Poor Livy! She is laid up with rheumatism; but
she is getting along now. We have a good doctor,
and he says she will be out of bed in a couple of
days, but must stay in the house a week or ten.
Clara is working faithfully at her music, Jean at
her usual studies, and we all send love.
Mark.
Mention has already been made of the
political excitement in Vienna. The trouble
between the Hungarian and German legislative bodies
presently became violent. Clemens found
himself intensely interested, and was present
in one of the galleries when it was cleared by
the police. All sorts of stories were circulated
as to what happened to him, one of which was
cabled to America. A letter to Twichell
sets forth what really happened.
To Rev. J. H. Twichell,
in Hartford:
HotelMetropole,
Vienna,
Dec. 10, ’97.
Dear Joe,—Pond sends me a Cleveland
paper with a cablegram from here in it which says
that when the police invaded the parliament and expelled
the 11 members I waved my handkerchief and shouted
‘Hoch die Deutschen!’ and got hustled
out. Oh dear, what a pity it is that one’s
adventures never happen! When the Ordner (sergeant-at-arms)
came up to our gallery and was hurrying the people
out, a friend tried to get leave for me to stay, by
saying, “But this gentleman is a foreigner—you
don’t need to turn him out—he won’t
do any harm.”
“Oh, I know him very well—I recognize
him by his pictures; and I should be very glad to
let him stay, but I haven’t any choice, because
of the strictness of the orders.”
And so we all went out, and no one was hustled.
Below, I ran across the London Times correspondent,
and he showed me the way into the first gallery and
I lost none of the show. The first gallery had
not misbehaved, and was not disturbed.
. . . We cannot persuade Livy to go out in
society yet, but all the lovely people come to see
her; and Clara and I go to dinner parties, and around
here and there, and we all have a most hospitable good
time. Jean’s woodcarving flourishes, and
her other studies.
Good-bye Joe—and we all love all of you.
Mark.
Clemens made an article of the Austrian
troubles, one of the best things he ever wrote,
and certainly one of the clearest elucidations of
the Austro-Hungarian confusions. It was published
in Harper’s Magazine, and is now included
in his complete works.
Thus far none of the Webster Company
debts had been paid—at least, none
of importance. The money had been accumulating
in Mr. Rogers’s hands, but Clemens was
beginning to be depressed by the heavy burden.
He wrote asking for relief.
