Vol 3 Section 0304
Sam also inscribed a copy of Robert Lutz’s German edition of IM Gold-Und Silberland to Auguste
Wilbrandt-Baudius (Mrs. Adolf von Wilbrandt): “To Frau Wilterbrandte Baudius with the kindest regards
of Mark Twain. Wein, May 25, 1899” [MTP]. Note: this is an incomplete translation of the second part of RI.
Sam also cabled Chatto & Windus: “YES TAKE PRINCE WALES SUITE FOR FIRST JUNE CLEMENS” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), known as the “Waltz King,” Some of his better known works include the waltzes The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, and the Pizzicato Polka. Strauss would die nine days later, on June 3.
My Dear Mr. Strauss: / The card came, but not the book. I was out, at the time, & the portier is not able to remember that the book arrived.
But if you will kindly give me the name of the book, I will get a copy in London & send it to you [MTP]. Note: In his June 6 to Adele H. Strauss (Mrs. Johann Strauss) Clemens wrote he’d called on Johann twelve days before (May 25) in Vienna.
May 26 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Sydney G. Trist, secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society , enclosing a typed page by Dr. Stephen F. Smith , read before the National Individualist Club in 1898 about the use of curare in vivisection. Trist’s letter is not extant.
I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity toward it, & is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling, with me, & is so strong & so deeply rooted in my make & constitution that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction [MTP].
Note: Trist was also the editor of The Animals’ Friend, a mix of serious with fun, which began in 1894. Gribben points out that Sam referred to Professor Ernst Wilhelm Ritter von Brucke’s (1819-1892) work, Vorlesungen uber Physiologie (1873-4), though he misspells Trist as “Trust” [107]. Sam also referred to Eduard Freidrich Wilhelm Pflüger’s (1829-1910) journal while writing an article on vivisection [541].
Sam also wrote to Eduard Pötzl.
The New York papers have asked me about my audience [with the Emperor Franz Josef], & I have telegraphed the following, which I consider quite nice because it is dignified & does not give any information: It was only a pleasant unconstrained private conversation on matters unconnected with international policy. I was very much wanting to explain my ply, now in the hands of the Secretary of State in Washington, for insuring universal peace, but I feared his majesty would laugh, or else consider it too radical.
Print that, if you think it worth it—& this also:
All the papers in America will telegraph the Secretary of State to ask what the plan is—then they will find out that I have invented a way to suddenly exhaust the life-principle of the atmosphere & kill the whole human race in four minutes. / Sincerely Yours / SLC
Love to you & good-bye. Kindest regards from the family. Aufwiedersehen!
The Secretary of State [John Hay] is a very old friend of mine; & I put that plan in a letter to him lately & asked him to submit it to the War Office [MTP and New York Times 11 June 1899 in part].
The Clemens party of five (Katy Leary had returned from the US some time before, after the death of her father on Mar. 29) was scheduled to leave Vienna at 3 p.m. Thomas Cook & Son agent took their trunks at 10 a.m. At 2 p.m. the Cook agent returned to take the five to the Franz-Josefs-Banhof rail station in Alsergrund, Vienna’s ninth district. There was a crowd waiting at the station with flowers to see them off [Dolmetsch 312]. Clara Clemens recalled the farewell:
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.