Explanatory Notes
Headnote
Apparatus Notes
Guide
MTPDocEd
Autobiographical Dictation, 4 April 1906 ❉ Textual Commentary

Source documents.

TS1 (incomplete)      Typescript, leaves numbered 637–46 (altered in pencil to 646–55; part of 640 and all of 647–48 are missing), made from Hobby’s notes and revised: ‘Wednesday . . . of itself.’ (11 title–13.39); ‘MARK TWAIN TALKS . . . pleasant chat’ (14.1–17.32).
Times       Clippings from the New York Times, 4 April 1906, 1, 9, attached to TS1: ‘MRS. MORRIS . . . and Fitzsimmons.’ (11.28–12.12); ‘30 CENTS . . . at $5.’ (12.25–13.31); ‘MARK TWAIN TALKS . . . by it.’ (14.1–15.2).
World       Clipping from the New York World, 4 April 1906, 18, attached to TS1: ‘MARK TWAIN ADORED . . . his feet.’ (15.3–16.31).
TS2      Typescript, leaves numbered 794–807, made from the revised TS1 with the attached Times and World clippings.
TS4      Typescript, leaves numbered 1034–41, made from the revised TS1 with the attached Times and World clippings.

Pasted into TS1 are three newspaper articles; that from the New York World included two illustrations, which are omitted here. The first leaf of the typescript has been torn in half and pasted together again. Clemens revised TS1 and his revisions are reflected in TS2 and TS4. On TS2’s first page Clemens penciled the note: ‘Not usable’ and, accordingly, nothing of this dictation was published in NAR. For the portion of text missing from TS1, TS4 is collated as a check on the accuracy of TS2, but it contributes no readings.

Wednesday, April 4, 1906

The Morris case again—Scope of this autobiography, a mirror—More about Nast sale; laurels for Mr. Clemens—Clippings in regard to Women’stextual note University Club reception; Mr. Clemens comments on them—Vassar benefit at Hudson Theatretextual note; Mr. Clemens meets many old friends.textual note

MRS. MORRIS CASE IN SENATEexplanatory note.


Nomination of Barnes Opens Way for an Inquiry.

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, April 3.—Criticism of the appointment of Mr. Roosevelt’s Assistant Secretary, B. F. Barnes, to be Postmaster of Washington continues. It now seems likely that the appointment may have a hard time in passing the Senate. Barnes’s action in having Mrs. Minor Morris put out of the White House is the chief ground of opposition. The Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads has determined to investigate Barnes’s action in the Morris case, and eye witnesses of the affair have been summoned to appear before the committee to-morrow and [begin page 12] tell what they saw. This is the same investigation which Mr. Tillman requested and which the Senate refused to grant. It now comes as the result of the President’s action in appointing Barnes Postmaster. The witnesses who are to appear before the committee were not asked to testify in the investigation which the President made when he decided that Barnes’s course was justified.

There was much speculation to-day as to who Mr. Barnes’s successor as Assistant Secretary would be. The Evening Star to-night devotes a column and a half to suggestions on the subject, saying that the leading candidates are John L. McGrew, a clerk in the White House offices; Warren Young, Chief Executive Clerk; M. C. Latta, the President’s personal stenographer; James J. Corbett of New York, tzsimmons, Augustus Ruhlin, and James J. Jeffries.

The article is illustrated with two pictures of Corbett and Fitzsimmons.

That is neat, and causes me much gentle delight. The point of that whole matter lies in the last four names that are mentioned in it. These four men are prize-fighterstextual note explanatory note—the most celebrated ones now living.

Is the incident now closed? Again we cannot tell. The smell of it may linger in American history a thousand years yet.

This autobiography of mine differs from other autobiographies—differs from all other autobiographies, except Benvenuto’s, perhapsexplanatory note. The conventional biography of all the ages is an open window. The autobiographer sits there and examines and discusses the people that go by—not all of them, but the notorious ones, the famous ones; those that wear fine uniforms, and crowns when it is not raining; and very great poets and great statesmen—illustrious people with whom he has had the high privilege of coming in contact. He likestextual note to toss a wave of recognition to these with his hand as they go by, and he likes to notice that the others are seeing him do this, and admiring. He likes to let on that in discussing these occasional people that wear the good clothes he is only interested in interesting his reader, and is in a measure unconscious of himself.

