June 17 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.
Near a week ago I sent you a paragraph or two—a small Szczepanik episode—& registered it, as per enclosed “Scheim.”
In London we could always buy the Century—here, we’ve got to get down to business & order from headquarters.
Please put my name on the books & take it out in trade. / Yours, permanent, / Mark [MTP].
Note: On Apr. 2 Sam mailed Gilder his first Szczepanik story, “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904,” so this piece would have been “The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again,” which Gilder published in Century in Aug. 1898; the other ran in the Nov. issue. Dolmetsch mistakenly identifies both Szczepanik pieces as being written at the Villa Paulhof (p.207); only “The Austrian Edison” was, since the family moved to the Villa on May 20, two weeks plus after Sam mailed the “London Times” story to Gilder.
Sam also replied to James B. Pond, who had received a letter from the Secretary of War that he would be presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor for “most distinguished gallantry in action” some 37 years before. Pond’s announcement to Sam is not extant.
Dear Pond: My, it’s a long jump from the time you played solitaire with your cannon! Yes, I should think you would want to go soldiering again. Old as I am, I want to go to the war myself. And I should do it, too, if it were not for the danger.
To-day we ought to get great news from Cuba. I am watching for the Vienna evening papers. This is a good war with a dignified cause to fight for. A thing not to be said of the average war [Pond’s Eccentricities of Genius 228].
Sam also replied to Joe Twichell’ June 1 letter.
Dear Joe,—You are living your war-days over again in Dave, & it must be a strong pleasure, mixed with a sauce of apprehension—enough to make it just schmeck, as the Germans say. Dave will come out with two or three stars on his shoulder-straps if the war holds, & then we shall all be glad it happened.
We started with Bull Run, before. Dewey & Hobson have introduced an improvement on the game this time.
I have never enjoyed a war—even in written history—as I am enjoying this one. For this is the worthiest one that was ever fought, so far as my knowledge goes. It is a worthy thing to fight for one’s freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man’s. And I think this is the first time it has been done.
Oh, never mind Charley Warner, he would interrupt the raising of Lazarus. He would say, the will has been probated, the property distributed, it will be a world of trouble to settle the rows—better leave well enough alone; don’t ever disturb anything, where it’s going to break the soft smooth flow of things & wobble our tranquility.
Company! (Sh! it happens every day—& we came out here to be quiet.)
Love to you all. / Mark [Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain’s Letters, p. 663]. (&’s restored.) Note: Twichell’s son David Twichell had enlisted [MTB 1064].