June 29 Friday – In La Bourboule, France Sam cabled H.H. Rogers: “Unavoidably Detained,” then wrote him a long letter explaining the delay (see June 27 and 28 for events leading up to the cable and letter). He added to the letter on June 30. The soldiers were gone from the hotel and most of the policemen.
June 28 Thursday – Susy Clemens went to bed with a fever of 102; she’d had some fever before this day. This was Sam’s departure day, but the rioters and Susy’s condition forced a postponement:
June 27 Wednesday – Frenchmen were rioting throughout the country, angry over the assassination of President Sadi Carnot on June 24. Sam wrote of a crisis situation at the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, which had several Italians in their employ.
June 25 Monday – In La Bourboule-les-Bains, France Sam wrote to Susan Crane:
Sue, dear, this is a hurried line, just to say howdy & tell you the family news — hurried, for it must try to catch the steamer of day after to-morrow, & in France the mails — well, I don’t know what the system is — the shackly arrangement which the French regard as a postal “system” — I only know it is not swift & not certain — I think it travels by jackass & that the jackass is drunk.
June 24 Sunday – The President of the Third French Republic, Sadi Carnot (1837-1894) was stabbed by an Italian anarchist, Sante Geronimo Caserio, and died shortly after midnight, June 25. Ironically, Carnot had just implied in a banquet speech that he would not seek reelection. Sam noted the assassination in his June 25 letter to Rogers, as well as one to an unidentified person, so undoubtedly the news quickly reached La Bourboule where the Clemens family was staying.
June 23 Saturday – The Clemens family left Paris and “traveled all day & it was hot” and arrived at La Bourboule, France. On June 25 Sam wrote to Susan Crane about the trip and the fatigue resulting from two-weeks’ trunk-packing.
June 22 Friday – Alfred P. Burbank died in New York of consumption after an illness of about five years. In 1887 Burbank produced Sam’s The American Claimant at the Lyceum Theatre and played the leading role. His most recent work was two tours with Edgar “Bill” Nye, which he cut short on the Pacific coast due to ill health. Several members of the Lotos Club would serve as pallbearers [NY Times June 23, 1894, p.4].
June 21 Thursday – Though this is the day Sam had planned to move the family to La Bourboule, France. Things were delayed somewhat, and they did not leave Paris until Saturday, June 23. In Paris Sam wrote to his brother Orion, agreeing that “Ed is right” about an amount he’d offered of $45 per share of the new Paige Compositor Co. No doubt Orion had written of Ed Brownell selling out after the Chicago test, probably to take advantage of its success.
June 20 Wednesday – Livy attended a French wedding where Clara was a bridesmaid [June 21 to Orion].
June 19 Tuesday – In Paris, Sam wrote “only a line to say howdy” to Eleanor V. Hutton (Mrs. Laurence Hutton). Sam hoped they wouldn’t have left for Onteora, N.Y. before he arrived in New York July 6th. He told of the family’s plans; they were to leave day after tomorrow (June 21) for La Bourboule, where Sam would spend a week with them. Sam would then leave for N.Y.