Mark Twain Speaking

66. Daly's Theatre

222 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING· 66 · To celebrate the first successful American run of a Shakespearian comedy, Augustin Daly gave a midnight supper on the stagefor the two stars ofthe cast, John Drew and Ada Rehan. A gay company assembled around a huge circular table twenty-eight feet in diameter: H. H. Furness, Rose Eytinge, General Horace Porler, Elihu Vedder, Bronson Howard, May Irwin, Wilson Barrett, Otis Skinner, Lester Wallack, Laurence Hutton, William Winter, and others. General Sherman, toastmaster, introduced Mark Twain as the chiefhumorist and philosopher ofhis time. See Daly, The Life of Augustin Daly: 431-35; also The Shrew's Centenary, A Reminiscence of the 13th of April by One of the Invited (New York, 1887). Supper Speech Celebrating the 100th Performance of The Taming of the Shrew, Daly's Theatre, New York, April 13, 1887 I am glad to be here. This is the hardest theater in New York to get into, even at the front door-I never got in without hard work. Two or three years ago I had an appointment to meet Mr. Daly on the stage of this theater at eight o'clock in the evening. Well, I got on a train at Hartford to come to New York and keep the appointment. All I had to do was to come to the back door of the theater on Sixth Avenue. I didn't believe that-didn't believe it could be on Sixth Avenue-but that's what Daly'S note said-come to that door, walk right in, and keep the appointment. It looked very easy. It looked easy enough, but I hadn't much confidence in that Sixth Avenue door. Well, I was kind of bored on the train, and I bought some newspapers -New Haven newspapers-and there wasn't much news in them, so I read the advertisements. There was one advertisement of a bench show. Now I'd heard of bench shows, and often wondered what there was about them to interest people. I'd seen bench shows-lectured to bench shows, in fact-but I didn't want to advertise them or brag about them. Well, I read on a little, and learned that a bench show was not a bench show-but dogs, not benches at all-only dogs. I began to get interested, and as there was nothing else to do I read every bit of that advertisement. I learned that the biggest thing in this MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 223 show was a St. Bernard dog that weighed 145 pounds, which is more than dogs usually weigh. Before I got to New York I was so interested in the bench shows that I made up my mind to go to one the first chance I got. Down on Sixth Avenue, near where that back door might be, I began to take things leisurely. I did not like to be in too much of a hurry. There wasn't anything in sight that looked like a back door. The nearest approach to it was a cigar store, and I went in and bought a cigar-not too expensive, but it cost enough to pay for any information I might get, and leave the dealer a fair profit. Well, I didn't like to be too abrupt, to make the man think me crazy, by asking him if that was the way to Daly's Theatre-so I started in carefully to lead up to the subject-asked him first if that was the way to Castle Garden. When I got to the real question, and he said he'd show me the way, I was astonished. He sent me through a long hallway, and I found myself in a back yard; then I went through a long passageway and into a little room, and there, before my very eyes, was a big St. Bernard dog lying on a bench. There was another room beyond, and I went there, and was met by a big, fierce man with his fur cap on and his coat off, who remarked , "Phwat do yez want?" I told him I wanted to see Mr. Daly. "Yez can't see Misther Daly this toime of night!" he responded. I urged that I had an appointment with Mr. Daly, and gave him my card, which didn't seem to impress him much. "Yez can't get in, an' yez can't shmoke here. T'row away that cigar. If yez want to see...