May 26 Thursday – The Clemens party was in transit to Lake Como and Cadenabbia.

May 25 Wednesday – Before leaving Venice, Sam wrote to Mrs. Katherine C. Bronson.

Dear Mrs. Bronson:

You are wonderfully good — too good for here below. I thank you ever so much for those books, — which I shall treasure for your sake as well as their own — & I was hoping to see you & say all this with my mouth, & add the good-byes of Mrs. Clemens & me; & I took my daughters along, too, to exhibit them to you; but you were out philandering around & we missed you [MTP].

May 24 Tuesday – Charles D. Taylor wrote from Kingston, R.I. to Sam: “Although a stranger to you, I venture to enclose to you a farce I have written entitled “Ye Old Militia Muster.” Taylor thought Sam might handle the subject with humorous treatment better [MTP].

M.E. Waring for Atlantic Lyceum Bureau in Baltimore wrote to Sam seeking his lecture for one night in a winter series course of lectures for the benefit of “a prominent church” [MTP].

May 22 Sunday – In Venice Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall having received his May 9 letter (not extant), which Sam wrote, “sounds very good.” Sam wanted Mr. Halsey of Wall Street to invest the funds using “his own best judgment”; Sam didn’t want to “meddle.” He cited Susan Crane’s agreement on the matter, which suggests she knew and respected Halsey. Sam also forecasted his return on business matters:

May 21 Saturday – Sam’s notebook in Venice, dated May 22:

Tried to make the Johnsons, Browns, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mrs. James T. Fields, Mr. Washington understand (with Clara’s help) the old puzzle of Whitmore taking me around the loop in his buggy. Of course they all laughed at my stupidity at first, but this is just a “$100-bill & pair of boots” puzzle before they get done with it.

May 20 Friday – In Venice, Italy Livy wrote to Grace King concerning the family’s change in plans for the next winter:

We have given up Paris and have taken a villa in Florence for next winter. Mr Clemens had a great dread of Paris and even a suburb did not attract him. We found the singing advantages would probably be good for Susy and so decided rather suddenly to take up a villa a little way out of town [Rodney 144].

May 19 Thursday – Tillotson & Son wrote to Sam [Reference card only at MTP].

May 18 Wednesday – Angelo Heilprin for Academy of Natural Sciences wrote from Phila. to Sam soliciting funds for the relief of Lt. Peary, “wintering in the Arctic north” [MTP]. Note: Robert E. Peary would claim to be the first to reach the North Pole in 1909.

May 17 Tuesday – In Venice, Italy Sam wrote to Augustin Daly, enclosing a play he’d had read to him in Rome, written by Julian Corbett. It sounded good to Sam but he admitted knowing nothing about how it would play. If Daly liked it he might write to Corbett at the village of Thames Ditton, Surrey, England. Otherwise, Frederick J. Hall would ship it back to Corbett [MTP].

May 16 Monday – Sam’s notebook in Venice:

Monday, May 16, took Antonio the gondolier at 7 francs a day.

Smoking party Monday 8.30 to 12 p.m. at Horatio Brown’s, 559 Zattere (Ca. Torresella) [NB 31 TS 46].

† – Susy Clemens wrote to Louise Brownell of the trip and the first few days in Venice, which she called “this strangest of strange places,” and that they’d arrived Saturday (estimated here as May 14).