August 23 Tuesday – The Clemens party was in Hallstatt, Austria. Sam’s notebook:
Hallstadt, Aug. 23/98. Beautiful lake in a cup of precipices; surface littered with refuse & sewer-contributions; men (but not many—& not tourists) swim in it. Pre-historic remains are found here.
June 26 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel S. McClure.
May 20 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Siegmund Schlesinger.
“We go to Kaltenleutgeben to-day to see if we shall like it. If we find it pleasant I think the family will be content to spend the summer there instead of going to a more distant place.”
Sam gave their new address as the “Paulhof” Kaltenleutgeben [MTP]. Note: Countess Pauline Fürstin von Metternich found the Villa Paulhof (insert) for the Clemenses [Dolmetsch 134-5].
Kaltenleutgeben – From May 20 to Oct. 14 1898. Dolmetsch writes:
January – Robert Barr’s sketch, “Clemens, Samuel L. ‘Mark Twain.’ A Character Sketch” ran in the January 1898 issue of McClure’s Magazine, as well as in the Feb. issue of Idler [Tenney 28]. Publishers Weekly (London) Jan. 8, reviewed Barr’s article: “Mr. Barr is a man who himself possesses the secret of devising humorous and grotesque tales, and as he has been the close personal friend of Mark Twain for a long time, he gives an interesting study of him.”
December 31 Friday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.8, gave FE a glowing review, and praised the author.
NEW LITERATURE
December 30 Thursday – On this day or Dec. 31 Sam’s notebook reveals a performance by Leschtizky:
At Madame von Dutschka’s. Choice people there. Leschetizky played. A marvelous performance. He never plays except in that house (she says). He sacrificed himself for his first wife—believed she wd be the greatest pianist of all time—& now they have been many years separated. If he developed himself instead of her, he would have been the world’s wonder himself.
Baron von Berger lectured upon me yesterday [NB 42 TS 51-2].
December 29 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ Dec. 17 (not extant).
“Yours of the 17th arrived this morning & is immensely gratifying in various ways. Lord, we are glad to see those debts diminishing! For the first time in my life I am getting more pleasure out of paying money out than pulling it in.”
December 27 Monday – Sam’s notebook:
At Fraulein Ries’s Monday. Second sitting for bust. Her bust of Baron von Berger is perfect. The “Lucifer” is fine & strong & impressive—majestically so, I think. Ries is a quaint & naïve, & interesting young creature— Russian. She dropped the fact incidentally, that her grand hellion there in the corner (Lucifer) was begun as the Virgin, but looked too masculine for the part, so she turned the Mamma of God into Satan!
December 26 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Marshall White, gently chiding him for not showing “grace” to his letter, and saying there was nothing to telegraph to-night and nothing new this day except the resignation of Count Kasimir Felix Badeni, which was “an ordinary & foregone event” not worth telegraphing. What he had he’d sent to the N.Y. World the night before, which request had beaten White’s by 17 hours [MTP].
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.
Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].