September 17 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam replied to Samuel Rutherford Crockett’s Aug.

Sam noted that Crockett sending his letter to N.Y. “wasted a good deal of time,” which explains why it took him so long to reply.

I know Cleg, & am fond of him, & am ready to welcome him again, & Napoleon, too, when he gets on his uniform. Ten days hence I shall have an address in Vienna for the winter….

How the good things travel! In my Mississippi Valley Tam & his cat have arrived, & are now “the man & the buzzard;” in New York John L. Toole’s “Dream” is “Wallack’s Dream;” & there’s another that was in my mind but has escaped. Tam has degenerated through travel westward, & is become profane. He is sleeping in the shade; & he sleeps so long that his pet buzzard concludes that he is dead & starts in to pick one of his eyes out. It is that act that the man regards as “too damned familiar.” Toole’s “Dream” is a good deal better than Wallack’s, & yet the language is just the same in both; if you know the dream you will know why. Give & take is fair: Wallack’s dream has traveled eastward & gained, Tam & his cat have traveled in the opposite direction & lost.

Sam ended by noting Crockett would not reach London “till some days hence” by which time they would be in Vienna. He invited him to come to Vienna where they would be “many a night of good-fellowship many a drink thereto” [MTP]. Note: See Crockett’s Aug. 23 to Sam; Cleg Kelly was a character in Crockett’s Arab in the City. John L. O’Toole (1830-1909) an English actor (See 16 Sept. 1872 entry); John Lester Wallack (1820-1888) American actor and theatre manager. The “dream” has to do with productions by both men.

Sam also replied to James B. Pond, (his letter not extant) explaining he did not get to see Samuel Rutherford Crockett because he wasn’t in London yet.

I am glad to be remembered by our President; & glad he can find time for it, when his hands are so full & over-full. I am grateful to him for appointing Hay & Porter & Tower—they are a credit to him & to the country. I wish that kind of appointments would become the rule with our presidents.

I feel quite sure that in Cape Town 13 months ago I stood on a platform for the last time. Nothing but the Webster debts could persuade me to lecture again, & I have ceased to worry about those.

Sam recalled Vancouver in 1895 when he gave himself four years to pay the debts, thinking he would need two seasons in America, one in England and one around the world. He and Livy were satisfied that the debts will be paid a year earlier than planned. “I am a cheerful man these days.” He laid it all to “madam’s economical genius” [MTP]. Note: President William McKinley named the following to the diplomatic corps: John Hay (England), Horace Porter (France), and Charlemagne Tower (Hungary).

Sam presented an inscribed copy of HF to Miss Mathilde Grüter, the daughter of the Grüter family that had rented him the tiny room in the Villa Tannen: “To Miss Mathilde Grüter with kindest remembrances of /

Mark Twain, September 17th, 1897” [Locher 17: Hüppy 84].