October 5 Monday – The planned day to leave Ouchy-Laussane for Berlin. According to Rodney, the family made this long trip in two days, stopping at Basel, Switzerland [138] and then Frankfurt, where Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus on Oct. 7.
Katy Leary was sent back to Elmira in order to save money. She wrote of the parting:
October 5 Wednesday – In Florence Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He’d received Hall’s August statement and was pleased with the “good showing” of “cheap P & P & Huck Finn & Claimant.” He wanted to know how many cheap HF’s had been sold to date, and warned Hall to watch out for American Publishing Co., should they issue their own cheap copies of his book. He’d write Whitmore also to be on the lookout. He would stop any such issue. The move had interrupted Sam’s progress on PW.
October 5 Thursday – In New York, Sam wrote on Webster & Co. letterhead to daughter Clara, responding to her “dear sweet letter” he found upon arrival in New York. Sam sent her an assortment of postage stamps for her to write more. On the reverse side of the letter he wrote:
Charley Warner is insisting that you go there, when you go to Hartford, & make that your headquarters, (with your trunk there), & visiting around among the Twichells and Robinsons from there [MTP].
October 5 Friday – At the Hotel d’Angleterre in Rouen, France, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
We are stalled here, tight and fast. We left Etretat last Monday. Susy was not well; so we came four hours and stopped over here to let her have a rest. It turned out to be congestion of the right lung. Temperature during three days, 104, 103, then 101. Necessarily we were a good deal alarmed, but she is ever so much better now. We shall be captives here indefinitely, of course.
October 6 Tuesday – A travel day for the Clemens party on their way to Berlin. Sam’s notebook:
Strassburg, Oct. 6.—Arles is very well, perhaps; but this is the place for pretty girls, apparently [NB 31 TS 8].
Susy Clemens and her Aunt Sue Crane went apart from the rest of the family to the Hotels Schweizerhof & Luzernhof at Lucerne, Switzerland. Susy wrote to Louise Brownell:
October 6 Thursday – Clara Clemens was off to Berlin, where she would study piano. In Florence, at 10 p.m., Sam wrote to her upon returning to the Villa Viviani;
Dear, dear Ben —
October 7 Wednesday – Stopping at Frankfurt on the Main (Frankfurt) the Clemens party may have spent the night at the Hotel Continental. Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus from the hotel, sending his new address for the next six months in Berlin, 7 Körnerstrasse, and asking them to send him a copy of “The Table,” a cookbook just issued by Webster & Co. “Don’t divulge my address, please” [MTP].
October 7 Friday – According to Susy’s letter to Louise Brownell, written about one week after the move to the Villa Viviani, or ca. Oct. 1 (but postmarked Oct. 14), this was the day Grace King and sister Nan King arrived.
Clara expects to go to Berlin on Thursday of next week and Grace King and her sister come on Friday to spend a month with us. We are looking forward to this visit [Cotton 101171].
October 7 Sunday – At the Hotel d’Angleterre in Rouen, France, Sam wrote a humorous letter to H.H. Rogers. It seems Sam had to make a quick trip to the bathroom at 2 a.m., and got lost in the dark, unable to tell which floor he was even on. He drew a layout of the hotel with a staircase zigzagging up the middle.
October 8 Thursday – Another travel day for the Clemens party, making the last leg from Frankfurt to Berlin, some 340 miles, by train. Joseph Verey may have accompanied the family on to Berlin. No letter from Berlin prior to Oct. 9 is extant.
October 8 Saturday – The Illustrated News of the World (New York issue) ran a first segment of “The German Chicago.” Follow up segments ran on Oct. 15 and Nov. 5 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].
October 8 Sunday – The New York Times, p.18 under “Personal” ran this squib:
Although the sons of famous men are apt to be disappointing, the daughters seem not infrequently to seize the mantle of the paternal genius. Miss Mildred Howells is a most skillful story-teller and a clever illustrator, and Miss Clare [sic] Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain, though only twenty years old, has written a play which is highly spoken of. [Note: the play is not specified; this may be confused with a play that Susy wrote.]
October 9 Friday – In their winter quarters at 7 Körnerstrasse, Berlin, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing a picture of the Wirt fountain pen he’d lost, and asking them to send him another, or to forward his note on to Webster & Co. if they couldn’t find one. Sam claimed he was “helpless” without it [MTP].
October 9 Monday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Joe Twichell, answering Joe’s urging letter (not extant) for him to come up to Hartford for a visit.
September 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:
On Sept. 1 all the flags in Nurnburg were flying—the Germans persist in considering Sedan a German victory instead of the most priceless victory that ever France gained in the world [NB 31 TS 3].
September 1 Thursday – Players Club wrote to Sam that a panel had been marked with his name in the grill room, but as yet Sam had not filled the space with a mug. Sam must forward a mug marked with his name or surrender the space. The notice was forwarded to Florence. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Notified about the beer-mug at the Players.” [MTP].
September 1 Friday – Sam and daughter Clara were at sea on the Spree.
September 1 Saturday – At the Chalet des Abris in Etretat, France, Sam wrote to Charles W. Dayton, New York Postmaster about a notification of a registered letter sent from Austria.
I am all in a tremor & a sweat to get that registered letter from Austria, for I feel almost certain it is the Emperor resigning in my favor. Do shove it right along…[MTP].
September 10 Thursday – In Interlaken, Sam wrote the fifth letter for McClure’s Syndicate, “Switzerland — The Cradle of Liberty.”
September 10 Saturday – In their last day at Bad Nauheim, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore about the Paige royalties. He closed with:
We are breaking camp & leaving for Frankfort today, & expect to leave there for Florence next Tuesday. Our villa is equipped & the servants are in it — all except coachman & horses. With love to all of you [MTP].
Robert Graham for Church Temperance Society sent Sam a form letter soliciting funds [MTP].
September 10 Sunday – At Clarence C. Rice’s home, Sam woke up feeling “perfectly well this morning,” after having gone to bed early the night before and drinking a “whole bottle of whisky.” Sam wrote on Rice’s New York Medical School letterhead to daughter Clara in Elmira.
September 11 Friday – Sam’s notebook (31 TS 5) reveals a side trip to Grindelwald, possibly on this day:
3 hours afoot. 2 ½ zu Pferd, from the Hotel de l’Ours to the Gletcher, looks 300 yards. (Grindelwald). Shrines all the way — what you want is cussing places. Re-name them…Want milk, but dasn’t have it — would be too conspicuous not to drink wine. The wine increases my rheumatism, too…48 fr[ancs] for food for 6 persons at the Bear Tavern, Grindelwald . A swindle… [Also in part in Rodney 136].
September 11 Sunday – The Clemens family was in Frankfurt, Germany. They would be there until Thursday, Sept. 15, due to Livy’s worsening condition [Sept. 17 to Whitmore; Sept. 18 to Crane].
September 11 Tuesday – In Etretat, France Sam began a letter to J. Henry Harper which he finished Sept. 12.
The MS [JA] arrived to-day [See Sept. 9 to Rogers], & I am sending word to Mr. Du Mond.
September 12 Saturday – Sometime during his stay in Interlaken, Sam “stumbled on the whole lovely Dawson family one evening” [Oct. 1 to Twichell]. During the 1878 tramp with Joe, they had met John Dawson and wife on the train from Leukerbad, Switzerland to Locchi-Suste (Visp). See Aug. 26, 1878 entry.