April 27 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam telegraphed Augustin Daly to send the two tickets to the Murray Hill Hotel, New York, for the next night’s performance [MTP].

In the evening Sam gave a dinner speech at Hartford’s Central Hall for the Army and Navy Club of Conn. [Fatout, MT Speaking 225-7]. It was an opportunity to rebut Matthew Arnold, who had criticized Grant for some of his expressions and grammar in Personal Memoirs. Fatout’s intro to the speech, which Budd and others label “General Grant’s Grammar”:

“An Army and Navy Club banquet, held on the birthday of General Grant, extolled the former commander of the Union armies while charitably dwelling with less fervor upon his abilities as president. Captain V.B. Chamberlain, chairman, cited statistics on Grant’s Memoirs, a best-seller put out in 1886 by Mark Twain’s publishing company: 44,350 square yards of cloth in bindings, enough gold in lettering to make $15,446.47 if coined, 276 barrels of binder paste and 302,310 reams of paper used, and 19.5 miles of shelf space needed for the whole edition. Mark Twain’s belligerent speech, drubbing the British critic, Matthew Arnold, struck the right note of outraged patriotism. The Courant remarked next day: ‘Mr. Clemens was interrupted with applause after every sentence, and it was sometime after he had finished before order was restored.’ ”

The Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 28, p.2 under “General Grant’s Grammar” covered the event:

HARTFORD, Conn., April 27. — The meetings of the Army and Navy Club are always largely attended, and the ninth annual reunion and banquet in this city tonight was no exception to the rule. The annual meeting has usually been held in June, but a change was made this year, and General Grant’s birthday was selected. The club has a membership of nearly 300, and includes Governor Lounsbury, State Treasurer Warner, Senator Hawley, Judges Torrance and Fenn, Generals Franklin, Chamberlain, Harland, Birge, Blakeslee, and many others. The chief address on the memory of General Grant was made by Rev. M.B. Riddle, formerly a chaplain to the service. Following him the toastmaster, Hon. V.R. Chamberlain, introduced Mr. S.L. Clemens by referring to the Grant Memoirs. Mr. Clemens, who was heartily received, spoke as follows: [see Fatout, taken from the Hartford Courant]

Rachel Burton wrote to Sam, “Alas for the fatuous [illegible word] we call fame!,” and signed it “Yours under the shadow of your great loss….” Sam wrote on the envelope, “An offensive letter from Mrs. (Rev.) Burton, who may not have intended to be offensive” [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam that he was working “four hours a day on the Kings,” the research he was doing for Mark Twain’s Memory Game. He had over 100 pages of “legal cap” written and wanted to send “a few of the opening pages” He thanked Sam for having “been so kind” Sam wrote on the envelope, “lost but $30,000. Don’t send MS.”[MTP].)

Caroline B. Le Row wrote from Brooklyn to Sam, sending him a copy of “a little book which you may perhaps have heard of,” (English As She Is Taught). The publisher, J.F. Cornish, had promised she might have “all I wanted” but she’d only received “a few.” Though she’d heard rumors that she would be dismissed from her teaching position, she put her name to the book, and feared a “bloody war” from the “hostile minded.” She revealed that Sam did not want to be known as the author, that it “would spoil its usefulness,” in other words, people wouldn’t take it seriously [MTP].