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<br/>
<h2> THE NEW YORK PRESS CLUB DINNER </h2>
<p>AT THE ANNUAL DINNER, NOVEMBER 13, 1900<br/>
<br/>
Col. William L. Brown, the former editor of the Daily News, as<br/>
president of the club, introduced Mr. Clemens as the principal<br/>
ornament of American literature.<br/></p>
<p>I must say that I have already begun to regret that I left my gun at home.
I’ve said so many times when a chairman has distressed me with just such
compliments that the next time such a thing occurs I will certainly use a
gun on that chairman. It is my privilege to compliment him in return. You
behold before you a very, very old man. A cursory glance at him would
deceive the most penetrating. His features seem to reveal a person dead to
all honorable instincts—they seem to bear the traces of all the
known crimes, instead of the marks of a life spent for the most part, and
now altogether, in the Sunday-school of a life that may well stand as an
example to all generations that have risen or will riz—I mean to
say, will rise. His private character is altogether suggestive of virtues
which to all appearances he has not. If you examine his past history you
will find it as deceptive as his features, because it is marked all over
with waywardness and misdemeanor—mere effects of a great spirit upon
a weak body—mere accidents of a great career. In his heart he
cherishes every virtue on the list of virtues, and he practises them all—secretly—always
secretly. You all know him so well that there is no need for him to be
introduced here. Gentlemen, Colonel Brown.</p>
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