October 5 Wednesday – In Florence Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He’d received Hall’s August statement and was pleased with the “good showing” of “cheap P & P & Huck Finn & Claimant.” He wanted to know how many cheap HF’s had been sold to date, and warned Hall to watch out for American Publishing Co., should they issue their own cheap copies of his book. He’d write Whitmore also to be on the lookout. He would stop any such issue. The move had interrupted Sam’s progress on PW.

October 2 Sunday – Sam’s notebook in Florence: “Oct. 2, agreed to give the coachman his meals — sum reduced to L450 per m.” [NB 32 TS 27].

October 1 Saturday – B.A. Atkinson & Co., Boston, wrote to Sam offering to sell “the most novel and magnificent Railroad Palace Car which has ever been placed before the public” [MTP].

October – In Florence at the Villa Viviani, Sam noted Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1871) [Gribben 693; NB 32, TS 33].

Scott Rankin’s article, “People I Have Never Met: Mark Twain,” ran in the London Idler. Included was a cartoon of Sam in sailor’s garb on the bridge of a ship with a life-ring reading “Quaker City” [Tenney 20].

September 30 Friday – Florence, Italy: the date of an engagement Sam accepted on Sept. 25 to Mr. Loring’s. At the Villa Viviani, Sam wrote a long letter to Sue Crane. Livy was unable to write, Sam disclosed.

September 29 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote a short notes to Frederick J. Hall. The first note:

Yours of the 19th containing M 2.086.5 received. Good — I needed it. Setting up housekeeping calls for rafts of inexpensive odds & ends that bulk-up a considerable expense before one gets through.

You sent out an enormous cargo of volumes in August [MTP].

September 28 Wednesday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence, Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton at the Hotel Royal Danichi in Venice. Sam added the note to the envelope, “To be kept till the cuss comes.” He recommended a pension (similar to today’s hostel) to Hutton, should he not wish a hotel.

Eight francs a day per person, baths & lights & that sort of thing extra. Most highly recommended.

September 27 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook in Florence:

Sept. 27. Hired landau & 2 horses & coachman of Picci at 480 francs (lire) a month for 8 months, which covers everything (wages, board, feed, &c), except the coachman’s bed & pourboire [gratuity]. Either party can annul the agreement by giving 15 days’ notice to the other [NB 32 TS 27].

September 26 Monday – Susy Clemens finished her Sept. 25 letter to Louise Brownell (see Sept. 25).

In his notebook Sam made a memorandum to “order Galignani & l’Italy” (Galignani’s Messenger, a daily English-language publication from Paris) [Gribben 250; NB 32, TS 26].

This was in a long list of items to get and do, including:

September 25 Sunday – The Clemenses moved into the Villa Viviani, five miles outside of Florence, Italy [Sept. 24 to Phelps].

Susy began a letter “on our first Sunday in Florence” to Louise Brownell, and finished it on Sept. 26 (though the letter was not postmarked until Oct. 13.) She related the delay the family experienced in Frankfurt (see Sept. 12 entry), and continued: