Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

July 27 Friday – In his July 29 to Livy, Sam related that he’d gone to Fairhaven with members of the Rogers family on this day, returning the next, July 28.

July 28 Tuesday – Frank Evans wrote from Laurens, S.C. to Sam, having saved “ridiculous answers” that “Negroes frequently give…to questions asked” Frank thought Sam might want these to do an article similar to “English As She Is Taught” [MTP].

‡ See Addenda for letter to McClure.

July 28 Saturday – In the evening Sam returned from Fairhaven, Mass. to New York.

July 29 Wednesday – The Clemens party was traveling to Bayreuth, Germany [Rodney 135].

July 29 Friday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany at the Kaiserhof Hotel, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus:

Yesterday I began a book. Please send me one ream of this paper [MTP]. Note: Pudd’nhead Wilson was conceived in Bad Nauheim. This may be the first mention of it. More likely, this was Tom Sawyer Abroad — see Aug. 5 entry.

Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam [MTP cites C&W’s Letterbook, Vol. 26, p.219].

July 29 Sunday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Livy, telling about the Fairhaven trip, sailing with Harry Rogers, H.H.’s teen-age son, and of hiding $25 in change then forgetting where he put it. He’d “ransacked this room thoroughly,” but found “no trace of it.” Sam expected to be delayed in N.Y. by Webster & Co. business but the lawyers estimated they’d be done with him in about ten days.

July 3 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote again to daughters Susy and Clara in Geneva, with Jean Clemens penning the letter (due to Sam’s rheumatism) and adding a PS asking for them to soak off and save the French stamps for her that came on their letters. Sam wrote of a conversation he’d had with the doctor on Wednesday (July 1) about a rash that everyone had but Sam himself.

July 3 Sunday – For some reason Sam did not go to Elmira, his intention probably to finish acquiring typesetter royalties there.

July 3 Monday – In Munich, Germany Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He liked Hall’s suggestion to sell off LAL rather than the entire Webster firm. For one thing, Sam understood the firm was in debt, but LAL was not — in fact, the LAL project was owed money.

A proposition to sell that by itself to a big house could be made without embarrassment.

July 30 Thursday – The Clemens party was traveling to Bayreuth, Germany [Rodney 135].

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having received his monthly check. Orion wrote a longish letter about himself and Mollie and things with Sam and the family. This letter also includes drawings of church windows in Keokuk and a discussion of local tobacco, etc. [MTP].

July 30 Sunday – In Krankenheil-Tölz, Germany Sam wrote to his English publishers, Chatto & Windus. He complained, “that these little German papers are so constipated in the matter of news,” and asked if they would pay for the [London] Daily News for him for six months and send it to his bank, Drexel Harjes, Paris.

July 30 Monday – To avoid the New York City summer heat, Sam spent part of the evening “in a bath tub full of lovely water” [July 31 to Livy].

The New York Times, July 31, 1894 p.12 “Business Troubles” included this paragraph:

July 31 Friday – The date Sam gave Frederick J. Hall (July 10) when he’d be at Bayreuth for the Wagner festival. Sam actually arrived the next day, Aug. 1 [“At the Shrine of St. Wagner”]. The Clemens party was in transit this day.

July 31 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that “the crisis has come and I hope that we have successfully passed it.” The Mount Morris Bank “met with some very heavy losses through one or two large failures and for that reason had to call in their discounts. They refuse to renew our discounts and even Mr. Whitford’s influence was useless.” Charles J.

July 31 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote to Livy that he was going to Hartford for a day or two; that the trip to Chicago being delayed, that Urban H. Broughton proposed to come east after Aug. 12 and that H.H. Rogers was “about half worn out with work & the heat & the trouble of his great loss.” It was a delay that could not be helped, he wrote. Plus, Rogers’ secretary, Katharine I.

July 4 Saturday – Joe Twichell sent a printed circular he’d received from E.B. Dillingham, Chaplain at the Hartford County Jail seeking “suitable books” or funds. Joe wrote on the bottom, “Here’s a gem ‘of purest [illegible word] serene — as you see. I send it to you for a Forth of July present. With love and greeting to all, Yer aff. – Joe.” On the envelope Sam wrote, “Use this in newspaper letter” [MTP].

July 4 Monday – Sam was in New York. See July 3 for some activities this day.

Gribben quotes Sam’s NB 31, TS 58, that Sam spent the night in New York: “Clemens rose at the Union League Club in New York City, breakfasted, read the newspaper, ‘wrote a letter or two,’ and ‘began” A Window in Thrums (1889) also by Sir James Barrie, author of Peter Pan [49]. Note: the letters he wrote are not extant. Sam read the N.Y. World.

July 4–31 Monday – Sometime during the remainder of July, Sam wrote a short note to Frederick J. Hall suggesting they sell only a third interest in LAL to Scribner’s or Appletons, or even all of it with easy payments of “say $2000 or $3000 a month” [MTP; not in MTLTP].

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July 4 Wednesday – At the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, France

July 5 Tuesday – In the afternoon, Sam sailed again for Bremen, Germany on the S.S. Lahn. Just before boarding he received a note from Sarah A. Trumbull (see July 18). The trip over took eight days; the return trip would, at that rate, reach the destination about July 13 or 14.

July 5 Thursday – Sam left the family at La Bourboule and traveled to Paris [July 4 to Clara]. He described his trip as “sweltering” in a July 6 to Livy, but he arrived “totally unfatigued.”

July 6 Wednesday – Sam was en route to Bremen, Germany on the S.S. Lahn. Paine writes:

“He returned on the Lahn and he must have been in better health and spirits, for it is said he kept the ship very merry during the passage. He told many extravagantly amusing yarns; so many that a court was convened to try him on the charge of “inordinate and unscientific lying” [MTB 947] See July 12.

July 6 Friday – At 11 a.m. in the Paris office of Morse, the US Consul-General, Sam wrote to Livy:

Well, I’ve been flying around, Livy darling, & now I am through & ready to leave for Southampton. I had myself called at 7.30 & my coffee ordered for 8.15. Meantime I took a grand bain & went back to bed (in our old room, No. 27.) Rose had made the bath horribly hot, as usual. …

July 7 Thursday – Sam was en route to Bremen, Germany on the S.S. Lahn. While at sea Paine claims Sam wrote the 8,000 word sketch, “About All Kinds of Ships.” Paine refers to this article as “All Sorts and Conditions of Ships” [MTB 947-8]. It was first published in The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other Stories (1893) [Budd, Collected 2: 1001]. See June 19 letter to unidentified doctor which shows he worked on the article during the trip to the US on the S.S. Havel.

July 7 Friday – Frederick J. Hall wrote a five-page typed letter to Sam, enclosing a draft for $250. Hall characterized it as a “rather discouraging letter,” but that most of the negatives had already taken place. He reviewed the critical nature of the financial markets, the absence of credit, the need for a loan from the U.S. Bank to tide them over; the demands of the Mt. Morris Bank; the shut down of production on LAL; his notification to and response from Stedman; his not having drawn a full salary “for some time past; his seeing Mr.