Vol 3 Section 0254

Note: Welland asserts Sam answered “immediately” (on Nov. 19); and the fact that Chatto did not, as Sam requested, burn the MS, “indicates that he was certainly neither shocked nor offended by it; his retention of it in the firm’s safe suggests that he and Spalding enjoyed the joke, thought it too good to destroy, and then forgot it” [ibid]. See Nov. 13.

November 19 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote one sentence on a postcard to Chatto & Windus, perhaps relating to his “quatrains” sent on Nov. 13: “I agree to the unwisdom of it—in fact, in any form or at any figure” [MTP].

Sam’s longtime friend Edward Merrill Bunce (“Ned”) (1841-1898) died of typhoid fever at 8 a.m. in Hartford [Nov. 21 Hartford Courant]. Sam would enter news of Ned’s death in his notebook on Dec. 2, and write Ned’s widow, as well as Joe Twichell.

Sam’s notebook: “Nov. 19/98. Mailed Hornet article to Harper—& copy of Alice (new) to Tuohy” [NB 40 TS 51]. Note: “Wapping Alice” and the Hornet article to James M. Tuohy of the N.Y. World. The essay, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” was used as the title piece in the 1903 My Debut as a Literary Person and Essays and Other Stories.

November 20 Sunday

November 21 Monday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled Harper & Brothers: “ROGERS HAS

HADLEYBURG. CLEMENS” [NB 40 TS 51]. Note: MTHHR 380n2 reveals that Henry M. Alden did not understand

the message, unaware of what “Hadleyburg” was. It quotes a letter of this date by Alden to H.H. Rogers: “We do not know exactly what this means, but we shall be glad to consider anything of his that you may have.”

November 22 Tuesday

November 23 Wednesday

November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Charlemagne Tower, US ambassador in Vienna, gave a reception at his residence on Alleegasse for all Americans. Sam and Clara were in attendance. Dr. and Mrs. Hiester Bucher (Vara Kalbach Bucher) met Sam and Clara, as recorded in Mrs. Bucher’s diary and published in Mary Leah Christmas’ A Honeymoon in Vienna, 1898-1899:

Met Hiester, Drs. Forbes and Newhard at the Spital, where we took a car, and proceeded to the Tower residence…Mrs. Tower received us. We went on into the dining room. After chatting with Mrs. Brainerd and Mrs. Remmington, Hiester tried to find an ice for me. A man whom we took for the head waiter offered to get it, and a little later we learned that same was no less than Mr. Tower himself. … Was introduced to the great Leschetitsky [sic], “Mark Twain” (Mr. Clemmens) [sic] and Miss Clemmens [sic] [32]. Note: sic’s in Christmas’ text. Leschetizky is the only person identified here.

November 25 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote right after this day, reporting on the festivities at the US Consul Charlemagne Tower’s home to Bettina Wirth.

November 25th was the American Thanksgiving Day. It was celebrated here at the House of the American Minister, Mr. Tower, by an assemblage of two hundred Americans & a sprinkling of their Austrian friends. The reception began at three in the afternoon, & the devotions were conducted in a proper thanksgiving spirit thence to the end of the day. According to custom, these devotions took the form of joyous and lively conversation, interspersed with piano & vocal music volunteered by guests. There was no speech-making, & none was needed, to make the occasion an enthusiastic tribute of homage & affection to the Republic & its flag. The reception was a surprise in one way, since it revealed the fact that there are more than double as many Americans in Vienna as had been supposed

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