Dictated AugustⒶtextual note 27, 1907
Whitelaw Reid’s reception, which Mr. Clemens was unable to attend—Remarks about Whitelaw Reid’s career.
I was not able to go to Whitelaw Reid’s afternoon reception of the American contingent, and so my ticket, (No. 2384), remained unused. The tickets suggest that the national function was conducted on a new plan. It was. It had not been the custom, before, to admit by ticket; any American could come that wanted to, and sometimes five hundred came, sometimes a thousand. In the present case, as usual,Ⓐtextual note there was no restriction; any American could come who applied for a ticket; four thousand applied, and they were all there. It must have been that our AmbassadorⒶtextual note was proposing to provide refreshments, and needed to know what quantity would be required. Reid occupies the most palatial private residence in LondonⒺexplanatory note, and a crush could be expected, for all the Americans would be eager to see it. It was indeed a crush, and half as many people were in it as were present at the King’s great garden party at WindsorⒺexplanatory note, which was attended by a multitude somewhat exceeding eight thousand; still the big house was equal to the emergency.
Reid’s salary is $17,500, and it pays the hire of all his domestic servantsⒶtextual note except that of his cooks; I am speaking of the service in his town house—he has another great palace in the country. His town house rent is a hundred thousand dollars a yearⒺexplanatory note, and he has other expenses, but they are not a burden to him. He and his predecessor, John Hay, were salaried members of the New York Tribune staff when I first knew them; both married unnumbered millions of dollarsⒺexplanatory note. Hay was a man of great and varied talents and accomplishments, and was conspicuously well equipped for the several great national and international posts which he had filled in his brilliant career; and he climbed to several of them without the help of wealth, and would doubtless have climbed the rest of the way without that help, and all the public would have approved, and would also have affectionately applauded and rejoiced. But the like is not the case with Reid. He is educatedⒶtextual note but not accomplished; his talents are few and not distinguished; he is not actually and precisely commonplace, but comes dangerously near to being that; he can write out a good enough speech, and can deliver it well enough, and with dignity, but he cannot stir a house with it—it gives off no real fire, for there is no real fire in him, and his imitations of it are not effective; they are artificial, and they ring hollow. He is narrow, and hard, cold, calculating, unaffectionate, except toward his family and a very small circle of especial friends; his dislikes are strong and steady and lasting, and he is unforgiving. He was born with a good commercial head, and has improved it by experience, but he has no other talent that perceptibly rises toward distinction. It has served him well. By grace of it he moved up, step by step, from war correspondent to a staff position on the Tribune under Greeley; to managing editor; to part proprietor; to proprietor-in-chiefⒶtextual note; to political importance, by right of this powerful position; to minister to France and candidate for Vice PresidentⒶtextual note, partly by the same right but mainly [begin page 113] by authority of the millions which he had meantime married; to special envoy to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, by right of these combined forces; and finally to his present post, the highest in the diplomatic service—again by authority of those forces. He was not shiningly equipped for any of the conspicuous positions which he has occupied; he has not made a shining record in any of them, but he has made a creditable record in all of them. He is disliked by many, liked by few, envied by a multitude, and admired by nobody. He is a typical American product—a product hardly producible elsewhere, but easily producible among us. He is a good sample of what money, push, steady-going energy, pertinacity, and a reasonably good business talent—unsubject to damaging excitements and gushingⒶtextual note enthusiasms—can do for a man in our republic, where high ideals are not a requisite, nor indeed a help, but distinctly a hindrance.Ⓐtextual note Probably it is only with us that a Whitelaw Reid can climb to the loftiest ambassadorship in the country’s gift, a Leonard WoodⒺexplanatory note to the highest position in the army, and a Theodore Roosevelt be implored by the whole nation to accept a third termⒺexplanatory note and do his singular insanities all over again.Ⓐtextual note
Whitelaw Reid’s afternoon reception . . . most palatial private residence in London] Reid’s Fourth of July reception was at his residence, Dorchester House; see the Autobiographical Dictation of 25 July 1907.
the King’s great garden party at Windsor] This had occurred on 22 June 1907. On Ashcroft’s typed record of the Oxford trip’s events, Clemens marked the entry for 22 June and wrote in the margin, “Put it last” (Ashcroft 1907, 2). He discusses King Edward VII’s garden party in the Autobiographical Dictation of 1 October 1907.
Reid’s salary is $17,500 . . . His town house rent is a hundred thousand dollars a year] Clemens correctly states the salary of Reid (and all U.S. ambassadors, at that time). The rent he paid on Dorchester House was $40,000; he also leased a country estate in Bedfordshire from the earl of Cowper. The total outlay of his household was conjectured to be perhaps $300,000. Whatever the exact figures, it was much remarked in the press that magnificence on this scale was attainable by private millionaires, not public servants (“Pays Twice His Salary in Rent; Ambassador Reid Gratifies Fancy,” Chicago Tribune, 26 June 1905, 6; “Finer than the King’s,” San Francisco Chronicle, 22 July 1906, 5; “Mr. Reid’s Salary Not Enough for Flowers,” New York Times, 28 July 1907, SM2).
salaried members of the New York Tribune staff . . . married unnumbered millions of dollars] As managing editor of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, Reid recruited John Hay to the editorial staff (1870) and encouraged Clemens’s occasional contributions. Upon Greeley’s death in 1872, Reid borrowed heavily from Jay Gould to buy the Tribune, and parlayed his control of America’s foremost newspaper into a political career. Hay and Reid were both married to the daughters of wealthy railroad magnates: Reid to a daughter of Darius O. Mills in 1881, and Hay to a daughter of Amasa Stone in 1874 (5 Dec 1872 to Reid, L5 , 242–43 n. 1).
Leonard Wood] Clemens denounced Wood’s ruthless military actions in the Philippines, and his controversial appointment by Roosevelt to the rank of major general, in the Autobiographical Dictations of 12 and 14 March 1906 (see AutoMT1 , 403–9 and notes on 615–19).
Theodore Roosevelt . . . implored by the whole nation to accept a third term] For more on Roosevelt’s terms of office, see the Autobiographical Dictation of 14 July 1908, note at 255.18.
Source document.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 3094–97 (altered in ink to 2194–97), made from Hobby’s notes and revised.TS1, as revised by Clemens, is the only authoritative source for this dictation.