Life in Exile: Day By Day

February 26 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to (Major “Alligator Jack”) John B. Downing (1834-1914), Mississippi pilot for nearly three decades. Downing’s letter is not extant.

February 26 Monday – In London Sam wrote to Francis Henry Skrine, thanking him for the opportunity to meet Sir William Wilson Hunter on Jan. 24 (see entry). Letter not extant but quoted by Skrine “he was grateful for the opportunity to shake the hand and look into the kind eyes of that great and gifted and noble man” [Life of Sir William Wilson Hunter, etc. by Francis Henry Skrine (1901) p. 477].

February 27 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, noting an omission of money from Bliss’ Jan. statement for “the advance-matter furnished to the magazine” (McClure’s). Sam figured the sale should have netted him $1,000 since the Century Co. would have paid that. “& that is where it should have gone.” Sam scolded Bliss for acting on his own to give the piece to McClure’s and not the Century Magazine:

February 27 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

The enclosed has just reached me from Mr. Rogers.

I don’t quite get the idea. Why should you want to take out repetitions of old copyrights? Do it if you want to, but it doesn’t seem necessary. …

If you are afraid I could be endangered by having property in my own name—but I couldn’t be, for I don’t owe money to anyone; I am out of debt.

February 27 Tuesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to John M. Hay’s Feb. 14. Hay had been concerned he’d been mischaracterized as resenting Sam’s allusion to him in the McClure’s article, “My Boyhood Dreams.”

February 28 Sunday – Orion Clemens began a letter to Sam that he finished on Mar. 5 and 6. “$50 was gratefully received from you and Livy on the 25th. I paid Ed Brownell $5 making $100 I have paid him, and leaving $350, as I have a written agreement to pay him $5 a month….” Mollie was abed suffering from “La Grippe” and a boil in her nose [MTP].

February 28 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a short note, per Livy, to William Grieg, thanking him “for the compliment in wishing to read from my books.” Permission granted [MTP].

February 28 Tuesday – Sam delivered the main after -dinner speech at a farewell banquet for Ambassador and Mrs. Charlemagne Tower at the Hotel Bristol. The dinner was sponsored by the American Colony in Vienna. Dolmetsch writes of Sam’s speech:

February 28 Wednesday – Samuel S. McClure wrote to Sam, having reconsidered his Jan. 11 offer to Sam to be editor-in-absentia for his new magazine.

February 3 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to the Louisville Courier-Journal, thanking them for publishing a “biographette” of his mother. He made two corrections to the article, that his mother lived to her 88th year, and that his “father’s name was John Marshall Clemens, named after the great Virginian” and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; the man whose funeral cracked the liberty bell [MTP: Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain Letters, p. 657-60].

February 3 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, that they would be glad to come. “Mrs. Clemens says she has sent an invitation to you two for the same evening; but she will name another day” [MTP]. Note: date of the gathering not specified.

February 4 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Frank Marshall White (whose letter is not extant).

“It wouldn’t do to print the Comedy, because it would destroy the stage-right in England & could damage it in America.

“That would be rather sorrowful, after all the work I have put on it.”

February 4 Saturday – Phillipine guerillas under Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) fired on American troops at Manila. This began a rebellion against US rule of the Phillipines that lasted until Aguinaldo was captured on Mar. 23, 1901 by General Frederick Funston. Sam would write a lot about the actions in the Phillipines.

February 5 Friday – The Hartford Courant ran a short article, “A Letter From Mark Twain,” Keokuk dispatch, p. 6 that refers to a not-extant letter from Sam to brother Orion Clemens:

February 5 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished on Feb. 6.

Yours of Jan. 21 [not extant] was just full of charm. It will be a nobby thing if you do get that letter out of the Mount Morris. I am afraid to think about it, & almost to write about it, I am so superstitious. But if you should land those fellows! (I’ll shut up & wait.).

February 5 Monday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, marking the letter “Private”.

February 6 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Feb. 5 letter to Rogers after receiving one from him

February 6 Tuesday – In London, Sam wrote to Funk & Wagnalls Co.: “In my experience I have found that one can do without principles” [MTP]. Note: letter UCCL 13072 is currently unavailable at MTP.

Samuel S. McClure wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam.

February 7 Monday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a formal letter of acceptance to H.H. Rogers for the Mt. Morris Bank’s Jan. 22 and Jan. 26 letter offers of settlement [MTHHR 320].

Alvora Miller wrote from Cheshire, Mass. praising Sam’s ability to make people laugh, and relating a story of finding a 20-year lost copy of IA, and of reading several of his shorter works as well. Sam wrote at the top of the letter “Brer: Read it—all through. / answered” [MTP].

February 7 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus.

February 7 Wednesday – Frank Bliss replied to Sam’s of Jan. 16, and enclosed statements of books sold from July 1, 1899 to Jan 1, 1900, totaling $5,644.36 in royalties.

Yours of the 16th ult., [Jan.] came duly to hand a few days since, and we are glad to hear from you, and thank you very much for your kindly desire to help us over the rough places. … We had already paid Mr. Whitmore $1200.00 in cash, and in addition, with the one or two small payments made in the fall, making $1500.00 in cash that we have given to him.

February 8 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Well, I’ve had my feathers cut. I was feeling too cocky. The minute I concluded to go on & make a 2 volume of this book [FE] I broke down. I haven’t touched a pen since. I am all right again, & shall go to work again to-morrow—but not to make 2 volumes. No, I’ve dropped that idea. I mean to write a third more matter for the one volume than necessary, then weed out & leave one compact & satisfactory volume.

February 8 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote “Private ” to J. Henry Harper, bemoaning the fact that he had let the book about Dreyfus drop after Chatto told him there was no interest in the case in England; Sam didn’t think of asking Harper’s London office, and now the entire world was excited:

February 8 Wednesday – George N. Stone, Chicago attorney, wrote to Sam, (at Players Club):

February 8 Thursday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Susan L. Crane.