, who would otherwise hang us, believe that we are joking (Clemens 5)." This point is well illustrated by the fearless Twain in this excerpt from Mark Twain’s Jest Book: In the spring of 1899, I was one of a crowd of some 1200 who attended at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York to hear a lecture on his adventures in the South Africa War given by a Lieutenant of Huzzars, one Winston Churchill – and the chair was occupied by Mark Twain. I remember it so well, and the deafening applause which greeted the old gentlemen when he rose to make his introductory speech. When, a long last, silence reigned, his opening sentence staggered me. He began like this: "Fellow thieves and robbers!" and when the roars of astonished laughter subsided, he continued, "I take it that this audience consists of English people and Americans, so I commence my remarks, fellow thieves and robbers – the Americans in the Philippines and the English in South Africa." And more laughter followed when he said "But never mind, we’re kith and kin in war and sin." -Cyril Clemens (Clemens 15) Carl Van Doren discusses Mark Twain and Bernard Shaw in the March 1925 issue of Century Magazine. He writes, "Mr. Shaw makes dramas out of the Lamarckian hypothesis, and Mark Twain out of the Darwinian (Budd 70)." Further differences are illustrated by "Mr. Shaw can no more dispense with the free will than Mark Twain can confidently use it (Budd 70)." Doren talks about how they brought humor to new limits because they "find so much to laugh at they must now and again or explode (Budd 71)." Although Twain was extremely open with most of his friends he "took pains to put on more formal robes when he came before the world (Budd 66)." Doren suggestion, "It may have been that he lived in a time and place which would not tolerate him at his most candid" rings true even today (Budd 66). The candid Mark Twain won’t be widely publicized even today because his religious...
