8¾x5¾". 8 lines. It reads in full: “4 / Little Montana Girl’s Compliment” by Clemens. In full, “She was gazing thoughtfully at a photograph of Mark Twain on a neighbor’s mantelpiece. Presently she said, reverently, ‘We’ve got a Jesus like that at home, only ours has more trimmings.”
The Lotos Club, one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States, was founded in New York City in 1870 by a group of young writers, journalists and critics. Samuel L. Clemens, who joined in 1873, called Lotos “The Ace of Clubs.” At the January 11, 1908, Lotos Club dinner in honor of Mark Twain, the guest of honor announced that had become a collector of compliments. Clemens is quoted in the January 12, 1908, edition of “The New York Times” as telling the dinner guests, “They say that one cannot live on bread alone, but I could live on compliments. I can digest them. They do not trouble me. I have missed much in life that I did not make a collection of compliments, and keep them where I could take them out and look at them once in a while. I am beginning now. Other people collect autographs, dogs, and cats, and I collect compliments. I have brought them along. I have written them down to preserve them, and think that they’re mighty good and exceedingly just.” According to the “Times” report, Clemens began by quoting compliments from Albert Bigelow Paine, W.D. Howells, and Thomas Edison. From the article: “Now here’s the compliment of a little Montana girl … which came to me indirectly. She was in a room in which there was a large photograph of me. After gazing at it steadily for a time, she said: ‘We’ve got a John the Baptist like that.’ When the diners’ laughter allowed him, Mr. Clemens added: ‘She also said: ‘Only ours has more trimmings.’ I suppose she meant the halo…” Since this sheet is numbered “4” and “The New York Times” reported the little girl’s compliment after the other three, this was most probably Mark Twain’s reading copy; he changed some of the words, but it was basically the same story.