Vol 3 Section 0747

the smoker, p.21; Sam’s NB denotes he likely told the watermelon story and others at the Rochambeau reception; MTCI 453-6]

The Chicago Daily Tribune, June 6, ran a special piece from Columbia, Mo. that (once again) Sam announced he would no longer speak from the platform.

TWAIN’S VOW OF SILENCE.

HUMORIST SAYS HE WILL MAKE NO MORE SPEECHES.

Declares His Appearance at Columbia, Mo., Is His Last on Public Platform—

In Interview He Says He Feels No Particular Honor Because Russia

Has Excluded His Books—

He Finds That Many Others Have Met Same Treatment.

Columbia, Mo., June 5.—[Special.]—Mark Twain has retired from the public platform for ever. His appearance at Missouri University, where he received his degree of LL.D., was his last as a public speaker. On this occasion he talked for nearly an hour. He was in a brilliant mood. There was a flash in every word he uttered, and he proved the truth of the assertion of Julian Hawthorne, that no man in the world can handle a joke for all that it is worth and bring it out so forcibly and clearly as Mark Twain.

The audience laughed and laughed again, but some of them cried when the speaker said in tones that shook with suppressed emotion that he was bidding Missouri and old friends farewell forever.

Will Make No More Speeches.

“Please announce in the papers,” said Twain today, “that I have retired forever from the public platform.” When interviewed concerning the recent dispatches to the effect that the German translations of his works have been excluded by the Russian authorities, Mark Twain was not a bit worried. “I am not in the least surprised,” said the humorist. “The books of hundreds of other authors are excluded every year from Russia, and the fact that my works are barred gives me little concern. I am but one of a vast number whose books have been excluded and are being shut out every day by the Russian authorities and I take it as no special compliment that I am among so many.

Russia Fears for Monarchy.

“Russia has a great many Germans in its population and is gradually Russianizing them and naturally it does not wish any literature circulated that would influence any of the people in favor of a monarchy.

“In some of my works I may have said something that could have been colored into a pronounced expression of views against the Russian government, and it is probable that this accounts for the fact that my books have been barred, and I think that the political cast of some of my stories is alone responsible.”

Mr. Clemens left at noon today for St. Louis, where he will be entertained by the officials of the fair.

From St. Louis he will go directly to New York.

Nation (NY) ran a brief review of “A Double-Barrelled Detective Story” on p. 448. Tenney: “The assertion that ‘the author enters upon a field that is entirely new’ brings to mind thoughts of Conan Doyle using Tom Sawyer as a character, or other writers using MT as a subject; but ‘happily Mark Twain is inimitable’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p. 172].

Independent ran an anonymous review of “A Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” p.54. The review was tongue-in- cheek, claiming Mark Twain never wrote it, but someone named Samuel L. Clemens did, a persecuter of Twain for many years. It applied Bacon-Shakespeare ciphers to Chapter 10, to extract statements that Clemens claims to be Mark Twain [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Sixth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Spring 1982 p. 9].

June 6 Friday – Paine writes of Sam’s appearances in St. Louis:

       he was due in St. Louis again to join in the dedication of the grounds, where was to be held a World’s Fair, to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase. Another ceremony he attended was the christening of the St.

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