It would seem that every one receiving the invitation must have responded to it, for on the morning of April 1st a stupefying mass of letters was unloaded on Mark Twain’s table.  He did not know what to make of it, and Mrs. Clemens stood off to watch the results.  The first one he opened was from Dean Sage, a friend whom he valued highly.  Sage wrote from Brooklyn: 

Dear Clemens,—­I have recently been asked by a young lady who unfortunately has a mania for autograph-collecting, but otherwise is a charming character, and comely enough to suit your fastidious taste, to secure for her the sign manual of the few distinguished persons fortunate enough to have my acquaintance.  In enumerating them to her, after mentioning the names of Geo. Shepard Page, Joe Michell, Capt.  Isaiah Ryndus, Mr. Willard, Dan Mace, and J. L. Sullivan, I came to yours.  “Oh!” said she, “I have read all his works—­Little Breeches, The Heathen Chinee, and the rest—­and think them delightful.  Do oblige me by asking him for his autograph, preceded by any little sentiment that may occur to him, provided it is not too short.”

    Of course I promised, and hope you will oblige me by sending some
    little thing addressed to Miss Oakes.

    We are all pretty well at home just now, though indisposition has
    been among us for the past fortnight.  With regards to Mrs. Clemens
    and the children, in which my wife joins,

Yours truly, Dean sage.

It amused and rather surprised him, and it fooled him completely; but when he picked up a letter from Brander Matthews, asking, in some absurd fashion, for his signature, and another from Ellen Terry, and from Irving, and from Stedman, and from Warner, and Waring, and H. C. Bunner, and Sarony, and Laurence Hutton, and John Hay, and R. U. Johnson, and Modjeska, the size and quality of the joke began to overawe him.  He was delighted, of course; for really it was a fine compliment, in its way, and most of the letters were distinctly amusing.  Some of them asked for autographs by the yard, some by the pound.  Henry Irving said: 

    I have just got back from a very late rehearsal-five o’clock—­very
    tired—­but there will be no rest till I get your autograph.

Some requested him to sit down and copy a few chapters from The Innocents Abroad for them or to send an original manuscript.  Others requested that his autograph be attached to a check of interesting size.  John Hay suggested that he copy a hymn, a few hundred lines of Young’s “Night Thoughts,” and an equal amount of Pollak’s “Course of Time.”

    I want my boy to form a taste for serious and elevated poetry, and
    it will add considerable commercial value to have them in your
    handwriting.

Altogether the reading of the letters gave him a delightful day, and his admiration for Cable grew accordingly.  Cable, too, was pleased with the success of his joke, though he declared he would never risk such a thing again.  A newspaper of the time reports him as saying: