Dolmetsch writes:
For the Clemens family the countess [Pauline Fürstin von Metternich] did two important favors. She introduced them to Dr. Wilhelm Winternitz, whose Kaltwasserkur (hydrotherapy) was then all the rage among the Austrian aristocracy as a cure for anything from lumbago to cancer, and found them a house, the Villa Paulhof, to rent near hers at Winternitz’s Kuranstalt in Kaltenleutgeben….
The summer there was one of Twain’s most productive in years, and it was considerably enlivened by the rounds of entertaining in which the countess invited the Clemenses into a circle at the resort that also included luminaries like Count Richard Coudenhove, Countess Bardi, Princess Khevenhüller, and “Carmen Sylva,” Queen of Romania.
More important, she also provided her own daughter, Clementine, as a companion for Jean Clemens throughout the family’s stay in the imperial city as well as at the resort, thus alleviating constant fears and worries Jean’s parents had for her well-being [134-5].
June 26, 1898: "I went in the eight o’clock train to Vienna, to see the procession. It was a stroke of luck, for at the last moment I was feeling lazy and was minded not to go. But when I reached the station, five minutes late, the train was still there, a couple of friends were there also, and so I went. At Leising, half an hour out, we changed to a very long train, and left for Vienna with every seat occupied. …"
July 7, 1898: Sam wrote they were “pleasantly housed” and would stay until cold weather “drives us back to Vienna.” He wished they were back at Tedworth Square in London but they “couldn’t carry Leschititzky along,” and it was Clara’s piano that “condemns us to abide away from home”
August 16, 1898: The Clemens family left the Villa Paulhof, Kaltenleutgeben for Vienna and on to Bad Ischl, Austria, (about 184 miles total) a town which, for Sam, was aptly named. In his Aug. 19 to Rogers, Sam wrote they “left a cool & comfortable house, & after a long & hot railway trip” they arrived in Ischl. It would get worse.
August 22 Monday – Sam’s notebook shows the family went to Hallstatt (Halstadt), Austria:
August 27 Saturday – The Clemens family left Bad Ischl, Austria and traveled the 174 miles to Vienna, where they arranged housing for the winter with the Krantz Hotel. They then traveled back in Kaltenleutgeben, arriving in the evening [Aug. 28 to Rogers].
The American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) stayed in the Vienna area from September 28, 1897 to May 27, 1899. [ 75 ] From May 20, 1898, he moved into summer quarters in Kaltenleutgeben ( Villa Paulhof , Karlsgasse 3) [ 76 ] for five months and frequently used the train [ 77 ] to travel from Kaltenleutgeben to Vienna.
A specific mention of the Kaltenleutgebner railway can be found in Twain's autobiography ( Mark Twain's Autobiography ) in the article A Viennese Procession , written on June 26, 1898 in Kaltenleutgeben. Here he mentions the unreliability and delays of the railway. [ 78 ] Furthermore, he stated in a letter to an acquaintance
“This branch line is one of the slowest railways in the world because it is constantly uphill”