The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-01
TRIBUTE ID
 MARK TWAIN
ThrOng at Carnegie Hall Hears Humorous stories of the Hu-
 morist and Pnilisopher
HIS OLD FRIENDS THERE
ChOate, Cannon, Clark, Towels, Twichell, and Others Give Rem
 iniScenSes of His Life.

Nearly 5000 persons packed Carnegie
 hall in New York last night to honor
 the memory of Mark Twain Almost
 every one of prominence in the literary
 life and activity of the Eastern half
 of the country was present
 1 The Speaker of the House of Rep
 resentatives. Joseph G. Cannon--"Un- cle Joe'. as Mark Twain always calk
 ed him. even to his face-was one of
 the principal as we'll as one of the
 most delightful speakers Champ Clark of Missouri slated to succeed l Cannon as Speaker in the next Con gress. was another to pay Mark Twain
 tribute
 i Others who spoke were his old !, friend, William Dean Howells, who , was chosen to preside; Joseph B. ! Choate, Henry Watterson. whom Mark
 Twain. like many others. called "Marse 1 Henry, when he didn't call him ''Cou-
 sin Henry. as they were connected 1 by marriage; the Rev. Dr. Joseph H.
 Twichell of Hartford. the humorists
 old pastor and intimate friend; George { w. Cable and Henry Van Dyke, the
 latter reading a poem entitled Mark
 Twain. written for the occasion
 MT. Howells said in the beginning it
 would never do to make a solemn | thing of the memorial.
 ''If the mood and make of our com | memoration could be left to Mark
 Twain,'' said he. i've might imagine | him saying:
 Why, of course you mustn't make
 a solemnity of it: you mustn't have it
 that sort of obsequy: I should want
 sincere;- and you couldn't be sincere | if you ran to eulogy'"
 .Ms Choate said all the world had
 come to recognize Mark Twain in life
 time as the foremost American man
 of letters, and the greatest humorist
 of the world. His Huckleberry Finn Col. Sellers. and Tom Sawyer MT 1 Choate said. were as well known as i any historical characters in American
 annals. MT. Choate declared Mark
 Twain's sentences didn't have to be
 which ever finally had to be guessed | at. This was one reason. MT. Choate
 thought. why the middle classes of | England associated his works with
 Robinson Crusoe.
 MT. Choate referred to Mark Twain's
 four years as a pilot on the Mississ- l ippi as his university. where. the | speaker said, Mark Twain learned
 many useful things which he could
 never have got at Harvard or Yale.
 MT. Choate raised a laugh by his com | ment on the humorists career in the | Southern army in the war. He said he got in by accident and got out by mistake.
 Dr. Twichell was Mark Twain's companion on many of his European travels. He said he and the humor- l ist had often slept together on these | travels, and he didn't think he was offending any propriety by telling that hundreds of times he and Mark Twain
 had knelt down together at bedtime and said their prayers.
 | Speaker Cannon was evidently the | favorite with the audience. There
 was long applause when he came for
 ward, presented by MT. Howells as another man besides Mark Twain who | that many years before any one else present was born he used to hear the Mississippi pilots sing out, Mark Twain Mark Twain," meaning a depth of two fathoms of water, but he didn't think then that a man would spring up who would make those words famous throughout the world. Mr. Cannon told how Mark Twain | had come to Washington to lobby" ives, to lobby" repeated Speaker Cannon, in the interest of an amend ment to the copyright law. The hu- i morist frankly said he wanted to pro- test his, and his children's rights against pirates"
 MT. Cannon said Mark Twain had a burning desire to appear on the floor Ol lHe f1OuSo O1 TSepreSeuldIlNCS anu argue his cause. The humorist came to see him about it and the Speaker told him it could not be- done, as such a thing had never been done. He told him that none but members and ex-members had the privilege of the floor of the House. The only prece- dents in the cases of others were where persons had received the thanks of Congress. Soon after this Mark Twain himself brought to his desk a letter addressed to the Speaker. Here is the way it began:
 Dear Uncle Joseph: Please get me the thanks of Congress; not next week, but right away. It is absolutely nec- essary. Get them by peaceful means if you can, but by violence if you must"
 He wound up by saying that he had not troubled Congress for seventy-one years, and ought to be thanked for that if for nothing else.
 Champ Clark also referred to Mark Twain as 9 lobbyist.