per Telegraph Operator
29 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn. (Paraphrase: New York Tribune, 30 Dec 74)
In the evening King Kalakaua, with Govs. Dominis and Kapena and Lieut. Totten, attended the representation of the “Gilded Age” at the Park Theater.1explanatory note A telegraphic dispatch from Mark Twain was received during the day, in which he expressed regret that he could not be present to receive the King at the theater, and invited the King and suite to lunch with him at Hartford on Thursday. The invitation was declined.2explanatory note
John O. Dominis and John M. Kapena were the governors of Oahu and Maui, respectively. Lieutenant George M. Totten, of the United States Navy, was one of several officers attending the king. At the Park Theatre, Kalakaua was greeted by the playing of “Hail to the Chief” and the Hawaiian national hymn. He watched the play appreciatively from a box decorated with Hawaiian and American flags. At the end of the third act, the royal party visited the green room, where champagne was served. When
Colonel Mulberry Sellers was introduced he said, “Your Majesty, excuse my appearance. I’m to be drunk in the next act.” The King, holding up a glass of sparkling champagne, quickly retorted, “We will excuse the water.” “Then, perhaps Your Majesty will not refuse a turnip; they won’t cure a cold, but turnips will keep away the plague.” (“The Royal Visitor,” New York Herald, 30 Dec 74, 5)
Kalakaua was suffering from a severe cold, which he attributed to the “some-what inhospitable climate” (New York World: “Our Royal Guest,” 24 Dec 74, 1; New York Evening Post: “Arrival of King Kalakaua,” 24 Dec 74, 1; New York Times: “The King of the Sandwich Islands,” 30 Dec 74, 5; New York Tribune: “A Royal Guest,” 24 Dec 74, 1; “Recreations of the Hawaiian King,” 30 Dec 74, 5).
Paraphrases of this telegram also appeared in the New York World, the Times, and the Herald on 30 December. None of them suggested Clemens’s language as convincingly as the present Tribune version, but the first two preserved additional details of the telegram’s contents. The World reported that Clemens extended “a pressing invitation to stop over at Hartford and take lunch with him at his residence there” (“Royal Sight-Seeing,” 3). The Times noted that “he telegraphed that family matters would prevent his being present” at the Park Theatre (“The King of the Sandwich Islands,” 5). Kalakaua declined the invitation because he was committed to stopping in New Haven, Connecticut, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, on Thursday, 31 December, before reaching Boston the next day (“The City’s Guest,” New York World, 27 Dec 74, 1).
Paraphrase, “Recreations of the Hawaiian King,” New York Tribune, 30 Dec 74, 5. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Newspaper and Microcopy Division, University of California, Berkeley (CU-NEWS).
L6 , 334–335.