December 9 Thursday – Sam, James B. Pond and Mr. & Mrs. Henry M. Stanley left Sam’s home and took the train to Boston, Mass. In the evening, Sam introduced Stanley’s lecture, “Through the Dark Continent” at the Tremont Temple. Published in Fatout, MT Speaking 214-15. (See also Gribben 658.) Fatout’s preface:
“Drafted to introduce a speaker, Mark Twain paid him the polite compliments that were expected, sometimes exaggerating to achieve a mildly ironical effect. If well acquainted with the man he was introducing, he was likely to add uncomplimentary lies that were too outrageous to be taken seriously, but were never malicious. Generally he tempered praise with remarks that served as a counterbalance.”
The Boston Transcript, Dec. 10 ran one version of Sam’s introduction:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, if any should ask, Why is it that you are here as introducer of the lecturer? I should answer that I happened to be around and was asked to perform this function. I was quite willing to do so, and, as there was no sort of need of an introduction, anyway, it could be necessary only that some person come forward for a moment and do an unnecessary thing, and this is quite in my line. Now, to introduce so illustrious a name as Henry M. Stanley by any detail of what the man has done is clear aside from my purpose; that would be stretching the unnecessary to an unconscionable degree. When I contrast what I have achieved in my measurably brief life with what he has achieved in his possibly briefer one, the effect is to sweep utterly away the ten-story edifice of my own self-appreciation and leave nothing behind but the cellar. When you compare these achievements of his with the achievements of really great men who exist in history, the comparison, I believe, is in his favor. I am not here to disparage Columbus.
No, I won’t do that; but when you come to regard the achievements of these two men, Columbus and Stanley, from the standpoint of the difficulties they encountered, the advantage is with Stanley and against Columbus. Now, Columbus started out to discover America. Well, he didn’t need to do anything at all but sit in the cabin of his ship and hold his grip and sail straight on, and America would discover itself. Here it was, barring his passage the whole length and breadth of the South American continent, and he couldn’t get by it. He’d got to discover it. But Stanley started out to find Doctor Livingstone, who was scattered abroad, as you may say, over the length and breadth of a vast slab of Africa as big as the United States. It was a blind kind of search. He was the worst scattered of men. But I will throw the weight of this introduction upon one very peculiar feature of Mr. Stanley’s character, and that is his indestructible Americanism — an Americanism which he is proud of. And in this day and time, when it is the custom to ape and imitate English methods and fashion, it is like a breath of fresh air to stand in the presence of this untainted American citizen who has been caressed and complimented by half of the crowned heads of Europe who could clothe his body from his head to his heels with the orders and decorations lavished upon him. And yet, when the untitled myriads of his own country put out their hands in welcome to him and greet him, “Well done,” through the Congress of the United States, that is the crown that is worth all the rest to him. He is a product of institutions which exist in no other country on earth-institutions that bring out all that is best and most heroic in a man. I introduce Henry M. Stanley. [Note: the Dec. 10, 1886, p.2 “Stanley’s Lecture” Boston Daily Globe report is, save for a few words and the insertion of parentheticals to designate laughter, the same. The discrepancies of a few words are interesting, however.
Note: William Dean Howells was not in Boston on this date, attending the funeral of his sister, Victoria M. Howells, who died in Jefferson, Ohio on Dec. 3 [MTHL 2: 574n2]. (See Howells to Sam Dec. 12.) Howells’ Dec. 12 letter implies that Sam went to the Howells residence while in Boston, only to be told the sad news by Elinor Howells. Upon his return home, Sam sent Howells a telegram (not extant).
Steuben T. Bacon per American Ballot-Box Assoc. Wrote from Boston asking for his help by speaking to “either of the commissioners” in their cause of “honest voting” [MTP].
Samuel S. Cox (Moses to Cox Nov. 19 enclosed) wrote from Washington, enclosing a Nov. 19 letter from “Far-away Moses” in Constantinople. “Sunset” Cox wrote “The writer is indebted to you for an immortalization. You have embalmed him in much better style than the Egyptian Immigrants, two of whom I have introduced into this country into the National Museum. You see what he wants. Please write to me, or have your publishers send to me the “Innocents Abroad” when I will forward it to him in some way.” [MTP]. Note: “Far-away Moses” was the celebrated Turkish guide described in IA Ch. XXXV and pictured on p.382 [Oxford facsimile ed.].