MARK TWAIN, D. LITT., OXON.
Students Give a Great Ovation to Him - Degree for Mr. Reid Also.
OXFORD, June 26. - Together with thirty men distinguished in politics, art, science, or letters, including Premier Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Chancellor Loreburn, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Lowther, Gen. Booth, Rudyard Kipling, and the Archbishop of Armagh, Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) received a university degree today in the Sheldonian Theatre, the scene of many notable gatherings.
The theatre was crowded with university dignitaries in their robes of office, students, and many visitors, including Ambassador Whitelaw Reid and numerous other Americans. Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Chancellor of the university, presided and did much to enliven the proceedings, which ordinarily, with the exception of the undergraduates' chaffing, are rather dull.
Mr. Reid was cheered on entering the Theatre, but the great ovation was reserved for Mark Twain, who was the lion of the occasion. Everyone rose when he was escorted up the aisle and he was applauded for a quarter of an hour. When Dr. Ingram Bywater, Regius Professor of Greek, presented the American humorist to the convocation, the students started a fire of chaff about his books and their heroes, mixed with frequent questions, such as "Where is your white suit?" Mark Twain said afterward that he wanted to reply, but was determined to observe the etiquette, which demands that recipients of degrees be silent.
Ambassador Reid received the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws, as did Gen. Booth, the warmth of whose reception was exceeded only by that accorded to Mark Twain. The crowd waited outside the building to cheer Mark Twain, as, wearing the scarlet robes of a Doctor of Letters, he marched in procession to the Chancellor's residence, where those who had been honored by the bestowal of degrees were entertained at luncheon.
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