Day By Day Dates

September 10 Thursday – In Interlaken, Sam wrote the fifth letter for McClure’s Syndicate, “Switzerland — The Cradle of Liberty.”

September 11 Friday – Sam’s notebook (31 TS 5) reveals a side trip to Grindelwald, possibly on this day:

3 hours afoot. 2 ½ zu Pferd, from the Hotel de l’Ours to the Gletcher, looks 300 yards. (Grindelwald). Shrines all the way — what you want is cussing places. Re-name them…Want milk, but dasn’t have it — would be too conspicuous not to drink wine. The wine increases my rheumatism, too…48 fr[ancs] for food for 6 persons at the Bear Tavern, Grindelwald . A swindle… [Also in part in Rodney 136].

September 12 Saturday – Sometime during his stay in Interlaken, Sam “stumbled on the whole lovely Dawson family one evening” [Oct. 1 to Twichell]. During the 1878 tramp with Joe, they had met John Dawson and wife on the train from Leukerbad, Switzerland to Locchi-Suste (Visp). See Aug. 26, 1878 entry.

September 13 Sunday – In Interlaken, Switzerland Sam wrote to Francis Dalzell Finlay, his longtime friend in Belfast, Ireland.

We leave tomorrow for Berne & later for Geneva. For a day or two. Beyond that the WILL OF GOD has not been signified to his servants. Therefore we must wait for a sign for we are personally conducted. All the family are with me.

September 14 Monday – The Clemens party left Interlaken and traveled back to Geneva, reaching there in the evening [Sept. 15 to Hall].

Joe Cone of East Cambrige, Mass. wrote a bad poem and thought it worth Sam’s autograph [MTP].

September 15 Tuesday – In Geneva, Switzerland Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, complaining, “For the first time our mails have failed & gone utterly to the devil.” Upon arrival the night before Sam did find Hall’s letter of two weeks prior, however (not extant). Sam told of spending time with Dr. Charles Waldstein while in Marienbad (see Aug. 24 entry), and thought McClure might want Waldstein to write for the syndicate — would Hall find out and let Sam know?

September 16 Wednesday † – Sam decided to take a solo excursion. He hired his old courier Joseph Verey (Very) and sent him ahead to Lake Bourget to engaged a boat and pilot for a ten day trip down the river Rhone. Paine writes,

“For five dollars Joseph bought a safe, flat-bottom craft; also he engaged the owner as pilot. A few days later — September 19 — Clemens followed” [MTB 924].

September 17 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Arrived at Ouchy Thursday, Sept. 17—noon” [NB 31 TS 5]. The Clemens party took rooms at the Grand Hotel Beau Rivage, Ouchy, Lausanne on Lake Leman [MTB 924].

September 18 Friday – The Clemens family rested at Ouchy, Lausanne on Lake Leman. Sam’s notebook reveals he bought “27 cigars for a cent. It is the quality which has rotted your heart, not the number—which is not excess” [NB 31 TS 6].

September 19 Saturday –After installing the family in Ouchy, Sam left at 2 p.m. with Joseph Verey in the purchased boat (see Sept. 16) and the first night stopped on an island in Lake Bourget, where they slept in the old castle of Châtillon in a room where Pope Celestin IV was born at the end of the eighth century [MTB 924; NB 31 TS 5-6; Aix-Les-Bains,etc.114 by Dr. Léon Brachet (1884) ].

September 20 Sunday – In Lake Bourget, Switzerland Sam wrote in his “part diary and part comment” log:

In the morning I looked out of my window and saw the tops of trees below me, thick and beautiful foliage, and below the trees was the bright blue water of the lake shining in the sun. The window seemed to be about two hundred feet above the water, An airy and inspiring situation, indeed. A pope was born in that room a couple of centuries ago. I forget his name. …

September 21 Monday – Near the village of Port-de-Groslee, France at 4:15 p.m., Sam wrote again to Livy, declaring as was his usual habit while away from her, to write daily.

September 22 Tuesday – On the Rhone River below Villebois at Noon, Sam wrote again to Livy:

Good morning, sweetheart. Night caught us yesterday where we had to take quarters in a peasant’s house which was occupied by the family & a lot of cows & calves — also several rabbits. — [His word for fleas.] — The latter had a ball, & I was the ball-room; but they were very friendly & didn’t bite.

