Enclosures with 23 January 1869 To Joseph H. Twichell and Family • Cleveland, Ohio
(Toledo Blade, 21 Jan 69, MTDP 00324)
Mark Twain’s Lecture.—White’s Hall was filled from cellar to garret, last night, by one of the best tickled audiences that ever assembled there to hear a lecture or see the speaker. Mark Twain tickled them. And he did it so easily and almost constantly, that they didn’t know what they were laughing at more than half the time. Twain is witty, and his wit comes from his own fertile brain. His style is original; and his manner of speaking is not after the manner of men generally. His serious face and long drawn words are, of themselves, sufficient to make one laugh, even if there were not in every sentence expressed a sparkling gem of humor, and original idea. His anecdotes, with which the lecture is replete, are rich, and, as he tells them, irresistibly funny. In some of his descriptions of European places and characters the lecturer delivers, at times, most eloquent passages, brilliant in thought and word.
That Mark Twain is a success as a lecturer, as well as writer, we think no one who heard “The American Vandal Abroad,” last night, will dispute.1
Explanatory Notes
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L3, 456–457; none known other than the copy-text.
Provenance:Neither of the enclosures survives with the letter.