But this autobiography of mine is not that kind of an autobiography. This autobiography of mine is a mirror, and I am looking at myself in it all the time. Incidentally I notice the people that pass along at my back—I get glimpses of them in the mirror—and whenever they say or do anything that can help advertise me and flatter me and raise me in my own estimation, I set these things down in my autobiography. I rejoice when a king or duke comes my way and makes himself useful to this autobiography, but they are rare customers, with wide intervals between. I can use them with good effect as lighthouses and monuments along my way, but for real business I depend upon the common herd.

Here is some more about the Nast saleexplanatory note:

30 CENTS FOR McCURDY POEM.


Other Literary Curiosities from the Nast Collection at Auction.

The sale of autograph letters, wash drawings, pencil and pen and ink sketches, the property of the late Thomas Nast, the cartoonist, was continued yesterday by the Merwin-Clayton Company.

[begin page 13]

Five letters from Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner, Colonel of the Rough Riders, Governor, and Presidentexplanatory note, to Mr. Nast, thanking him for sketches and expressing warm friendship for the cartoonist, brought prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.25.

Richard A. McCurdy’s autograph letterexplanatory note and original autograph poem addressed to Nast, with a typewritten copy of the poem, brought 30 cents the lot.

The following letter written by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to Nast was bid in at $12.25 by J. H. Manning, a son of the late Daniel Manningexplanatory note:

May 12, 1875.

Dear Nast:

It is true. I will be married on the 30th of June comingexplanatory note unless there is a slip between the cup and the lip, which is scarcely possible. I will not have any wedding for many reasons, among them the recent death of my father.

I am very happy, but wish the d—d thing was over. Yours truly,

SHERIDAN.

P.S. and M.I.explanatory note—I send the inclosed for your oldest. Please send me yours to be kept for mine.

P. H. S.

A letter written by Lincoln, and which was laid over a piece of white silk bearing a faded red stain, sold for $38. The attached certificate stated that the silktextual note was from the dress of Laura Keene, worntextual note on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, and that the stain was made by his bloodexplanatory note.

Gen. W. T. Sherman’s letter to Nast, dated March 9, 1879, indorsing a testimonial of the cartoonist’s services to the army and navy, sold for $6.

A scrapbook containing sketches of Lincoln, Sumner, Greeley, Walt Whitmanexplanatory note, and many water color sketches, brought $75.

A sketch of William M. Tweed and his companion, Hunt, under arrestexplanatory note, brought $21. Two companion Christmas sketches by Nast, representing a child telephoning to Santa Claus, brought $43 each. A sketch of Gen. Grant was bid in for $36. A sketch of the “G. O. P.” elephant brought $28. A sketch representing the Saviour, full face, with nimbus, brought $65.

An autograph photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, dated 1884, was bid in at $5.

It is a great satisfaction to me to notice that I am still ahead—ahead of Roosevelt, ahead of Sherman, ahead of Sheridan, even ahead of Lincoln. These are fine laurels, but they will not last. A time is coming when some of them will wither. A day will come when a mere scratch of Mr. Lincoln’s pen will outsell a whole basketful of my letters. A time will come when a scratch of the pens of those immortal soldiers, Sherman and Sheridan, will outselltextual note a thousand scratches of mine, and so I shall enjoy my supremacy now, while I may. I shall read that clipping over forty or fifty times, now, while it is new and true, and let the desolating future take care of itself.

I omit this morning’s stirring news from Russia to make room for this half-column clipping, because the clipping is about meexplanatory note.textual note

[begin page 14]

MARK TWAIN TALKS TO COLLEGE WOMENexplanatory note


Says He’ll Only Speak to Alumnae After This.


TELLS THAT TWICHELL STORY


Five Hundred Women Shook Hands with Him and Showered Him with Pretty Speeches.


