March – The March issue of The Critic ran a full -length, double -page color portrait frontispiece of Mark Twain, from a pastel drawing by Everett Shinn (1876-1953). It was so noted by the New York Times, Mar. 3, p. BR9, which included a two-sentence squib that the caricature gave the impression that Twain was a very tall man. Perlman writes:

Shinn sketched the author’s distinguished head, then created an illusory body to go with it. Longer and longer the figure stretched until Mark Twain’s facial likeness was dwarfed by a body of gigantic proportions. The diminutive head assumed the appearance of a carved handle atop an umbrella. Yet apparently no one on The Critic staff had ever seen the great Twain, for there was no criticism of this inaccurate representation. The finished pastel drawing was accepted, and a fully seven-foot-tall literary giant was fed into the presses [106]. Note: Perlman goes on to relate that Shinn did not realize his mistake until he saw Twain “Standing upon the deck of the S.S. Minnehaha at Cherbourg” a year later.

In his Apr. 7 to John Brisben Walker, Sam confessed investing $23,000 (£5,000) in Plasmon “A month ago,” or early March (see below). In his Apr. 8 and 9 to Rogers, Sam wrote he first used Plasmon, then called “Vienna Albumen” to cure dyspepsia (indigestion) in 1897 in Vienna.

The Plasmon Syndicate in America would give way to the Plasmon Company of America in the spring of 1902. See entry.