DEAR HOWELLS,--Get your lecture by heart--it will pay you.I learned a trick in Vienna--by accident--which I wish I had learned years ago.Imeant to read from a Tauchnitz, because I knew I hadn't well memorized the pieces; and I came on with the book and read a few sentences, then remembered that the sketch needed a few words of explanatory introduction; and so, lowering the book and now and then unconsciously using it to gesture with, I talked the introduction, and it happened to carry me into the sketch itself, and then I went on, pretending that Iwas merely talking extraneous matter and would come to the sketch presently.It was a beautiful success.I knew the substance of the sketch and the telling phrases of it; and so, the throwing of the rest of it into informal talk as I went along limbered it up and gave it the snap and go and freshness of an impromptu.I was to read several pieces, and I played the same game with all of them, and always the audience thought I was being reminded of outside things and throwing them in, and was going to hold up the book and begin on the sketch presently--and so Ialways got through the sketch before they were entirely sure that it had begun.I did the same thing in Budapest and had the same good time over again.It's a new dodge, and the best one that was ever invented.Try it.You'll never lose your audience--not even for a moment.Their attention is fixed, and never wavers.And that is not the case where one reads from book or MS., or where he stands up without a note and frankly exposes the fact, by his confident manner and smooth phrasing, that he is not improvising, but reciting from memory.And in the heat of telling a thing that is memorised in substance only, one flashes out the happiest suddenly-begotten phrases every now and then! Try it.Such a phrase has a life and sparkle about it that twice as good a one could not exhibit if prepared beforehand, and it "fetches" an audience in such an enthusing and inspiring and uplifting way that that lucky phrase breeds another one, sure.
Your September instalment--["Their Silver Wedding journey."]-- was delicious--every word of it.You haven't lost any of your splendid art.
Callers have arrived.
With love MARK.
"Yes," wrote Howells, "if I were a great histrionic artist like you I would get my poor essays by heart, and recite them, but being what I am I should do the thing so lifelessly that I had better recognise their deadness frankly and read them."From Vienna Clemens had contributed to the Cosmopolitan, then owned by John Brisben Walker, his first article on Christian Science.It was a delicious bit of humor and found such enthusiastic appreciation that Walker was moved to send an additional $200 check in payment for it.This brought prompt acknowledgment.
To John Brisben Walker, in Irvington, N.Y.:
LONDON, Oct.19, '99
DEAR MR.WALKER,--By gracious but you have a talent for making a man feel proud and good! To say a compliment well is a high art--and few possess it.You know how to do it, and when you confirm its sincerity with a handsome cheque the limit is reached and compliment can no higher go.
I like to work for you: when you don't approve an article you say so, recognizing that I am not a child and can stand it; and when you approve an article I don't have to dicker with you as if I raised peanuts and you kept a stand; I know I shall get every penny the article is worth.
You have given me very great pleasure, and I thank you for it.
Sincerely Yours S.L.CLEMENS.
On the same day he sent word to Howells of the good luck which now seemed to be coming his way.The Joan of Arc introduction was the same that today appears in his collected works under the title of Saint Joan of Arc.
To W.D.Howells, in New York:
LONDON, Oct.19, '99.
