Day By Day Dates

March 20 Monday – In Florence Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of the Century, asking if he knew the head of the Agricultural Dept. in Washington. Would he write and ask for a hand full of seed-corn, two or three of the best kinds and send them to Livy? They were for Janet D. Ross, their Florence neighbor [MTP].

March 21 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook on his departure from Florence:

Mch. 21. Drove to station with Livy, Susy & Jean. / Wm Walter Phelps arrived presently. He & I went to Genoa by the 11.35 train, arriving at 6.25 [NB 33 TS 4].

Sam and Phelps traveled 166 miles to Genoa, where Sam spent the night in a hotel [Mar 22 to Jean Clemens].

March 22 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed in the Kaiser Wilhelm II at 11 a.m.” [NB 33 TS 4].

After boarding and departure, Sam began a letter to daughter Jean on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II that he finished on Mar. 23:

March 23 Thursday – Sam finished his Mar. 22 letter to daughter Jean:

In this ship they call you to meals with a bugle. When it is wandering about the far distance of the vessel it sounds quaint & sweet —

“O sweet & far from cliff & scar,

The horns of elfland faintly blowing.”

March 24 Friday – En route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York, Sam wrote to daughter Susy, relating an anecdote told by the nephew of Longfellow about Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard and his introduction of his lifelong friend, William Hunt.

March 25 Saturday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. The ship likely was at Gibraltar by this time.

March 26 Sunday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook on board: Sunny & beautiful. No sea. [NB 33 TS 4].

Meanwhile, in Florence, Livy wrote to Sam:

Youth my darling: How I should like to be out at sea with you today. It is here absolute perfection, a little cooler than yesterday which was about like July.

March 27 Monday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:

Monday, 27. Up at 2.30 a.m. Passed AZORES 3.30 P.M. / D.O. Wills / Navy Cut / Bristol & London (in yeast. powder cans) [NB 33 TS 4].

Susy Clemens’ letter of late March to Louise Brownell relates her breaking Florence tradition:

March 28 Tuesday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:

Tuesday, Mch 28. The usual brilliant sunshine, the usual soft summer weather. Sea polished & nearly flat — almost a dead calm. We have never had a sea that disturbed the dishes on the table to speak of [NB 33 TS 4-5].

March 29 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook on board the Kaiser Wilhelm II:

Wednes. 29. Nice ball on deck, with colored electric lights. I opened it with Capt. Störmer — waltz, with overcoat. Danced the Virginia reel, with Longfellow for a partner [NB 33 TS 5].

March 30 Thursday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook: “Smooth till midnight, then rough.” Sam also noted costs of music, stewards, smoking, and boots (polished) [NB 33 TS 5].

March 31 Friday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:

Good Friday, 31st. Exceedingly rough — a deal of rain. A very steady ship, but of course this sort of a sea makes her roll heavily — as it would any ship [NB 33 TS 5].

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April 1 Saturday– Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:

Apl. 1. A wild wind & a wild sea yesterday afternoon. Several falls, but nobody hurt. Went to bed at 8 & slept till 8. Still a heavy sea this morning [NB 33 TS 5].

April 2 Sunday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. The Brooklyn Eagle ran a squib for Sam’s new book:

The £1,000,000 Bank Note — by Mark Twain, just published, at $1.00, one vol., cloth; store price, 65c.

Meanwhile, in Venice, Italy, Livy wrote to Sam:

Youth Darling how I wish that you were here with us this morning. It is absolutely glorious. Oh Venice is a charmer! I love it so, and yet it is often very melancholy.

April 3 Monday – Sam landed in New York at 6 p.m. [NB 33 TS 5] and took a room at the Glenham Hotel [MTHL 2: 651n1].

April 4 Tuesday – At 10:15 p.m. at the Glenham Hotel in N.Y., Sam wrote to Livy. He’d spent the evening with Howells and Hall [MTHL 2: 651n1; NB 33 TS 5].

Livy darling, Howells has this moment gone — has been here an hour or so. I am going to lunch at his house tomorrow. As he was leaving he said Charles Warren Stoddard was out there last night & told this story — which Mrs. Howells thought of doubtful propriety:

April 5 Wednesday – Sam lunched with William Dean Howells; They also met at 8 or 8:30 p.m. at the home of Mary Mapes Dodge for dinner. Also in the company, Rudyard Kipling and wife, and Mary Mapes Dodge, Mary’s son James M. Dodge and wife, and William Fayal Clarke (now editor of St. Nicholas Magazine) [Apr. 4 to Livy, Howells; MTHL 2: 652nn1; MTB 964; NB 33 TS 5].

April 6 Thursday – At Richard Watson Gilder’s office, on Century Magazine letterhead, Sam wrote to Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State in Cleveland’s cabinet, repeating his support for Frank Mason as Consul General at Frankfurt, Germany.

Through me, Mr. Cleveland knows all about Mason but Mr. Gilder of the Century thinks it will be best for me to bother you a little about him, too — & so I do it, & you will pardon me for I am not trying to do the United States a harm but a service [MTP].

April 7 Friday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.:

Wrote Charley [Langdon] to ask Mr. A. to pay his note, beginning May 1 & paying $5,000 a month for 9 months. / $5,000 a month for 10 months, beginning 10 months hence. Told him to merely make the offer but by no means to insist / Apl. 7 — Dined with Rudyard Kipling & family. Chas. Warren Stoddard there [NB 33 TS 6].

April 8 Saturday – In New York, Sam lunched at Andrew Carnegie’s [Apr. 7 to Carnegie; NB 33 TS 6]. Kaplan writes, that Carnegie “tried to interest him in a scheme for absorbing Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada into an American commonwealth” [318]. In the evening, “dined at restaurant with Dr. Clarence C. Rice & Dr. Bangs” [NB 33 TS 6].

April 9 Sunday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.: “Sunday 9th Dined with Mrs. Ratcliffe” [NB 33 TS 6].

In Venice, Livy wrote to Sam. Jean suffered from a cold with a bad cough, and could not adventure in the gondolas. They expected to return to the Villa Viviani in Florence on Wednesday, Apr. 12. A bundle of newspapers from various places had come for Sam, and Livy was upset by the contents of some:

April 10 Monday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.

April 11 Tuesday – Sam was still somewhat delayed in New York, but wrote William Dean Howells from the Hotel Glenham that he was leaving for Chicago at 10 a.m. the next morning (Apr. 12), to be gone “some days, possibly a week” and would look in on him when he returned.

April 12 Wednesday – Sam and Frederick J. Hall left New York at 10 a.m. bound for Chicago to check on developments for the Paige typesetter [Apr. 11 to Howells].

John Brisben Walker (1847-1931), since 1889 owner of Cosmopolitan, wrote to Sam with an offer: