Day By Day Dates

May 8 Monday – In Elmira Sam thought he’d “steal a moment” and write to Mary Mason Fairbanks, now in Newton Mass. with her daughter. Sam’s letter reads as a response to Mary’s (not extant) and her news that Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Journal, had criticized one of Sam’s unpublished pieces, in an article as Sam’s next letter to Hall reflects. Sam marked the letter “Private & Confidential” due to his reference to Edward Bok:

May 9 Tuesday – In the morning Sam took the ten-hour train ride from Elmira back to New York, where he checked into the Murray Hill Hotel. Livy cabled (not extant) asking how his cold was and Sam “answered properly,” which may have been another cable [May 11 to Ida Langdon].

May 11 Thursday – In New York at the Murray Hill Hotel, Sam wrote to Ida Langdon (Mrs. Charles J. Langdon) on Webster & Co. letterhead. After relating his communications with Livy upon arriving and seeing enough Hartford people at the hotel to call it a “suburb of Hartford,” Sam thanked her:

I sail at 10 Saturday morning, & am all ready, though my shirts ain’t; they are in the wash.

May 12 Friday – In New York, Sam was out in the city nearly all day until 9 p.m., including “a little visit” with Charles Dudley Warner. At midnight Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, who had come from his home at 48 West 59th Street to say goodbye.

I am so sorry I missed you….I expected to get up to your house again, but got defeated.

I am very glad to have that book for sea entertainment, & I thank you ever so much for it.

May 13 Saturday – At 10 a.m. the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II sailed for Genoa, Italy with Sam on board. Sam’s notebook:

May 13, Saturday. Room 268 Kaiser Wilhelm II. Cast off at 10.15 a.m., discharged pilot at 12.30. Only half a trip of passengers [NB 33 TS 12].

May 14 Sunday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Based on an account of the voyage by H. W. Mead to the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, June 25, 1893 p.6, “Brooklyn People in Lucerne,” there was seasickness the first two days out. Note: no documentation has been found for Sam ever being seasick.

May 15 Monday – The New York Times, p.5 ran an article about a new society, formed in April. Sam was named among the members. The object of the group was “to bring together, socially, the large number of men who have been identified with the development of the West”:

SOCIETY OF WESTERN MEN.

— — — —

It Promises to Flourish and Be Hospitable in This City.

May 16 Tuesday – 1,200 miles at sea, en route from New York to Genoa, Italy on the Kaiser Wilhelm II, Sam wrote to Annie E. Trumbull, delighted at her book (probably White Birches, just published):

It is a compact, orderly, symmetrical work, it lifts the reader to the dignity of its own high plane & keeps him there, & is singularly free from laziness, unconsequentialities, & irrelevant excursions. Yes, it is compact, compact [MTP].

May 17 Wednesday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II.

May 18 Thursday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sam’s notebook:

May 19 Friday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Based on an account of the voyage by H. W. Mead to the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, June 25, 1893 p.6, “Brooklyn People in Lucerne,” “On the sixth day we came to and passed the Azores, with two of the islands in sight.” The article relates some of the entertainment on the voyage, including a contribution by Mark Twain:

May 20 Saturday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II.

May 21 Sunday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sam’s notebook:

Sunday, May 21. Eight days out. Shall reach Gibraltar Tuesday morning & Genoa Thursday night. / Day after day of “considerable” swell, but the ship moves on a level keel, unaffected by it. Apples lie on my table in my room day & night undisturbed. It is a wonderful ship in this regard [NB 33 TS 12].

May 22 Monday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II.

May 23 Tuesday – En route from New York to Genoa, Italy on the Kaiser Wilhelm II, Sam wrote a short note to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send a volume of his sketches containing The Jumping Frog to Captain Störmer of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, in care of Leupold Fratelli, Genoa, and charge it to his account [MTP].

Sam’s notebook:

Reached Gibraltar Tuesday at dawn. I did not go ashore. We sailed again at 8 o’clock [NB 33 TS 11].

May 24 Wednesday – Sam was en route to Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sam’s notebook:

Wednesday, May 24. Sailing along the Balearic Isles this forenoon. Due at Genoa tomorrow night. A perfectly smooth voyage, but unspeakably tedious. I am older by ten years than I was when I left New York. That fact is, the voyage is too smooth [NB 33 TS 13].

May 25 Thursday– Sam reached Genoa on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. His notebook gives 7 p.m. as the time of arrival [NB 33 TS 13]. Note: He spent the night in Genoa as he did when going to the US.

May 26 Friday – Sam’s notebook from Genoa to Florence:

Left for Florence 12.32 p.m. Friday, first class (about 30 fr.) in a car that goes through ohne Umsteigen [NB 33 TS 13].

Sam did not reach Florence until May 27; his first extant letter from Florence was written on May 29.

May 27 Saturday – Sam reached the Villa Viviani outside of Florence on the road to Settignano [June 9 to Twichell].

May 29 Monday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence, Sam wrote to William Walter Phelps, congratulating him and his daughter, Marian Phelps (four years older than Susy Clemens), on her recent wedding to Dr. Franz von Rottenberg. Marian was a close friend of Clara Clemens in Berlin.

May 30 Tuesday – In Florence, Sam began a letter to Frederick J. Hall that he finished on June 2.

Dear Mr. Hall, — You were to cable me if you sold any machine royalties — so I judge you have not succeeded.

This has depressed me. I have been looking over the past year’s letters and statements and am depressed still more [MTP]. Note: this salutation and beginning left out of MTLTP, 343.

May 31 Wednesday – Rodney writes of the end of May and the family’s plans:

June – Bookman magazine (London) IV p.91 briefly reviewed The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other Stories:

There is one good thing in this volume [“The Enemy Conquered; Or, Love Triumphant”], and that apparently is not Mark Twain’s. What of the remainder is passable is Mark Twain’s commentary on the good thing. The rest of the book is disappointing [Tenney 21].

June 1 Thursday – In Florence, Sam wrote a short request to Charles Webster & Co., asking them to send a copy of P&P to Marian Phelps, now Madame von Rottenberg, in care of the American Legation, 16 Kronenstrasse, Berlin, Germany. Sam added it was his wedding present to her [MTP].

June 2 Friday – Sam finished his May 30 to Frederick J. Hall. His $500 monthly draft had not arrived, and it could not now reach them before they left for Germany, but he would draw on Livy’s letter of credit if needed. He acknowledged receipt of $950.

We are skimming along like paupers & a day can embarrass us. …