October 14, 1897

October 14 Thursday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for her husband to Eduard Pötzl. Sam was “pressed for time,” so Livy wrote to say they were sorry Eduard had a cold. She added Sam would not be able to write anything for the Vienna newspapers as he had promised so much to American publishers. She accepted his invitation for her daughters to see the Carnival under his auspices [MTP]. Note: he replied the next day.

Sam’s notebook:

Servants’ fees. Oct. 14. ’97.    Monthly

October 13, 1897

October 13 Wednesday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper asking for a copy of JA to be “bound in a style proper to a personage of such exalted degree” for Queen Victoria’s granddaughter (daughter of Empress Frederick). The lady had been to Vienna and told Sam she’d read the book three times and given her copy to a girls’ school which she founded. Sam closed with,

October 12, 1897

October 12 TuesdayJohn G. Kreer (“U.S.A.”), S. Von Armon (S.F. Cal. U.S.A.”), F. Goldschmidt, L. E. Schlemm (“N.Y. U.S.A.”), and Hugo Viewega (“Hannover”) each signed a picture postcard to Sam. The text of the card, in German, appears to be the same hand as Viewega’s. The card pictures Marktkirche – Altes Rathhaus, and Liebniz – Haus in Hannover.

October 10, 1897

October 10 Sunday – An interview with Mark Twain ran in a supplement to the Vienna newspaper Fremden-Blatt. Dolmetsch calls the interview “The most significant, certainly most penetrating, of the myriad of interviews and articles appearing about Mark Twain in Viennese newspapers during the early days of his stay.” He also writes that while freedom of the press as Sam knew it back home had never existed in Austria-Hungary, “official censorship was sloppily enforced” [32].

October 8, 1897

October 8 Friday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Fletcher Hurst, thanking him for his efforts to secure them housing, but daughter Clara “has reached the conclusion that she would rather live near the centre of the city.” Sam added he was “well satisfied” where he was and had “ceased to be restless” [MTP].

October 7, 1897

October 7 Thursday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl.

The manager of this hotel has now situated us so charmingly & spaciously & economically on the next floor (Stock III), that we shall stay a month at any rate; but when the weather settles, Mrs. Clemens will wish to see the Continental & the Persian Exquisite, for we are quite willing, like the rest of the world, to better ourselves whenever we can.

October 5, 1897

October 5 Tuesday– In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Professor Heinrich Obersteiner (1847-1922), enclosing a letter from Dr. M. Allen Starr (d.1932) of New York concerning seventeen-year-old daughter Jean’s epileptic attacks. Sam disclosed she had her sixth attack a week ago (Sept. 28).

October 4, 1897

October 4 Monday – At 5 p.m. at the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Sam wrote again to Eduard Pötzl.

Thank you ever so much for the books & the Feuilleton, & for the offer to show me the city: I accept the whole, gratefully. I shall be very glad to have you along when I get arrested on the bridge, because you will be able to explain the case to the police (and divide the punishment.)

October 3, 1897

October 3 SundaySam’s notebook:

Hotel Metropole, Vienna, Oct. 3, 1897. At the next round table to ours sits a princess, daughter of the Dowager Empress Friederich & granddaughter of Victoria; also the young daughter of the above and her intended, the young Prince Henry Reuss (called Henry III); whose mother & sister and Uncle (the Prince von Wernigerode) in Ilsenberg in the Harz mountains six years ago. With them a maid of honor & a couple of equerries. Good looking people. They all smoke [NB 42 TS 39].

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