Day By Day Dates

March 4 Friday – The Clemenses arrived in the resort town of Menton, France [Livy to Trumbull Mar 5].

March 5 Saturday – The Illustrated London News ran a second segment of “An Austrian Health-Factory.” Other segments ran on Feb. 20, and Mar. 12, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].

In Menton, Sam wrote to Dr. Edward K. Root of Hartford. The first paragraph is in German and mentions Annie Trumbull, then he wrote:

But I am out of German. It left me (the remaining ragged fragments of it) when I crossed the frontier a day or two ago.

March 6 Sunday – “The Cradle of Liberty” ran as “Mark Twain in the Cradle of Liberty” in the Chicago Tribune, and other McClure Syndicate newspapers. It was reprinted on Mar. 13 in the N.Y. Sun, and with changes included in What is Man? And Other Essays (1917) [Budd, Collected 2: 1000]. A Shorter version ran in the Boston Daily Globe, p.17 under the title, “GAVE A MOUNTAIN A JOB.”

March 7 Monday – In Menton, France, Livy wrote to Alice H. Day. Willis writes of her letter:

Livy felt pangs of separation with the twinges of her bad heart. To Alice Day she wrote of her fears of being ill abroad. “I say to Mr. Clemens sometimes ‘think of the horror of dying over here among these new people.’ I want to be with my own people or my own old friends when I go out of this world” [202].

March 8 Tuesday – In Menton, France Sam wrote to Elisabeth N. Fairchild (Mrs. Charles S. Fairchild) in Boston, late neighbors of the Howellses. Mrs. Fairchild had written (not extant) to Sam in Berlin, to introduce him to a Mr. Gebbord. Her letter obviously contained word of William Dean Howells and his depression:

Your letter overtook us here, & we shall not be in Berlin again until next fall or winter; but we shall hope that Mr. Gebbord will come & see us then.

March 9 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook in Mentone, France:

Mentone, Mch. 9. Letter from Alfred Arnold proposing to dramatize Sellers [AC] for Crane, I to have “half of the revenue from the play;” no contract for its production to be made without my sanction of terms, &c; I to approve play or it not to be produced. Says he dramatized “Dr. Rameau” & has had experience.

Answered that if my other offer comes to nothing, shall be glad to take the matter with him again.

March 11 Friday – Barrow, Wade, Guthrie & Co. Accountants sent Sam an annual statement of their audit of Webster & Co.’s books, “showing the result of the two departments to be a net profit of $16,743.28 of which the Captial Account of Mr. S.L. Clemens has been credited with two-thirds thereof viz: $11,162.19, and the Special Account of Mr. F. J. Hall with one-third viz: $5,581.09” [MTP].

March 12 Saturday – The Illustrated London News ran a third and last segment of “An Austrian Health-Factory.” Other segments ran on Feb. 20 and Mar. 5, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].

Back in Hartford “The Twentieth Century Club” was formed with Charles Hopkins Clark, editor of the Hartford Courant, as president. The “call” went out to 45 “gentlemen residents” of Hartford [http://1892club.org/history-page.htm].

March 13 Sunday – Sam’s Europe letter, “The Cradle of Liberty” was reprinted in the New York Sun and perhaps other McClure syndicated newspapers [Willson’s list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].

March 18 Friday – In Menton, France, Sam responded to Dr. Richard Hodgson’s Feb. 16 letter (see entry), and Livy added a line:

Dear Sir:

Your favor of Feb. 16 has been forwarded to me, and in answer I am sorry to be obliged to say that I possess none of the evidences which you mention.

March 19 Saturday – Susy Clemens’ twentieth birthday.

Once again Sam was away from one of his daughters on a birthday, this time Susy. Sam and Livy were enjoying a sunny respite in Menton, France.

March 21 Monday – In Menton, France Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, whose letter (not extant) had found him.

Your letter has come, & finds me with a cold in the head which makes me want to swear, & rheumatic threatenings which make me afraid to. These are the first rheumatic suggestions which I have had since last Christmas (to amount to much), & I reckon they are due to your Christian Science. …

March 22 Tuesday – In Menton, France Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Royal Hotel in Berlin, passing on instructions from Livy as to packing their trunks. His letter is obviously a response to Clara’s letter (not extant). Sam mentions “Yaas” always wearing a beard — Susy’s nickname (Paine calls “rather disrespectful”) for Minister William Phelps. Paine writes, “a term conferred because of his pronounciation of that affirmative” [MTB 934].

March 24 Thursday – Sam and Livy left Menton for Pisa, Italy with Joseph Verey, their courier. The plan was for Verey to leave them at Pisa and return to Berlin to guide the rest of the party to Rome. The entire trip from Menton to Rome was about 400 miles. Sam and Livy may have stayed in Pisa a day, but arrived in Rome on Mar. 27 [Mar. 27 to Chatto].

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam

March 25 Friday – Sam and Livy were in Pisa, Italy. Sam’s notebook lists the Eden Hotel:

March 26 Saturday – Sam and Livy were in transit from Pisa to Rome, Italy.

March 27 Sunday – In Rome Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus.

We have just arrived here & shall remain two or three weeks. …

I received the two copies of the magazine in Berlin & got lots of entertainment out of them. I ought to have thanked you long ago, but I was attending to the influenza & couldn’t.

March 28 Monday – In Rome, Sam cabled Henry C. Robinson, his old Hartford attorney and billiards friend.

Accept the offer provided one half of Paige & Hammersley’s interests in the company be added to it. Otherwise decline [MTP; also in NB 31 TS 34].

March 29 Tuesday – In Rome, Sam cabled a one-liner to Henry C. Robinson’s Mar. 28 cable:

No, it is the only hold I have on P[aige] [MTP; also NB 31 TS 34].

Sam’s notebook:

Hotel Molaro. Capole Casi.

March 31 Thursday – In Rome, Italy on this day or the next Sam put a memo in his notebook: “Get Roba di Roma,” which referred to William Wetmore Story’s two-volume Roba di Roma (1863) [Gribben 669; NB 31, TS 35].

April – In Rome, sometime during the month, Livy wrote an undated letter on Sam’s behalf to Daniel Willard Fiske (1831-1904), librarian and professor at Cornell, who was in Rome at the time. After the 1881 death of his wife, Jennie McGraw, Fiske spent a great deal of time in Italy collecting manuscripts. He bequeathed a large collection to Cornell, known now as the Fiske Collection.

April 1 Friday – In Rome, Sam sent a cable to Henry C. Robinson:

Keep me posted by cable [MTP; also NB 31 TS 35].

Note: their communication during this period had to do with the Paige typesetter, and its move to Chicago, and Sam’s rights.

April 2 Saturday – From the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, p.13, “Brief Mention of New Books”:

Mark Twain’s humor isn’t always of a delicate sort, but one forgives that fault for the laughs with which every page of his work is sprinkled. It is the intention of the publishers to bring out in this series all the popular little classics in the French, Spanish and Italian as well as the English language [Budd, Contemporary 323].

April 3 Sunday – A shorter reprint of Sam’s Europe letter, “German Chicago” ran in the Boston Daily Globe, p.23 under the title, “CITY WITHOUT NEWSBOYS.” See Oct. 13, 1891.

April 4 Monday – In Rome, Sam wrote two letters to Frederick J. Hall, relating the entire history of the aborted play Colonel Sellers as a Scientist (The American Claimant), including A.P. Burbank’s efforts, Howells and his loss of money and a past proposal of Alfred Arnold to dramatize the story for “Crane the comedian” (William H. Crane (1845-1928) actor/comedian).