September 25, 1897

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September 25 SaturdayOrion Clemens wrote to Sam thanking for the $50 rec’d on Sept. 22. “Billy Claggett was here last week. He is thin and old and almost beyond recognition. His unsmiling sadness may be caused by the continued alienation from his wife and the loss of his fortune.—the latter a guess.” Orion added to the letter on Sept. 27 [MTP]. Note: William H. Claggett (1838-1901), old mining buddy of Sam’s; see Vol. I.

September 24, 1897

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September 24 Friday – The Clemens party spent the day in Salzburg, Austria. Sam’s notebook:

“From the din of unpleasant church-bells it would seem that this village of 27,600 people is made up mainly of churches. Money represents labor, sweat, weariness. And that is what these useless churches have cost these people & are still costing them to support the useless priests & monks” [Dolmetsch 23: NB 42 TS 38].

Dolmetsch writes,

September 18, 1897

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September 18 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers:

The Swiss vacation is ended & I am packing the trunks for Vienna. That is, I am superintending. …I leave all places with regret, & if there is ever to be an exception, this is not the one. We shall reach Salzburg next Wednesday 22d—no, a day or two later—& remain a week. We reach Vienna about Oct.1. Our address there for a few days will be c/o Thos. Cook & Son, while we hunt up a house to live in.

September 17, 1897

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September 17 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam replied to Samuel Rutherford Crockett’s Aug.

Sam noted that Crockett sending his letter to N.Y. “wasted a good deal of time,” which explains why it took him so long to reply.

I know Cleg, & am fond of him, & am ready to welcome him again, & Napoleon, too, when he gets on his uniform. Ten days hence I shall have an address in Vienna for the winter….