April 2 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of the Century Co., who had recently questioned American Publishing Co. giving McClure’s a segment of FE (without Sam’s knowledge) while refusing it to the Century.

I am mailing to you a little tale entitled “From the London Times.” If you don’t want to pay $125 or $140 per magazine page for it, won’t you please send it to H.H. Rogers, 26 Broadway, & say I would like him to mail it to “The Cosmopolitan,” Irvington, N.Y.? And won’t you do the same with the photograph of Szczepanik, which I mean to enclose … I have 3 part-promises outstanding; the first, to you; the second to Brisbin [sic Brisben] Walker [MTP].

Note: “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904” first ran in the Nov. 1898 issue of Century; it was included in How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (Hartford 1900) and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900) [Budd Collected 2: 1004] John Brisben Walker, owner Cosmopolitan.

Sam then related Gilder making him write an article on bicycles when he was down on his back with a carbuncle—he never got notice back of its rejection. He then described 25 year old Jan Szczepanik:

Szczepanik is an interesting young creature. He comes & drinks beer with me every now & then, & talks till midnight. Is well born, educated, dresses nicely, & is an echte [real] gentleman. He was a village school teacher in the provinces a few years ago, with a salary in proportion; but he is comfortable, now, & has a laboratory 3 or 4 stories high, in the centre of Vienna, & has inventions enough in his head to fill it to the roof. He is going to be the European Edison, I suppose [MTP].

Sam’s notebook (Mar. 20) included this description of Szczepanik:

25 years old, black hair, very striking face, mobile & alert, splendid eyes. Three years ago he was a country school teacher out in one of the outlying States of the Empire, & very poor; but Mr. Kleinberg’s business ability has made a market for his genius & brought him money & comfort. He has a fine laboratory now, occupying a large building; & in it, nicely furnished bedroom, parlor, bathroom &c for himself. These two men belong together. They are necessary to each other; both are honorable gentlemen; each appreciates the other’s value. …. Szczepanik is not a Paige, but a gentleman; his backer, Mr. Kleinberg is a gentleman, too, yet is not a Clemens—that is, to say, he is not an Ass [NB 40 TS 15-16, 18].