Florence to the States:  Kaiser Wilhelm II

March. 21. Drove to station with Livy, Susy & Jean. / Wm Walter Phelps arrived presently. He & I went to Genoa by the 11.35 train, arriving at 6.25 [NB 33 TS 4].
Sam and Phelps traveled 166 miles to Genoa, where Sam spent the night in a hotel [Mar 22 to Jean Clemens].

March 22 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed in the Kaiser Wilhelm II at 11 a.m.” [NB 33 TS 4].

April 3 Monday – Sam landed in New York at 6 p.m. [NB 33 TS 5] and took a room at the Glenham Hotel [MTHL 2: 651n1].

April 4 Tuesday – At 10:15 p.m. at the Glenham Hotel in N.Y., 

April 12 Wednesday – Sam and Frederick J. Hall left New York at 10 a.m. bound for Chicago to check on developments for the Paige typesetter [Apr. 11 to Howells].

April 13 Thursday – Sam and Frederick J. Hall arrived in Chicago sometime in the early afternoon. They took adjoining rooms in the Great Northern Hotel

Sam came down with the grippe, old term for influenza, on the trip and remained in his room the entire time they were in Chicago.

April 24 Monday – Sam and Hall left Chicago for the long train ride to New York. 

April 25 Tuesday – Sam spent the day on the train and arrived in New York in the evening, taking a room at the Murray Hill Hotel [Apr. 24 to Whitmore].

April 28 Friday – Dr. and Mrs. Clarence C. Rice moved Sam from the Murray Hill Hotel into their home at 81 Irving Place, N.Y. [Apr. 30 to Warner]. Note: MTHHR p.11 gives 123 E. 19th St. as Rice’s address.

May 2 Tuesday – In the morning Sam left New York and traveled to Elmira, a nine or ten hour trip. He stayed at Susan Crane’s Quarry Hill home.

May 4 Thursday – The Panic of 1893 got into high (or maybe more appropriately, low) gear with a severe contraction of the New York Stock Exchange May 3 and 4. Financial reverses would worsen, ultimately forcing the downfall of Webster & Co., as well as the Paige typesetter. From the N.Y. Times, p.10, “Financial and Commercial”:

VERY NEARLY A PANIC ON THE NEW-YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

Wednesday, May 3 — P.M.

The nearest approach to a panic which the Stock Exchange has witnessed since 1884 occurred to-day. The excitement, however, was confined to the industrial group. …

The excitement centred in the industrials was so great that “panic” is the only word to describe it. The morning had been comparatively quiet, but by noon a free selling movement set in. Its full force, however, was not felt until after 2 o’clock, when quotations frequently declined more than a point between sales.

Thursday, May 4 — P.M.

The excitement in Stock Exchange circles was even greater to-day than yesterday. It was made most intense within twenty minutes of the opening by the announcement of the suspension of three Stock Exchange houses, one of them, Henry Allen & Co., being one of the heaviest operators on the Exchange. [Note: by May 15, stock prices reached an all-time low.]

May 9 Tuesday – In the morning Sam took the ten-hour train ride from Elmira back to New York, where he checked into the Murray Hill Hotel.

May 13 Saturday – At 10 a.m. the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II sailed for Genoa, Italy with Sam on board.