June 30 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam and Paine traveled to Portsmouth, N.H. for the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Museum, an event staged by Lillian Aldrich.
The New York Times, July 1, p. 16 covered the event:
MEMORIAL TO T. B. ALDRICH
———
Notable Speakers at Opening of Poet’s Home as Museum.
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., June 30.—A large gathering of distinguished persons, representatives of many walks of life, came to this city today to do honor to the memory of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the poet, by assisting in the exercises held in connection with the dedication and opening of the poet’s former home as a memorial museum.
Mayor Wallace Hackett of Portsmouth, President of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Association, presided over the exercises, which had been arranged under the direction of Major Talbot Aldrich, son of the poet.
Prominent among those who took part in the literary exercises were Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr., of Massachusetts, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Richard Watson Gilder, and Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) of New York, and Thomas Nelson Page of Washington, D. C., fellow authors and friends of Mr. Aldrich.
Sam’s A.D. of July 3, 1908 reflected on this day and criticized placing the museum in “that decayed town,” where few would visit:
Last Monday, Albert Bigelow Paine personally conducted me to Boston, and the next day to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to assist at the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Museum. …
The justification for an Aldrich Memorial Museum for pilgrims to visit and hallow with their homage may exist, but to me it seems doubtful. Aldrich was never widely known; his books never attained to a wide circulation; his prose was diffuse, self-conscious and barren of distinction in the matter of style; his fame as a writer of prose is not considerable; his fame as a writer of verse is also very limited, but as such as it is it is a matter to be proud of. It is based not upon his output of poetry as a whole but upon half a dozen small poems which are not surpassed in our language for exquisite grace and beauty and finish. These gems are known and admired and loved by the one person in ten thousand who is capable of appreciating them at their just value [Neider 358; Gribben 16]. Note: Hill writes: “Mrs. Aldrich earned five days of spectacular venom for her pretentious but miserly behavior at her husband’s memorial (July 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9)” [209].
MTHL 2: 831n2 gives more detail of the dedication:
At the time, on the stage of the Opera House, Howells had murmured to Clemens that Aldrich would have treated the whole affair as an old-time minstrel show. Clemens further said: “Howells’s speech [concerning his relations with Aldrich on the staff of the Atlantic] was brief, and naturally, and necessarily felicitously, worded, for fine thought and perfect wording are a natural gift with Howells and he had it by heart and delivered it well; but he read his poem from manuscript. He did it gracefully and well, then added it to the pile and came back to his seat by my side, glad it was over and looking like a pardoned convict. Then I abolished my prepared and vaguely and ineffectually memorized solemnities and finished the day’s performance with twelve minutes of lawless and unconfined and desecrating nonsense.”
Paine writes of an exchange with J.T. Trowbridge after the ceremonies:
Outside, when the services were ended, the venerable juvenile writer, J. T. Trowbridge, came up to Clemens with extended hand. Clemens said: “Trowbridge, are you still alive? You must be a thousand years old. Why, I listened to your stories while I was being rocked in the cradle.”
Trowbridge said:
“Mark, there’s some mistake. My earliest infant smile was wakened with one of your jokes.”
They stood side by side against a fence in the blazing sun and were photographed — an interesting picture [MTB 1456].
In the evening after the event, Sam and Paine returned to the Hotel Touraine in Boston [July 5 to Sturgis; MTB 1456]. Note: Sam wrote he spent three nights at the hotel.
George H. Davis, Jr. wrote to send Sam a picture taken at the Aldrich Memorial [MTP]. Note: IVL on the note: “Dear Sir: / In Mr. Clemens’ absence I wish to thank you for the photograph made of Mr. Trowbridge and himself at Portsmouth / Very truly”
Ernest C. Hales wrote from NYC to Sam after speaking to him in the morning on the North Station Boston. Hales related asking for his autograph years before in London, and receiving instead a letter, which was his prized possession [MTP].