October 1 Friday – Dolmetsch connects Laura Rothmann’s note with Bailey Hurst, American Consul in Vienna, who, by Sept. 30 had located a house for the Clemens family—the Villa Silling, in suburban Döbling. This may or may not have been the same house, as Rothmann’s note is not extant and Sam’s reply says nothing of the consul’s efforts or his prior request while in Weggis. Dolmetsch writes that because of Sam’s sudden attack of gout,

…he sent Olivia and Clara out in a fiaker the next day to inspect the villa. Whether, as he wrote Rogers, the offer from the hotel’s manager, eager for the publicity a resident celebrity like Mark Twain might bring, to reduce their rent on a large suite by 40 percent made staying there cheaper than keeping house or, as he told Hurst, his daughters preferred to remain in the city (or both), the family decided to settle in at the Metropole for the next nine months [26].

The evening edition of Neue Freie Presse ran a front-page account of a brief visit with Mark Twain

[Dolmetsch 34].