The Women’s University Club and Mark Twain entertained each other yesterday. The club gave a reception, with the author as the guest of honor, and the entire club and a good many of its relatives and friends turned out to meet him. There were 500 of them at least, and each one had something to say to Mr. Clemens when she shook hands with him.

Some one who was looking on said that a good many “repeated” and went up twice to shake hands.

Mr. Clemens in the course of a long life has had other experiences in which college girls have had a part, and he was somewhat reminiscent. The girls he talked to yesterday were some of them grandchildren of other girls he had met in other days.

“I don’t have to say anything, do I?” said one girl, who had not been able to think up an interesting remark, as she shook hands with the guest of honor.

“No, indeed,” said Mr. Clemens, “I’m shy that way myself.”

“I have been waiting since I was three years old for this,” said another girl. “It was as long ago as that that my father pointed out the pictures in ‘Innocents Abroad’ to me.”

“I bring a message from two little girls,” said an older woman. “They want you to write another story as nice as ‘The Prince and the Pauper,’ and send them the first copy,” and Mark Twain gayly promised that he would.

Mr. Clemens had promised to speak at the club, but, having a cold, asked to be excused. He was persuaded, however, to “tell a yarn.”

They brought in a little platform that had been in readiness for the address, but he was not satisfied with it.

“I don’t think that is high enough,” he said, “because I can’t tell what people are thinking unless I see their faces.” Then at his request they brought a chair, which was placed on the platform, and he stood on it. The veteran author never spoke to a more appreciative audience.

“I am not here, young ladies, to make a speech,” he said, “but what may look like one in the distance. I don’t dare to make a speech, for I haven’t made any preparations, and if I tried it on an empty stomach—I mean an empty mind—I don’t know what iniquity I might commit.

On the 19th of this month, at Carnegie Hallexplanatory note, I am going to take formal leave of the platform for ever and ever, as far as appearing for pay is concerned and before people who have to pay to get in, but I have not given up for other occasions.

“I shall now proceed to infest the platform all the time under conditions that I like—when I am not paid to appear and when no one has to pay to get in, and I shall only talk to audiences of college girls. I have labored for the public good for many years, and now I am going to talk for my own contentment.”

Then Mr. Clemens told his “yarn.”

[begin page 15]

It was a yarn about a walking tour with the Rev. Joseph Twichellexplanatory note that the public has found entertaining. The college women appeared to be entertained by it.


MARK TWAIN ADORED BY THE COLLEGE
GIRLS AT WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUBexplanatory note.

MARK TWAIN WAS WREATHED IN GIRLS.

Five Hundred at Women’s University Club Hung About Their Universal Sweetheart.


COULDN’T SEE THEM ALL, SO HE MOUNTED A CHAIR.


Fed Him on Ices to Keep Up His Drooping Energies Between “Repeating” Delegations.


Mark Twain has the college-girl habit!

He is not discriminating about the college. He loves them all! He admitted it yesterday at the Women’s University Club to about five hundred of them. If he melted into momentary tenderness over Barnard he excused it by saying that, if not his greatest, it was his latest love.

From 4 to 6 Mr. Clemens was wreathed about with girls, and as happy as a king. He looked into their faces with quizzical eyes, laid a detaining hand on a shoulder now and again, while he invented a story to draw a smile from a pair of pretty lips. And when he could not see enough of them he mounted a chair to have his horizon bounded by girls—girls in Easter bonnets and charming frocks; girls all blushes and delight in the presence of their universal sweetheart.

His Heart Is True.

“On the 19th of this month,” said Mark, “I am going to take my formal leave of the platform forevermore at Carnegie Hall. That is as far as appearing for pay is concerned. But I have not really left the platform at all. I shall proceed to get on it as often as I desire when the conditions are what I like. I mean when nobody who pays can get there, and nobody is in the house except young ladies from the colleges.”

Shouts interrupted him.

“I have labored for the public good,” continued Mr. Clemens, shaking his leonine mane prodigiously, “for thirty-five or forty years. I propose to work for my personal contentment the rest of the time.” His smile included them all. Mr. Clemens had not intended to address his girls collectively. As he explained, he “never liked to make a speech without preparation, because it was impossible to tell what kind of iniquity he might wander into on an empty stomach—that is, mind.” But the pressure was too much for him. He had come to be the guest of honor and have the privilege of talking to all the college women individually.

