Life in Exile: Day By Day

October 3 Sunday – Sam’s notebook:

Hotel Metropole, Vienna, Oct. 3, 1897. At the next round table to ours sits a princess, daughter of the Dowager Empress Friederich & granddaughter of Victoria; also the young daughter of the above and her intended, the young Prince Henry Reuss (called Henry III); whose mother & sister and Uncle (the Prince von Wernigerode) in Ilsenberg in the Harz mountains six years ago. With them a maid of honor & a couple of equerries. Good looking people. They all smoke [NB 42 TS 39].

October 3 Monday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to H.Q. Russ in Lynn, Mass. who had written (not extant) about ordering a bust of Sam done by the Russian sculptress, Theresa Fedorowna Ries.

October 3 Tuesday – In New York, Katharine I. Harrison wrote a short note to Sam, enclosing James Henry Wiggin’s letter (see Sept. 30) [MTHHR 411].

October 30 Monday – In London, England, Sam replied to Henry M. Alden, whose incoming letter is possibly that of Oct. 12. Alden had enclosed letters showing good relations between Harpers and Frank Bliss, which gratified Sam. Alden evidently asked for any unpublished work Sam still had; Sam replied that only two short unpublished pieces remained—“Great Republic’s Peanut Stand,” which Alden already had, and two short chapters in Sam’s planned book on Christian Science. Also, The N.Y.

October 31 Saturday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus.

Am very much obliged. I enclose the house-rent cheque drawn to your order, for £90.2.0. I believe this completes the payment of the house-rent for the first 6 months. Mr. Garth’s address is — — — damn, I’ve begun on the wrong page — is / 3 Polstead Road / Oxford.

Sam added after his signature a request for them to tell any inquirers that he was “entirely out of the lecture field” [MTP].

October 31 Sunday – Sam spoke at the Concordia Press Club in Vienna. Dolmetsch on the event:

October 31 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to James B. Pond (incoming not extant):

No, no, write the book yourself—don’t pad it up with made-to-order puffs furnished by other people. No Pears’ soap business. If you are going to enter our profession you must keep up its dignity. Then I’ll wish you great & rich success! [MTP]. Note: Pond’s book, Eccentricities of Genius would be published by G.W. Dillingham Company, N.Y. in 1900.

October 4-18 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to his English publisher, Andrew Chatto:

To-morrow or next day Mr. William Wilson an old Scotch friend & present neighbor of mine will call upon you business-wise, with a manuscript book. I promised him that you would read it; and told him that if you liked it & wanted it he would find that you & Mr. Spalding are fair dealers.

October 4 Monday – At 5 p.m. at the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Sam wrote again to Eduard Pötzl.

Thank you ever so much for the books & the Feuilleton, & for the offer to show me the city: I accept the whole, gratefully. I shall be very glad to have you along when I get arrested on the bridge, because you will be able to explain the case to the police (and divide the punishment.)

October 4 Wednesday – In the a.m. in London, England, the Clemens family inspected various housing possibilities, and found one they liked that would be available in about ten days. Evidently they didn’t find the accommodations at Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel suitable; [Oct. 4 to MacAlister]. Note: The family needed to be close to Henrick Kellgren’s facility, since Jean needed daily sessions there. They settled on 30 Wellington Court, Albert Gate.

October 4 Thursday – At Brown’s Hotel in London, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond about Samuel Moffett’s editing of Pond’s proposed book:

“I don’t doubt that between you & Sam Moffett you will get the matter arranged all right & satisfactorily.

You always mean right, you old criminal. I am bound to concede that, anyway” [MTP].

October 5 Monday – This is the likely day the Clemenses and Katy Leary took possession of a small house at 23 Tedworth Square, Chelsea, in southwest London. Sam’s Oct. 6 to Rogers states they were now “settled in a house.” They kept their address a secret, using Chatto & Windus for a return address and closing themselves off from nearly everyone. Sam’s Sept.

October 5 Tuesday– In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Professor Heinrich Obersteiner (1847-1922), enclosing a letter from Dr. M. Allen Starr (d.1932) of New York concerning seventeen-year-old daughter Jean’s epileptic attacks. Sam disclosed she had her sixth attack a week ago (Sept. 28).

October 5 Wednesday – Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam:

October 5 Thursday – At the Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel London, Sam finished his Oct. 4 letter to H.H. Rogers.

P.S. Oct 4. ’99 [Sam misdated here]. As I said yesterday (and also in my letter to Harper) I don’t want Harper to hamper Bliss in adding the new short-story book to the Uniform. I think, also, that Harper should have no ownership in the plates made for the new book for the Uniform, and receive no royalty from Bliss on the book….Ain’t that your judgment?

October 5 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches to Archibald Clarke: “To / Mr. Archibald Clarke / with compliments of / Mark Twain / Oct. 5/00” [MTP]. Note: Clarke was a contributor to John Y. MacAlister’s quarterly journal, The Library and so this connection may explains his contact with Sam. To wit: 1900 Vol. I p.

October 6 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

The proposed Bliss-contract has arrived, & is so entirely satisfactory that I shall be very glad & quite at rest in my mind the day that it is signed & goes into effect. Thank you ever so much for pushing it to this hopeful condition.

October 6 Friday – A bill was given to Sam from Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel for this date in the amount of £25.11.8 for the period Sept. 30 to Oct. 6; it was paid on Oct. 12 [1899 Financial file MTP]. Note: there is no other bill in the files for the Queen Anne; it is assumed they moved after this day to 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate).

October 6 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Lady Trevelyan 19 Easton Place, SW. / Mrs. Halsey 18 Stanhope Gdns / Lady Stanley (inquire) / Mrs. Sumner, 20 Hans Mansions / Sir Wm Des Voeux / Sailed from Tilbury 3 pm in the Minehaha [sic], 14,000 tons” [NB 43 TS 26].

October 7 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper about the piece “The Californian’s Tale,” which the Authors Club was claiming he gave them for an 1893 publication, The First Book of the Authors Club, Liber Scriptorum. Sam claimed he gave them only a two-year use of the sketch.

October 7 Thursday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl.

The manager of this hotel has now situated us so charmingly & spaciously & economically on the next floor (Stock III), that we shall stay a month at any rate; but when the weather settles, Mrs. Clemens will wish to see the Continental & the Persian Exquisite, for we are quite willing, like the rest of the world, to better ourselves whenever we can.

October 7 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to James B. Pond, asking when he saw the editor of Forum to ask about Sam’s article “About Play-Acting.” Sam had not heard back from Forum (the piece ran in the Oct. issue). He expressed hope that they would return home “just a year from now— everything promises well for that.” He also noted the passing of another old, wandering lecturer:

October 7 Sunday – The Clemens family was en route from London to New York on the SS Minnehaha.

Inserts: S.S. Minnehaha and its Upper Promenade deck (where Jean took walks for her health.)

October 8 Thursday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in the Oct. 20 to Rogers [MTHHR 240].

October 8 Friday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Fletcher Hurst, thanking him for his efforts to secure them housing, but daughter Clara “has reached the conclusion that she would rather live near the centre of the city.” Sam added he was “well satisfied” where he was and had “ceased to be restless” [MTP].