January 17 Sunday – In Berlin, Sam was in bed suffering from pneumonia. Paine writes,

“It was unpleasant enough at first, though he rather enjoyed the convalescent period. He could sit up in bed and read and receive occasional callers. Fischer [Henry W. Fisher] brought him Memoirs of the Margravine of Bayreuth, always a favorite. The Emperor sent Frau von Versen [née Alice B. Clemens (1850-1912); Sam’s third cousin] with an invitation for him to attend the consecration of some flags in the palace. When she returned, conveying thanks and excuses, his Majesty commanded her to prepare a dinner at her home for Mark Twain and himself and a few special guests, the date to be arranged when Clemens’s physicians should pronounce him well enough to attend” [MTB 936].

Notes: (Editorial emphasis.) Henry W. Fisher (sometimes seen as Fischer), foreign correspondent for many different newspapers; Sam had known him casually since at least 1879 at the Grant celebration for the Army of Tennessee in Chicago.See also Gribben, p. 771. The Memoirs in question had been translated by William Dean Howells in his 1860s stay in Venice.