February 28 Tuesday – Sam delivered the main after -dinner speech at a farewell banquet for Ambassador and Mrs. Charlemagne Tower at the Hotel Bristol. The dinner was sponsored by the American Colony in Vienna. Dolmetsch writes of Sam’s speech:

Mark Twain…spared no superlatives, calling Tower “the best ambassador the American nation has ever sent forth,” and particularizing: “Mr. Tower did not arrive here in political sunshine. The close relationship between Spain and Austria and the clouds of war then gathering made his mission in Austria especially delicate, the most delicate in these times, demanding unusual and special qualities of mind and character. The success he has had gives evidence that, as the old saying goes, ‘he was the right man in the right place’” [155-6

February, end – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote Richard W. Gilder that he could take the Hornet article, name the price himself, and send the check to Franklin G. Whitmore [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “End of Feb. Wrote Gilder to take Hornet if he chose, & name price himself & send check to Whitmore, who has $300 left” [NB 40 TS 54].