Mark Twain Speaking

23. Dinner Speech

MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 89 but had not been brought to trial. The foreman of the jury was William Gillette, a young man of Hartford who had defied the mores of his hometown by embarking on an actor's career with the aid of Mark Twain. In the play Gillette had one short line: "Not guilty." this gentleman / John T. Raymond, stage name of John O'Brien (1836-87). American actor. Having been on the stage since 1853, he had built up a great reputation as a character actor who achieved comic effects by bizarre clothes, facial mobility, and bodily eccentricities . In The Gilded Age, he played the role of Colonel Mulberry Sellers as a comedy part, giving his performance, even his costume, an air of burlesque that did not please Mark Twain, whose remarks in the curtain speech were not entirely complimentary to his leading man. In MTA Raymond is characterized as great in humorous portrayal but otherwise as a selfish man, not very bright, often silly, and generally heartless. -23The guest of honor at the dinner noted below was described by the Courant, October 16,1874, as "the well known English insurance author. ... in every respect a prominent insurance man." In the large crowd were officers of Hartford insurance companies, actuaries, medical examiners and others, including Mark Twain. Dinner Speech Insurance Men's Banquetfor Cornelius Walford, Allyn House, Hartford, October 12,1874 Gentlemen: I am glad, indeed, to assist in welcoming the distinguished guest of this occasion to a city whose fame as an insurance center has extended to all lands and given us the name of being a quadruple band ofbrothers working sweetly hand in hand-the Colt's Arms Company making the destruction of our race easy and conven- 90 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING ient, our life insurance citizens paying for the victims when they pass away, Mr. Batterson perpetuating their memory with his stately monuments , and our fire insurance companies taking care of their hereafter. I am glad to assist in welcoming our guest-first, because he is an Englishman, and lowe a heavy debt of hospitality to certain ofhis fellow-countrymen; and secondly, because he is in sympathy with insurance, and has been the means of making many other men cast their sympathies in the same direction. Certainly there is no nobler field for human effort than the insurance line of business-especially accident insurance. Ever since I have been a director in an accident insurance company I have felt that I am a better man. Life has seemed more precious. Accidents have assumed a kindlier aspect. Distressing special providences have lost half their horror. I look upon a cripple, now, with affection and interest-as an advertisement. I do not seem to care for poetry any more. I do not care for politics, even agriculture does not excite me. But to me, now, there is a charm about a railway collision that is unspeakable. There is nothing more beneficent than accident insurance. I have seen an entire family lifted out of poverty and into affluence by the simple boon of a broken leg. I have had people come to me on crutches, with tears in their eyes, to bless this beneficent institution. In all my experience of life, I have seen nothing so seraphic as the look that comes into a freshly-mutilated man's face when he feels in his vest pocket with his remaining hand and finds his accident ticket all right. And I have seen nothing so sad as the look that came into another splintered customer's face, when he found he couldn't collect on a wooden leg. I will remark here, by way of an advertisement, that the noble charity which we have named the Hartford Accident Insurance Company , is an institution which is peculiarly to be depended upon. A man is bound to prosper who gives it his custom. No man can take out a policy in it and not get crippled before the year is out. Now there was one indigent man who had been disappointed so often with other companies that he had grown disheartened, his appetite left him, he ceased to smile-said life was but a weariness. Three weeks ago I got him to insure with us, and now he is the brightest, happiest spirit in this land-has a good steady income and a stylish suit of new bandages every day, and travels around on a shutter. I am informed by Mr. Charles...