Vol 3 Section 0298
May 5 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied Ambrose Poynter (1867-1923), who evidently had asked if he might use a story or a passage. Sam had no objections and the story and details were “set down in a book of mine—‘Old Times on the Mississippi,’” he didn’t remember the chapter. The man must have been in England or the Continent for Sam noted the book was published by Chatto & Windus [MTP].Note: Poynter was the grandson of the famous English architect by the same name (1796-1886).
Sam sent a check for £200 for stock in Geduld Proprietary Gold Mine shares to Ad. Goerz & Co [NB 40 TS 55].
May 6 Saturday
May 7 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Bertha von Suttner. This has been misplaced at the MTP. Likely a decline to her early-May form letter invitation.
May 8 Monday
May 9 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Wrote you to expect a check from New York, & to have Bliss send the July check to me (care Chatto.)”
[MTP].
Percy Spalding of Chatto & Windus sent a telegram to Sam that he rec’d this evening [May 10 to Spalding].
May 10 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Percy Spalding.
The telegram came last evening & was very welcome. It decided us at once. We shall reach London May 31, by way of Bremen & the steamer “Lahn” to Southampton.
The reason we do not wish it to be known that we are going in order to put a daughter with Madame Marchesi, is because the former doesn’t wish her present teacher to find it out till the tragedy is accomplished. Therefore we are diligently explaining to all friends that it is my business that hurries us to England—the idea being that when it gets into the papers it shall get it right (meaning, with the music-lessons UNMENTIONED.)
Sam thought they might live at Morley’s Hotel for a week or so while looking for more modest lodgings, and gave Spalding their requirements. If Spalding knew of a quiet hotel preferable to Morley’s Sam would trust his good judgment [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers. Plans to spend June in the mountains at Reichenau, 50 miles from Vienna had been scrapped in favor of going directly to London in two weeks. It took two weeks for them to pack up, though he observed he didn’t do the packing himself, only superintended. He noted the “good news” Katharine Harrison had informed: he had about $ 52,000 in cash and $5,000 invested. He observed that the palmist Cheiro “can work his prophecy-mill very well when you stand behind him and turn the crank.” He had been reading in the newspapers about Rogers’ role of in the new Amalgamated Copper Co., which had been organized in N.J. with a capital of $75,000,000.
I feel perfectly sure that you are arranging to put that $52,000 under that hen as soon as the allotment of stock begins, & I am very glad of that, for you know how to make a copper hen lay a golden egg. …
It is a pity we can’t go home now. We are all pretty home-sick. But we should have to go to some summer resort, & it would be crowded & uncomfortable & I couldn’t work; and besides, if it were a satisfactory place it would be too costly for us. Why, even here I can’t afford Scotch whisky enough to keep
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.