December 18 Friday – Sam left Berlin with William Phelps and traveled 125 miles south to Dresden

N.Y.Times article Dec 20 p.5, dateline Berlin, Dec 19:

The Hon. William Walter Phelps, the American Minister to Germany, left this city last evening for Cairo on a two months’ leave of absence. To-night [Dec. 19] Mr. Phelps is at Dresden, where he was entertained [on Dec. 18] at a dinner given in his honor by the English and American Club. He was accompanied to Dresden by Mr. Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain,) who was one of the speakers at the dinner. Mr. Clemens will spend a portion of the Winter at Dresden, where his daughters are studying music.

[Note: Fatout lists this as an “unidentified function” with Sam reading “German,” “Interviewer,” “Blue Jay Yarn,” and “Duel” :MT Speaking 660]. No evidence was found for the Clemens girls studying in Dresden, though they may have made day trips to the city for such purpose.

The N.Y. Times of Aug. 17, 1892, p.6, “A Reformer of German Sat On,” referred to Sam’s lecture in Dresden “a few months ago” as being “On the Horrors of the German Language.”