n forfeited, and times of pinching poverty followed, and sorrows
came like the gathering of a winter night.

Have you never shared the mocking shame and biting pain of a drunkard's
household? Then God grant you never may. When the world withdraws its
faith from a man through his own imbecility, and employment is denied;
when promises are unkept; when order and system are gone, and foresight
fled, and loud accusation, threat and contumely vary their strident
tones with maudlin protestations of affection, and vows made to be
broken, easily change to curses; when the fire dies on the hearth, and
children huddle in bed in the daytime for warmth; when the scanty food
that is found is eaten ravenously, and blanching fear comes when a heavy
tread and fumbling at the lock are heard in the hall--these things
challenge language for fit expression and cause words to falter.

The moody and dispirited Johann one day conceived a bright thought--a
thought so vivid that for the moment it cleared the cobwebs from his
mind and sobered his boozy brain--the genius of his five-year-old boy
should be exploited to retrieve his battered fortunes!

The child was already showing signs of musical talent; and diligent
practise was now begun. Several chums at the beer-gardens were
interviewed and great plans unfolded in beery enthusiasm. The services
of several of these men were secured as tutors, and one of them,
Pfeiffer, took lodgings with the Biethofens, and paid for bed and board
in music-lessons.

A new thought is purifying, ideas are hygienic; and already things had
begun to look brighter for the household. It wasn't exactly prosperity,
but Johann had found a place in the band, and was earning as much as
three dollars a week, which amount for two weeks running he brought home
and placed in his wife's lap.

But things were grievous for young Beethoven: he had two taskmasters,
his father and Pfeiffer. One gave him lessons on the violin in the
morning, and the other took him to a tavern where there was a clavichord
and made him play all the afternoon.

Then occasionally Johann and Pfeiffer would come home at two o'clock in
the morning from a concert where they had been playing and where the
wine was red and also free, and they would drag the poor child from his
bed to make him play. This was followed up until the boy's mother
rebelled, and on one occasion Pfeiffer and Johann were sent to the
military hospital and dry-docked for repairs.