July 14 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske, who had replied to Sam’s request for a villa near Florence. Fiske’s reply is not extant. Sam thanked Fiske and Mr. George Gregory Smith for their efforts, but was in a quandary over a choice between Villa Papiniano, and the one recommended by Mrs. Janet Ross, Villa Marmigliana at Maiano. Available dates did not jibe with their travel plans, with the former not available till Nov. 15 and the latter two months earlier, Sept. 15. Papiniano lacked stoves and had no stable.
These things go for naught, unless The villa is high, & dry, & sunny, & sheltered from the winter winds. The reason we are troubling you is, that we greatly desire to know if you know the villa & can recommend it as having the above advantages in equal degree with Papiniano.
Won’t you please cable me a liberal & comprehensive answer? (address “Mark Twain, Elmira, New York). I will refund when I come—I swear it. I owe Mr. Smith 130 lire—I intend to pay him, too. I swear it [MTP]. Note: Fiske answered on July 28. George Gregory Smith (b.1845), attorney from a prominent Vermont family, and a close neighbor of the Clemenses in Florence for the 1903-4 period. See more on Smith in Orth’s article, MTJ (Fall 2003) p.27-36. See Sept. 20, Smith to his mother on Papiniano.
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Please give me the name & address of your Texan correspondent who has been taking care of the taxes &c., connected with Mrs. Clemens’s patch of Texas land. Mr. Langdon is going to establish relations with him & act for Mrs. Clemens while we are in Europe.
(I’ve mislaid the deed, but that’s only an incident; I am used to that.)
Mrs. Clemens is profiting by the change to this cool hilltop [MTP]. Note: Archer County Texas land; see entries in Vol. I.
Sam’s notebook: “SEE JAN.5. / Wrote Mr. Wheeler, Pl. 116 Broad st, give Butters 30 days to square up— then I wish to bring criminal action. / must write the Western postman’s story—very curious one” [NB 46 TS 21].