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The New York Times, November 29, 1902

MARK TWAIN ENTERTAINED
Dinner in Honor of His Sixty-seventy Birthday Given by Col. Harvey at the Metropolitan Club.

Mark Twain's sixty-seventy birthday, which falls on Sunday, was celebrated at the Metropolitan Club last night by a dinner given in his honor by Col. George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly and The North American Review, and President of Harper & Brothers, publishers. It was attended by fifty-three guests, most of them prominent in the literary world.

Mark Twain may or may not have read the notices of his demise which certain newspaper paragraphers have from time to time inserted in their papers prematurely as an excuse for the perpetration of a real or imagined witticism, but last night he laughingly listened while John Kendrick Bangs read a long obituary of him in rhyme and rhythm.

Mr. Howells read a sonnet in which he referred to a number of incidents in Mark Twain's life, and particularly the article the humorist wrote on foreign missionaries. The other speakers were Chauncey M. Depew, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Col. George Harvey, W. D. Howells, Hamilton W. Mabie, Thomas B. Reed, Wayne MacVeagh, and Mr. Clemens.

The other members of the company were: Charles Frohman, Robert W. Chambers, E. Thompson Seton, John Kendrick Bangs, George W. Young, E. W. Townsend, Will N. Harben, Booth Tarkington, Henry L. Stoddard, Rev. J. H. Twichell, Dr. C. C. Rice, John W. Alexander, Richard Watson Gilder, Henry M. Alden, Prof. Brander Matthews, Howard Pyle, Hamblen Sears, James Lane Allen, Hamlin Garland, Richard Le Gallienne, Thomas A. Janvier, James H. Hyde, Frederick A. Duneka, Thomas F. Ryan, Adrian H. Joline, Van Tassell Sutphen, William A. Nash, Adolph S. Ochs, Major F. T. Leigh, St. Clair McKelway, Will Carleton, J. Henry Harper, F. Hopkinson Smith, Samuel Bowles, Horace White, August Belmont, John Hay, Roy Rolfe Gilson, George W. Cable, David A. Munro, Dumont Clarke, Henry S. Harper, Daniel O'Day, W. B. Leeds, William M. Laffan, Henry H. Rogers.

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