June 3 Monday – Sam wrote a one-liner from the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg to Andrew Chatto, asking him to send a copy of Innocents Abroad and Roughing It [MTLE 3: 59].
June 4 Tuesday – Sam moved his den to “the very pinnacle of the Kaiserstuhl 1400 or 1500 feet up in the air above the Schloss Hotel, & 1700 above the Rhine Valley—which it overlooks” [MTLE 3: 64]. (See entry of June 16; letter to Warner).
From Sam’s notebook: “Rented & paid for a room for a month at the pretty little Wirtschaft under the Königstuhl” [MTNJ 2: 94].
June 5 and 6, 1878 addition – Fables of Man, p.144 gives this for “The Lost Ear-ring”: “The tale begins with the date 6 June 1878, and the verso of manuscript page 13 bears the heading ‘Schloss Hotel Heidelberg, June 5’”.
June 8 Saturday – Clara Clemens and family celebrated her fourth birthday. The family custom was to give both girls presents on either’s birthday. They received dolls, books, cups, and flowers. In the afternoon they rode donkeys up a hill and enjoyed a picnic of bread, butter, and strawberries [Willis 119; Salsbury 79].
June 9 Sunday – Sam wrote in his notebook that there was a big crowd at dinner for Whitsunday, or the seventh week after Easter. Since arriving in Germany, Sam gathered material to make fun of the German language. He wrote “Fruendschaftsbezeigungen—24 [letters]” in his notebook, then some examples of how little sense gender made when applied to some words [MTNJ 2: 97].
“Shipped from Heidelberg June 9, Case M.C. 346 gross 204 pounds, containing 1 table and carved works” [291].
June 10 Monday – Sam wrote from the Königsstuhl in Heidelberg (near his rented den) to Bayard Taylor. His letter revealed his new daily routine: He only ate and slept at the hotel; in the mornings he walked to the…
June 11 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:
30 or 40 little school girls at the Wirthschaft to-day when I left, all drinking beer at the tables in the open air. What an atrocious sight to the total abstinent eye!
I think that only God can read a German newspaper.
The chief German characteristic seems to be kindness, good will to men.
The best English characteristic is its plucky & persistent & individual standing up for its rights.
France seems to interest herself mainly in high art & seduction.
June 14 Friday – Sam wrote in his notebook the price of a “suit of clothes—$18—cheaper than stealing.” He wondered if half the country was near-sighted, or did they wear glasses for style? [MJNJ 2: 102].
June 16 Sunday – Sam wrote from the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg to Frank Bliss. Sam noted progress on the new book, hoping to be about half finished with the draft by the middle of July, 250 or 300 pages. He would send the manuscript:
“…as soon as our touring around will permit, & let you issue it in the winter or hold it till Spring, as shall seem best” [MTLE 3: 62].
June 20 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Shipped from Frankfort June 20, case marked B & C, containing crockery” [MTNJ 2: 291].
June 22 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:
Man hanging to boat in Neckar—people rescued him.
From a German paper:
“What constitutes official disgrace in America?”
Ans—God knows.
There is only one thing which is worse than H[eidelberg] coffee: that is H cream.
Superstitions lasting from old mythology
Must not climb a tree on St John’s Day (22d June?)—nor go on the water 8 days before up to 8 days after. [MTNJ 2: 103]
June 26 Wednesday – Livy was “startled” to discover passages in Sam’s notebook where Captain Wakeman would visit “various heavens.” Duckett writes:
“this may have been the earliest appearance of a protagonist cast down from his high estate which Bernard De Voto traced as it developed from a dream sequence and reappeared obsessively….in the determinism of ‘What is Man?’ privately published in 1904” [179].
June 27 Thursday – Sam had received Howells’ June 2 reply to his May 4 Frankfort letter, in which Howells wrote: “Tell me about Capt. Wakeman in Heaven, and all your other enterprises” [MTHL 1: 233]. Howells’ letter included news about Hay, Osgood, Waring, and Aldrich, briefly mentioning those traveling overseas.
June 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Heidelberg to William Seaver, one of the old New York journalism bunch Sam met in 1872.
Dear Old Seaver: / There be humorists in Germany. With infinite difficulty I have translated the following from a Mannheim paper:
June 29 Saturday – In Sam’s notebook:
“We usually spend from 5 to 7 pm in the grounds, knitting, embroidering, smoking, & hearing the music. Pretty warm now” [MTNJ 2: 104].
July 1 Monday – Sam wrote from the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg to his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister, Pamela Moffett, after receiving their letter with news of Samuel Moffett’s departure for Europe. Sam wrote of cheap prices for rent, a suit of clothes and language instruction.
July 2 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Heard Prof. Fisher at University, on Leibnitz—plenty names & dates, from birth 1646 to death, 1717” [MTNJ 2: 105]. Note: Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher, who wrote so widely in journals and articles in several languages that no one has dared to publish a complete works.
July 4 Thursday – Sam gave a short talk at the Anglo-American Club of Students, Heidelberg using both German and English.
July 8 Monday – Mr. Jewel wrote to Sam: “for exchange cows / 45 dollars” [MTP]. (No first name given, nor is any context.)
July 9 Tuesday – Mack in Nevada, a history of the state on Adolph H. Sutro’s completion of the tunnel, which took nearly thirteen years:
July 10 Wednesday – One line noted Sam’s excursion to the nearby historic city of Worms on this day [MTNJ 2: 108]. It’s unknown if Sam went alone or with others.
July 13 Saturday – Sam wrote from Heidelberg to Frank Bliss. Sam had received Frank’s letter in “the usual time, 14 days.” Evidently Frank had asked for Sam’s power of attorney, as he was ready to break away from his father’s publishing company to start his own business. Sam answered that even if he sent the documents that day, Frank wouldn’t have them until July 27, which was “ten days too late,” for whatever Frank had in mind.
– During the last week in Heidelberg, Sam was in bed with attacks of rheumatism. Livy wrote her brother, Charles Langdon on July 21 about the treatment:
July 17 Wednesday – Joe Twichell left for Europe to join the Clemens family. From Joe’s journal:
Sailed from New York by the Cunard S.S. Abyssinia, with my dear friend Rev. Dr. Parker for a companion. Met Mark Twain and his family at Baden-Baden Germany, with whom I spent six weeks in Germany and Switzerland most happily. M.T. and I made a number of pedestrian excursions and enjoyed a world of pleasure together [Yale, copy at MTP].
July 22 Monday – Sam’s notebook:
“Day before leaving Heidl. Where is that, this & the other thing? It is packed—& so we live without a convenience” [2: 109].