A Tramp Abroad: Day By Day

May 30 Friday – From Lucius Fairchild’s diary: “Dinner at Home…Mark Twain,…Mrs. Clemens, Miss Spaulding, Mrs. Dean, Miss Stevens –& ourselves” [Rees 8].

May 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Frankfort on the Main, Germany to Howells. Sam felt a relaxing sense of escape, described as only he might:

“Ah, I have such a deep, grateful, unutterable sense of being ‘out of it all.’ I think I foretaste some of the advantage of being dead. Some of the joy of it. I don’t read any newspapers or care for them.”

May 4 Sunday – Sam and Livy enjoyed a breakfast invitation at 12:30 with unknown party or parties [MTLE 4: 53].

May 5 or May 6 Monday – The Clemens family arrived in Heidelberg, Germany and stayed at the beautiful Schloss Hotel, which overlooked the old castle with its forest setting, the flowing Neckar River, and the distant valley of the Rhine [MTLE 3: 50]. Rodney notes that the hotel’s “family-style accommodations suited the needs of the party.

May 5 Monday – Valentine Besarel sent a receipt to Sam for 2,246 Lire [MTP].

May 6 Monday – Livy wrote on May 7:

May 6 Tuesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Clemens “on this sweetest May morning…I greet you. I have no news to tell, but you are in my thoughts.” Joe warned against being fooled by rum and repeated that he was to teach at Cornell next week [MTP]. Note: clipping enclosed from the Hartford Times ca. late April, 1879, “Julia Smith’s Wedding Reception.” Twichell attached a sheet above the article and wrote, “Read this—the whole of it. It is full of dainty bits.

May 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote from the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg, Germany to Bayard Taylor. Sam wrote in German [MTLE 3: 51].

From Livy’s pen:

May 7 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook:

“I wish this eternal winter would come to an end. Snow flakes fell to-day, & also about a week ago. Have had rain almost without intermission for 2 months & one week. Have had a fire every day since Sept. 10, & have now just lighted one” [MTNJ 2: 308].

May 8 Wednesday – Edmond About (1828-1885), French novelist and journalist wrote from Paris in French [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the margin., “Autograph of Edmond About. Preserve it.”

May 8 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:

“Called on Tourgènieff [Turgenev] with Boyesen & had cup of tea out of his Samovar” [MTNJ 2: 308].

–  Sam’s notebook:

“Great festa-day—shops all closed. Attended High Mass in a  chapel of St. Peters. Heaps of people of all ages sexes & professions  kissing (& scrubbing) St Peter Jupiter’s toe. He looks like a black negro  & has short crisp hair” [MTNJ 2: 239].

– Livy wrote from Rome to her mother (see Nov. 9 entry).

 – The Clemens family left Rome at 10:50 AM, and returned to  Florence, Italy at 6:50 PM, where they spent the night at the Hotel de  New York [MTLE 3: 97; MTNJ 2: 248].  They were headed north to spend the winter in Munich, a 600 mile  trip with 36 hours on slow trains, and four overnight hotel stops to make the journey more bearable for Livy [Rodney 115].  Sam’s notebook:

“… saw splendid torchlight processions crossing the 2 Arno  bridges to see the King, at the Pitti palace.

– The Clemens family  stayed a day and another night in Florence [MTLE 3: 97].

  – The Clemens family left Florence at 10:45 AM and reached Bologna, Italy at 4:15 PM [MTLE 3:  97; MTNJ 2: 249].  Sam made a notebook entry that he stopped here to see Guiseppe Mezzofanti (d.1849), “because  he knew 111 languages, but he was dead” [MTNJ 2: 266].

– The Clemens family left Bologna at noon and traveled until 10:30 PM to reach Trent in the  Austrian Tyrol, by way of “Modena, Mantua, & Verona.” Sam was acting as the  courier for the group and thought himself “a shining success…so far” [MTNJ 2: 249; MTLE 3:97].

– The Clemens family was up at 6 AM and traveled all day. After twelve hours they arrived in Munich, Germany. At 7 PM they arrived, in “drizzle & fog at  the domicil which had been engaged for us ten months before” [MTLE 3: 94].

– Sam wrote from Munich, Germany to  Howells, giving him the itinerary  of the trip from Rome. At first they did not much like the place:

  – Sam “took a workroom at 45 Nymphenstrasse—Frau  Kraze.” He made a purchase on the “Tobacco shop on corner under Hotel Bellevue,  opp. Karls Thor” and noted amounts spent [MTNJ 2: 283].

November 20 Wednesday – In Munich, Sam wrote letters to Joe Twichell and Susan Warner. Sam had lost his Switzerland notebook and wrote that if it remained lost he wouldn’t try to write the volume of travels he’d planned.

November 27 Wednesday – Livy’s 33rd birthday.

– Sam wrote from Rome, Italy to Joe  Twichell. After discussing the  matter of a clock Sam had purchased, sending it home through Will Sage, which caused all sorts  of red tape, Sam sent compliments on Joe’s letters.

November 30 Saturday – Sam’s 43rd birthday. Sam told a story or gave a speech (often there was very little difference) at the American Artists Club in Munich. Just what Sam said has been lost. Sam’s notebook:

– Sam’s notebook:

“…spent all day in Vedder’s lofty studio & the evening  with him & another artist spinning yarns & drinking beer in a quiet  saloon. Big row in the street but no bloodshed.” 

 Elihu Vedder was an American artist who kept a studio in  Rome. Sam visited the studio several times [MTNJ 2:  242]. (See Nov. 9 entry.)