Vol 3 Section 0494
December 11 Tuesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Augustus T. Gurlitz, N.Y. Attorney for Kipling at this time.
That “Library of Wit & Humor” is the most impudent swindle I have ever seen. If the Kipling contest gets the right verdict (trade-mark) I may want you to take hold of it [MTP: Sotheby Parke-Bernet (N.Y.) catalogs, Dec. 11, 1990, Item 380]. Note: Sam would hire Gurlitz to bring suit against Chicago publisher Butler Brothers for issuing an unauthorized edition of the “Library of Wit and Humor by Mark Twain.” See Mar. 27, 1901 entry.
Fatout lists a speech by Mark Twain at the Meeting of Missourians, N.Y.C. [MT Speaking 667]. Note: Fatout
gives no particulars but the following is in Sam’s notebook: “Walker & Missourians 10.30” [NB 43 TS 31]. Note: See Missouri Society of New York, formed on May 28, 1901.
December 12 Wednesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman.
“It is most kind of President Dodge, but I am most likely to stay at home, for I am dead, dead, dead tired of talking & feeding. I have crept out of all my engagements except one tonight & one in the middle of January…” [MTP].
Sam introduced Winston Spencer Churchill at the Waldorf-Astoria. This was not their first meeting; Sam met Churchill in 1900 at Sir Gilbert Parker’s [A.D.: Aug. 17, 1907], and may have greeted him on Dec. 9 (see NB entry). NY papers reported the event, including the Times, p.2 the following day. In part:
HOW LIEUT. CHURCHILL ESCAPED FROM BOERS
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Introduced to an American Audience by Mark Twain.
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COMMITTEE OF RECEPTION
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Protests of Some with Pro-Boer Sympathies Whose Names Were Used—Mr. Van Ness’s Circular.
Winston Spencer Churchill, the war correspondent, told a fashionable audience at the Waldorf-Astoria last evening how he escaped from Pretoria. The grand ballroom was crowded to the doors.
More than usual publicity had been given the lecture owing to the action taken by certain persons named on the reception committee list by Major Pond, who is managing Mr. Churchill’s tour. On Dec. 7 William Dean Howells and J. Kennedy Tod announced that the use of their names was unauthorized, and this was followed by a similar protest from Edward Van Ness, who was actively pro-Boer during the war in South Africa. Mr. Van Ness addressed a circular letter to each gentleman named on the reception committee list, asking him if a similar liberty had been taken with his name.
The Reception Committee list as at first given out contained among others the following names: Gov. Roosevelt, Governor-elect Odell, Whitelaw Reid, Mayor Van Wyck, Senators Chauncey M. Depew and Thomas C. Flatt, and Thomas B. Reed.
….
Among the members of the Reception Committee who greeted the young soldier-author at the Waldorf-Astoria last evening were Rear Admiral Erben, Gen. Stewart L. Woodford, Gen. N. M. Curtis, Gen. Alfred C. Barnes, Oscar S. Straus, William Berri, John Kendrick Bangs, Dr. Albert Shaw, Daniel Frohman, Col. E. M. Know, George H. Daniels, and Frank Fuller.
MARK TWAIN’S INTRODUCTION
The lecture began at 8:30, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) being in the chair. Mr. Clemens, introducing the speaker, said Mr. Churchill knew all about war and nothing about peace. War might be very interesting to persons who like that sort of entertainment, but he had never enjoyed it himself.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.