November 28 Sunday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel E. Moffett, who worked for the Hearst newspapers, including the N.Y. Journal. After offering the following he gave a brief, positive status for family members.

I was half minded to send the Journal a telegram about the big event in the Reichsrath, without waiting for a request, because it was such a big one & so rare in history; & your aunt Livy wanted me to do it. But on the whole I thought I would better wait for the invitation. I believed it would come. But it didn’t. That is, it was in some way belated. It arrived some time after the World’s. I answered the World’s.

Usually I wouldn’t try to say anything in a telegram; it cannot be done; there is no room to splash around,

I do not care to write when I cannot splash. But this time I wanted to say a word or two. And no more was necessary. It was a compact situation & distinctly forbade splashing [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frank Marshall White of the N.Y. Journal , who had requested an article on the events at the Austrian Reichsrath of Nov. 25 and 26. Sam wrote he’d already sent one to the New York

World, which requested it first. He felt it a foregone conclusion that Count Kasimir Felix Badeni 1909) would resign. He was sorry White’s request had not come earlier

[Univ. Virginia at Charlottesville, Clifton Barrett Library Special Collections]. test

In the evening, Sam, Clara and Jean Clemens attended a concert in the Grosser Saal (great hall) of the Musikverein, where they met the 73 year-old “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss, Jr. Dolmetsch writes,

Two world premieres were on the program performed by Eduard Strauss-Kapelle (the orchestra of Johann’s younger brother): a new waltz, “An der Elbe,” by Johann, and a new polka, “Für Alle Welt,” by Eduard Strauss. Johann conducted the first half of the program, containing his new waltz among other works of his own, then retired to a loge (box) for the remainder of the program his brother conducted. When someone pointed out that “the famous Mark Twain and his daughters” were present, Strauss invited them to join him in his box for the rest of the concert.