January 25 Tuesday – The New York Times, Feb. 5, p. BR94 ran “Vienna Letter,” by Johannes Horowitz, datelined Jan. 25.

Recently the Vienna sculptor Ernest [Ernst] Hegenbarth completed a life-sized bust of Mark Twain. The celebrated American humorist, who so soon became popular in Vienna, who otherwise dislikes such things, despite his gouty pains, for a whole fortnight daily went all the way to the artist’s studio, which is in the Prater, in order to sit to him for from two to three hours. The bust is a wonderful success, astonishingly true to nature, and most expressive. Hegenbarth has presented the original to the sitter himself. JOHANNES HOROWITZ.

[Note: Ernst Hegenbarth (1867-1944) was a noted Austrian sculptor, later President of the Künstlerhaus, the Metropolitan Museum of Vienna. This account suggests Sam made daily trips to his workshop in the first part of January, which may be correct; in his notebook on Nov. 6, 1897, however, Sam wrote he was then “sitting to Hegenbarth” [NB 42 TS 47]. Horowitz was the NY Times correspondent in Vienna.]