5 August 1878 • Allerheiligen, Germany (MS, in pencil: MoHM and CU-MARK, UCCL 01583)
8.30 PM.
Livy darling, we had a rattling good time todayⒶemendation, but we came very near being left at Baden-Baden, for instead of waiting in the waiting-roomⒶemendation, we sat down on the plla Ⓐemendation platform to wait where the trains come in from the other direction. We sat there full ten minutes—& then all of a sudden it occurred to me that that was not the right place.
On the train the principal of the big English school at Neŭnheim (of which Mr. Scheiding was a teacher,) introduced himself to me, & then he mapped out our day for us (for today & to-morrowⒶemendation) & also drew a map & gave us directions how to proceed through Switzerland. He had his entire shchoolⒶemendation with him, taking them on a prodigious trip through Switzerland—tickets for the round trip ten dollars apiece. He has done this annually for 10 years. We took a post carriage from Achern to Otterhöfen for 7 marks—stopped at the “Pflug” to drink beer, & saw that pretty girl again at a distance. Her father, mother, & two brothers received me like an ancient customer & sat down & talked as long as I had any German left. The big room was full of red-vested farmers (the Gemeindrath of the district, with the Burgermeister at the head,) drinking beer & talking public business. They had held an election & chosen a new member & been drinking beer at his expense for several hours. It was intensely Black-foresty.
There was an Australian there (a student from s Stuttgart or somewhere,) & Joe told him who I was & he laid himself out to make our course plain for us—so I am certain we can’t get lost between here & Heidelberg.
We walked the carriage road till we came to that place where one sees the footpath on the other side of a ravine, then we crossed over & took that. For a good while we were in a dense forest & judged we were lost, but met 2 native women who said we were all right. We fooled along & got here at 6 P.M—ate supper, then followed down the ravine to the foot of the falls, then struck into a blind path to see where it would go to, & th Ⓐemendation m◇ just about dark we fetched up at the Devil’s Pulpit (where you & I were,) on top of the hills. Then home. And now to bed, pretty sleepy & requiring no whisky. Joe sends love & I send a thousand times as much, my darling.
Mrs. S. L. Clemens | Hotel de France | Baden-Baden on the flap: slc first postmark torn away, second only partly legible: postmarked: ◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇g. 8 i-iv
MS, in pencil, MoHM (letter); CU-MARK (envelope).
MTL , 1:332–34, partial publication; Davis 1980, 2; Christie’s catalog, 5 December 1991, lot 191, partial publication; Sotheby’s catalog, 19 June 2003, lot 33, partial publication and partial facsimile.
Chester L. Davis, Sr., probably acquired the MS from Clara Clemens Samossoud sometime between 1949 and 1962 (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter). After his death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie’s in December 1991. Then or thereafter it was bought by Nick Karanovich and sold after his death in 2003 through Sotheby’s to MoHM. The envelope, which formerly accompanied 23 Aug 78 to Olivia L. Clemens, is conjecturally assigned to the present letter on the basis of internal evidence.