October 21 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Professor Farnam. / Yale Leave 4.pm. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes’s Mother. [inserted above:] Sec’y of Yale / 88 Trumbull St.” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: Henry W. Farnam (1853-1933), professor of economics at Yale.

Sam went to New Haven, Conn. to take part in the festivities for Yale University’s Bicentennial celebration. He would stay there until Oct. 24 and receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree; he already had an honorary MA degree from Yale (1888) [Oct. 22 to Livy; MTHL 2: 730n3].

The Independent (NY) described the day and evening festivities, most of which Sam chose to miss:

Those who came Monday morning saw thousands of graduates in the streets and on the campus, while everywhere, in flags and elaborate decorations, Yale blue met the eye. That morning the new gateway—a memorial to [Ward] Cheney and [Gerard Merrick] Ives, who gave up their lives in the war with Spain—was dedicated, and in the chapel there were addresses, largely historical, by Thomas Thatcher (class of ’71), on Yale in its relation to the Law, and by Professor Welch (’70), of Johns Hopkins University, on the relation of Yale to Medicine. At these exercises were sung Dr. Leonard Bacon’s hymn, “O God, beneath Thy guiding hand,” and Finch’s “Gather ye smiles from ocean isles,” which had been written for the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. In the afternoon the guests were formally welcomed by President Hadley, and among those responding were Dr. Williams, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; Professor Martens, of the University of St. Petersburg; President Harper, of Chicago, and President Eliot, of Harvard. For the night’s torchlight procession great preparations had been made. The old Green was brilliantly illuminated. More than 7,000 were in line, and 6,000 of these were Yale men, displaying an interesting variety of costume and enjoying themselves in a jolly way. For two miles they marched along, passing through crowded and brightly lighted streets [Oct. 31, 1901 p. 2553]. Note: In the order named: Dr. Arthur Twining Hadley (1856-1930), President of Yale (1899-1921); Dr. William Henry Welch (1850-1934); Dr. James 

Williams (1851-1911); Friedrich Fromhold Martens (1845-1909); William Rainey Harper (1856-1906).

Sometime during the celebrations Sam accidentally met Adele Chapin (Mrs. Robert Chapin), whom he had first met in South Africa in 1896 and later seen often in London. Chapin recollected this meeting with Twain and a poem reading, which seems to fit this day or the next:

We lunched with the Choates and Mark Twain and President and Mrs. Hadley were there. After lunch Mr. Clemens, delighted to see us again, said, “Come with me”; and we followed him to his lodgings, where we became engrossed in talk. Suddenly he remembered that it was time to go on to the reading of the Poem for the occasion, to which only the elect were invited, and we were not. I explained this to him, but he only said: “That makes no difference; come with me.” My husband protested, but I followed Mr. Clemens. The crowd was dense, but at once made way for the great man, who was instantly recognized, and we followed in his wake. He marched into the great hall, giving me the open sesame by a wave of his hand; and, beckoning to me to follow, he walked on to the platform and seated me between himself and Booker Washington. I was the only lady on the platform and an object of much curiosity and amusement to my friends who recognized me from the boxes [216-17]. Note: Joseph Hodges Choate, at this time US Ambassador to England (1899-1905); Yale President Arthur Twining Hadley; Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute.