December 24 Thursday – In Berlin Sam wrote to Rudolf Lindau, enclosing a photograph he said was “pretty old — nearly 8 years — but it is the last that was taken. Now I’ll look for yours” [MTP].
December 23 Wednesday – In Berlin Sam finished the Dec. 22 letter to Hall, all written in a PS and PPS longer than the Dec. 22 segment. Edmund C. Stedman wanted an increase in his royalties from LAL. Sam addressed the issue:
Mrs. Clemens urged that I wait over night and then write something pleasant anent the LAL increase of royalty.
December 22 Tuesday – In Berlin Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus asking for four P&P’s “nicely bound.” He enclosed the second of six syndicate letters.
I will send the rest myself from month to month as they appear, so that you can set up the little book at your leisure [MTP]. Note: Sam proposed a booklet named, “Recent Glimpses of Europe” made from the six syndicated Europe letters.
December 21 Monday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.17 ran this interesting article on Orion Clemens:
MARK TWAIN’S BROTHER
Would be a Good Character for One of the Humorist’s Books.
Mark Twain has a brother living in Keokuk, Ia., who is absent-minded enough for Mark to “put in a book.”
December 20 Sunday – Albert B. Joy sent Sam a printed invitation requesting a visit “on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays in the afternoon / The Studio, Beaumont Road / beside the West Kensington station, North End Road” [MTP].
December 19 Saturday – Sam may have stayed overnight in Dresden or returned late Dec. 18.
“Playing Courier” first ran as “The Tramp Abroad Again: II. Playing Courier” in The Illustrated London News on this day and also Dec. 26 [Budd, Collected 1000].
Dresden (/ˈdrɛzdən/, German: [ˈdʁeːsdn̩] ⓘ; Upper Saxon: Dräsdn; Upper Sorbian: Drježdźany, pronounced [ˈdʁʲɛʒdʒanɨ]) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and it is the second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth largest by area (after Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne), and the third most populous city in the area of former East Germany, after Berlin and Leipzig. Dresden's urban area comprises the towns of Freital, Pirna, Radebeul, Meissen, Coswig, Radeberg and Heidenau and has around 790,000 inhabitants.
December 18 Friday – Sam left Berlin with William Phelps and traveled 125 miles south to Dresden
N.Y.Times article Dec 20 p.5, dateline Berlin, Dec 19:
December 16 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about Thomas M. Williams’ desire to undertake sales of LAL:
…the work of his life and he wants to make an agreement that will extend over the next eight or ten years…he thinks there is a fortune for himself and for is in the ‘Library,’ and …he will make the sale of ‘L.A.L.’ the work of his life” [MTLTP 291n1]. See also Sam’s Jan. 25, 1892 to Williams.
December 15 Tuesday – Lucy R. Buck wrote from Front Royal, Va. to Sam with reaction to “Mental Telegraphy” [MTP].