March 31 Thursday – The following from “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904” may or may not have happened; Burnam posits that this “flashback, the scene of which is Vienna, the time March 31, 1898, or some eight months before the tale appeared in print.” He then quotes from the story:

I had spent the evening at a social engagement [says the narrator]. About midnight I went away, in company with the military attaches of the British, Italian, and American embassies, to finish with a late smoke. This function had been appointed to take place in the house o f Lieutenant Hillyer, the third attaché mentioned in the above list. When we arrived there we found several visitors in the room; young Szczepanik; Mr. K., his financial backer; Mr. W., the latter’s secretary; and Lieutenant Clayton of the United States Army. [368]. Note: Burnam makes a case that this and a following paragraph were an accurate accounting of the event, and follows them with “We now move into fiction.” The story is a rather wild one, with several plot flaws, but does use Jan Szczepanik’s real name. Lt. John Clayton may or may not have been a real name. Mr. K. was Kleinberg, and Burnam surmises that Mr. W. was Winternitz. “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904” first ran in the Nov. 1898 issue of Century. No other record of a “social event” for this date was found.