January 7 Thursday – The Clemenses rested at Ilsenburg in the Hartz Mountains, enjoying fresh air. In those days it was thought that a change of air or location in itself was healthful.
Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam (not extant). See Jan. 25 for Sam’s response, labeled as an answer to Halls’ of this date.
January 6 Wednesday – In Ilsenburg, Germany Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He enclosed a $100 check to be endorsed over to Mr. Halsey on Wall Street, an investment for Livy.
Mrs. Clemens & I are staying here for a few days in the Hartz Mountains. We return Jan. 12 to Berlin. Address me hereafter / Hotel Royal Berlin.
I lecture in Berlin Jan. 13 — may possibly return here, but my address will remain as above.
Happy New Year! [MTLTP 301].
January 5 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook on their second night in Ilsenburg:
January 4 Monday – Sam and Livy left the girls with Sue Crane at the Hotel Royal and traveled to Ilsenburg, Germany in the Hartz Mountains [Jan. 9 to Trumbull]. Sam’s notebook calls the trip “ostensibly four but really seven hours from Berlin.”
Stayed 8 days in the house of Pastor Othmann. He & his wife lovely people. The stoves in our parlor & bedroom not satisfactory. I caught a heavy cough.
January 3 Sunday – Another of Sam’s letters from Europe ran in McClure’s Syndicated newspapers, including the Boston Daily Globe, p.17 “MARK TWAIN IN JAIL,” datelined “At large in Europe,” Dec. 23.
Mrs. K.B. Barlow, superintendent at the Industrial Home School in Georgetown, D.C. wrote to Sam with her own experiences after reading the “Mental Telegraphy” article [MTP].
January 2 Saturday – The Illustrated London News ran a first segment of “At the Shrine of St. Wagner.” Follow up segments ran on Jan. 9, and 30, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].
The American Claimant was serialized in various newspapers from Jan. 2 through Mar. 30, 1892. The first book edition would be published in early April [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword p.30, Oxford ed. 1996].
January 1 Friday – In Berlin, Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Jackson gave a dinner by for the Clemenses, Murat Halstead, and Miss Halstead [NY Times, Jan 3, 1982, p.3 “Court Calls in Berlin”]. Note: this may be Jenny Halstead. The Halsteads were on the Holsatia with the Clemens family on Apr. 11, 1878 during their voyage to England. Murat Halstead was the owner of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. See also Jan.
January – From Jan. to June, Library and Studio ran Part II of Will M. Clemens’ “Life of Mark Twain.” (Part I ran from July to Dec., 1891) [The Twainian, Nov. 1940 p.4].
December 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:
The family arrived in their quarters at the Hotel Royal 1.30 p.m. Dec. 31.
Left Körnerstr. 7 in the hands of the servants to clean it & put it in order.
Wrote Mr. Mosse [not extant] that I wanted Prachtel to come & take possession of the furniture & see that everything was in proper condition; that some trifles of crockery were broken, also two windows which I would make good; but that Mr. P. must not rent the Wohnung to any one not approved by Rittmeister Killisch.
December 29 Tuesday – Mr. Robert George Brown and Dr. Lucy M. Hall, sent Mrs & Mrs. Clemens an announcement of their marriage in Brooklyn [MTP].
Rudolf Mosse, Berlin attorney, wrote to Sam concerning Mr. C. Prächtel, rental agent of the Körnerstrasse property. “He will bring the matter before his senior partner immediately and will let me know the latter’s decision shortly [MTP]. Note: from a translation in the file of Mosse’s letter in German.