March 5 Thursday – Sam appeared on stage at the Princess Hotel ballroom, for the benefit of the Cottage Hospital. He told the story of the “three-dollar dog,” which he had related in his A.D. of Oct. 3, 1907. See entry; also see D. Hoffman p.110-114 for the full tale. Hoffman writes:  

Mark Twain told the story as though for the first time, aiming for what he defined in his autobiography as “the captivating naturalness of an impromptu narration.” He added an “application,” another of his techniques. “My friend was partly right,” he said, “when he assured me that the ‘Lord would provide,’ but it is rather doubtful whether the Lord really would have provided for us if I had not bestirred myself.” He continued:

The Bermuda Hospital needs financial assistance and it is very easy and very pleasant to believe that the Lord will provide for such a worthy institution, but it is safer for us to bestir ourselves a little….Therefore, give generously tonight to the cause. The larger the sums, the more cordially they will be received, and if you have not brought your purses with you, the ladies may contribute their jewels and the gentlemen their letters of credit, or express checks, properly endorsed. This does not mean that small sums will not be politely received, but simply means that the degree of enthusiasm for a shilling may be slightly less than one for one hundred pounds….And in closing, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me remind you that the hospital is always fighting pain, and pain is a King who is no respecter of persons [114-15].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  The King helped in an entertainment tonight for the benefit of the Cottage Hospital. He was rarely welcomed by his audience and when his turn really came—for he introduced a man who made misrepresentations (Faulkner his name is)—he told the Three Dollar Dog story, and he broke down at the point where the general asked if he would sell that dog. He broke down into a hearty boyish laugh [MTP: IVL TS 31-32].

In New York, Clara Clemens participated in another musicale at a private home, this time for Dr. and Mrs. Edward Quintard at 145 West Fifty-eighth Street. Miss Lillian Littlehales played the cello and Charles Wark accompanied on the piano [NY Times, Mar. 6, “Mrs. Quintard Entertains,” p. 7]. Wark, a married man, was to be later romantically linked with Clara. Dr. Quintard was Sam’s regular NYC physician.

Alice Minnie Herts for the Children’s Educational Theatre wrote to Miss Lyon so she might advise Sam of what had been done to incorporate the Educational Theatre [MTP].

Eden Phillpotts wrote from Eltham, Torquay to Sam.

My dear friend / Today your cargo of boys—mostly bad ones—sail for the States. Few men I think would welcome such an inroad as you have done.

May they serve to pass a spare hour or so for one who has in his own amazing gallery so many immortal pictures of “genus puer.”

I much regretted that my agents have not found a home for your book in this country. Perhaps American school boys are different from English ones—& yet that surely is an absurd proposition [MTP].