October 23 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Today the barber is to begin. He is to come at sharp 9.30 a.m., every day for a month. Pay, 5 gulden for the month. Trinkgeld, 1 gulden for the month” [NB 42 TS 44].

At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote Chatto & Windus, asking them to send early copies of the new book (FE) to a list of persons:

Capt. Edgecumbe, 33 Tedworth Square

———

Others to

• S.R. Crockett, Penimick, Midlothian
• J.Y.W. MacAlister, 20 Hanover Sq.
• Poultney Bigelow, 5 Oakley st., S.W.
• Bram Stoker, 18 St. Leonard’s Terrace, S.W.
• Harry Rogers, jr., 26 Broadway N.Y.
• Miss K.I. Harrison, 26 Broadway N.Y.
• A. Goerz, The Mansion House, St. John’s Wood (a good friend, S. African Millionaire).
• Robert Barr.
• Major J.B. Pond, Everett House, New York.
• Dr. C.C. Rice, 81 Irving Place,— ” ”
• Laurence Hutton, Harper’s Monthly ” ”
• James R. Clemens, 47 Lambeth Palace Road.
• R.S. Smythe, Highgate, Balwyn, Melbourne
• Dr. Rudolph [Rudolf] Lindau, German Embassy, Constantinople
• (And to Lindau a Joan of Arc also.
• Ihr ergebensterhochwohlgeborenergeehrterhochachtungsvoller /SL Clemens [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Joe Twichell, observing that though Vienna was “not a cheap place to live” at least he was given a barber who charged him only $2.50 a month to come daily each morning at 8:30 and shave him and keep his hair in trim. Sam had quickly picked up on the political turmoil in the city:

If I had time to run around & talk, I would do it; for there is much politics agoing, & it would be interesting if a body could get the hang of it. It is Christian 

Jew by the horns—the advantage with the superior man, as usual—the superior man being the Jew every time & in all countries. Land, Joe, what chance would the Christian have in a country where there were 3 Jews to 10 Christians! Oh, not the shade of a shadow of a chance. The difference between the brain of the average Christian & that of the average Jew—certainly in Europe—is about the difference between a tadpole’s & an Archbishop’s. It’s a marvelous race—by long odds the most marvelous that the world has produced, I suppose.

And there’s more politics—the clash between Czech & Austrian. I wish I could understand these quarrels, but of course I can’t. / With the abounding love of us all [MTP]. Note: Joe answered on Nov. 8.

Figaro, a weekly humor magazine in Vienna, included a cartoon by Theodor Zasche, whom Dolmetsch calls “one of the leading caricaturists of the day,” picturing Mark Twain dressed as Uncle Sam fishing in a bucket labeled “Wien.” Along with the cartoon were “three probably spurious brief passages” supposedly from Sam’s notebook. Dolmetsch writes that the first of the three “unerringly captures the ring of authentic Twainian humor:”

(The Israelite community councils of the city of Vienna are of the opinion that there are too few Jewish judges in Austria. Vice-mayor Neumayer takes the opposite view that there are more than enough.

It’s very hard to say who’s right here. Riffraff can’t be left to their own judgment and decent, honorable people say: for our part we don’t need judges at all.) [66-7].

Sam also wrote a note on mourning stationery to Fraulein Risa Treulich: “It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request, which is a compliment to me, and sign myself / Very Truly Yours / Mark Tain / To / Fraulein Risa Treulich / Wien, Oct. 23/97” [Bonham’s Sale 17545 Lot 5317, Dec. 15, 2009; MTPO]. Note: Bonham’s calls Treulich “a Viennese admirer.”