the recipient, and I, if I may be permitted to say so, the
benefactor; you are so kind, and I reject your advances so ungraciously.
Your distinguished visit will always confer honor on my dwelling. Only I
should like to ask you to be so very kind as to notify me beforehand of
the day of your coming, in order that you may not be unduly delayed nor
I be compelled to interrupt unceremoniously some business in which I may
be engaged at the time. For my mornings are also devoted to a definite
purpose. At any rate, I consider it my duty to my patrons and
benefactors to offer something not entirely unworthy in return for their
gifts. I have no desire to be a beggar, sir; I am very well aware of the
fact that the other street musicians are satisfied to reel off a few
street ditties, German waltzes, even melodies of indecent songs, all of
which they have memorized. These they repeat incessantly, so that the
public pays them either in order to get rid of them, or because their
playing revives the memory of former joys of dancing or of other
disorderly amusements. For this reason such musicians play from memory,
and sometimes, in fact quite frequently, strike the wrong note. But far
be it from me to deceive. Partly, therefore, because my memory is not of
the best, partly because it might be difficult for any one to retain in
his memory, note for note, complicated compositions of esteemed
composers, I have made a clear copy for myself in these note-books."
With these words he showed me the pages of his music-book. To my
amazement I saw in a careful, but awkward and stiff handwriting,
extremely difficult compositions by famous old masters, quite black with
passage-work and double-stopping. And these selections the old man
played with his clumsy fingers! "In playing these pieces," he continued,
"I show my veneration for these esteemed, long since departed masters
and composers, satisfy my own artistic instincts, and live in the
pleasant hope that, in return for the alms so generously bestowed upon
me, I may succeed in improving the taste and hearts of an audience
distracted and misled on many sides. But since music of this
character--to return to my subject"--and at these words a self-satisfied
smile lighted up his features--"since music of this kind requires
practice, my morning hours are devoted exclusively to this exercise. The
first three hours of the day for practice, the middle of the day for
earning my living, the evening for my