There he stood at the head of the long drawing-room of the club-house on Madison Square North, with Miss Maida Castelhun, the Presidentexplanatory note, a vision in black jetted lace over blue silk, to support him on the right—and the support was quite literal at times. Miss Cutting, of Vassar, in white, was at his left to make the introductions, while Miss Hervy, of the Entertainment Committee, fed Mr. [begin page 16] Clemens’s drooping energies with occasional tid-bits from the refreshment room, and kept a vigilant eye out for “repeaters” among those who greeted him.

Fed Him Charlottes.

It was a beautiful sight to see Miss Hervy’s tall figure, the tail of her light gray gown thrown over her arm, bearing down through the throng like a ship under full sail with a charlotte russe held aloft in a white gloved hand.

“Mr. Clemens must have this before he says another word,” she would exclaim and the line halted while the humorist meekly devoured her offering. He shamelessly encouraged the repeaters.

“I met a lady I had seen the other day at Vassar,” he said, as he held a Vassar hand, “and found I had to construct things all over again, for she is now a grandmother. Perhaps I am seeing some of her grand-daughters now. It is terrible mixing, you know.”

Some of them declared they had waited for this moment all their lives. One whispered as she passed:

“I don’t have to say anything, do I?”

“No,”textual note replied Mr. Clemens, “I’m shy about that sort of thing, myself.”textual note

Won’ttextual note you tell the Blue Jay storyexplanatory note?”

“I’ve been brought up on ‘Tom Sawyer.’ ”textual note

“Won’t you do us another ‘Prince and the Pauper’ ” were some of the speeches hailed upon him.

One Touch of Nature.

But the best was the little freshman who rushed up with dancing eyes, gave his hand an energetic squeeze and asked:

“Say, have you had an ice in there?—they’re perfectly fine.”

When Mark Twain promised to “yarn” for them, a small platform was brought in.

“But I want a chair,” he said. “I can’t see what you are doing out there.”

A dozen hands were extended to help him up and he told the story of Twichelltextual note and himself, when for three hours and a half he hunted for a lost sockexplanatory note in the desert of a German bedroom “like a modern Sahara.”

Then he sat down on his chair and the girls grouped themselves at his feet.

It is evident that this reporter was there. He didn’t see everything, and he didn’t hear everything, but he saw and heard the most of the show, and he saw and heard with considerable accuracy, too. He is right when he says I have the college-girl habit. I was never without it. Susy’s Biographytextual note shows, incidentally, that I had it twenty years ago and more. I had it earlier than that, as Smith College can testify. That Vassar episode was damaged by that old goat who was President thereexplanatory note at the time, but nothing can ever damage the lovely vision of the Vassar girls of that mixed delightful and devilish day. It was a lovely vision, and it does not fade out of my memory.

Day before yesterday all Vassar, ancient and modern, packed itself into the Hudson Theatretextual note, and I was there. The occasion was a benefit arranged by Vassar and its friends to raise money to aid poor studentsexplanatory note of that Collegetextual note in getting through the college course. I was not aware that I was to be a feature of the show, and was distressed and most [begin page 17] uncomfortably inflamed with blushes when I found it out. Really the distress and the blushes were manufactured, for at bottom I was glad. When the ladies started to lead me through the house to the stage, when the performance was over, I was so coy that everybody admired, and was moved by it. I do things like that with an art that deceives even the hardened and experienced cynic. It has taken me a long time and has cost me much practice to perfect myself in that art, but it was worth the trouble. It makes me the most winning old thing that ever went among confiding girls. I held a reception on that stage for an hour or two, and all Vassar, ancient and modern, shook hands with me. Some of the moderns were too beautiful for words, and I was very friendly with those. I was so hoping somebody would want to kiss me for my mother, but I didn’t dare to suggest it myself. Presently, however, when it happened, I did what I could to make it contagious, and succeeded. This required art, but I had it in stock. I seemed to take the old and the new as they came, without discrimination, but I averaged the percentage to my advantage, and without anybody’s suspecting, I think.

