December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.

Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].

The Athenaeum, No. 3661 p.883-4 anonymously reviewed FE. Tenney: “It is too long, and there are passages in it that are too diffuse; but none of his works would stand better for a sample of all his wares—humour, good sense, good nature, genuine good fun, shrewd observation, and bits of description which would be hard to equal in the writings of the most serious travelers” [26].

The Academy (London) summarized reviews of More Tramps Abroad, (FE), p. 580 [Tenney 26].