March 12 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.

“The correspondent of the Times has handed me a copy of the paper, whereby I see that you took the trouble to bring to notice the fact that I have worked myself out of debt. You could not have done me a greater favor than that, & I sincerely thank you for it.”

Sam also confessed that he was “poor company” for MacAlister the prior winter and spring and that his spirits were “very low,” but he felt his kindness. “When I look back on those three black years— / But I am looking the other way now” [MTP]. Note: MacAlister likely reported Sam’s debts paid to the London Times.

The N.Y. Times, p. SBR169 ran “Mark Twain’s Debts As Paid,” forwarded from the London Daily News, together with a repeat of Sam’s words given for the Aug. 17, 1895 S.F. Examiner about paying 100 cents on the dollar of amounts he owed. The intro to those words:

Mark Twain has paid all the debts that led to the bankruptcy of the publishing firm with which he was connected. It is a fine example of the very chivalry of probity, and, in the circumstances, as an admirer has pointed out, it deserves to rank with the historic case of Sir Walter Scott. The firm came to grief; Mark Twain might, if he had pleased, to have confined his share of the loss to the amount of his liability under the partnership. He preferred to make good the entire loss, and to this end he had to make a fresh start in life at the age of sixty. He accomplished it, and with this and the profits of his latest book, he has carried out his high-minded and generous purpose.