Among that host I met again as many as half a dozentextual note pretty old girls whom I had met in their bloom at Vassar that time that Susy and I visited the Collegetextual note so long ago. Yesterday, at the University Club,textual note almost all the five hundred were of the young and lovely, untouched by care, unfaded by age. There were girls there from Smith, Wellesley, Radcliffe, Vassar and Barnard, together with a sprinkling of college girls from the South, from the Middle Westtextual note and the Pacific coast.

Itextual note delivered a moral sermon to the Barnard girls at Columbia University a few weeks agoexplanatory note, and now it was like being among old friends. There were dozens of Barnard girls there, scores of them, and I had already shaken hands with them at Barnard. As I have said, the reporter heard many things there yesterday, but there were several which he didn’t hear. One sweet creature wanted to whisper in my ear, and I was nothing loth. She raised her dainty form on tiptoe, lifting herself with a grip of her velvet hands on my shoulders and put her lips to my ear and said “How do you like being the belle of New York?” It was so true, and so gratifying, that it crimsoned me with blushes, and I could make no reply. The reporter lost that.

Two girls, one from Maine, the other from Ohio, were grandchildren of fellow-passengers who sailed with me in the Quaker City in the “Innocents Abroad” excursion thirty-nine years ago. We had a pleasant chat of course. Then a middle-aged lady shook hands and said,textual note

“In something approaching the same way, Mr. Clemens, I also am an old friend of yours, for one of my oldest and most intimate friends was also a fellow-passenger of yours in the Quaker City—Mrs. Faulkner.”

By anticipation, my face was beginning to light up. That name blew it out as if it had been a candle. It was a pity that that lady hadn’t penetration enough to realize that this was a good time to drop the matter, or change the subject. But no, she had no more presence of mind than I should have had in her place. There was a pair of us there. She was out of presence of mind, and I couldn’t help her because I was out of it too. She didn’t know what to say, so she said the wrong thing. She said,

[begin page 18]

“Why, don’t you remember Mrs. Faulkner?”

Itextual note didn’t know what to say, and so I said the wrong thing. I exposed the fact that I didn’t remember that name. She tottered where she stood. I tottered where I stood. Neither of us could say anything more, and the fact that there was a pack and jam of eager young watchers and listeners all about us didn’t in the least modify the difficulty for us. She melted into the crowd and disappeared, leaving me pretty uncomfortable—and, if signs go for anything, she was uncomfortable herself. People are always turning up who have known me in the distant past, and sometimes it is so but usually it isn’t. This is the first time, however, that I have ever heard of a Quaker City passenger who had never seen that ship. There was no Mrs. Faulkner among the Quaker City’s people.explanatory note

Textual Notes Wednesday, April 4, 1906
  Women’s ●  Woman’s (TS1, TS2) 
  Theatre ●  Theater (TS1)  theater (TS2) 
  friends. ●  friends. [¶] Under to-day’s date, Miss Hobby, please paste in this clipping from the morning paper. (TS1, TS2) 
  prize-fighters ●  prize- | fighters (TS1)  prize-fighters (TS2) 
  likes ●  likes  (TS1-SLC)  likes (TS2) 
  silk ●  silk (Times)  so ilk (TS2-Hobby?) 
  worn ●  wore (Times)  worn (TS2) 
  outsell ●  out-sell (TS1)  outsell (TS2) 
  I omit . . . about me. ●  I omit . . . about me. (TS2, TS4) 
  “No,” ●  “N◇◇” broken type  (World) 
  myself.” ●  myself.’ (World) 
  Won’t ●  Won’ (World) 
  Sawyer.’ ” ●  Sawyer.” (World) 
  Twichell ●  Twitchell (World) 
  Biography ●  biography (TS1, TS2) 
  Theatre ●  Theater (TS1, TS2) 
  College ●  college (TS1, TS2) 
  half a dozen ●  half-a-dozen (TS1, TS2) 
  College ●  college (TS1, TS2) 
  at the University Club, ●  at the University Club,  (TS1-SLC)  at the University Club, (TS2) 
  Middle West ●  Middle-West (TS1, TS2) 
  coast. [¶] I ●  Coast. I (TS1-SLC)  Coast. [¶] I (TS2) 
  said, ●  said (TS2, TS4) 
  I ●  I (TS2)  “I (TS4) 
Explanatory Notes Wednesday, April 4, 1906
 

MRS. MORRIS CASE IN SENATE] Clemens dictated the following instruction to his stenographer, who included it in her typescript of the dictation: “Under to-day’s date, Miss Hobby, please paste in this clipping from the morning paper.” Hobby attached a clipping of the article on Mrs. Morris’s case from the New York Times of 4 April.

