Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

July 7 Saturday – At noon in Southampton, England, Sam sailed for New York aboard the S.S. Paris [LLMT 302].

July 8 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, requesting Kipling’s last book, Mine Own People [MTP from Am. Art Assoc. catalog, item 353].

Augustus Jacobson for the Society of Tennessee Army, Palmer House, Chicago wrote to Sam inviting him to the unveiling of the Grant statue in Lincoln Park during the reunion Oct. 7 and 8 [MTP].

July 8 Friday – Sam was en route to Bremen, Germany on the S.S. Lahn.

July 8 Saturday – In Munich, Germany Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.

Dear Mr. Hall:

I am sincerely glad you are going to sell L.A.L. I am glad you are shutting off the agents, and I hope the fatal book will be out of our hands before it will be time to put them on again. With nothing but our non-existent capital to work with the book has no value for us, rich a prize as it will be to any competent house that gets it.

July 8 Sunday – En route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris, Sam would write on July 13 to Livy that he had worked daily but “accomplished nothing; what I have written is not satisfactory & must be thrown away.” Some of his time was not for naught, however:

Part of my work was not lost, for I have revised Joan of Arc & made some good corrections & reductions. Also I have discovered that the introduction is incomplete. I will complete it on shore [LLMT 302].

July 9 Thursday – W.F. Johnson wrote to Sam soliciting aid for the Brooklyn Howard Colored Orphan Asylum [MTP].

July 9 Saturday – Sam was en route to Bremen, Germany on the S.S. Lahn.

July 9 Sunday – In Munich, Sam wrote on Hotel Du Rhin letterhead to Susan Crane that he added a PS to on July 10. Sam asked her to thank Mr. Halsey for “the way he handled” his “small business,” as he’d not had the chance to thank him in purpose during his stay in New York.

July 9 Monday – Sam was en route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris and spent time “most pleasantly” writing, including revisions to the Joan of Arc MS.

June 1 Wednesday – In a letter to Grace King, Livy wrote that they were leaving Lake Como for Bad Nauheim, and that “Susy, Jean and I expect to start from there [Bourboule] aout the 22nd of this month” [MTP].

June 1 Thursday – In Florence, Sam wrote a short request to Charles Webster & Co., asking them to send a copy of P&P to Marian Phelps, now Madame von Rottenberg, in care of the American Legation, 16 Kronenstrasse, Berlin, Germany. Sam added it was his wedding present to her [MTP].

June 1 Friday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.

Mrs. Clemens & I have read your letter & are sincerely sorry for your hard situation. I wish I could make it better; I certainly would if I could. But the whole business being now in the hands of the creditors, I have no authority & can do nothing.

If the assignment was a put-up job I knew nothing of it, & never in the least suspected it.

June 10 Wednesday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:

June 10. Rough sea. Il est defense d’apporter du petit et du vin blanc a la chambre*

Mrs. Franklin advised to get immediately the habits of smoking, drinking, coffee, chewing, snuffing & swearing — then leave them all off for a week & be cured. She had no habits to change when she got sick — therefore was in a helpless & perilous situation [3: 642]. * (It is forbidden to take rolls and white wine to the rooms.)

June 10 Friday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany Sam wrote to his daughter Clara in care of Frau Koch, 151 Kurfürstenstreet in Berlin, where she was studying piano.

June 10 Saturday – At the Villa Viviani, Florence, Sam wrote a short note to Mr. White, a local English or American who had evidently invited Sam and Susy to an engagement for Sunday evening, June 11. Susy had a prior appointment, but Sam wrote he could “find my way alone — & shall” [MTP].

June 11 Thursday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:

June 11. The loneliness of a ship at 4 a.m. Saw just one person for an instant flit through the gray of yesterday’s dawn. Very rough — winds singing — first wet deck. Electrics seemed to burn dim. Smoking sty stunk unenduringly. …Susy: “Their gesticulations are so out of proportion to what they are saying.”

Smooth sea again.
Jean, positively comfortable. 
Clara, compara[tively comfortable] 
Susy, superlatively un[comfortable].

June 11 Saturday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall of his departure on June 14 for New York. Livy and Jean and a French maid would stay at the resort at Bad Nauheim, with accommodations at the Villa Augusta Victoria. Susy and Sue Crane would travel around Switzerland. Clara would continue to study piano in Berlin.

June 11 Sunday – In Florence, in the evening, Sam visited the Whites, somewhere in the area; Susy had some other engagement, not specified [June 10 to White].

June 11 Monday – In Paris, France, Sam made a “short address” at the Countess de Kessler’s Musicale. Livy was in the audience. The gala was reported later by the N.Y. Times, June 28, 1894 p.2, “The Social World.”

June 12 Friday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry: June 12. Very Smoothe sea. Dr. Martin & the Etchings [3: 643].

In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore acknowledged the $2,500 check from McClure’s to Frederick J. Hall. Whitmore had searched Sam’s house for pages 184-5 of Sam’s The American Claimant MS but had been unable to find them [MTP].

June 12 Sunday – At the Villa Augusta Victoria in Bad Nauheim, Germany, Sam wrote a goodbye letter to daughter Clara in Berlin, enclosing a picture of three small puppies and the following spoof:

June 12 Monday – At the Villa Viviani, Florence, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send the next letter of credit to Drexel Harjes & Co. bankers in Paris.

We take wing tomorrow for Bavaria, but do not yet know whereabouts on the continent we shall spend the summer.

I wish to thank you most heartily for the sumptuous Joan of Arc you sent… [MTP].

June 13 Saturday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry: Saturday, 13. Concert [3: 643].

The N.Y. Times, p.8 ran a short article “Friends of Russian Freedom” listing Sam among those who signed a founding document “setting forth its purposes and inviting co-operation.”

Frank W. Cheney for the Boston Monday Evening Club wrote to Sam inviting him to dine on June 18 at his home [MTP]. Note: the Clemenses were in Paris by that date.

June 13 Monday – Sam left Bad Nauheim alone and traveled to Bremen, Germany, where he would take passage the following day for New York [June 12 to Fiske]. He took a room ath the Hotel de l’Europe in Bremen [NB 31 TS 53].

Sam’s notebook: “Arrived here at 5.23 June 13 — left Nauheim 9.05 a.m.” [NB 31 TS 53].

June 13 Tuesday – At the Villa Viviani, Florence, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. “We are this moment leaving for Germany.” Sam wanted the Nation and all other papers and magazines routed to Drexel Harjes & Co., Paris [MTP].