January 18 Monday – Sam went to New York, where he spoke at the Typothetae Dinner at Delmonico’s. From Fatout:
“Mark Twain, a former jour printer, was in congenial company with members of the Typothetae, an association of master printers who celebrated annually on the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, patron of all printers. On one such occasion, at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856, young Sam Clemens made his first speech. At the 1886 dinner in New York, the organization honored its distinguished forebear by displaying an oil portrait of Franklin and a model, in sugar, of the Franklin hand press. Of two speeches Mark Twain prepared for the Typothetae, he delivered ‘The Compositor’…” [MT Speaking 200].
The chairman’s historical reminiscences of Gutenburg have caused me to fall into reminiscences, for I myself am something of an antiquity. All things change in the procession of the years, and it may be that I am among strangers. It may be that the printer of today is not the printer of thirty-five years ago. I was no stranger to him. I knew him well. I built his fire for him in the cold winter mornings; I brought his water from the village pump; I swept out his office; I picked up his type from under his stand…I wetted down the paper Saturdays, I turned it Sundays — for this was a country weekly; I rolled, I washed the rollers, I washed the forms, I folded the papers, I carried them around at dawn Thursday mornings. The carrier was then an object of interest to all the dogs in town. If I had saved up all the bites I ever received, I could keep M. Pasteur busy for a year [200-201].
From Louis Budd’s updates: “A Supplement to ‘A Chronology’ in MARK TWAIN SPEAKING” published in Essays in Arts and Sciences, Vol. XXIX, October 2000, p.57-68: See a possibly better text in American Bookmaker 2 (Feb. 1886), p.55-6. Interestingly, the Boston Daily Globe, p.5 Jan. 19, 1886 ran a notice of the meeting and offered a few more details:
Mark Twain for the “Comps.”
NEW YORK, January 18. — The annual dinner of the Typothetea Association, an organization of printers and publishers, was held this evening at Delmonico’s. Covers were laid for 100 persons. After coffee, Hon. Isaac Bailey responded to the toast “Benjamin Franklin,” Mark Twain responded to “The Compositor,” and the toast “Boston” was responded to by ex-Governor Rice of Massachusetts. Colonel McClure responded for “Philadelphia,” and Will Carleton to “The Journeyman Printers.”
William Dean Howells wrote thanks for his “delightful little visit.” He wrote about Sam’s reminiscence of Nevada being cut off by an unscheduled appearance of James W. Paige and William J. Hamersley on the typesetting machine.
I still grieve over the loss of your conclusions about Daggett and Mackley [Mackay or Mackey] which the Type Setter Committee cut off. But I hope some time to get ‘em. That notion of yours about the Hartford man waking up in King Arthur’s time is capital. There is a great chance in it. I wish I had a magazine, to prod you with, and keep you up to all those good literary intentions [MTHL 2: 550].
Note: Rollin M. Daggett had been on the staff of the Virginia City Enterprise; John Mackay was one of the silver barons of the Comstock Lode. There is a tone in Howells’ letter that reveals his concern about business interests crowding out Sam’s writing.
E.S. White for Chamberlin, White & Mills, Hartford attorneys wrote about Mr. Fox and the ceiling dispute. Livy “must be mistaken in her impressions as Mr. Fox says he knows nothing of [illegible word] settlement of this a/c which belongs to the old firm.” Sam wrote on the envelope: “The last about that ceiling 1886”[MTP].