April 25 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel E. Moffett about the biographical sketch of Mark Twain to be used for the Uniform Edition:

Your letter [not extant], with the picture of the cordial boy, has arrived, & I have five minutes in which to answer.

Yes. Use the things you speak of. Also—if you don’t mind—I would like to see your MS before you print. I find that I cannot stand things which I wrote a quarter of a century ago. They seem to have two qualities, gush & vulgarity [MTP]. Note: Sam asked for two copies of his nephew’s sketch.

Sam also wrote to Chatto & Windus.

“Bliss seems to be having an easy thing with his handsome signed & numbered edition (of 512 copies.) President McKinley & other big guns have subscribed, & Bliss is feeling very well.

“Do you think you could work off a similar edition in England?”

Sam noted there was”abundance of time to feel the pulse there” for such a set in England, as Bliss had probably only manufactured the first of the 20 or 22 volumes. The books were being made by Riverside Press, which Sam wrote “means the best taste and much expense” [MTP].

Emil Stepheuben wrote from Copenhagen to Sam, relating a little story about a horse there who would stop until he was taken by the head and “Sam, Sam!” was yelled at him. Sam wrote “use this” in pencil, circled at the top of the letter [MTP].