Mark Twain was entertained by the Pilgrims at a luncheon
given in his honour at the Savoy Hotel on Tuesday. Mr. Birrell, who presided, proposed the health of the guest in a happy speech. Mark Twain's reply was full of good sayings and anecdotes, which we will not spoil by imperfect quotation. Towards the close, however, he struck a graver note, Itiald ended with a passage of deep feeling :--
" I have received since I have been here, in this one week, hundreds of letters from all conditions of people in finglend-..- men, women, and children—and there 41 in them compliment, praise, and, above all and better than all, there is in them a note of affection. Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection.-- that is the last and final and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement, and I exa very grateful to have that reward. All these letters make me tea that here in England—as in America—when I stand winker the English flag, I am not a stranger, I am not an alien, but at home."
The secret of the affection which Mark Twain inspires ia net easy to define, but Mr. Birrell came near it when he said that all his life he had been a moralist as well as a humourist, and that "his humour enlivens and enlightens hi e morality, and his morality is all the better for his humour." Mark Twain not only stands for the finest traits of the American character, but he is a humourist who has made the world better as well as happier by his presence.
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