A Tramp Abroad: Day By Day

Sam wrote from Venice,  Italy to J. Langdon & Co. Only the envelope  survives [MTLE 3: 93].

Sam included descriptions of a  “swell big gondola” and a funeral procession in his notebook [MTNJ 2: 204].

September 1 Sunday – In the morning Sam went to the:

“English church… At 5 PM Rev. Mr. [Robert] Eden called & in the evening our friends the Dawsons took coffee with us in our room in the Hotel Beau Rivage. A pleasant evening” [MTNJ 2: 169].

September 1 Monday – Sam, en route on the S.S.Gallia, dictated an inscription and signed a book for an unidentified person. The book: The New Republic by William H. Mallock (1878). The inscription is pure Twain:

September 10 Tuesday – Sam wanted to show Livy some of the best scenery of his latest excursion with Joe. His notebook: “Started to Chamonix with 2 horse-wagon, 9.30 [AM]” [MTNJ 2: 177]. They may have stopped in Chambéry, France. “As soon as you strike French territory out of Geneva you find the road strewn with crosses & beggars” [177].

September 11 Wednesday – Sam and Livy spent a day in Chamonix at the foot of Mont Blanc, a recent goal of Sam and Joe’s tramps.

September 12 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Saw 3 people far up on the forhead of M B [Mont Blanc] through the glass waved hdkf [handkerchief]” [MTNJ 2: 179]. “Started back to Geneva at 9” [180]. Sam and Livy returned to Geneva. Sam wrote on Sept. 13 that it was nine hours each way [MTLE 3: 90].

September 13 Friday – Sam wrote from Geneva, Switzerland to Olivia Lewis Langdon. This is a delightful letter to Sam’s mother-in-law, with notes about the children. Sam wrote about Clara Spaulding watching the children while he and Livy traveled to Chamonix and Mont Blanc. The children “entertained” Clara, he wrote,

 Sam was awakened at 3 AM  by a braying jackass in front of the hotel. The party left Geneva for  Italy, stopping at Chambéry, France for a break. More from his notebook:

The Clemens family left Chambéry for Turin by the fast express train, which Sam noted “makes  4 miles an hour—the other trains make only 3 1/4 . By 11 we were out of sight  of Chambery.” Three hours from Turin, the train barely won a race with a  team of oxen, Sam wrote [MTNJ  2:185]. It took  eight more hours to arrive in Turin, at about 7 PM. They took rooms in the Hotel  d’Europe, which Sam noted  had “wonderful rooms” [186].  They went to supper and drank Barolo wine.

The family spent the day in Turin, shopping and enjoying the  sights [MTLE  3: 101].
 

The family left Turin at 9:15 AM and arrived at Milan at 1:30 PM [MTNJ 2: 188]. Sam’s  notebook is full of things they saw in Milan, and observations on a host of  items and situations.

Some favorites:

I think the arcade  system is borrowed from Turin.

Saw a starchy suit of  clothes marked $9—doorway full of dummies dressed—stepped in to order one like the $9—nothing inside! The old man hauled in the dummy, stripped him & I  ordered the clothes sent to the hotel.

September – Sam’s notebook referred to Thomas Woodbine Hinchliff’s Summer Months Among the Alps (1857) [Gribben 314] Ch 34 of TA has a long extract from Hinchliff’s story of the Monte Rosa climb.

The Clemens party spent the day looking around Milan. They would spend five days in the city.
 

September 2 Monday – Sam’s notebook: –

“To Chillon—humbug—no chamois—hired Bonneval for his role. Enterprise of the canton in building a castle around the living rock to fit Byron’s poem. This dungeon is much cleaner & pleasanter than Visp or any of those places” [MTNJ 2: 169].

September 2 Tuesday – The Cunard liner S.S.Gallia steamed into New York. Fatout:

Sam (and probably the ladies) went to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in  the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. “If there is  anything worse than the original, it is the 15 or 20 copies in oil & water”  [MTNJ 2: 190]. They also  visited the “great picture gallery” (Brera).

“There are artists in  Arkansas to-day who would not have had to paint signs for a living if they had  had the luck to live in the time of the old masters” [191].
 

Sam’s notebook:

The Italians all seem  to go to work before daylight—& all in couples, singing tenor & bass or  alto duet—all got strong voices & many good ones—don’t sing simple airs but  starchy opera stuff—they wake you up and keep you awake.

The Milan clocks are not useful. This morning one struck  2, another 3, another 1, another 2, two others 3—all this occupied 10  minutes—so I got up & looked at my watch—correct time 4.15. 15 minutes  later, the procession of striking began again.

The Clemens party left Milan and traveled north to Bellagio on Lake Como [MTNJ 2: 156]. They  stayed at the Grand Bretagne Hotel. Sam’s notebook:

“Rainy, sour, cold,  dreary. Removed a screen in our room & discovered a regular fire-place—for  wood.  Right away we had the first wood fire we had seen since we left our own  house. This made the day cheery” [2: 193].

Also noted was praise for Karl  Baedeker’s (1801-1859) Italy,  Handbook for Travellers: “curious & useful details” about Lake Como [2: 193]

The Clemens party left Bellagio at 10 AM. They met G.K. Mayer and wife [MTNJ 2:  159n6] who helped them take the lake boat down to Lecco, Italy, where they boarded the  train.  They suffered another ten-hour trip and arrived at Venice at 7:30  PM. [Rodney 112; MTNJ 2: 194]. The family had looked  forward to Venice as a “relaxing interlude in their long  journey.” Livy’s itinerary called for a  three-week stay [Rodney  112].

Sam’s notebook this day in Venice.

These Italian thieves  have charged me $8 duty on $4 worth (100) of cigars & $1 worth of tobacco–

I must stop smoking,  for no right Christian can smoke an Italian cigar. Only the wrappers are  grown—the insides are of stubs collected on the pavements by the younger sons  of the nobility—stubs from Switzerland —bad enough.

The charming singing of  the men at night in Venice.

Sam wrote from Venice,  Italy to William Dean Howells.  Since his tirade letter about Bret Harte, Sam had not heard from  Howells, who had recommended to President Hayes that Harte be given a chance. Wisely, Howells  had not told Sam of his recommendation or answered Sam’s venom, and Sam had  noticed.

Livy wrote from Venice to her mother about the city:

“It is so fascinating,  so thoroughly charming—I sit now before a window that opens on to a little  piazza; where I can look right on to the Grand Canal…We have the morning sun in  our rooms and the weather for three days has been perfect” [MTNJ 2:  157].

September 3 Wednesday – After spending one night in New York, the Clemens family took the train for the ten-hour trip to Elmira. As was their habit, they took a hotel car.

William Gedney Bunce (1840-1916) visited again. From Livy’s   pen:  “…calls  again last night [Monday] until nearly eleven” [Salsbury 85].

September 4 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook at the Beau Rivage Hotel, Ouchy:

Furious at breakfast…have read French 25 years & now could not say “breakfast” —could think of nothing but aujourdhui—then demain!—then—& so on, tearing my hair (figuratively) and raging inwardly while outwardly calm—one idiot french word after another while waiter stood bewildered.

There were indications wh[ich] showed that this egg was an antique [MTNJ 2: 170].