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From:
Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 13:39:33 -0700
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This review touches upon just how tall Twain actually was...

Winona Daily Republican; Jan 27, 1885

Innocents Abroad.
Mark Twain and Geo. W. Cable

The large audience assembled to hear Mark Twain and Geo. W. Cable last
evening were not kept waiting.  The curtain was up at Philharmonic Hall
when the people entered.  The stage was set with a drawing-room scene, a
table covered with a red spread and a plain chair.  It was about ten
minutes after 8 o'clock when Mr. Cable came upon the stage attired in a
faultless evening suit.  He is slightly built, with a forehead high and
prominent, a beard and heavy mustache and a piercing eye that rivets
attention.  His selections opened with the scene between Narcisse and
John and Mary Richling, in his own work, Dr. Sevier, (which he
pronounces Severe.)  It was a fine bit of dialect recitation, and at
once placed him in good favor with the house.  Then Mark Twain came on
with a sort of side-long awkward stride, amusing in itself.  He is not
as tall as his picture would lead one to expect.  His heavy head of hair
plentifully streaked with gray adds to the marked personal
characteristics of the man.  His speech was slow and measured with a
peculiar drawl that imparted an added effect to his recitations.  He has
an easy way of supporting his right elbow with his left hand that gives
a natural and easy force to his gestures.  His opening selection was a
laughable sketch entitled “King Sollermann,” from his forthcoming book
entitled “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which was heartily
applauded.  Mr. Cable followed in another highly enjoyable selection
from Dr. Sevier, and then Twain gave the “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,”
preceded by a side-splitting description of his struggles in learning
German and the interminable difficulties he encountered in the
adjectives and nouns.  In answer to a recall Mr. Clemens gave his famous
description of “Buck Fanshawe's Funeral,” which kept the house in a
continual strain of laughter.  Mr. Cable gave two other selections from
Dr. Sevier, his closing number being “Mary's Night Ride.”  It was given
with remarkable dramatic fervor and resulted in an enthusiastic recall.
He merely bowed his acknowledgements.  Mark Twain's last two numbers
were “A Trying Situation,” a roaring remeniscene [sic] from Innocents
Abroad, and A Ghost Story, which closed the evening.  He bowed himself
off the stage amid the laughter and applause of the house.  It was a
very satisfactory evening throughout.

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