Mark Twain Speaking

133. Yale Alumni Association

426 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING· 133 · Mark Twain made an unscheduled appearance at a Yale alumni dinner in Hartford. The Courant reported next day that when he casually strolled in, accompanied by his old friend Twichell, "The familiar features and flowing hair of the gifted humorist were quickly recognized and the entire party rose, cheered, clapped andyelled with a waving ofnapkins and other demonstrations ofdelight. " Dinner Speech Yale Alumni Association Dinner, Allyn Hall, Hartford, January 31, 1902 I didn't want to be invited and the reason was I wanted to come and I couldn't come if invited as I pledged myself last summer that I wouldn't accept any invitation outside of New York, except to funerals . I have no toast, no text and therefore it is fortunate that I was so long a resident of Hartford and a member of the Monday Evening Club, and if you don't know what the peculiarities of that club are, I will tell you. It was to take men who were not born to speak and never could be made to speak, so that they could get up at any time and speak. No member of the club could speak for more than ten minutes. It has also taught Colonel Greene who could always talk on emptiness and veracity. We took "Charley" Clark when he didn't know anything and couldn't tell it. And now he can. President Smith is a graduate of the club. There is a man for whom we all have great regard and who can get up here and talk for all the 479 colleges in the country. He has tried to make us believe that he knows all about them and has even suggested that President Hadley be made an admiral. He could never have done it without the training he received in the Monday Evening Club. He also tries to make you believe that he believes what he says he does. I knew all these people for about thirty years and remember that Colonel Greene there learned the use of sentences. There were other able men, Dunham and Colonel Cheney. Greene used to talk the ten minutes and wind up his gracefUl sentences with an explosion grand MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 427 and effective. Twichell also is a graduate of the club who learned the spirit of self-sacrifice and when he got on a subject he couldn't understand, used to talk on it and pass it along to the next. Then we had Judge Hamersley (who I hope is not here). He was trained in the club and his utterances were learned there. He would talk and when he got to the end there would be a great explosion. Greene would go voyaging around after a German verb and when he had found that German verb would come back and let us have it. Burton, the greathearted Dr. Nathaniel Burton, was also a member of the club. He had the most wonderful vocabulary and would sit with his great head bowed and when one of us ·finished, would arouse and say, "There she blows." Greene would make you believe that he knew what he was talking about and you would believe him, but he didn't. I was in the club thirty years ago and was then the greatest man in it. I neVer came across so great a man. Then there was Dr. Bushnell, that great mind. He resigned from the club before I joined it and when I afterwards saw him he was feeble in body but his great mind and great heart were as big and full of loving kindness as ever. [The text above is incomplete. In additional remarks he thanked Yale for the honorary degree of Litt. D. conferred upon him-along with Aldrich, Cable, Howells, and Gilder-at the university's bicentennial celebration in October, 1901. He also said that Yale needed only a Monday Evening Club to become famous.] Text I "Yale Alumni I Mark Twain and the Monday Evening Club," Courant, February 1, 1902. Monday Evening Club I Founded in Hartford in 1869, it had no officers or dues. Among members were Trinity College professors, local lawyers, businessmen, journalists, and clergymen. They met every two weeks in each other's homes, the chairman being the host of the evening, the program a paper read by one member, followed by discussion. Mark Twain was elected in 1873. See The List of Members of the Monday Evening...