March 17 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam, instead of waiting to meet the banker Ludwig Kleinberg at 4 p.m., sent for him at breakfast. There he agreed to a two -month option at Kleinberg’s price of $1.5 million, payable in installments and extendable by request, for American rights to the Raster, invented by Jan Szczepanik (see Mar. 16 entry). Sam would receive a twelve percent commission if he sold the rights for that amount.

March 16 Wednesday – After writing Amelia S. Levetus, a meeting was arranged for this evening, and the young inventor, Jan Szczepanik, visited the Clemens’ suite at the Metropole. The invention Sam was most excited about was the Raster, a labor-saving machine for electrically copying graphic images directly into woven fabric. Sam was ever-enamored of labor-saving devices.

Sam’s notebook of Mar. 18 relates what he did prior to the evening meeting:

March 15 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy had tea with Amelia S. Levetus, a British correspondent in Vienna.

Sam was not in at the time. His notebook tells what happened when he arrived and heard Livy tell of exciting new inventions by Jan Szczepanik (1872-1926), who had become well known as an inventor of the Fernseher, or “telectroscope,” a rudimentary television system: insert diagrams.

March 13 Sunday – The New York World ran a brief interview with Sam on p. 7, “Mark Twain Proud and Happy,” about his feelings of getting out of debt [MTCI 331-2].

March 12 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.

“The correspondent of the Times has handed me a copy of the paper, whereby I see that you took the trouble to bring to notice the fact that I have worked myself out of debt. You could not have done me a greater favor than that, & I sincerely thank you for it.”

March 8 Tuesday – Sam’s essay “Dueling,” written this day, was not published in his lifetime but collected in Europe and Elsewhere (1923) [AMT-1: 299-302, 707:1898a].

The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 5,000 additional copies of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) were printed (totaling 23,000 to date in London). The official English publication date was Nov. 25, 1897

March 7 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

The copies of the letters from creditors arrived to-day—first in the list the Mount Morris release, and I was very glad to see that. Mr. Dodd clothed it in boiler-iron! All right, I shall be very glad to “let you raise questions” with the Mt. Morris when it comes to further payments. I believe you will find that there are some quite legitimate questions to raise.

March 6 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl also in Vienna

We were very sorry you did not come in, that evening. There were no strangers present—only friends. My daughter is going to the ball tomorrow night with some friends, & if Mrs. Clemens’s health is meantime quite restored I mean to be there myself a while [MTP]. Note: the “daughter” mentioned was likely Clara who attended many such events. Dolmetsch claims Eduard was Sam’s closest Viennese friend [37].

March 5 Saturday – The New York Times ran “English Praise Mark Twain,” p. 7 datelined Mar. 5, likely from the London Times:

ENGLISH PRAISE MARK TWAIN

Dr. McAlister Eulogizes his Conduct

In Paying His Webster & Co. Debts.

LONDON, March 5.—The English press has universally printed praises of the statement that Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) has paid the last of his Webster & Co. debts. Dr. McAlister, writing to The Times on the subject, says:

March 4 Friday – Sam also wrote to an unidentified person “Truth is stranger than Fiction; but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth is not” [MTP]. Note: was also in “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar,” FE ch. 15.