Germany Tramp: Day By Day

January 4 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:

Went to Grossen Kirschof & saw 15 or 20 dead [Southern Cemetery of Munich]

January 5 Sunday – Susan & Charles Dudley Warner wrote to Sam and Livy, expressing that they missed them and urging them to come home—all in a nearly illegible hand [MTP].

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 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.

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 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 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].

July 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Heidelberg to Chatto & Windus, publishers, about money matters. He also requested a copy of Ouida’s Friendship, bound in full dark blue morocco [MTLE 3: 72].

July 24 Wednesday – The Clemens party started out on a three-day carriage trip through the Black Forest. They stayed at inns along the route. From Sam’s notebook:

“Stopped at Forbach at noon—trout under a grape arbor, & 3 Germans eating in general room.

The village assembled to see a tinker mend a tin boiler.

School where they sang—something like our singing geography—one monotonous tune of ½ doz. notes.”

July 25 Thursday – The second day of the carriage trip over country that Sam and Joe would tramp in early August. Eclectic entries from Sam’s notebook:

Hotel with nobody visible—one (very nice) room-girl for 3 floors—

& an awful bell to call folks to supper.

I wish I could hear myself talk German.

Superb view from Teufelstein, Luisaruhe & Englekanzel.

C[lara] when down & visited the waterfalls.

Beautiful bright green grass everywhere.

July 26 or July 27 Saturday –The Clemens party returned by rail to the Hotel de France in Baden Baden [MTNJ 2: 116n3]. Sometime during their stay in Baden Baden, Rosina Hay saved Clara Clemens, age four, from crawling outside the balusters of a hotel corridor six-stories up [MTNJ 2: 367]. Note: See Harnsberger p.31.

July 28 Sunday – Sam went to the “English Church” and sat behind the Empress of Germany. From his notebook:

She contributed 20 marks & snapped her smelling bottle a good deal & curtsied at the name of the Savior instead of merely inclining the head, as others did….Church not crowded—the Empress does not “draw” well for an Em[press.] [MTNJ 2: 119].

July 29 Monday – From Sam’s notebook:

Lot of loud Americans at breakfast this morning—loud talking & coarse laughter. Talking at everybody else.

Took a nasty glass of hot mineral water at 7 AM, with teaspoon of Carlsbad salt dissolvd in it.

Never knew before what Eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.

The fact that we have but 1200 soldiers to meet 6,000 Indians is well utilized here to discourage immigration to America. The common people think the Indians are in New Jersey.

July 30 Tuesday –Sam wrote to Mr. Tyler (a merchant) about a “sorry old table” from the Heidelberg College prison he hoped to purchase. Sam had been unable to attend to the errand. He wrote that he expected to be at Lang’s Hotel on Aug. 6 with “a jolly preacher [Twichell] who will arrive here day after tomorrow” [MTLE 3: 73].

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:

 – 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:

June 1 Saturday – Francis D. Millet wrote from Paris to Sam. “What good fortune that you are over here. I certainly appreciate your suggestion that I meet you in Germany—it will be no trifle that deters me from coming where you are if it be agreeable to you all. I want to see you all very much for I feel as if you owned a part of me.” He was hard at work on a book [MTP]. Note in file: “Note SLC’s reference to this letter in ‘Mental Telegraphy’ (Harper’s, Dec. 1891).”

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 – Sam wrote “The Lost Ear-ring,” which was not published in his lifetime [Fables of Man 145- 148]. Note: source notes: “The tale begins with the date 6 June 1878, and the verso of manuscript page 13 bears the heading ‘Schloss Hotel Heidelberg, June 5’…The title was supplied at the time Bernard DeVoto was the Editor of the Mark Twain Papers.”