December 20 Wednesday – In New York Sam arrived home (Players Club) at 3 a.m. from unspecified engagements. Some powders were waiting for him for his cold, sent by Henry H. Rogers. He stayed awake for an hour and took them, got a few hours sleep and wrote Rogers his thanks at 9 a.m.
I got the shoes on my way home from your office, & when you see them you will be paralyzed with admiration [MTP].
In the evening Sam attended a dinner for Brander Matthews and gave a speech, the last on the program, after Charles Dudley Warner, Brander Matthews, Clarence Stedman, William Dean Howells, and President Seth Low of Columbia College. Fatout publishes this speech as ca. December [MT Speaking, 269-270], based on MFMT, calling it “…an example of ostensible good spirits unaffected by financial worries,” and observing that Sam “was surprised when his ingenious remarks were highly commended, for he thought they did not amount to much.” Late after the event Sam sent the speech to Livy with a letter, written at 2 a.m. on Dec. 21. The following is taken from the TS of Sam’s Dec. 20 and 21 letter to Livy:
You have spoken of him well & lovingly & heartily, & given him the praises which he has earned & which are his right. But you have overlooked what I think is the most notable achievement of his career — namely, that he has reconciled us to the sound of his somber & awful name — Bran-der Math-thews! his blighting and scathing name — Bran-der Math-thews! his lurid & desolating name — BRAN-der MATH-thews! B-r-r-rander Math-thews! Makes you think of an imprisoned god of the Underworld muttering imprecations & maledictions. B-r-rander Math-thews! It is full of rumblings & thunderings & rebellions & blasphemies — B-r-rander Math-thews! The first time you hear it you shrivel up & shudder; & you say to yourself that a person has no business using that kind of language when children are present. B-r-r-rander Math-thews! It is a searching & soul-riving sound, & makes the most abandoned resolve to lead a better life. And on the other hand when the veteran profane swearer finds all his ammunition damp & ineffectual from long exposure, how fresh & welcome is the dynamite in that name — B-r-r-RANder M-m-ATHthews! You can curse a man’s head off with that name if you know how & where to put the emphases.
To have overcome by the persuasive graces, sincerities & felicities of his literature the disaster of a name like that & reconciled men to the sound of it, is a fine & high achievement; & this the owner of it has done. To have gone further & made it a dear & welcome sound, & changed its discords to music, is a still finer & higher achievement; & this he has also done. And so, let him have full credit. When he got his name it was only good to curse with; now it is good to conjure with.
On Players Club stationery, Sam sent a note to H.H. Rogers:
All right — I shall be at your office at 1 pm tomorrow, with those shoes. I can let you use them part of the time on the way back. Sincerely / SL Clemens [MTP; Cyril Clemens’ copy from Tenney]. Note: this is labeled Dec. 21 ca. in the MTP file, but since they left on Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. it fits Dec. 20.