April 15 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, concerning the Apr. 3 letter of Charles R. Hall (enclosed):

April 13 Thursday– At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Apr. 2, 5, 6, and 12 letter to William Dean Howells.

“13th I have been to the Knustausstelling [Art Exhibit] with Mrs. Clemens. The office of art seems to be, to grovel in the dirt before Emperors & this & that & the other damned breed of priests./ Yrs Ever / Mark” [MTP].

April 12 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2, 5, 6 letter to William Dean Howells.

April 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam signed a notice in German to Chatto Windus. The notice is by another hand, perhaps that of an attorney, unnamed.

April 10 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to ask Chatto & Windus to send the 2-shilling, 6-pence edition of Omar Khayam [MTP].

April 8 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, enclosing a clipping on Christian Science. “…there can be no mistake about it,—Christian Science is yielding a rich pecuniary harvest to somebody.” Joe asked if Sam had seen a book he was reading, Anglo-Saxon Superiority: to what is it due? by a Frenchman, Edmond Demolins. Joe ended with “Come, Mark, when are you going to return to us? I am continually asked the question. You surely can’t have any home but Hartford.

April 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2 and 5 letter to William Dean Howells.

Next Morning. I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every morning—well knowing that I shall find in it the usual depravities and baseness & hypocrisies & cruelties that make up Civilization, & cause me to put in the rest of the day pleading for damnation of the human race. I cannot seem to get my prayers answered, yet I do not despair.

April 5 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2 letter to William Dean Howells. He related reading the serial segment of Howells’ Their Silver Wedding Journey up to the point where Jean came and took the magazine away. Sam confessed that after he had sold his stock at “a fine profit early in January” it has “never ceased to advance, & is now worth $60,000 more than” he’d sold it for.

April 4 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to yet another invitation by James B. Pond for lectures. Sam said no, he didn’t like lecturing and only wanted to do it twice a year or so for fun—“…talking for money is work, & that takes the pleasure out of it.” Sam doubted any terms would entice him and didn’t “expect to see a platform again until the wolf commands.” He shared family plans to return to America early in October, and sent his love to “the Lotos boys” [MTP].

April 3 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Apr. 2 to Poultney and Edith E. Bigelow.

Apr. 3. Would you recommend Guernsey? Or the Isle of Wight? I sort of warmly incline to the former.

Mrs. Clemens’ idea is not an inn, and of course not a pension [boarding house]. Nothing remains, then, but a furnished dwelling. That is probably not to be had.

How’s Devonshire? …