December 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:

The family arrived in their quarters at the Hotel Royal 1.30 p.m. Dec. 31.

Left Körnerstr. 7 in the hands of the servants to clean it & put it in order.

Wrote Mr. Mosse [not extant] that I wanted Prachtel to come & take possession of the furniture & see that everything was in proper condition; that some trifles of crockery were broken, also two windows which I would make good; but that Mr. P. must not rent the Wohnung to any one not approved by Rittmeister Killisch.

Sent the street-door key to Herr Killisch by the Portier Fritz & kept the upstairs key [NB 31 TS 19-20].

December, end – According to Paine, the Clemens family “stuck it out” at Körnerstrasse:

“till the end of December — about two months. Then they made such settlement with the agent as they could — that is to say, they paid the rest of their year’s rent — and established themselves in a handsome apartment at the Hotel Royal, Unter den Linden. There was no need to be ashamed of this address, for it was one of the best in Berlin” [MTB 931].

A. Hoffman gives another reason for the move:

“Once word spread through the city that Mark Twain had located in Berlin, cultural leaders invited him to every event, but because they were living in a dismal neighborhood, the Clemenses felt they could not reciprocate the hospitality” [373].