May 3 Friday – In London Whitelaw Reid sent a momentous cable to Sam in care of Harper & Brothers, N.Y. It was received in New York at 2:40 p.m.
“OXFORD UNIVERSITY WOULD CONFER DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LETTERS ON YOU ON JUNE 26 BUT PERSONAL PRESENCE NECESSARY CABLE ME WHETHER YOU CAN COME” [MTFWE 4]. Note: in his May 23 A.D. Sam reflected on the cablegram and his acceptance “without any waste of time.” See MTFWE p.4-5 for the full text. Insert Cable: [Baetzhold 243].
Sam then cabled Reid and also wrote a note. His cable:
“I WILL COME WITH GREATEST PLEASURE” [MTP].
His note to Reid:
“Recognition by Oxford is praise from St. Hubert indeed, & your cablegram of today was very welcome, I answered it by cable, & shall follow in person in time to reach England a safe day or two before the named day, the 26 of June” [MTP]. Note: See May 23 for Sam’s reaction written on that day.
At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to C.F. Moberly Bell, editor of the London Times:
“Dear Mr. Bell: / Your hand is in it! & you have my best thanks. Although I wouldn’t cross an ocean again for the price of the ship that carried me, I am glad to do it for an Oxford degree. I shall plan to sail for England a shade before the middle of June, so that I can have a few days in London before the 26 ”[MTP].
Sam also wrote to Adele Durant Holt of the Century Theatre Club.
I thank the committee heartily for their invitation, just received, & would accept it, but that I have already accepted the invitation of the Players.
It grieves me that the Club should think an apology due me, for indeed it is not so. They offered me a courtesy, & I remember it & appreciate it; but they have not offered me a discourtesy, nor anything resembling it.
It is true that an attempt (not authorized by the Club) was made to hurt my feelings, but it did not have that effect. When I have been doing wrong, my feelings are sensitive, but when I have not been doing wrong, attacks upon them find them almost abnormally torpid. ….[MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “A cablegram from Whitelaw Reid invites the King to go to Oxford for the degree of L.L. D. to be there on June 26th and the King accepts. It is too splendid. ‘Col. Harvey is the mensch to go’ the King says” [MTP TS 55].
What with all the fog in Norfolk, Virginia, an erroneous report came datelined May 3 that Mark Twain and the yacht Kanawha were missing
Frank N. Doubleday for Doubleday, Page & Co. wrote to Sam asking if he could buy copies of “What is Man?” for $2 each from DeVinne, as he was getting requests for them. Also, was it all right to give a book to John Quincy Adams, whom he didn’t know [MTP].
Robert S. Hart, Secretary for Governor of Maryland, Edwin Warfield wrote to advise Sam of some details about his forthcoming trip to Annapolis [MTP].
Chapters from “My Autobiography—XVII” ran in the N.A.R. p.1-12.