 

Mr. Barnes’s successor as Assistant Secretary . . . These four men are prize-fighters] M. C. Latta was chosen to be Roosevelt’s new assistant secretary. James J. Corbett (1866–1933) and James J. Jeffries (1875–1953) were former heavyweight champions; Robert P. Fitzsimmons (1862–1917) was a former middleweight, light-heavyweight, and heavyweight champion; Augustus Ruhlin (1872–1912) was a journeyman heavyweight, never a champion (New York Times: “Latta Gets Barnes’s Job,” 26 June 1906, 7; “Ruhlin Dies Suddenly,” 14 Feb 1912, 9; “Robt. Fitzsimmons Dies of Pneumonia,” 22 Oct 1917, 15).

 

differs from all other autobiographies, except Benvenuto’s, perhaps] Cellini’s was one of the autobiographical works that Clemens most admired (see AutoMT1 , 5, 600 n. 378.32–34).

 

Here is some more about the Nast sale] The article “30 Cents for McCurdy Poem,” from the New York Times of 4 April, continues the discussion that Clemens began in the Autobiographical Dictation of 3 April.

 

Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner, Colonel of the Rough Riders, Governor, and President] Roosevelt was president of the New York Board of Police Commissioners in 1895–97. In 1898 he became colonel of the Rough Riders, the volunteer cavalry regiment he helped organize to fight in the Spanish-American War. He served as governor of New York in 1899–1900 and, as vice-president of the United States, became the twenty-sixth president on 14 September 1901, when William McKinley died eight days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist.

 

Richard A. McCurdy’s autograph letter] McCurdy (1835–1916), president of the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Company from 1885 to 1905, was one of the insurance executives whose illegal activities were uncovered by the New York State legislative investigation of 1905–6. See the Autobiographical Dictation of 10 January 1906 ( AutoMT1 , 257, 549 n. 257.6–9).

 

J. H. Manning, a son of the late Daniel Manning] Daniel Manning (1831–87) was a journalist and newspaper owner, prominent Democratic politician, and President Cleveland’s first secretary of the treasury (1885–87). His son, James H. Manning (1854–1925), was a reporter and then the managing editor for the Albany (N.Y.) Argus, his father’s paper, and was also an Albany banker and business executive who served two terms as that city’s mayor (1890–94) (Reynolds 1911, 1:213–14; “Died,” New York Times, 7 July 1925, 19).

 

I will be married on the 30th of June coming] General Philip H. Sheridan (see AutoMT1 , 472 n. 67.5) was married in Chicago on 3 June 1875 to Irene Rucker, the twenty-two-year-old daughter of General D. H. Rucker, an assistant quartermaster general and a member of Sheridan’s staff (“Gen. Sheridan’s Wedding,” New York Times, 4 June 1875, 1).

 

P.S. and M.I.] Postscript and, presumably in jest, military intelligence.

 

the dress of Laura Keene, worn on the night of Lincoln’s assassination . . . the stain was made by his blood] Laura Keene (1826?–73) was a well-known actress and a pioneer female theater manager and producer. She was appearing in the popular comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on 14 April 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there.

 

Gen. W. T. Sherman’s letter . . . Sumner, Greeley, Walt Whitman] General William Tecumseh Sherman (see AutoMT1 , 473 n. 68.10); Charles Sumner (1811–74), senator from Massachusetts (1851–74), an organizer of the Republican party, and a fierce opponent of slavery and proponent of equal rights for all; Horace Greeley (see AutoMT1 , 506 n. 145.1); and poet Walt Whitman (1819–92).

