June 25 Tuesday – This day’s issue of Punch was dedicated to Mark Twain, and included a full-page cartoon, by Bernard Partridge (see insert); the original would be presented to Sam at the July 9 Punch dinner by little Joy Agnew. The New York Times, June 26, 1907, p. 5, ran a Special Cablegram article on the “certification” of Mark Twain as a humorist by the publication.
MARK TWAIN HUMOR APPROVED BY PUNCH
A Big Cartoon Dedicated to Him and the Staff Will Dine Him.
GUEST OF THE PILGRIMS
——— ——— ——— ———
Special Cablegram.
Notable Luncheon Given, to Which 1,000 Notable Vainly Ask to be Bidden.
Copyright, 1907, by THE NEW YORK TIMES CO.
LONDON, June 25.—Mark Twain will go back to America duly certificated [sic] as a humorist. Punch, which regards Americans generally as lacking in the sense of humor, does not consider Mark Twain deficient in that respect. He is one of their own kind. The Punch people think, and they are kittening to him with their whole hearts. They exhibit their feeling for him in a full page cartoon in today’s issue, which is dedicated to him. Mark Twain appears seated at a table, on which stands a big steaming punch bowl. Mr. Punch, who is placed in the foreground, drinks to Mark Twain’s health, the toast being:
“Sir, I honor myself by drinking to your health. Long life to you and happiness and perpetual youth.”
Mark Twain expects to have a grand time at a dinner which The Punch people will give to him. They asked him which he would rather do, “Go to a hotel and have something decent to eat,” or dine at the famous Long Table in Punch’s office. He voted unanimously for the Long Table.
London literary folk are rather amused at the announcement that Mark Twain will dine on Saturday at Stratford with Marie Corelli, but I am told that he will find in Miss Corelli one of the his warmest admirers and most appreciative readers.
Sam was the guest of honor for a luncheon given by the Pilgrims Club at the Savoy Hotel. Paine calls this “one of the most elaborate occasions of his visit.” The Pilgrims had chapters on both sides of the Atlantic [MTB 1389-91]. The event was widely reported. The London Tribune observed the event gave Mark Twain “further material for his biography,” and that during the luncheon a band played music known on both sides of the ocean, such as Marching on Georgia, and Camptown Races, and The Stars and Stripes” [June 26, p. 8, “Mark Twain Tells a Hat Story”]. The Edinburg Evening Dispatch called it “A large and distinguished company assembled to do honour the the well-known American humourist” [June 26, p.5, “‘Mark Twain’ Among the Pilgrims”]. The London Daily Graphic observed “Mark Twain is enjoying himself,” while the London Daily Chronicle reported Sam’s “grave, grim face set in a stern mould, which could not conceal the creases that yield to the impule of laughter” [MTFWE 37].
Insert: luncheon program cover
Paine gives us his version:
At this luncheon the picture on the bill of fare represented him as a robed pilgrim, with a great pen for his staff, turning his back on the Mississippi River and being led along his literary way by a huge jumping frog, to which he is attached by a string. On a guest-card was printed:
Pilot of many Pilgrims since the shout
“Mark Twain!”—that serves you for a deathless sign—
On Mississippi’s waterway rang out
Over the plummet’s line—
Still where the countless ripples laugh above
The blue of halcyon seas long may you keep
Your course unbroken, buoyed upon a love
Ten thousand fathoms deep!
—O. S. [OWEN SEAMAN].
Augustine Birrell made the speech of introduction, closing with this paragraph:
Mark Twain is a man whom Englishmen and Americans do well to honor. He is a true consolidator of nations. His delightful humor is of the kind which dissipates and destroys national prejudices. His truth and his honor—his love of truth and his love of honor— overflow all boundaries. He has made the world better by his presence, and we rejoice to see him here. Long may he live to reap a plentiful harvest of hearty honest human affection.
The toast was drunk standing. Then Clemens rose and made a speech which delighted all England. In his introduction Mr. Birrell had happened to say, “How I came here I will not ask!”
