requested the piece be returned unpublished. He would then send it to the New England Anti-Imperialist League, and the New York Herald, dating it Dec. 31. It ran on Dec. 30 [Zwick, “Who Wrote the Couplet? etc.” MTJ 27.1 (Spring 1989): 34]. Note: See Dec. 30.

Robert C. Ogden’s article, “Mark Twain, American,” ran in Nation (NY), LXXI p.419-20. Tenney: “Praises MT’s public spirit in taking action against small abuses such as overcharging by a cabman, and condemning great wrongs committed in the Philippines and China. He deserves our gratitude for speaking out, for ‘refusing to join the writers who pet and humor the crowd. He has, rather, taken advantage of his assured position to speak words of truth and soberness to his fellow-countrymen, placing the obligations of the citizen above the amiabilities of the man of letters. This puts him as much morally above the mob of literary time-servers as his writings place him artistically.’ (The attribution to Ogden is by POOLE’S INDEX, V (1897-1902, 595.)” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p. 171]. Note: see also Tenney p.31 for the same listing.