will be with this as with "Lohengrin," which now is thirteen
years old, and is still dead to me. But the clouds seem breaking,
they are breaking--I am going to Vienna soon. There they are going
to give me a surprise. It is supposed to be kept a secret from me,
but a friend has informed me that they are going to bring out
"Lohengrin."

--_Wagner in a Letter to Praeger_

RICHARD WAGNER

Absurd and silly people make jokes about mothers-in-law, stepmothers and
stepfathers--we will none of this. My heart warms to the melancholy
Jacques, who dedicated his book to his mother-in-law, "my best friend,
who always came when she was needed and never left so long as there was
work to do." Richard Wagner's stepfather was his patient, loving and
loyal friend.

The father of Wagner died when the child was six months old. The mother,
scarcely turned thirty, had a brood of seven, no money and many debts.
There is trouble for you--ye silken, perfumed throng, who nibble
cheese-straws, test the hyson when it is red, and discuss the
heartrending aspects of the servant-girl problem to the lascivious
pleasings of a lute!

But the widow Wagner was not cast down to earth--she resolved on keeping
her family together, caring for them all as best she could. The
suggestion from certain kinsmen that the children should be given out
for adoption was quickly vetoed. The fine spirit of the woman won the
admiration of a worthy actor, in slightly reduced circumstances, who had
lodgings in the house of the widow. This actor, Ludwig Geyer by name,
loved the widow and all of the brood, and he proposed that they pool
their poverty.

And so before Mrs. Wagner had been a widow a twelvemonth they were
married.

In this marriage Geyer seemed to be moved to a degree by the sentiment
of friendship for his friend, the deceased husband. Geyer was a man of
many virtues--amiable, hopeful, kind. He had the artistic temperament
without its faults. To writers of novels, in search of a very choice
central character, Ludwig Geyer affords great possibilities. He was as
hopeful as Triplett and a deal more versatile. The histrionic art
afforded him his income of eleven dollars a week; but painting was his
forte--if he only had time to devote to the technique! Yet all the arts
being one he had written a play; he also modeled in clay and sang tenor
parts as understudy to the great Schudenfeldt. Hope, good-cheer and a
devotion to art wer