March 16 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking his help in collecting £100 for an article of 2,000 words sent to a Mr. Bussy some three weeks after Bussy had published it. Sam had an idea to ask the Society of Authors to try to collect it, but he had lost G. Herbert Thring’s address.

March 22 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Poultney Bigelow and his invitation to get together (not extant).

Of course I should like it ever so much—it goes without saying—but if I see England by the middle of September that is the earliest I can hope for.

March 23 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Annette Hullah.

March 24 Friday – The Clemens family awoke to a blanket of snow in Budapest, Hungary. The family headed out for some sightseeing in spite of the weather. First they attended the visitors’ gallery of the new Parliament building. When they entered the chamber “all eyes turned to the celebrities.” Livy and her daughters had caught cold so returned after lunch to the hotel (Katona calls their malady “a touch of the flu” p.111).

March 25 Saturday – Budapest, Hungary. Magyar Hirlap ran an article about Sam’s activities the day before, including Sam joking about bringing something to every place he ever visited: cholera to the Sandwich Islands, starvation to India, the jubilee of the Queen to England, and filibustering to Vienna; the paper added scarlet fever to Australia [Katona 112].

March 26 Sunday – In Budapest, Hungary Sam and his daughters went sightseeing, leaving Livy behind at the hotel with flu-like symptoms. There were many modern features of Budapest, a city of 800,000 with a quarter of those Jews, “even more assimilated and less discriminated against than the Jews of Vienna…” Budapest boasted the first electric streetcars in Europe and the first subway of any city, which would become a model for New York’s subway system.

March 27 Monday – In Budapest, Hungary, Sam sent an aphorism to an unidentified person:“It is not easy for us to bear prosperity. (Another man’s, I mean.) / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / March 27, 1899” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Bertha von Suttner to decline an invitation (not extant) of some sort. He was booked only for one engagement in April and after that he would take a holiday for the season [MTP].

March 28 Tuesday – The Clemens family’s last full day in Budapest, Hungary. On one of their days in Budapest Ferenc Kossuth (1841-1914), leader of the Independence Party in the Hungarian Parliament, called at their hotel. Dolmetsch: “Clemens had heard Lajos Kossuth [Ferenc’s father, a Hungarian hero] lecture in St. Louis in the late 1850s on one of the barnstorming tours of the United States, and like most Americans, the Clemenses venerated this great ‘Champion of Liberty’” [59].

March 29 Wednesday – In the afternoon Sam and daughters went to a tea party with music and instruction for girls in Magyar dances. Clementina Katona Abrányi (1858 -1932), Hungarian feminist author, remembered Mark Twain at this gathering as “sensitive, reflective and introverted,” impressed by his “erudition” and progressive opinions on women’s issues. Dolmetsch: “Anna Katona, ‘the first Hungarian to discover the serious Mark Twain behind the laughter’” [59].

March 30 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam signed sheets for the deluxe Uniform editions which had arrived prior to leaving for Budapest. He shipped them to Frank Bliss by “the best express-firm in Vienna” [Mar. 31 to Bliss].

March 31 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to Frank Bliss, that he added to on Apr. 2. Included were notes of a biographical sketch of Clemens from which Samuel E. Moffett might write the finished article.

I want SET NO 1 of the DE LUXE edition to go to Mr. Rogers, & to be charged to me (minus agent’s commission.)

April 1 Saturday – In Vienna at an unspecified banquet, Sam made four speeches [Apr. 5 to Howells].

April 2 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Mar. 31 to Frank Bliss, noting he had finished signing the pages for the deluxe Uniform edition and would express them the following day (Apr. 3). He enclosed a letter from a man in Iowa which he thought Bliss should answer as it was out of Sam’s line.

April 3 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Apr. 2 to Poultney and Edith E. Bigelow.

Apr. 3. Would you recommend Guernsey? Or the Isle of Wight? I sort of warmly incline to the former.

Mrs. Clemens’ idea is not an inn, and of course not a pension [boarding house]. Nothing remains, then, but a furnished dwelling. That is probably not to be had.

How’s Devonshire? …

April 4 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to yet another invitation by James B. Pond for lectures. Sam said no, he didn’t like lecturing and only wanted to do it twice a year or so for fun—“…talking for money is work, & that takes the pleasure out of it.” Sam doubted any terms would entice him and didn’t “expect to see a platform again until the wolf commands.” He shared family plans to return to America early in October, and sent his love to “the Lotos boys” [MTP].

April 5 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2 letter to William Dean Howells. He related reading the serial segment of Howells’ Their Silver Wedding Journey up to the point where Jean came and took the magazine away. Sam confessed that after he had sold his stock at “a fine profit early in January” it has “never ceased to advance, & is now worth $60,000 more than” he’d sold it for.

April 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2 and 5 letter to William Dean Howells.

Next Morning. I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every morning—well knowing that I shall find in it the usual depravities and baseness & hypocrisies & cruelties that make up Civilization, & cause me to put in the rest of the day pleading for damnation of the human race. I cannot seem to get my prayers answered, yet I do not despair.

April 8 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, enclosing a clipping on Christian Science. “…there can be no mistake about it,—Christian Science is yielding a rich pecuniary harvest to somebody.” Joe asked if Sam had seen a book he was reading, Anglo-Saxon Superiority: to what is it due? by a Frenchman, Edmond Demolins. Joe ended with “Come, Mark, when are you going to return to us? I am continually asked the question. You surely can’t have any home but Hartford.

April 10 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to ask Chatto & Windus to send the 2-shilling, 6-pence edition of Omar Khayam [MTP].

April 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam signed a notice in German to Chatto Windus. The notice is by another hand, perhaps that of an attorney, unnamed.

April 12 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Apr. 2, 5, 6 letter to William Dean Howells.

April 13 Thursday– At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Apr. 2, 5, 6, and 12 letter to William Dean Howells.

“13th I have been to the Knustausstelling [Art Exhibit] with Mrs. Clemens. The office of art seems to be, to grovel in the dirt before Emperors & this & that & the other damned breed of priests./ Yrs Ever / Mark” [MTP].

April 15 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, concerning the Apr. 3 letter of Charles R. Hall (enclosed):

April 18 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Annette Hullah, and enclosed an inscribed photograph by Alfred Ellis: “To Annette Hullah with my kindest regards.” The inscription is on a tiny margin at the bottom of the photo, and does not include his signature.

April 19 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper to recommend a Baroness for society correspondent of Harper’s Bazaar and of particulars for making an appointment [MTP: Paraphrase: American Art Assoc-Anderson Galleries catalogs; Apr 4, 1934, Item 129]. Note: full text, 250 words, not available.