To Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett
20 August 1878 • Lucerne, Switzerland
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01587)

Lucerne, Aug. 20

My Dear Mother & Sister:

We came into Switzerland a week or ten days ago, & all are enjoying it immensely—the others because the scenery is so fine, & I because they let me lie abed & smoke all day while they do the excursioning. I loathe all travel except on foot—& rheumatism has barred that to a considerable extent. Twichell & I took a stroll of a couple of days in the Black Forest, & another up the Neckar to Heilbron, & another to the summit of the Rigi, where the rheumatism captured me once more & we had to come down with the others by rail. It was a good deal like coming down a ladder by rail. I did not like it.

The tribe are well, just now, though we have had a doctor most of the time since we left home. We have all been in the doctor’s hands, even Rosa. Livy & Miss Spaulding have gone excursioning around the lake in a steamboat, to-day, with the Courier, & Twichell is away on a 3-days trip in the neighboring Alps by himself. I begged off from these dissipations; I had a good many letters to write.

With love to you all,

Sam.

Our address for several months will be, “Care E. M. Smith, Esq., Lang’s Hotel, Heidelberg, Germany.”