Arizona republican., 1905-12-06
MARK TWAIN'S
 DlNNFRTIMF
The Seventieth Birthday of
 the HumOriSt.
Its Celebration by Literary People Last Night in Most Fitting Man. mer.

New York, Dec. 5.-Mark Twain to- night was the guest of honor at a din- ner at Delmonicos, given by George Harvey in honor of the humorist's seventieth birthday. The guests were confined closely to writers of imagina- tive literature and about ITO authors were present, nearly half of them wo- men. During the dinner a congrat- ulatory message was received from England, signed by forty of the most distinguished writers there. The prin- cipal souvenir which each guest re- ceived was bust of Mark Twain, half life size. President Roosevelt and J. Chandler Harris sent letters and among those who spoke or presented poems were: w. D. Howells, Richard Watson Glider, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Brander Matthews, pr. Weir Mitchell, Kate Douglas Wiggins, John Kendrick Bangs, Amelia Barr, Hamilton w. Ma bic, Caroljn Wells, Irving Bachellder, Andrew Carnegie, G. w. Cable, Hop- kinson Smith and Agnes Repplier
 MT. Roosevelt wrote: "I wish it were in my power to be at the dinner held to celebrate the seventieth birth day of Mark Twain. It is difficult to write of him by his right name, in- stead of that name which has become a house hold word wherever the Eng fish language is spoken. He Is one of the citizens whom all Americans should delight to honor, for he has rendered a great and peculiar service to America and his writings such as no one but an American could have written. yet emphatically come within that small list which are written for no partic- ular country. but for all countries and which are not merely written for time. but have an abiding and permanent value. May he live long and year after year may he add to the sum of the admirable work that he has done.
 sincerely yours.
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT"
 Wlen Mark Twain arose to speak he could not proceed for several min utes on account of cheers that were given in greeting. He said: "The seventieth birthday, It is the time of life when you arrive at new and awful dignity; when you may throw aside decent reserves which have oppressed you for a generation and stand un- afraid and unabashed upon your sev- n-terraced summit and look down and teach unrebuked. You can tell the world how you got there. It is what they all do. You shall never get tired of telling by what delicate arts and moralities you climbed to that great place. You will explain the with senile rapture. have been anx- -ious to explain smy- own system this long time and now at last have the right
 'I have achieved my seventy years in the usual way-by sticking strictly to the scene of life that would kill anybody else. It sounds like an eXag- geration, but that is really the com mon rule for attaining old age. We have no permanent habits until we are forty. Then they begin to harden, presently they petrify, then business begins. Since forty, have been regu- lar about getting to bed and getting up, and that is one of the main things. I have made it rule to go to bed when there was not anybody left to sit up with; and I have made it rule to get up when I had to. This has resulted in an unswerving regularity or irreg- ularity.
 Tn tho matter Of diet which is an- other main thing, I have been persist ently strict in sticking to things which did not agree with me until one or the other of us got the best of it. Until lately, I got the best of it myself. But last spring I stopped froliclling with mince pie after midnight; up to then had always believed it was not load ed. For thirty years I have taken cof- fee and bread at o'clock in the morn ing and no bite nor sup till 7:30 in the evening I have made it a rule never .1y 4hor icror o a i time. I have no other restriction to make as regards smoking.
 "As for drinking, I have no rule about that. When the others drink l like to help; otherwise I remain dry by habit and preference. Thus drinks do not hurt me, but they could easily hurt you, because you are different. You let it alone"