May 26 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Sydney G. Trist, secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society , enclosing a typed page by Dr. Stephen F. Smith , read before the National Individualist Club in 1898 about the use of curare in vivisection. Trist’s letter is not extant.
I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, & is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling, with me, & is so strong & so deeply rooted in my make & constitution that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction [MTP].
Note: Trist was also the editor of The Animals’ Friend, a mix of serious with fun, which began in 1894. Gribben points out that Sam referred to Professor Ernst Wilhelm Ritter von Brucke’s (1819-1892) work, Vorlesungen uber Physiologie (1873-4), though he misspells Trist as “Trust” [107]. Sam also referred to Eduard Freidrich Wilhelm Pflüger’s (1829-1910) journal while writing an article on vivisection [541].
Sam also wrote to Eduard Pötzl.
The New York papers have asked me about my audience [with the Emperor Franz Josef], & I have telegraphed the following, which I consider quite nice because it is dignified & does not give any information: It was only a pleasant unconstrained private conversation on matters unconnected with international policy. I was very much wanting to explain my ply, now in the hands of the Secretary of State in Washington, for insuring universal peace, but I feared his majesty would laugh, or else consider it too radical.
Print that, if you think it worth it—& this also:
All the papers in America will telegraph the Secretary of State to ask what the plan is—then they will find out that I have invented a way to suddenly exhaust the life-principle of the atmosphere & kill the whole human race in four minutes. / Sincerely Yours / SLC
Love to you & good-bye. Kindest regards from the family. Aufwiedersehen!
The Secretary of State [John Hay] is a very old friend of mine; & I put that plan in a letter to him lately & asked him to submit it to the War Office [MTP and New York Times 11 June 1899 in part].
The Clemens party of five (Katy Leary had returned from the US some time before, after the death of her father on Mar. 29) was scheduled to leave Vienna at 3 p.m. Thomas Cook & Son agent took their trunks at 10 a.m. At 2 p.m. the Cook agent returned to take the five to the Franz-Josefs-Banhof rail station in Alsergrund, Vienna’s ninth district. There was a crowd waiting at the station with flowers to see them off [Dolmetsch 312]. Clara Clemens recalled the farewell:
Never before nor since the two seasons spent in Vienna have we encountered so many ways of finding entertainment and pleasure. Also we fell in love with the Viennese and made many dear friends among them. But the sad day of parting had to come and the tears fell in abundance. Was life to be one long series of farewells? The station seemed full of our beloved friends, and among them most distinguished men and women. My sister and I did not hide our feelings, but wept frankly with all the tragedy and youthful suffering in our hearts. While the inexorable revolution of the wheels started our journey we knew we were gazing on those dear faces for the last time [MFMT 214].
Also,
Gabrilowitsch left Vienna the day before we did and there was no hope of an early reunion.
Further farewells must be said at the station to other friends as we stood there realizing we might never meet again, I remember seeing my father’s eyes fill with tears. The group was composed mostly of boys and girls, and he said quite seriously:
“The tragedies of maturer life cannot surpass the first tragedies of youth” [My Husband Gabrilowitsch 8].
Among the crowd sending off the Clemens family was Theodor Leschetizky, and Adolf von Wilbrandt, author of the tragedy, The Master of Palmyra
The family traveled to Prague, Czechoslovakia, some seven hours by rail, 156 miles, arriving about 10 p.m. They stayed with Prince Thurn und Taxis at his country estate outside of Prague. They would rest there for four days [Dolmetsch 312].
F. Kaplan writes that “At the last moment, rather than risk rough seas, they took the train to Prague, Nurmburg, Cologne, Brussels, Calais, and then the ferry to Dover” [572].
Scott writes of the stay near Prague, “Here they had an excellent view of the country life of the Bohemian noblilty” [246]. Note: Albert I, the eighth Prince of Thurn und Taxis (1867 -1952), was then a single man. He was referred to as “your serene highness,” and would marry in July, 1890, make 8 children: serenity thereby lost.
The NY Times ran “Mark Twain At Vienna” on the front page:
MARK TWAIN AT VIENNA
He Sees Emperor Francis Joseph [sic] in Special Audience.
VIENNA, May 25.—Emperor Francis Joseph received Mark Twain (Mr. Samuel L. Clemens) in special audience this afternoon.
The Emperor displayed the keenest interest in the literary work of Mr. Clemens, and remarked also that he was much gratified to observe “the efficiency of the Americans from a military standpoint.”
Mark Twain told the Emperor that he had come to the audience with a carefully prepared German speech, but had forgotten it the moment he entered the reception hall. This caused Francis Joseph great amusement, and he replied: “Don’t trouble yourself. If you can’t say anything in German, say it in English, and I will translate it for you.”
The Emperor proceeded, during a twenty-minute interview to help Twain through the difficulties of German, felicitating him all the while upon his progress, and finally taking leave of him in the kindliest manner. Mark Twain leaves Vienna to-morrow for a four months’ stay in England.