June 6 Wednesday – John J. Read wrote from Paris thanking Sam for being able to look at life through the eyes of Mark Twain. “What a pity it is that you cannot teach Professor Fiske to play. It requires genius, however, to play well, and the knowledge of Sanskrit or any other outlandish tongue is worse than useless” [MTP].
June 8 Friday – Clara Clemens’ 20th birthday.
June 11 Monday – In Paris, France, Sam made a “short address” at the Countess de Kessler’s Musicale. Livy was in the audience. The gala was reported later by the N.Y. Times, June 28, 1894 p.2, “The Social World.”
June 16 Saturday – In Paris, Sam responded to H.H. Rogers letter, writing about the Clemens family’s changed plans.
June 17 Sunday – William Walter Phelps, the ex-Minister to Germany and close friend of the Clemens family, died in Teaneck, N.J. only one year after returning to the US to take a judgeship. His funeral procession was lined with hundreds of people; the trees he had planted himself lined the path. At the time of his death, Phelps owned half of what is presently Teaneck.
June 18 Monday – In Paris Sam responded to a note from Eben Alexander, US Minister to Greece, writing that his “kind favor of May 8th” (not extant) had just arrived.
I am very glad of the compliment of being translated into Greek, notwithstanding the lack of international copyright, & I am much obliged to you for trying to convey the result to my hands [MTP].
June 19 Tuesday – In Paris, Sam wrote “only a line to say howdy” to Eleanor V. Hutton (Mrs. Laurence Hutton). Sam hoped they wouldn’t have left for Onteora, N.Y. before he arrived in New York July 6th. He told of the family’s plans; they were to leave day after tomorrow (June 21) for La Bourboule, where Sam would spend a week with them. Sam would then leave for N.Y.
June 20 Wednesday – Livy attended a French wedding where Clara was a bridesmaid [June 21 to Orion].
June 21 Thursday – Though this is the day Sam had planned to move the family to La Bourboule, France. Things were delayed somewhat, and they did not leave Paris until Saturday, June 23. In Paris Sam wrote to his brother Orion, agreeing that “Ed is right” about an amount he’d offered of $45 per share of the new Paige Compositor Co. No doubt Orion had written of Ed Brownell selling out after the Chicago test, probably to take advantage of its success.
June 22 Friday – Alfred P. Burbank died in New York of consumption after an illness of about five years. In 1887 Burbank produced Sam’s The American Claimant at the Lyceum Theatre and played the leading role. His most recent work was two tours with Edgar “Bill” Nye, which he cut short on the Pacific coast due to ill health. Several members of the Lotos Club would serve as pallbearers [NY Times June 23, 1894, p.4].
June 23 Saturday – The Clemens family left Paris and “traveled all day & it was hot” and arrived at La Bourboule, France. On June 25 Sam wrote to Susan Crane about the trip and the fatigue resulting from two-weeks’ trunk-packing.
June 24 Sunday – The President of the Third French Republic, Sadi Carnot (1837-1894) was stabbed by an Italian anarchist, Sante Geronimo Caserio, and died shortly after midnight, June 25. Ironically, Carnot had just implied in a banquet speech that he would not seek reelection. Sam noted the assassination in his June 25 letter to Rogers, as well as one to an unidentified person, so undoubtedly the news quickly reached La Bourboule where the Clemens family was staying.
June 25 Monday – In La Bourboule-les-Bains, France Sam wrote to Susan Crane:
Sue, dear, this is a hurried line, just to say howdy & tell you the family news — hurried, for it must try to catch the steamer of day after to-morrow, & in France the mails — well, I don’t know what the system is — the shackly arrangement which the French regard as a postal “system” — I only know it is not swift & not certain — I think it travels by jackass & that the jackass is drunk.
June 27 Wednesday – Frenchmen were rioting throughout the country, angry over the assassination of President Sadi Carnot on June 24. Sam wrote of a crisis situation at the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, which had several Italians in their employ.
June 28 Thursday – Susy Clemens went to bed with a fever of 102; she’d had some fever before this day. This was Sam’s departure day, but the rioters and Susy’s condition forced a postponement:
June 29 Friday – In La Bourboule, France Sam cabled H.H. Rogers: “Unavoidably Detained,” then wrote him a long letter explaining the delay (see June 27 and 28 for events leading up to the cable and letter). He added to the letter on June 30. The soldiers were gone from the hotel and most of the policemen.
June 30 Saturday – In La Bourboule, France Sam completed the June 29 letter to H.H. Rogers. News had come about the steamer New York having a collision at sea and needing some repairs, and Sam noted it would be unable to sail today. Susy still had the fever in the morning and the only doctor in town said she had no fever, even though Sam took it and found it 102 degrees.
July – The North American Review published the essay, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” in July–Sept.
Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam, setting forth a proposed contract for serialization of JA, and the book rights [MTP].
July 2 Monday – At the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, France, Sam wrote a short note of request to Chatto & Windus. He announced he would sail the next Saturday July 7 from Southampton on the Paris. As there was no bank there and no way to use a letter of credit, he asked them to send their royalty cheque directly to Livy. If not possible would they please telegraph the hotel, and Sam would stop in Paris “long enough to fix things at the bank” [MTP].
July 4
July 5 Thursday – Sam left the family at La Bourboule and traveled to Paris [July 4 to Clara]. He described his trip as “sweltering” in a July 6 to Livy, but he arrived “totally unfatigued.”
July 6 Friday – At 11 a.m. in the Paris office of Morse, the US Consul-General, Sam wrote to Livy:
Well, I’ve been flying around, Livy darling, & now I am through & ready to leave for Southampton. I had myself called at 7.30 & my coffee ordered for 8.15. Meantime I took a grand bain & went back to bed (in our old room, No. 27.) Rose had made the bath horribly hot, as usual. …
July 7 Saturday – At noon in Southampton, England, Sam sailed for New York aboard the S.S. Paris [LLMT 302].
July 8 Sunday – En route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris, Sam would write on July 13 to Livy that he had worked daily but “accomplished nothing; what I have written is not satisfactory & must be thrown away.” Some of his time was not for naught, however:
Part of my work was not lost, for I have revised Joan of Arc & made some good corrections & reductions. Also I have discovered that the introduction is incomplete. I will complete it on shore [LLMT 302].
July 9 Monday – Sam was en route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris and spent time “most pleasantly” writing, including revisions to the Joan of Arc MS.