Vol 3 Section 0112

July 23. Hired a skiff at Viznau—8 francs a week. Next will need a “Bursch.” So the expenses continue to grow.

Man is to come 3 times a day & wind my Waterbury and spar it over bars when it gets aground—12 fr a month [NB 42 TS 18]. Note: Vitznau, Switzerland.

July 24 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam finished his second July 22 letter to Chatto & Windus. Five additional detail items (fixes on the book) were listed and the letter dated at the end, so it’s not possible to tell which were added on July 23 and which this day. Among these was this jewel:

“See 119. I cannot permit ‘an’ hospital. Unless that n is removed, you must allow me to append a disclaimer in the form of a footnote. Please see that it is removed. One might as well say an horse or an whore” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook:

24th / The bicycles have come—& gone to Lucerne for repairs. Duty—recollectable—20 fr each. The tires worn through & busted [NB 41 TS 56]. Note: unless a third bicycle was rented for cousin Julia Langdon, these were not rented bicycles but those the Clemens family owned that Percy Spalding shipped.

July 25 Sunday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote again to Chatto & Windus:

“I give it up. These printers pay no attention to my punctuation. Nine-tenths of the labor & vexation put upon me by Messrs. Spothiswoode & Co consists of annihilating their ignorant & purposeless punctuation and restoring my own.”

Sam refused to read the “first proofs, & bad ones at that” until his punctuation had been restored. He knew “more about punctuation in two minutes that any damned bastard of a proof-reader can learn in two centuries,” and called the printer a “tumble-bug” and a “damned half-developed foetus!” then added, “But this is the Sabbath Day & I must not continue in this worldly vein” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook:

Sund, July 25. At 6 this am, for the first time in the week, sun & surface were just right for mirror-effects—so the lake was full of pictures.

….

The lake is glass, this morning, its surface richly painted with reflections & as far away as your eye can detect the gliding spectre of a boat you can also make out its wake—not the usual disordered ruffle on the water, but a thin long white pencil mark as straight as a ray of light & sharply defined & intense.

And of course with every little change in the position of the sun the colors of the water change & blend

      dissolve, & these enchantments know no stay, no interruption, no limit where there is light for the magician to work with. This is a paradise, & the people who could enjoy it most shut themselves up in the world’s suffocating cities & leave it to the undisputed possession of a handful of ignorant, poor, good-hearted jabbering animals who are as happy in it as if they had in some way earned this distinction of being allowed to live in heaven before their earthly contract is up [NB 42 TS 18-20].

July 26 Monday – Jean Clemens’ seventeenth birthday.

Chatto & Windus wrote a card to Sam that they’d rec’d “two repaired wine glasses with a bill for 8d, which we paid” (this note is a fragment) Sam wrote on their card to send the glasses to 23 Tedworth

[MTP]. Note: how does one “repair” a broken wine glass?

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.