September 23 Wednesday – Sam did reach Lyon, France and found several letters from Livy, which he answered after sending a telegram (not extant) to let her know he’d arrived. Livy had secured accommodations in Berlin for their winter stay. Daughter Jean had avoided “maiming or death” when Livy managed to lift a wardrobe which fell on her. The next place where Sam might receive letters was:

September 24 Thursday – On the Rhone River below Vienne, Sam began a letter to Livy, which he finished on Sept. 25.

I salute you, my darling. Your telegram saying you had had a letter from the original Prachtel himself, reached me in Lyons last night & was very pleasant news indeed, for it meant a great let-up of your worry.

September 25 Friday – In St. Pierre de Boef, France, Sam added a PS to his previous day’s letter to Livy (not in Paine’s letters):

P.S. 5 a.m. Next Day (in bed). I hear the villagers beginning to stir in the streets.

September 26 Saturday – The activities of the day are best described in the letter Sam wrote to Livy at nightfall, at the Hotel Bertrand in La Voult, France:

September 27 Sunday – On the Rhone River below Bourg St. Andéol, Sam wrote on Sept. 28 of this day’s trip and of Bourg St.Andeol:

September 28 Monday ­– In Bourg St. Andéol, the rest of Sam’s letter to Livy concerning this day:

I got up at 7 this morning [Sept 28] to see the poor devils cook their poor breakfast & pack up their sordid fineries.

This is a 9 k-m. current & the wind is with us; we shall make Avignon before 4 o’clock. I saw watermelons & pomegranates for sale at St. Andéol.

With a power of love, Sweetheart, SAML.

September 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook shows he arrived in Arles on this day [NB 31 TS 7]. On his last day on the Rhone river, Sam wrote at 11: 20 a.m. to his daughter Clara Clemens, answering her letter. He may have also written his other daughters, though such letters are not extant.

DEAR OLD BEN —

September 30 Wednesday – At Arles, France Sam wrote a short note to Livy.

To Mrs. Clemens, in Ouchy, Switzerland:

ARLES, Sept. 30, noon.

Livy darling, I haint got no time to write to-day, because I am sight-seeing industriously & imagining my chapter.

Bade good-bye to the river trip & gave away the boat yesterday evening. We had ten great days in her.

We reached here after dark. We were due about 4.30, counting by distance, but we couldn’t calculate on such a lifeless current as we found.

October – Sometime during the month, probably after the Clemenses were settled in Berlin, Sam inscribed a photograph of himself to Charles Warren Stoddard: C.W.S. / from his oldest and wisest friend / Mark Twain / Oct 1891 [MTP].

Sam’s notebook entry during this month shows he at least knew of Emily Dickinson. He quoted Thomas W. Higginson’s description of her father’s house in Amherst, Mass:

October 1 Thursday – In Nimes, France at the Hotel Manivet, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell. Paine muses:

“It had been a long time since Clemens had written to his old friend Twichell, but the Rhone trip must have reminded him of those days thirteen years earlier, when, comparatively young men, he and Twichell were tramping through the Black Forest and scaling Gemmi Pass. He sent Twichell a reminder of that happy time” [MTLP 2: 558; Sept 29 to Clara Clemens].  

Dear Joe:

October 2 Friday – Sam and Joseph Verey left Arles for Avignon, France [2nd letter to Livy, Sept.28; NB 31 TS 7].

In Ouchy-Lausanne, Susy wrote to Louise Brownell:

At last a lovely letter from you dear, dear Louise! I have waited with sillie impatience hoping for one every mail as if you could reach me from the ocean easily.

October 3 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:

Avignon. Oct. 3.—leaving, 11 am. Papal palace. This old factory—for that is what it looks like, with its gray walls (that have a plastered look) & its straight lines & sharp corners & four or 5 chimney-like projections—absence of ornament, & utter & unapproachable ugliness.

Palace—why that is a word which suggests & promises elegance, ornament, beauty costly decoration, rich furniture not a stable, a factory [NB 31 TS 8].