June 16 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Friday, 16. Whitefriars. Dinner. & luncheon with Choate at 2” [NB 40 TS 56].
Note: the New York Times, June 17, p.6, ran the following:
DINNER TO MARK TWAIN
Friendly Feeling Between England and America the Keynote of Speeches at the Hotel Cecil, London.
LONDON, June 16.—The dinner given by the Whitefriars Club to Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) this evening at the Hotel Cecil was a remarkable tribute to the author, and at the same time to the friendly relations existing between Great Britain and the United States.
Each of the speakers, among whom were the Very Rev. S. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Norwich; United States Senator-elect Chauncey M. Depew, and Poultney Bigelow, dwelt upon this theme.
Mr. Bigelow presided, the guest of the evening being on his left and Mrs. Clemens on his right. The company included Max O’Rell (Paul Blouet,) Robert Barr, the Misses Clemens, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Parker, T.P. O’Connor, Member of Parliament for the Scotland Division of Liverpool; Sarah Grand, Mrs. Frank Leslie, Miss Beatrice Harraden, and about two hundred literary men and women.
Louis Frederic Austin, in proposing Mark Twain’s health, said:
“What most appeals to men and women of his own calling, and what will ever cause Mr. Clemens’s name to be associated with Sir Walter Scott’s in similar circumstances, is his noble courage in misfortune, the high personal honor which accepted the penalty of disaster, and the undaunted toil that now enables him again to lift the colors of victory.”
The reply of Mr. Clemens, who was received on rising with prolonged cheers, was in his happiest vein, causing much laughter and applause.
Mr. Depew, after a few humorous remarks and an eloquent tribute to Mark Twain, alluded to the change of sentiment in America produced by Great Britain’s attitude and action during the Hispano-American war….
After this Mark Twain and Capt. Chichester shared the honors of the evening, everybody desiring to shake hands with both.
[Note: Real Admiral Sir Edward Chichester (1849-1906) arrived late and expressed admiration for Admiral Dewey, whom he’d met in Manila while protecting English interests during the war; See Sam’s speech in Fatout’s MT Speaking p.324-9; Gribben points out that Sam referred to George Augustus Sala (1828-1895) in this speech [601].