 

William M. Tweed and his companion, Hunt, under arrest] From the mid-1850s until his arrest in December 1871, William M. (“Boss”) Tweed (1823–78) and his Democratic party Tammany Hall cohorts defrauded New York City of as much as $200 million through systematic graft and election fraud. Thomas Nast’s scathing cartoons in Harper’s Weekly were instrumental in bringing down the Tweed Ring. Tweed escaped from prison in December 1875 and fled, with one William Hunt, to Cuba and then to Spain. Identified by Spanish officials partly through a Nast cartoon in Harper’s Weekly, Tweed was arrested, along with Hunt, in September 1876. He died in prison (Hershkowitz 1977, 280–99; see also AD, 9 Jan 1907, note at 362.13).

 

this morning’s stirring news from Russia . . . clipping is about me] Clemens refers to a report of 4 April in the New York Times about the possibility of military conflict between Russia and China over the Russian presence in Manchuria (“Chinese-Russian Friction,” New York Times, 4 Apr 1906, 4). The article about him that is inserted instead is from the same issue.

 

MARK TWAIN TALKS TO COLLEGE WOMEN] The article about Clemens’s talk at the Women’s University Club appeared in the New York Times on 4 April. The members of this social club were college graduates, and many of them were teachers (“The City’s Women’s Clubs,” New York Times, 25 Nov 1894, 18).

 

On the 19th of this month, at Carnegie Hall] On 19 April 1906 Clemens spoke at Carnegie Hall on behalf of the Robert Fulton Memorial Association; see the Autobiographical Dictation of 20 March 1906 ( AutoMT1 , 425–28, 630–31 nn. 426.13–15, 426.20–21).

 

a yarn about a walking tour with the Rev. Joseph Twichell] The Reverend Joseph H. Twichell was pastor of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford and Clemens’s lifelong friend ( AutoMT1 , 479 n. 73.13). For the yarn see the note at 16.28–29.

 

MARK TWAIN ADORED . . . AT WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB] This second article about Clemens’s club appearance was from the New York World of 4 April.

 

Miss Maida Castelhun, the President] Maida Castelhun (1872–1940) graduated from the University of California in 1894. She was a French and Norwegian translator as well as a novelist, poet, and biographer (“Miss Castelhun Becomes a Bride,” San Francisco Chronicle, 25 May 1906, 1).

 

the Blue Jay story] One of Clemens’s most frequent recitations, from chapters 2 and 3 of A Tramp Abroad (1880).

 

the story of Twichell and himself . . . hunted for a lost sock] The story is from chapter 13 of A Tramp Abroad, where Twichell figures as “Harris.”

 

Susy’s Biography shows . . . old goat who was President there] For the excerpts from Susy Clemens’s biography of Clemens that describe their 1 May 1885 visit to Vassar and the poor treatment they received from Samuel L. Caldwell, the school’s president, see the Autobiographical Dictation of 7 March 1906 ( AutoMT1 , 379, 394–95, 607 nn. 394.41, 395.12, 395.29–42). Clemens lectured at Smith College several years later, on 26 November 1888 and again on 21 January 1889 ( N&J3, 435–36).

 

The occasion was a benefit arranged by Vassar . . . to aid poor students] The Vassar Students’ Aid Society raised almost a thousand dollars with an afternoon event at the Hudson Theatre on 2 April 1906, which included dramatic and musical entertainment as well as a candy sale. The New York Times reported that “Mark Twain was the centre of one admiring group in a lower stage box” (“Three New Plays at Vassar Aid Benefit,” 3 Apr 1906, 9).

 

I delivered a moral sermon to the Barnard girls . . . a few weeks ago] For the 7 March 1906 Barnard College lecture, see the Autobiographical Dictation of 8 March 1906 ( AutoMT1 , 396, 607–8 nn. 396.13–19, 396.22–25).

 

There was no Mrs. Faulkner among the] There was no Mrs. Faulkner among the Quaker City’s people] Clemens’s memory was correct. For a complete list of passengers, see “Passengers and Crew of the Quaker City ,” L2, 385–87.