Clemens remembered this, and looking down into Mr. Birrell’s wine-glass, which was apparently unused, he said:
“Mr. Birrell doesn’t know how he got here. But he will be able to get away all right—he has not drunk anything since he came.”
He told stories about Howells and Twichell, and how Darwin had gone to sleep reading his books, and then he came down to personal things and company, and told them how, on the day of his arrival, he had been shocked to read on a great placard, “Mark Twain Arrives: Ascot Cup Stolen.”
No doubt many a person was misled by those sentences joined together in that unkind way. I have no doubt my character has suffered from it. I suppose I ought to defend my character, but how can I defend it? I can say here and now that anybody can see by my face that I am sincere —that I speak the truth, and that I have never seen that Cup. I have not got the Cup, I did not have a chance to get it. I have always had a good character in that way. I have hardly ever stolen anything, and if I did steal anything I had discretion enough to know about the value of it first. I do not steal things that are likely to get myself into trouble. I do not think any of us do that. I know we all take things—that is to be expected; but really I have never taken anything, certainly in England, that amounts to any great thing. I do confess that when I was here seven years ago I stole a hat—but that did not amount to anything. It was not a good hat it was only a clergyman’s hat, anyway. I was at a luncheon-party and Archdeacon Wilberforce was there also. I dare say he is archdeacon now—he was a canon then—and he was serving in the Westminster Battery, if that is the proper term. I do not know, as you mix military and ecclesiastical things together so much.
He recounted the incident of the exchanged hats; then he spoke of graver things. He closed: I cannot always be cheerful, and I cannot always be chaffing. I must sometimes lay the cap and bells aside and recognize that I am of the human race. I have my cares and griefs, and I therefore noticed what Mr. Birrell said—I was so glad to hear him say it—something that was in the nature of these verses here at the top of the program:
He lit our life with shafts of sun
And vanquished pain.
Thus two great nations stand as one
In honoring Twain.
I am very glad to have those verses. I am very glad and very grateful for what Mr. Birrell said in that connection. I have received since I have been here, in this one week, hundreds of letters from all conditions of people in England, men, women, and children, and there is compliment, praise, and, above all, and better than all, there is in them a note of affection.
Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection—that is the last and final and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement, and I am very grateful to have that reward. All these letters make me feel that here in England, as in America, when I stand under the English or the American flag I am not a, stranger, I am not an alien, but at home [MTB 1389-91]..
Right after the Pilgrim Club lunch, Sam left for Oxford with Robert P. Porter of the London Times. Sam would be Porter’s guest for the next few days [MTB 1392]. Sam arrived at Oxford at 7 p.m. and was soon trying on the scarlet gown for the tailor—it fit him well [MTFWE 54: MTAD July 26, 1907]
Isabel Lyon’s journal: In bed all day with hot water bottle and Phenacatine [sic] to drive out this something in my shoulder, and it is going. I have been reading Orion’s Autobiography and it is a pitiful story. He paints the King in his true colors, and himself in truer. Poor, poor creature. He wrote of Whitelaw Reid’s enmity to the King; and here in this far distant day—35 years later—Reid is Ambassador to England and is entertaining the King. Dr. Quintard sputtered finely against Reid and called him splendid, bad names for not giving a better banquet for the King—“only painters and writers, when he might have had dukes there.” For myself, I believe the men Reid invited were more acceptable to the King than the titled men would have been; for the men there were most of them men who have achieved from within themselves. Whereas a Duke is a Duke only by an accident. Not that the King is without appreciating the nobility of the earth; he is too much in favor of monarchical government to lose sight of the value of a man’s high birth. But no matter. We plan to sail for Nova Scotia on Saturday to be away about 12 days [MTP 76-77]. Note: Phenacetin, introduced in 1887, was used mostly as an analgesic; one of the first synthetic fever reducers on the market.
Miss Helen Bywater wrote for the American Rendezvous Club, London, sending the Club rules and hoping Sam might call [MTP].
