June 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner, (7.30?) Skrine, Queen Anne’s Mansions Wednesday, 30th” [NB 41 TS 32]. Note: Sam confirmed Skrine dinner, but for July 1, back on June 26; the date was then changed.
From the Brooklyn Eagle, p. 6, an editorial response to Mark Twain refusing charity efforts to pay his indebtedness:
Mark Twain.
July – Place unknown (but likely London): Sam sent aphorisms to Henry P. Child:
Universal brotherhood is the most precious thing we have, what there is of it.— Puddnhead Wilson’s New Calendar.
To succeed in the other trades, knowledge must be shown; in the law, the concealment of it will do.— Puddnhead Wilson’s New Calendar. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / (S.L. Clemens) / July, 1897 [MTP]. Note: Ancestry.com in the U.K. has one record for Henry P. Child, b. ca. 1824 in Yorkshire.
July 1 Thursday – Andrew Chatto and Sam “ripped out a raft of reprint matter from the Australian part of the book” (FE) feeling it improved the book and wasn’t needed [July 2 to Bliss].
The Hartford Courant, July 3, 1897: “Theatrical Gossip – Gillette Gives a Supper” p.3. The article did not report that Sam spoke at the supper. The dinner was noted in his notebook but no mention of a talk or speech given; if he did his words have been lost:
July 2 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Frank E. Bliss, enclosing a photo “mentioned in the last chapter of the book.” Sam advised that he and Andrew Chatto had removed material from FE the day before. “Chatto promised to write you, so that you can leave it out, too, if you like.” After his signature Sam wrote they would leave for the Continent on July 8 [MTP]. Note: delays pushed departure to July 13.
July 3 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to Florence Hayward, London foreign correspondent, whom he had turned down on Jan. 29 for an interview. Her request is not extant.
“Perhaps I could be interviewed a little—just a little—for the St. Louis Republic, but not for an English paper, because I have declined them all, including the Pall Mall, & must not stultify myself now.”
July 4 Sunday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, advising that they were leaving England “early in the morning the 9th ,” and asking if their “inventory man” would come on July 6. He also asked for the company messenger to pick up the rest of the finished (typed) manuscript, “both the original, for you, & the typed copy” he wished to be sent to H.H. Rogers, 26 Broadway, N.Y.C [MTP].
July 5 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to an unidentified man that due to their change of plans there was no available time, so forgive him [MTP].
July 6 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam telegraphed to James B. Pond “Make it 9 tomorrow” [MTP]. Note: In his July 7 to Moffett, Sam wrote, “Yesterday [July 6] I arranged with Pond to go home & lecture all the fall & winter—provided your aunt Livy should consent.” This makes it likely that Pond and Sam exchanged more communiqués and did not meet at 9 a.m. on July 7, but sometime on this day, July 6.
July 7 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie, thanking him for “that great contribution which you made to the Herald fund.” He explained that since he wasn’t disabled, Livy wouldn’t allow him to accept any money, but he thanked him “all the same. It was like you: You always back your friendships.”
July 8 Thursday – At the Hans Crescent Hotel In London, where the family took rooms after giving up the Tedworth Square house, Livy wrote for Sam to John Y. MacAlister at 20 Hanover Square, London.
I write for Mr Clemens who is very much driven this morning. He was very sorry that you came in vain yesterday evening….
July 10 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:
London, July 10. Livy, Clara , & Julie Langdon in a hansom. The horse fell, the whole front of the hansome wrecked, Clara thrown over & disappeared from Livy’s view—fell on the struggling horse’s rump, slipped down on to his hind legs in front of the wheels, scrambled out & had no severe hurts. Livy was flung on to the floor of the hansom & got two bruises on her face. Julie was not unseated, & not hurt.
July 11 Sunday – At the Hans Crescent Hotel in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
[Vol 3 Section 0099 1897 59]
July 12 Monday – At 8 a.m. the Clemens family left London, bound for the Continent. Rodney points out they would be in “exile” for three more years [209].
The normal route Belgium, then to to Weggis on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland would have been Dover to Flushing, Cologne, Germany and south through Germany, then through Basle to Lucerne
July 13 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Flushing, Belgium and traveled on to Cologne, arriving after midnight (July 14); they took rooms at the Victoria Hotel. Sam’s notebook gives particulars, beginning with the railroad station in Flushing.
Huge map 15 x 15 feet (Holland) in the RR station—made of tiles—brilliant polish, strong colors, vividly readable at a great distance—beautiful—& good sense.
July 14 Wednesday – The Clemens family arrived in Cologne, Germany at 12:30 after midnight. They had to settle for rooms at the Victoria Hotel, discovering there was no “Grand Hotel.” Sam’s notebook gives particulars:
arr. Cologne 12.30 a m—no hotel—went to the Victoria after sending a telegram to the imaginary “Grand.” H–l of a hotel, but cheap, 43 marks for everything, i.e. lodging & breakfast-coffee.
July 15 Thursday – Lucerne, Switzerland. Sam wrote to Henry M. Stanley. Cue: “Professor Levi of Michigan University” [MTP]. Note: letter UCCL 13296 is currently unavailable at MTP.
July 16 Friday – Sam and his family went to Weggis, a quiet village of less than 1,400 residents about a half-hour from Lucerne by boat. “By chance” he’d been recommended to the Pension (boardinghouse) Bühlegg, which did not advertise as the other hotels and boardinghouses there did. The boardinghouse was run by Alois Dahinden
July 17 Saturday – The Clemens party was at the Hotel Union in Lucerne, making ready the move to Weggis the next day. Arrangements were made with E.H. Roth-Näf of Lucerne for a rental piano for Clara to be shipped to Weggis. It would arrive on July 19 [Locher 10]; see entry.
July 18 Sunday – The Clemens party arrived in Weggis, Switzerland, where they took residence at the Villa Bühlegg, what Dolmetsch calls, “a pension [boardinghouse] in the village of Weggis, about an hour by paddlewheel steamer up the lake from the city of Lucerne” [21].
Sam’s notebook includes a lot of description of the family’s new surroundings. In part:
July 19 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland a rented piano arrived for Clara to use during their stay.
Locher writes,
Clara still played the piano (though she would later be persuaded that her real strength was her voice), and her father rented an instrument for her in Lucerne. It arrived July 19th, one day after the family settled in Weggis. The transport was arranged by the firm of E.H. Roth- Naf, of Lucerne, who also supplied the bicycles, for Clemens had noted their address and he watched the delivery [Locher 10-11].
July 20 Tuesday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister, apologizing for not hearing the doorbell on the night of July 7. Evidently MacAlister was going to urge Sam to take Pond’s lecture offer:
July 21 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
Took a room at the Villa Tannen as a writing-room. Price 20 francs a month. Paid the first month in advance, & shall move in tomorrow.
———
Our landlady offered me a room in the next house below ours at 60 fr a month.
———
July 22 Thursday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote two letters to Chatto & Windus, the second not finished till July 24. In the first:
Let us drop this impossible thing. Cable Bliss for sheets.
It will not answer to try to produce the book from the original MS. It cannot be done. It is perfectly lousy with errors and foolishnesses which are not in Bliss’s copy. I can’t endure to read another chapter of it. I must go straight & telegraph you.
July 23 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland added a PS to his second July 22 to Chatto & Windus: “Send sheets to Bliss up to the MIDDLE of the book—then don’t send any more without first writing me about it” [MTP].
July 24 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam finished his second July 22 letter to Chatto & Windus. Five additional detail items (fixes on the book) were listed and the letter dated at the end, so it’s not possible to tell which were added on July 23 and which this day. Among these was this jewel: