Vol 3 Section 0185

Paine writes, “Bliss did well with the new book. Thirty or forty thousand copies were placed without delay” [MTB 1055]. Note: Sam’s Feb. 5 to Rogers and his Feb. 11 to Bliss expresses disappointment at only 20,000 sold by American Publishing Co.

March 9 Wednesday

March 10 Thursday

March 11 Friday

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.”

Sam also confessed that he was “poor company” for MacAlister the prior winter and spring and that his spirits were “very low,” but he felt his kindness. “When I look back on those three black years— / But I am looking the other way now” [MTP]. Note: MacAlister likely reported Sam’s debts paid to the London Times.

The N.Y. Times, p. SBR169 ran “Mark Twain’s Debts As Paid,” forwarded from the London Daily News, together with a repeat of Sam’s words given for the Aug. 17, 1895 S.F. Examiner about paying 100 cents on the dollar of amounts he owed. The intro to those words:

Mark Twain has paid all the debts that led to the bankruptcy of the publishing firm with which he was connected. It is a fine example of the very chivalry of probity, and, in the circumstances, as an admirer has pointed out, it deserves to rank with the historic case of Sir Walter Scott. The firm came to grief; Mark Twain might, if he had pleased, to have confined his share of the loss to the amount of his liability under the partnership. He preferred to make good the entire loss, and to this end he had to make a fresh start in life at the age of sixty. He accomplished it, and with this and the profits of his latest book, he has carried out his high-minded and generous purpose.

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 14 Monday

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.

Sam’s notebook:

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