The Washington herald., 1922-11-19
When the Prince of Vale.
Gave Mark Twain a
Dinner the Humorist
Was Slow Getting
Started With His
Droll Stories
esvss--s ~.

and the Reverend Doctor Joseph
Twichell. of Hartford. Conn. Doc
tor Twichell was Mark Twain's
pastor at home. He was In col
lege with me at Yale. and I was
also associated with him in the
governing corporation of Yale
University. He was one of the
finest wits and remarkable humor-
lists Of his time. Wit and humor
were with him spontaneous. and
he bubbled over with them. Mark
Twain's faculties in that line were
more labored and had to be worked
out. Doctor Twichell often fur
nished in the rough the jewels
which afterwards in Mark Twain's
workshop became perfect gems.
invited them to come over and
spend the day and dine with me In
the evening at Homburg. Mark
Twain at that time had the reputa-
tion in England of being the great
est living wit and humorist. 1t
soon spread over Homburg that he
was in town and was to dine with
me in the evening, and requests
came pouring In to be invited. I
kept enlarging my table at the
Kursaal. with these requests, un-
til the management said they
could go no farther. 1 placed
MARI Twain alongside Lady Cork.
one of the most brilliant women in
England. In the course Of years
of acquaintance 1 had met Mark
Twain under many conditions. He
way. His peculiar drawl, his habit
ering. Sometimes he would be the
life of the occasion and make 1t
one to be long remembered. but
generally he contributed nothing.
At this dinner. whenever he show
ed the slightest sign of making a
remark, there was dead silence,
but the remark did not come. He
had a charming time, and so did
lady Cork, but the rest of the
company heard nothing from the
great humorist, and they were
greatly disappointed.
The next morning Mark Twain
came down to the springs in his
tramping suit, which had fairly
covered the continent. intro
duced him to the Prince of Wales,
and he was charmed with him in
their hour of walk and talk. At
dinner that evening the prince said
to me. 81 would have invited
Aark Twain this evening. il I
thought he had with him any din
ner clothes"
"At my dinner last night" said,
'he met every conventional re-
quirement."
Then" continued the prince,
"I would be much obliged IL you
would get him for dinner with me
tomorrow evening"
STEALING DEPEW'S STUFF.
1t was very much the same COM
pany as had dined with the prince
the night before. Again Twain was
for a long time a complete disap-
pointment. l knew scores Of good
things of his and tried my best to
start him off, but without success.
The prince. who was unusually
adroit and tactful in drawing a dis
tinguished guest out. also failed.
When the dinner was over, how
ever, and we had reached the
cigars, Mark Twain started in tell
ing a story in his most captivating
way. His peculiar drawl, his habit
in emphasizing the points by shak-
ing his bushy hair. made him a
dramatic narrator. He never had
greater success. Even the veteran
Mark himself was astonished at
the uproarious laughter which
greeted almost every sentence and
was overwhelming when he closed.
There are millions of stories in
the world, and several hundred of
them good ones. No one knew
more Of them than Mark Twain,
and yet out of this vast collec-
ton he selected the one which
had told the night before to the
same company. The laughter and
enjoyment were not at the story,
but because the English had, as
they thought. caught me in re-
failing to them from Mark
Twain's repertoire one of his
stories. 1t so happened that it
was a story which I had heard
as happening upon a railroad in