1 Redpath’s presence in Hartford has not been explained. His visit with Clemens must have been limited to breakfast, since by noon of 23 February Clemens was on his way to New York City to attend a dinner at the St. James Hotel given by the publishers of the Aldine, an illustrated literary monthly, self-described as a “typographic art journal.” (In 1871 Clemens had sent his regrets for a similar occasion on 15 March [“The Aldine Dinner,” New York Tribune, 16 Mar 71, 5].) The dinner, presided over by Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, a former printer, celebrated “the increased prosperity of the Aldine, the accession of Mr. R. H. Stoddard to its editorial management, and other matters relating to American art and literature” (“New York,” Boston Advertiser, 27 Feb 72, 2). It brought together about fifty guests, primarily publishers, journalists from the New York, Boston, and Philadelphia press, artists, and writers. The Aldine’s publisher, James Sutton, and editor, Richard Henry Stoddard, were present, as well as Whitelaw Reid, John Hay, William F. G. Shanks, and Samuel Sinclair, city editor and publisher, respectively, of the New York Tribune. Others present included: Robert Shelton Mackenzie (1809–81), literary and drama critic of the Philadelphia Press; poet and stockbroker Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908), whose long friendship with Clemens may have dated from this dinner; the Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage, whom Clemens had attacked in “About Smells” in his May 1870 Galaxy column; traveler and author Bayard Taylor (1825–78); sculptor Launt Thompson, whom Clemens had urged Elisha Bliss to consult about illustrator Edward F. Mullen in December 1870; and Charles F. Wingate. According to the Tribune, Clemens, when called upon, “excused himself from making a speech by a felicitous speech of some length, abounding with touches of humor peculiar to himself” (“The Aldine Dinner,” 26 Feb 72, 8). The Tribune did not reproduce the speech, but the Cleveland Leader printed the text on 1 March, and a more complete version appeared in the Elmira Advertiser on 18 March. Clemens used his account of “Jim Wolf and the Tom-Cats”—and Wolf’s statement, “I could have ketched them cats if I had had on a good ready”—to explain his inability to make an impromptu speech (SLC 1867, 1872). The speech was “received with shouts of laughter,” according to the Cleveland Leader (“‘Mark Twain,’” 1 Mar 72, 3). Clemens stayed at the St. James Hotel for at least one night; he was back home in Hartford by 26 February (New York Tribune: “The Aldine Dinner,” 24 Feb 72, 5; “Prominent Arrivals,” 24 Feb 72, 8; L4, 123–24, 281, 282 n. 1, 337 n. 1).