April 8 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to an invitation (not extant) from Walter Besant. Sam would like to make the event (likely The Society of Authors, of which Besant was the founder), but he would have to write Mr. Thring that his “spring- movements” were “not prophecyable.” (Also active in the Society was G. Herbert Thring (1859-1941). It wasn’t likely he’d be in London in May or June, since Clara’s musical education would interfere. Here are his first recorded words on the Spanish American situation (The battleship Maine exploded on Feb. 15; Spain declared war on Apr. 25):

“The Spanish-American news looks just a bare trifle hopeful, this morning. Well, war or no war—the stir-up has done some good, anyway—reminded the two English-speaking families [America & England] that they are kin. That is worth a good deal” [MTP].