Mark Twain Speaking

177. Curtain Speech

596 MARK TWAIN SPEAKING· 177 · To stimulate interest in the Children's Theatre, Mark Twain invited a remarkable audience to a special performance. Among several hundred guests were Governor Charles Evans Hughes, District AttorneyJerome, President Eliot of Harvard, Carnegie, Dan Beard, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Guggenheim, Mrs. John Drew, Richard Harding Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Depew, John Burroughs, Walter Damrosch, Hamilton W. Mabie, Poultney Bigelow, Frederick A. Stokes, George Harvey, Brander Matthews, and other well-knoum citizens. The gathering was a tribute to the eminence of Mark Twain. Probably few other people, ifany, could have brought together such a diverse and distinguished assembly . Curtain Speech Invitational Performance of The Prince and the Pauper, Children's Theatre, New York, November 19, 1907 Just a word or two to let you know how deeply I appreciate the honor which the children who are the actors and frequenters of this cozy playhouse have conferred upon me. They have asked me to be their ambassador to invite the hearts and brains of New York to come down here and see the work they are doing. I consider it a grand distinction to be chosen as their intermediary. Between the children and myself there is an indissoluble bond of friendship. I am proud of this theater and this performance-proud, because I am naturally vain-vain of myself and proud of the children. I wish I could reach more children at one time. I am glad to see that the children of the East Side have turned their backs on the Bowery theaters to come to see the pure entertainments presented here. This Children's Theatre is a great educational institution. I hope the time will come when it will be part of every public school in the land. I may be pardoned in being vain. I was born vain, I guess. [Offstage whistle.] That settles it; there's my cue to stop. I was to talk until the whistle blew, but it blew before I got started. It takes me longer to get started than most people. I guess I was born at slow speed. My time is up, and if you'll keep quiet for two minutes I'll tell you something about Miss Herts, the woman who conceived this splendid idea. She is MARK TWAIN SPEAKING 597 the originator and the creator of this theater. Educationally, this institution coins the gold of young hearts into external good. Text I Composite, based upon: "Whistle Cuts Mark Twain's Speech Short," World, November 20, 1907; "The Educational Theatre" in MTS(10):74-75; andMTS(23):332-33. Miss Hens I Alice M. Herts was chiefly responsible for the development ofthe Children's Theatre. She interested children in the plays of Shakespeare and others, and directed the plays the young actors put on. The price of admission to a performance was ten cents.· 178 · The Associated Societies ofEngineers gave a dinner honoring Carnegiefor his gift to the Engineers Club ofa miUion-dollar clubhouse on Fortieth Street, New Yark. T. C. Martin, president of the club, who introduced Mark Twain, referred to a passage in the latter's autobiography in which he wrote ofarriving in New York as ayoungman with three dollars in hispocket anda ten-dollar bill sewed into his coat. Severalspeakers hadpraisedCarnegie so lavishly thatMark Twain evened the balance somewhat by pokingfun at him and at simplified spelling. Dinner Speech Associated Societies ofEngineers Dinnerfor Andrew Carnegie, Engineers Club, New York, December 9, 1907 It seems to me that I was around here in the neighborhood of the Public Library about fifty or sixty years ago. I don't deny the circumstance , although I don't see how you got it out of my autobiography, which was not to be printed until I am dead, unless I'm dead now. I had that three dollars in change, and I remember well the ten dollars which was sewed in my coat. I have prospered since. Now I have plenty of money and a disposition to squander it, but I can't. One of those trust companies is taking care of it. ...