March 27 Friday – The Bermuda Royal Gazette of Mar. 31 reported Sam’s reading of Kipling’s poems at Shoreby on Mar. 27 for the guests of Mrs. Mary Allen Peck:  “He read these in a tone and with a depth of feeling that gave to the verses a value seldom recognized” [D. Hoffman 108]. Note: Gribben offers more detail:

…Clemens repeatedly read aloud to groups of vacationing Americans in Bermuda in 1908. “These people had never, never heard anything of the real Kipling before,” an admiring Isabel Lyon commented in her journal. Following a reading on March 27th Miss Lyon heard one of the fifteen people present, a Mr. Chamberlain, declare that “there isn’t anyone else in the world who could read between the lines as the King can” (Lyon’s journal, TS 313, MTP). Another account of these Kipling readings appears in Elizabeth Wallace’s valuable if saccharine memoir, Mark Twain and the Happy Island (1913), pp. 93-100. Miss Wallace, the dean of women at the University of Chicago, heard Clemens entertain Henry H. Rogers and other friends in his hotel room in Hamilton on several occasions in March and April 1908. She remembered that Clemens held his pipe in one hand and gesticulated with it during highly dramatic passages. Rogers urged his friend Clemens not to read “too slowly” [376].

The New York Times, p. 1 included a short article about Mark Twain in Bermuda:

NEWS FROM MARK TWAIN.

———

Enjoying Himself in Bermuda and Teaching Little Girls to be Wise.

      Some new epigrams by Mark Twain were brought home yesterday by the Quebec Line steamer Bermudian from Bermuda. Among the passengers was Miss Jeanne [sic Jean] Spurr, a Newark little girl, who proudly showed a ball programme on which Mr. Clemens had written:  

      “Considering the proportion of things, it is better to be a young June bug than an old bird of Paradise.”

      C.H. Pedrie of Glens Falls, N.Y., told of an incident at the ball. Mr. Clemens, seeing another little girl making faces and otherwise causing consternation to her guardians, wrote on her programme:

      “Never do anything naughty when any one’s looking.”

      Mr. Pedrie said that Mark Twain spends most of his time romping with the children and telling them stories.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Two days ago I gave Mrs. Freeman “Eve’s Diary” to read and today when I went to her room and she said she had finished it between laughter and tears, and that she didn’t see how a man could ever get into the heart of a woman as he had done, she finished her worshipful delight by saying “but he is just a combination of God and women and little children, and so he is the perfect man.” It was a darling tribute for me to be able to bring back to the King, and he gathered it to his heart, as only he could.

This afternoon we went over to Mrs. Peck’s, for last night the King said he would read Kipling over there to Col. Graham, and someone else, and the someone elses ran up to about 15. These people had never, never heard anything of the real Kipling before for as Mr. Chamberlain said: there isn’t anyone else in the world who could read between the lines as the King can. It was a proud hour for me, and almost spoiled a little by having Josephine Bacon recite some baby verses and then stand and bid for the applause that she got—of course—and the King was annoyed almost into showing that annoyance [MTP: IVL TS 38-39].

I.K. Funk for Funk & Wagnalls wrote, enclosing a tract, “A Uniform Alphabet For Respelling for Pronunciation” and asking his “careful attention.” The tract was “sent only for criticism” and not for public use. “I would take it as a special favor if you should write me fully” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answrd Mch. 30 – wd. File to mail Mr. C’s return / He cannot do these things ---"

Howells & Stokes wrote again with more details on the Redding house’s finishing touches