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].
March – Harper’s Monthly published Mark Twain’s “Stirring Times in Austria” in their Mar. 1898 issue. Dolmetsch writes of the reaction in Vienna to the article, which:
March 1 Tuesday – Sam also replied to a non-extant query from Charles F. Mosher, a journalist with the Cincinnati Post and later an auditor with the Scripps newspaper network; he was now in Covington, Kentucky.
Oh, no—I can’t have that. Obviously the story has but one purpose, one intention: to so place Brown that he can not be saved.
March 2 Wednesday – Berta Tucholsky wrote from Vienna to Sam, congratulating him on his success and telling “how dearly I should like to translate your books into German” [MTP].
In Vienna, Austria, Sam inscribed a picture to Katy Leary: “To Katy Leary, with the affectionate good wishes of S.L. Clemens” [MTP].
March 4 Friday – Sam also wrote to an unidentified person “Truth is stranger than Fiction; but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth is not” [MTP]. Note: was also in “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar,” FE ch. 15.
March 5 Saturday – The New York Times ran “English Praise Mark Twain,” p. 7 datelined Mar. 5, likely from the London Times:
ENGLISH PRAISE MARK TWAIN
Dr. McAlister Eulogizes his Conduct
In Paying His Webster & Co. Debts.
LONDON, March 5.—The English press has universally printed praises of the statement that Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) has paid the last of his Webster & Co. debts. Dr. McAlister, writing to The Times on the subject, says:
March 6 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl also in Vienna
We were very sorry you did not come in, that evening. There were no strangers present—only friends. My daughter is going to the ball tomorrow night with some friends, & if Mrs. Clemens’s health is meantime quite restored I mean to be there myself a while [MTP]. Note: the “daughter” mentioned was likely Clara who attended many such events. Dolmetsch claims Eduard was Sam’s closest Viennese friend [37].
March 7 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
The copies of the letters from creditors arrived to-day—first in the list the Mount Morris release, and I was very glad to see that. Mr. Dodd clothed it in boiler-iron! All right, I shall be very glad to “let you raise questions” with the Mt. Morris when it comes to further payments. I believe you will find that there are some quite legitimate questions to raise.
March 8 Tuesday – Sam’s essay “Dueling,” written this day, was not published in his lifetime but collected in Europe and Elsewhere (1923) [AMT-1: 299-302, 707:1898a].
The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 5,000 additional copies of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) were printed (totaling 23,000 to date in London). The official English publication date was Nov. 25, 1897
March 12 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
“The correspondent of the Times has handed me a copy of the paper, whereby I see that you took the trouble to bring to notice the fact that I have worked myself out of debt. You could not have done me a greater favor than that, & I sincerely thank you for it.”
March 13 Sunday – The New York World ran a brief interview with Sam on p. 7, “Mark Twain Proud and Happy,” about his feelings of getting out of debt [MTCI 331-2].
March 15 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy had tea with Amelia S. Levetus, a British correspondent in Vienna.
Sam was not in at the time. His notebook tells what happened when he arrived and heard Livy tell of exciting new inventions by Jan Szczepanik (1872-1926), who had become well known as an inventor of the Fernseher, or “telectroscope,” a rudimentary television system: insert diagrams.
March 16 Wednesday – After writing Amelia S. Levetus, a meeting was arranged for this evening, and the young inventor, Jan Szczepanik, visited the Clemens’ suite at the Metropole. The invention Sam was most excited about was the Raster, a labor-saving machine for electrically copying graphic images directly into woven fabric. Sam was ever-enamored of labor-saving devices.
Sam’s notebook of Mar. 18 relates what he did prior to the evening meeting:
March 17 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam, instead of waiting to meet the banker Ludwig Kleinberg at 4 p.m., sent for him at breakfast. There he agreed to a two -month option at Kleinberg’s price of $1.5 million, payable in installments and extendable by request, for American rights to the Raster, invented by Jan Szczepanik (see Mar. 16 entry). Sam would receive a twelve percent commission if he sold the rights for that amount.
March 18 Friday – Clemens inscribed a cabinet-size photo of himself: “To Sigmund Schlesinger with cordial greetings. Mark Twain, Mar 18” [Sotheby’s June 19, 2003 Lot 7].
At 4 p.m. Sam again met with Jan Szczepanik’s banker, Ludwig Kleinberg: “Friday I went with Mr. Kleinberg & Mr. Wood to see the ‘rasters.’” [NB 40 TS 15].
More from Sam’s notebook:
March 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Saturday, March 19. Susy’s birth-day. It was then that that dear life began which ended a year & seven months ago” [NB 40 TS 15].
The New York Times, p.BR185 reprinted an article from the London Academy.
Honor Be Unto Mark Twain.
From the London Academy.
March 20 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam added a PS to his Mar. 17 letter to H.H. Rogers
P.S. But really you should come yourself—for some good sense and good diplomacy are necessary, on account of the promised auxiliary invention. You might find it worth while to wait to include it in the present Option, and you are the very man to know how to make them do it.
March 21 Monday – By his letter of Mar. 20 to Rogers, Sam seemed anxious to go to the reopening session of the Austrian Parliament this afternoon. In his Mar. 23 to Rogers he confirmed that he went:
“I was present at the opening of Parliament, but it was peaceable & dull; so I have not been there since.”
March 22 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, this time about a play he was “sending by very slow express,” Bartel Turaser by Philipp Langmann. Sam had translated it for Rogers to “exploit in American through” his “sub-theatrical agent.” He had also contracted to translate a comedy titled In Purgatory, by Ernst Gettke and Alexander Engel. Again Sam pushed for Rogers to visit Vienna [MTHHR 333].
March 23 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers
March 24 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, detailing the visit of Ludwig Kleinberg of the previous night. Sam closed with:
You & Mrs. Rogers need not hurry. If you reach here by the 1st of May it wil do. The country will be lovely, then.
March 25 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a short note to Frank Bliss suggesting he begin the Uniform Edition with IA, and then Harper” [MTP].
On Mar. 18 in his meeting with William M. Wood about the raster machine, Sam offered to make an appointment for the two of them for Mar. 25 at Jan Szcepanik’s laboratory [Dolmetsch 201]. Note: it is assumed they kept the appointment.
March 28 Monday – Sam’s notebook covers this day and a midnight reading at a home for English Governesses:
Monday, March 28, ’98. A splendid spring day. Charley Langdon and Jervis have reached London, & will come here about mid-April. They will tell us about Katy Leary, who was cabled for, two or three weeks ago, left us, after nearly 18 years’ service in our family. Prof. Dr. Winternitz called & examined Livy & Clara, to see if the Kaltenleutgeben baths will suit the complexion of their ailments.
March 29 Tuesday – The performances at Miss Virginia Bailie’s Home for English Governesses ran past midnight into the wee hours.
March 30 Wednesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, thanking him for the FE with special binding that had arrived for Princess Pauline Metternich. He also said that his niece, Annie Moffett “has those old pictures of me” and offered her address in Fredonia, N.Y. [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Dr. Rudolf Lindau: