Life in Exile: Day By Day

November 2, 1899 Thursday

November 2 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: It is not best that we use our morals weekdays, it gets them out of repair for Sundays. / Truly Yours/ Mark Twain. Nov. 2/99” [MTP].

November 20, 1896

November 20 Friday – In London, Sam had received the Bliss-Harper contracts from H.H. Rogers and considered them for three hours before responding to Rogers.

The contracts clear my head.

November 20, 1897

November 20 Saturday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Percy Spalding of Chatto & Windus. He sent his poem, “In Memoriam” for Susy. Livy needed 50 copies of, together with a large photo of Susy; he was tardy in requesting these copies [MTP]. See Nov. 30? To C&W.

November 20, 1899 Monday

November 20 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote condolences to H.H. Rogers upon learning of the death of Rogers’ mother.

November 21, 1898 Monday

November 21 Monday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled Harper & Brothers: “ROGERS HAS

HADLEYBURG. CLEMENS” [NB 40 TS 51]. Note: MTHHR 380n2 reveals that Henry M. Alden did not understand

the message, unaware of what “Hadleyburg” was. It quotes a letter of this date by Alden to H.H. Rogers: “We do not know exactly what this means, but we shall be glad to consider anything of his that you may have.”

November 21, 1899 Tuesday

November 21 Tuesday – In London, England Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

November 22, 1896

November 22 Sunday – In London Sam wrote a letter of thanks to the junior Andrew Chatto for the bicycles he’d helped secure. He wrote that his daughters were “charmed with the machines” and the family thanked him. He asked the sum of what he owed for them so he might send a check [MTP].

November 23, 1897

November 23 TuesdayTrue W. Williams (Truman), illustrator of Sam’s Sketches, New and Old, TS and HF, died in Chicago at the age of 58 from an aortic aneurysm. See entries Vol. I.

November 24, 1896

November 24 Tuesday – In London Sam wrote to the Players Club. His note ran in the Dec. 31, 1896 N.Y. Tribune.

November 24, 1897

November 24 WednesdaySam’s notebook:

November 24, 1898 Thursday

November 24 Thursday – ThanksgivingCharlemagne Tower, US ambassador in Vienna, gave a reception at his residence on Alleegasse for all Americans. Sam and Clara were in attendance. Dr. and Mrs. Hiester Bucher (Vara Kalbach Bucher) met Sam and Clara, as recorded in Mrs. Bucher’s diary and published in Mary Leah Christmas’ A Honeymoon in Vienna, 1898-1899:

November 24, 1899 Friday

November 24 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister to ask if a reference in the newly issued Life and Letters of Sir John Millais denoted Kellgren’s system. Could he find out?  [MTP]. See also Nov. 10 entry and Gribben p. 467 under Millais.

November 25, 1897

November 25 Thursday – A tempest was brewing at the Austrian Reichsrath. Dolmetsch provides the prelude to the sensational ouster of Nov. 26:

November 25, 1898 Friday

November 25 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote right after this day, reporting on the festivities at the US Consul Charlemagne Tower’s home to Bettina Wirth.

November 26, 1896

November 26 Thursday – Thanksgiving – In London Sam wrote in his notebook:

We did not celebrate it. Seven years ago Susy gave her play for the first time [MTB 1027].

He also wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers)  “For & in behalf of Helen Kellar…” (Sam was consistent in misspelling Helen Keller’s name.)

November 26, 1897

November 26 FridaySam’s notebook:

Nov. 26. To-day, 1.30, saw the great dramatic incident in the House when 60 policemen marched in & cleared the Presidium of 10 Social Democrats by violence. 4 were imprisoned on the premises. Wolf was arrested at 2 p.m. at 2.30 the Left seemed cowed, & made not much noise. So I left.

November 27, 1896

November 27 Friday – Livys 51st birthday. Sam wrote Livy a short note “With worlds of love” to her:

We have lost her, & our life is bitter. We may find her again — let us not despair of it. God knows how much poorer were by this loss than we were before; but we still have the others, & that is much; & also we have each other, my darling, & this is riches.

November 27, 1897

November 27 SaturdayLivy’s 52nd birthday.

The New York Times of Nov. 28, datelined Berlin, Nov. 27, ran a squib on p. 1, “Czech Hits Mark Twain,” headlined “The American Author Injured Going Out of the Reichsrath.” The report was false.

November 27, 1898 Sunday

November 27 SundayLivy’s 53rd birthday.

November 27, 1899 Monday

November 27 MondayLivy’s 54th birthday.

November 28, 1896

November 28 Saturday Sam’s notebook for this day:

November 28, 1897

November 28 Sunday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel E. Moffett, who worked for the Hearst newspapers, including the N.Y. Journal. After offering the following he gave a brief, positive status for family members.

November 28, 1899 Tuesday

November 28 TuesdayIn London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Mississippi Pilot:To J. Prince Sheldon: “Hoping this will not be the last time I shall have the pleasure of meeting Professor Sheldon.  Mark Twain Nov. 28, 1899” [MTP: John Windle catalogs, 1991, Item 100].

November 29, 1897

November 29 MondaySam’s notebook entry (for Dec. 1):

November 29, 1898 Tuesday

November 29 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to unidentified men.

The enclosed have reached me from America.

It seems to me that your own condensed statement is sufficient, but if it needs enlargement there is an over-abundance of material in the American sketch—which is so minutely & so faithfully exact that I judge it was furnished by the Austrian police [MTP].

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