Italy Tramp: Day By Day
– Sam’s notebook:
“Great festa-day—shops all closed. Attended High Mass in a chapel of St. Peters. Heaps of people of all ages sexes & professions kissing (& scrubbing) St Peter Jupiter’s toe. He looks like a black negro & has short crisp hair” [MTNJ 2: 239].
– Livy wrote from Rome to her mother (see Nov. 9 entry).
– The Clemens family left Rome at 10:50 AM, and returned to Florence, Italy at 6:50 PM, where they spent the night at the Hotel de New York [MTLE 3: 97; MTNJ 2: 248]. They were headed north to spend the winter in Munich, a 600 mile trip with 36 hours on slow trains, and four overnight hotel stops to make the journey more bearable for Livy [Rodney 115]. Sam’s notebook:
“… saw splendid torchlight processions crossing the 2 Arno bridges to see the King, at the Pitti palace.
– The Clemens family stayed a day and another night in Florence [MTLE 3: 97].
– The Clemens family left Florence at 10:45 AM and reached Bologna, Italy at 4:15 PM [MTLE 3: 97; MTNJ 2: 249]. Sam made a notebook entry that he stopped here to see Guiseppe Mezzofanti (d.1849), “because he knew 111 languages, but he was dead” [MTNJ 2: 266].
– The Clemens family left Bologna at noon and traveled until 10:30 PM to reach Trent in the Austrian Tyrol, by way of “Modena, Mantua, & Verona.” Sam was acting as the courier for the group and thought himself “a shining success…so far” [MTNJ 2: 249; MTLE 3:97].
– The Clemens family was up at 6 AM and traveled all day. After twelve hours they arrived in Munich, Germany. At 7 PM they arrived, in “drizzle & fog at the domicil which had been engaged for us ten months before” [MTLE 3: 94].
– Sam wrote from Rome, Italy to Joe Twichell. After discussing the matter of a clock Sam had purchased, sending it home through Will Sage, which caused all sorts of red tape, Sam sent compliments on Joe’s letters.
– Sam’s notebook:
“…spent all day in Vedder’s lofty studio & the evening with him & another artist spinning yarns & drinking beer in a quiet saloon. Big row in the street but no bloodshed.”
Elihu Vedder was an American artist who kept a studio in Rome. Sam visited the studio several times [MTNJ 2: 242]. (See Nov. 9 entry.)
– Sam’s notebook:
“Visited the Catacombs. One mummy (shapeless) & one slender young girl’s long hair & decaying bones— both in stone coffins & both between 15 & 1600 years old.”
– U.S. Consulate sent Venetian Bills of Lading for things purchased [MTP].
– Sam viewed the painting “Bambino” at Ara Coeli.
It is always safe to say a thing was mentioned by Pliny. He was the father of reporters—he mentioned everything.
Suit of clothes in Heidelberg, $18; in Milan (slop-shop) $9; in Rome (fancy tailor, $25 & $38—both very fine—the latter half dress. At home, $65 to 90 [MTNJ 2: 246].
– “Cooks agent gone off junketing—for a few days—can’t get any tickets” [MTNJ 2: 245].
In a letter dated Nov. 10, Livy wrote to her mother:
We have enjoyed Rome immensely & wish so very much that we were going to spend three months here.
November – In Sam’s notebook there’s an entry “Little Pedlington” which refers to John Poole’s 1839 book, Little Pedlington and the Pedlingtonians. Gribben quotes E. Cobham Brewer, calling this “an imaginary place, the village of quackery and can’t, egotism and humbug, affectation and flatter” [553].
Sam noted “Turganieff’s Visions” and “Visions, a Phantasy, by Tourganieff—in the Galaxy” in his notebook [MTNJ 2: 244, 247].
In his letter of Nov. 20 to Twichell, Sam wrote that he had “discharged George [Burk] at Venice—the worthless idiot—& have developed into a pretty fair sort of courier myself since then” [MTLE 3: 101]. Sam fired Burk on Oct. 1 [MTNJ 2: 197] Note: George Burk had been the portier at the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg when Sam hired him. Sam gave Burk 100 franks extra and let him go.
From Sam’s notebook:
Today received an impudent letter from George Burk asking for 175 francs more—but it furnishes me with his address, which I want.
Afternoon—3 of the very worst & most dismal solo singers in the world have been on the masonry platform ½ hour apart—never heard anything worse in the opera [MTNJ 2: 208].
D. & C. Mac Iver wrote from Liverpool to advise “by the request of Mr. George C. Wild we write to say that we shall be glad to receive any articles, personal effects or otherwise & store & ship them as you may instruct us” [MTP].
From Sam’s notebook:
Sam wrote from Venice, Italy to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send copies of Innocents Abroad and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to William Mayer, care of G.K. Mayer, Vienna Austria [MTLE 3: 94]. Following the establishment of a Linotype factory in 1890 in England, the publisher William Mayer and his son Jacques traveled to Germany in 1894 to find business partners there.
The Clemenses visited Padre Giacomo Issaverdenz, a friend of Howells, on the island of San Lazzaro, two miles southeast of Venice. At the Armenian monastery the Padre gave them preserved rose-leaves to eat, showed them photographs and talked about the Howellses [MTHL 1: 241].
Sam’s notebook:
“Very magnificent sunset & lamp effects (Piazza) coming from San Lazzaro… Dittura—Boom! (finger to temple.) –Morte—Signor Bismark—to-day–(laying head in palm of hand)” [MTNJ 2: 222-3]. (See Oct. 16 entry for explanation.)
Sam’s notebook:
For two days we have been doubting Dittura’s reliability as a news gatherer—but to-night I heard a news- man crying a paper—understood “Count Bismark” & bought a copy—spelled out the fact that 2 days ago, Carlo Conti di Bismark, a citizen of Venice, committed suicide by shooting himself through the head with a revolver. So D.[ittura] was 2 days ahead of the newspaper [MTNJ 2: 223].
Stabilimento Salviati, Venice, sent a statement for items purchased/shipped [MTP].
Sam’s notebook:
Belli Arti—It is not possible that anybody could take more solid comfort in martydom that St. Sebastian did….The Old Master’s horses always rear after the fashion of the kangaroo….500 Last Suppers—they all have new table cloths with the fold wrinkles sharply defined.
The fig leaf & private members of statues are handled so much that they are black & polished while the rest of the figure is white & unpolished. Which sex does this handling?
Left for Florence. Good by, Dittura Agostino! [MTNJ 2: 223-5].
October – A notation in Sam’s notebook listed The Bible for Young People, translated by Wicksteed in six volumes [MTNJ 2: 209]. Evidently this was a reminder to send these books to Orion upon returning home, as Orion was writing a biblical refutation. Orion had recently been excommunicated from the First Westminster Presbyterian Church of Keokuk [209n95].
Sam read William Wetmore Story’s (1819-1895) 2 volume Roba di Roma (1863) and entered in his notebook:
Livy wrote from Florence to her mother:
This evening Mr & Mrs Chamberlain were in for an hour & we sat about a wood fire & chatted—then Mr Clemens read to us—then to bed—where I am now—Florence is much more restful than Venice, because we have no social demands—and one ought to know no one when they are visiting picture galleries—The Chamberlains are a perfect delight, they never tax us in the least they are helpful to us and are bright beyond expression [MTNJ 2: 226n19].