The national forum., 1910-10-01
FUN THAT FAILED.
Mark TWain's BurIeSque of Emer-
son, LongfeIIow and Holmes.
Ut SHOCKED THE lMMORTAL.S.

tet7PI 10 MHk6 1aTne OF tUS SigHiHc0
Literary Trio at the Boston Dinner.
In his memories of Mark Twain in
Harper's w. d. Howells tells of the
dinner in Boston when Mark Twain,
with fatal effect, made game Of Emer-
son, Lcngfellow and Holmes:
HE believed he had been parricu-
larly fortunate in his notion for the
speech Of that evening, and he had
worked 1t out in joyous self reliance.
1t was the notion of three tramps,
three deadbeats, visiting a California
mining camp and imposing themselves
upon the innocent miners as respec-
lively Ralph Waldo Emerson. Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver
Wendell Holmes. The humor of the
conception must prosper or must fail
according to the mood of the hearer,
but Clemens felt sure of compelling
this to sympathy, and he looked for
ward to an unparalleled triumph.
but there were two things that he
had not taken into account. One was
the species Of religious veneration in
which these men were held by those
nearest them. They We're men of ex-
ed presence for want of some clearer
word, so that no one could well ap-
proach them in personally light or
trifing spirit. DO not suppose that
anybody more truly valued them or
more piously loved them than Glenn
ems himself, but the intoxication of his
fancy carried him beyond the bounds
of that regard and emboldened him to
the other thing which he had not taken
into account-namey, the immense
hazard of working his fancy out be-
fore their faces and expecting them to
enter into the delight Of it. If neither
Emerson nor Longfellow nor Holmes
had been there the scheme might pos
sibly have carried, but even this is
doubtful.
II was the hapless president, fulfill
ing the abhorred function Of calling
people to their feet and making them
4 L
introduced him with the cordial ad-
miration | had for him as one of my
greatest contributors and dearest
friends. Here, said, in sum, was a
humorist who never left you hanging
your head for having enjoyed his joke,
and then the amazing mistake, the be-
wildering blunder, the cruel catastro-
phe was upon us. | believe that after
the scope of the burlesque made itself
clear there was no one there, including
the burlesquer himself, who was not
smitten with desolating dismay.
There fell silence, weighing many
tons to the square inch, which deep
ened from moment to moment and
was broken only by the hysterical and
blood curdling laughter of single
guest. whose name shall not be hand
ed down to lnfamy. Nobody knew
whether to look at the speaker or
down at his plate. chose my plate
as the least affliction, and so | do not
know how Clemens looked, except
when / stole glance at him and saw
him standing solitary amid his APP
palled and appalling listeners, with his
joke dead on his hands. From first
glance at the great three whom his
jest had made its theme. was aware
of Longfellow sitting upright and re-
gardng the humorlst with an air of
pensive puzzle, Of Holmes busily writ
ing on his menu with well feigned
effect of preoccupation, and of Emer-
son holding his elbows and listening
with a sort of Jovian oblivion of this
neither world in that lapse of memory
which saved him in those later years
from so much bother. Clemens must
have dragged his joke to the climax
and left it there, but cannot say
this from any sense of the fact. OF
what happened afterward at the table
where the immense, the wholly inno-
cent, the truly unimagined affront was
offered, / have no longer the least re-
membrance. next remember being
In room Of the hotel where Clemens
was not to sleep, but to toss in despair
and Charles Dudley Warmers sayi1g
in the gloom, We'll, Mark. You're
funny fellow. 1t was as well as any
thing he could have said, but Clemens
seemed unable to accept the tribute.
II stayed the night with him, and
the next morning after haggard
breakfast we drove about, and he
made some purchases Of bric-a-brac
for his house in Hartford. with soul
as far away from bric-a-brac as ever
the soul Of man was. He went home
by an early train, and he lost no time
in writing back to the three divine
personalities which he had SO involun-
tarily seemed to flout. They all wrote
back to him, making IL as light for
him as they could. J. have heard that
Emerson was good deal mystifed
and in his sublime forgetfulness asked,
who was this gentleman who appear
ed to think he had offered him some
sort of annoyance? But am not
sure that this is accurate. What |
am sure Of is that Longfellow few
days after in my study stopped before
a photograph Of Clemens and said,
'Ah, he is a wagr and nothing more.
Holmes told me, with deep emotion,
such as brother humorist might well
feel, that he had not lost an instant III
rpplvinp to Clemens letter and assur-