June 22 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:
Man hanging to boat in Neckar—people rescued him.
From a German paper:
“What constitutes official disgrace in America?”
Ans—God knows.
There is only one thing which is worse than H[eidelberg] coffee: that is H cream.
Superstitions lasting from old mythology
Must not climb a tree on St John’s Day (22d June?)—nor go on the water 8 days before up to 8 days after. [MTNJ 2: 103]
June 20 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Shipped from Frankfort June 20, case marked B & C, containing crockery” [MTNJ 2: 291].
June 16 Sunday – Sam wrote from the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg to Frank Bliss. Sam noted progress on the new book, hoping to be about half finished with the draft by the middle of July, 250 or 300 pages. He would send the manuscript:
“…as soon as our touring around will permit, & let you issue it in the winter or hold it till Spring, as shall seem best” [MTLE 3: 62].
June 14 Friday – Sam wrote in his notebook the price of a “suit of clothes—$18—cheaper than stealing.” He wondered if half the country was near-sighted, or did they wear glasses for style? [MJNJ 2: 102].
June 11 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:
30 or 40 little school girls at the Wirthschaft to-day when I left, all drinking beer at the tables in the open air. What an atrocious sight to the total abstinent eye!
I think that only God can read a German newspaper.
The chief German characteristic seems to be kindness, good will to men.
The best English characteristic is its plucky & persistent & individual standing up for its rights.
France seems to interest herself mainly in high art & seduction.
June 10 Monday – Sam wrote from the Königsstuhl in Heidelberg (near his rented den) to Bayard Taylor. His letter revealed his new daily routine: He only ate and slept at the hotel; in the mornings he walked to the…
June 9 Sunday – Sam wrote in his notebook that there was a big crowd at dinner for Whitsunday, or the seventh week after Easter. Since arriving in Germany, Sam gathered material to make fun of the German language. He wrote “Fruendschaftsbezeigungen—24 [letters]” in his notebook, then some examples of how little sense gender made when applied to some words [MTNJ 2: 97].
“Shipped from Heidelberg June 9, Case M.C. 346 gross 204 pounds, containing 1 table and carved works” [291].
June 8 Saturday – Clara Clemens and family celebrated her fourth birthday. The family custom was to give both girls presents on either’s birthday. They received dolls, books, cups, and flowers. In the afternoon they rode donkeys up a hill and enjoyed a picnic of bread, butter, and strawberries [Willis 119; Salsbury 79].
June 5 and 6, 1878 addition – Fables of Man, p.144 gives this for “The Lost Ear-ring”: “The tale begins with the date 6 June 1878, and the verso of manuscript page 13 bears the heading ‘Schloss Hotel Heidelberg, June 5’”.
June 4 Tuesday – Sam moved his den to “the very pinnacle of the Kaiserstuhl 1400 or 1500 feet up in the air above the Schloss Hotel, & 1700 above the Rhine Valley—which it overlooks” [MTLE 3: 64]. (See entry of June 16; letter to Warner).
From Sam’s notebook: “Rented & paid for a room for a month at the pretty little Wirtschaft under the Königstuhl” [MTNJ 2: 94].