H. Walter Barnett, London photographer, wrote, deciding it best for him not to go to Oxford to take pictures of Sam in his robes but to have him sit upon his return—he would make an appointment for when it was convenient [MTP].
Laurence V. Benet, President American Chamber of Commerce in Paris wrote to invite Sam to a July 4 banquet there [MTP].
Grace Hodson Boutelle wrote from Chelsea:
“Yesterday I caught a glimpse of you at Hyde Park Corner that took me back years and years and miles and miles to a long ago June week at West Point, when you made the heart of a small girl glad for at least ten exultant minutes, by talking to her as if she were a person whose opinions were worthy of the most interested attention.” If Sam “could and would” make up his mind what he thought of George Bernard Shaw, and confide it to her, she promised “to repeat it only to the discreet ears of the Boston Transcript.” [MTP].
Evelyn Bigelow Clark, daughter of Poultney Bigelow, wrote from Paris that she would be in London on July 2 and 3—could he possibly lunch with her and husband? [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Declined full up”
Marie Corelli telegraphed THREE times to Ashcroft trying to set a date for Sam’s visit to Stratford [MTP].
Fontaine, London correspondent for Le Matin, wrote to ask “a few minutes intercourse to discuss with you a private matter” [MTP].
P.P. Gieve wrote from London, glad to get his “letter of the 20th , with its humorous signature” [MTP].
Director Johann Glaw wrote a letter of congratulations in German on Sanatorium Johannisbad letterhead [MTP].
Hugh Hamber wrote from England to ask why it was that humorists like himself and Bret Harte “come amongst us and are so much appreciated by high and low?” Why was it Americans “basked in the sunshile of Royal smiles” and admire the “slightly superior style of ‘Noblesse Oblige’.” He thought the bit about George Washington never telling a lie was “bosh” [MTP].
F. Jerome Hart wrote from London asking if he could “find time to give Histed the photographer of 42 Baker Street a sitting?” He sent a specimen of Histed’s work, also recommended by Bernard Shaw [MTP]. Note: Sam did sit for Histed; see July 3 from Hart.
Maurice Hime wrote from County Donegal, Ireland asking Sam to accept “this little book,” A Plea for Cheerfulness, “for which you have done so much” [MTP].
R.W. Johnson, London, wrote a clever poem asking Sam to send a joke [MTP].
J.W.T. Ley for Dickens Fellowship inviting Sam to attend the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the publication of the Pickwick Papers, July 19 to Aug. 28 [MTP].
John S. MacDonald wrote from Lee, S.E., London “Will you pity a Scotchman in dire distress? I have undertaken to prepare and deliver a lecture on American Humour. May I beg a word of sympathy by way of encouragement?” [MTP].
Frank Newnes wrote on George Newnes, Limited letterhead: “The bearer of this, Mr Charles Lavell, would greatly appreciate an interview…as we have asked him to approach you with a proposal for the publication of some of your books in this country” [MTP].
Margaret Osgood wrote an invitation for Sam to stay with them while he was in Oxford. Her husband was “dying to meet” him and her daughter, Mrs Fiske Morieu (sp?) would like to see him again [MTP].
An unidentified person sent Sam the following clipping from the Evening Standard of June 25:
Mark Twain’s Reply.
Responding, Mark Twain said praise was well, compliment was well, but affection was the last and most precious reward which had been accorded to him. It make him feel when he was here in England that he was not an alien nor a stranger, but that he was at home.
Fanny S. Ware wrote from Exeter to beg for monetary help [MTP].
Elizabeth Woodruff wrote thanks for Sam’s reply to her letter. Marie Corelli had consented to write the preface to her forthcoming book. Her deep regret was she did not have “a few words of some kind from” his pen [MTP].
Sir Benjamin Stone wrote confirming the acceptance of his invitation by Clemens and Ashcroft to lunch at the House of Commons Tuesday July 9 at 1:45 p.m. [MTP].
Gabriel Timmory wrote from Paris, France concerning dramatization of The Stolen White Elephant and also How I Edited an Agricultural Paper [MTP].