Vol 3 Section 0641

“And Unger. Yes, he is also gone. Unger is a German, also. In the original it had an ‘H’ in it. Yes, Unger is gone with his great appetite unsatisfied.

“And Murphy, that shadow of a shadow, that political spectre. Farewell to Murphy. He is gone to the unsolidified space of which he has been so long a part.

“And Devery. That indescribable. He has gone to the realms of darkness. His character is so black that even Egyptian darkness would make white spots on it.

“And there is Asa Bird Gardiner, who said, ‘To hell with reform.’ Well, his reform has been started in the way indicated, and we do not care how soon he goes the same way.

“And last, but not least, there is Croker. Croker. He can now go back to England. We can spare him here. Yes, farewell to Croker forever, the Baron of Wantage, the last, and I dare say the least desirable, addition to English nobility.”

Mark Twain then read a letter from Bishop Potter, in which he stated: “It is not merely Greater New York—it is Grander New York now!” Other speakers were President-elect Fornes of the Board of Aldermen, William H. Russell, and Otto Kempner.

Then the crowd swarmed out into the street, where Mark Twain and the officers of the Acorns entered a carriage and led the procession with the band and Chief Marshal Frederick Smith, who carried a huge horseshoe of oak leaves and acorns. The route was Broadway to Fourteenth Street, to Third Avenue, to Fifteenth Street, to Irving Place, to nineteenth Street, to Broadway, to Forty-second Street, where Mark Twain reviewed the parade, which by this time had grown to enormous proportions, and then to the scene of the burning of the Croker effigy, where the crowd slowly dispersed to the music of “Home, Sweet Home.”

November 7 Thursday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, asking for an interview. He addressed the letter to “S.L. Clemens, Litt.D,” honoring Sam’s new honorary doctor of letters degree from Yale.

I have long been an admirer of your complete works, several of which I have read, and I am with you shoulder to shoulder in the cause of foreign missions. I would respectfully request a personal interview, and if you will appoint some day and hour most inconvenient to you, I will call at your baronial hall. I cannot doubt from the account of your courtesy given me by the Twelve Apostles, who once visited you in your Hartford home and were mistaken for a sindicate of lightning rod men, that our meeting will be mutually agreeable [MTHL 2: 732-3]. Note: see source notes for references to “baronial hall,” and “Twelve Apostles.” Howells alluded to “Political Economy,” one of Sam’s early stories, that included an aggressive lightning-rod salesman.

Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Clarence Gordon will meet me at 125th St at 7.46 p.m. I leave here at 7.27. Reading or speech. Teaching of Patriotism in schools? Talk about the Acorns?” [NB 44 TS 16]. Note: refers to the following event:

In the evening Sam spoke at the Good Citizenship Association of the East Side Settlement House. He shared the stage for storytelling with Patrick H. Coakley. The New York Times, p.3, Nov. 8, reported on the event:

TWAIN’S RIVAL STORY TELLER.

———

Paperhanger’s Anecdote Wins the

Greatest Share of the Audience’s Applause.

Samuel L. Clemens, (“Mark Twain,”) and Patrick H. Coakley, a paperhanger, met last night [Nov. 7] on the little stage of the Good Citizenship Association of the East Side Settlement House, Seventy-sixth Street and East River. Both were there to entertain a large audience by telling stories. Mr. Coakley was not embarrassed by his distinguished rival, and Mr. Clemens acknowledged that the paperhanger received the lion’s share of the applause. Clarence Gordon introduced the speakers. He said, in part:

“We captured Mr. Clemens in the wilds of Riverside. Mr. Coakley we caught here on the east side. Mr. Clemens did not want to come. It was not the first time I had tried to capture Mr. Clemens, whom I have known for many years. Not long ago I found him in a barber’s chair next to mine. The barbers were through

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.