Mark Twains Speeches | Page 4

THE
HUNGARIANS A NEW GERMAN WORD UNCONSCIOUS
PLAGIARISM THE WEATHER THE BABIES OUR CHILDREN
AND GREAT DISCOVERIES EDUCATING THEATRE-GOERS
THE EDUCATIONAL THEATRE POETS AS POLICEMEN
PUDD'NHEAD WILSON DRAMATIZED DALY THEATRE THE
DRESS OF CIVILIZED WOMAN DRESS REFORM AND
COPYRIGHT COLLEGE GIRLS GIRLS THE LADIES WOMAN'S
PRESS CLUB VOTES FOR WOMEN WOMAN-AN OPINION
ADVICE TO GIRLS TAXES AND MORALS TAMMANY AND
CROKER MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT CHINA AND THE PHILIPPINES THEORETICAL
AND PRACTICAL MORALS LAYMAN'S SERMON UNIVERSITY
SETTLEMENT SOCIETY PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP COURAGE THE DINNER TO
MR. CHOATE ON STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE HENRY M.
STANLEY DINNER TO MR. JEROME HENRY IRVING DINNER

TO HAMILTON W. MABIE INTRODUCING NYE AND RILEY
DINNER TO WHITELAW REID ROGERS AND RAILROADS THE
OLD-FASHIONED PRINTER SOCIETY OF AMERICAN
AUTHORS READING-ROOM OPENING LITERATURE
DISAPPEARANCE OF LITERATURE THE NEW YORK PRESS
CLUB DINNER THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING
SPELLING AND PICTURES BOOKS AND BURGLARS
AUTHORS' CLUB BOOKSELLERS "MARK TWAIN's FIRST
APPEARANCE" MORALS AND MEMORY QUEEN VICTORIA
JOAN OF ARC ACCIDENT INSURANCE--ETC. OSTEOPATHY
WATER-SUPPLY MISTAKEN IDENTITY CATS AND CANDY
OBITUARY POETRY CIGARS AND TOBACCO BILLIARDS THE
UNION RIGHT OR WRONG? AN IDEAL FRENCH ADDRESS
STATISTICS GALVESTON ORPHAN BAZAAR SAN FRANCISCO
EARTHQUAKE CHARITY AND ACTORS RUSSIAN REPUBLIC
RUSSIAN SUFFERERS WATTERSON AND TWAIN AS REBELS
ROBERT FULTON FUND FULTON DAY, JAMESTOWN LOTOS
CLUB DINNER IN HONOR OF MARK TWAIN COPYRIGHT IN
AID OF THE BLIND DR. MARK TWAIN, FARMEOPATH
MISSOURI UNIVERSITY SPEECH BUSINESS CARNEGIE THE
BENEFACTOR ON POETRY, VERACITY, AND SUICIDE
WELCOME HOME AN UNDELIVERED SPEECH
SIXTY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY TO THE WHITEFRIARS THE
ASCOT GOLD CUP THE SAVAGE CLUB DINNER GENERAL
MILES AND THE DOG WHEN IN DOUBT, TELL THE TRUTH
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICANS
AND THE ENGLISH ABOUT LONDON PRINCETON THE ST.
LOUIS HARBOR-BOAT "MARK TWAIN" SEVENTIETH
BIRTHDAY

INTRODUCTION
These speeches will address themselves to the minds and hearts of
those who read them, but not with the effect they had with those who
heard them; Clemens himself would have said, not with half the effect.
I have noted elsewhere how he always held that the actor doubled the
value of the author's words; and he was a great actor as well as a great
author. He was a most consummate actor, with this difference from

other actors, that he was the first to know the thoughts and invent the
fancies to which his voice and action gave the color of life.
Representation is the art of other actors; his art was creative as well as
representative; it was nothing at second hand.
I never heard Clemens speak when I thought he quite failed; some burst
or spurt redeemed him when he seemed flagging short of the goal, and,
whoever else was in the running, he came in ahead. His near-failures
were the error of a rare trust to the spontaneity in which other speakers
confide, or are believed to confide, when they are on their feet. He
knew that from the beginning of oratory the orator's spontaneity was
for the silence and solitude of the closet where he mused his words to
an imagined audience; that this was the use of orators from
Demosthenes and Cicero up and down. He studied every word and
syllable, and memorized them by a system of mnemonics peculiar to
himself, consisting of an arbitrary arrangement of things on a
table--knives, forks, salt-cellars; inkstands, pens, boxes, or whatever
was at hand--which stood for points and clauses and climaxes, and
were at once indelible diction and constant suggestion. He studied
every tone and every gesture, and he forecast the result with the real
audience from its result with that imagined audience. Therefore, it was
beautiful to see him and to hear him; he rejoiced in the pleasure he gave
and the blows of surprise which he dealt; and because he had his end in
mind, he knew when to stop.
I have been talking of his method and manner; the matter the reader has
here before him; and it is good matter, glad, honest, kind, just.
W. D. HOWELLS.

PREFACE
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION OF "MARK
TWAIN'S SKETCHES"
If I were to sell the reader a barrel of molasses, and he, instead of
sweetening his substantial dinner with the same at judicious intervals,
should eat the entire barrel at one sitting, and then abuse me for making
him sick, I would say that he deserved to be made sick for not knowing
any better how to utilize the blessings this world affords. And if I sell
to the reader this volume of nonsense, and he, instead of seasoning his
graver reading with a chapter of it now and then, when his mind

demands such relaxation, unwisely overdoses himself with several
chapters of it at a single sitting, he will deserve to be nauseated, and he
will have nobody