"Well, partly; but not entirely.Of course I do a stroke of business if it falls in the way--""Good! I like that in you! That's me every time.Go on.""I was only going to say I am off on my vacation now.""Well that's all right.No harm in that.A man works all the better for a little let-up now and then.Not that I've been used to having it myself; for I haven't.I reckon this is my first.I was born in Germany, and when I was a couple of weeks old shipped to America, and I've been there ever since, and that's sixty-four years by the watch.I'm an American in principle and a German at heart, and it's the boss combination.
Well, how do you get along, as a rule--pretty fair?""I've a rather large family--"
"There, that's it--big family and trying to raise them on a salary.Now, what did you go to do that for?""Well, I thought--"
"Of course you did.You were young and confident and thought you could branch out and make things go with a whirl, and here you are, you see! But never mind about that.I'm not trying to discourage you.Dear me! I've been just where you are myself! You've got good grit; there's good stuff in you, I can see that.You got a wrong start, that's the whole trouble.But you hold your grip, and we'll see what can be done.Your case ain't half as bad as it might be.You are going to come out all right--I'm bail for that.Boys and girls?""My family? Yes, some of them are boys--""And the rest girls.It's just as I expected.But that's all right, and it's better so, anyway.What are the boys doing--learning a trade?"
"Well, no--I thought--"
"It's a big mistake.It's the biggest mistake you ever made.You see that in your own case.A man ought always to have a trade to fall back on.Now, I was harness-maker at first.Did that prevent me from becoming one of the biggest brewers in America? Oh no.I always had the harness trick to fall back on in rough weather.Now, if you had learned how to make harness--However, it's too late now; too late.But it's no good plan to cry over spilt milk.But as to the boys, you see--what's to become of them if anything happens to you?""It has been my idea to let the eldest one succeed me--""Oh, come! Suppose the firm don't want him?""I hadn't thought of that, but--"
"Now, look here; you want to get right down to business and stop dreaming.You are capable of immense things--man.You can make a perfect success in life.All you want is somebody to steady you and boost you along on the right road.Do you own anything in the business?""No--not exactly; but if I continue to give satisfaction, Isuppose I can keep my--"
"Keep your place--yes.Well, don't you depend on anything of the kind.They'll bounce you the minute you get a little old and worked out; they'll do it sure.Can't you manage somehow to get into the firm? That's the great thing, you know.""I think it is doubtful; very doubtful."
"Um--that's bad--yes, and unfair, too.Do you suppose that if I should go there and have a talk with your people-- Look here--do you think you could run a brewery?""I have never tried, but I think I could do it after a little familiarity with the business."The German was silent for some time.He did a good deal of thinking, and the king waited curiously to see what the result was going to be.Finally the German said:
"My mind's made up.You leave that crowd--you'll never amount to anything there.In these old countries they never give a fellow a show.Yes, you come over to America--come to my place in Rochester; bring the family along.You shall have a show in the business and the foremanship, besides.George--you said your name was George?--I'll make a man of you.I give you my word.
You've never had a chance here, but that's all going to change.
By gracious! I'll give you a lift that'll make your hair curl!"------------------------------------------------------------------AT THE SHRINE OF ST.WAGNER
Bayreuth, Aug.2d, 1891
It was at Nuremberg that we struck the inundation of music-mad strangers that was rolling down upon Bayreuth.It had been long since we had seen such multitudes of excited and struggling people.It took a good half-hour to pack them and pair them into the train--and it was the longest train we have yet seen in Europe.Nuremberg had been witnessing this sort of experience a couple of times a day for about two weeks.It gives one an impressive sense of the magnitude of this biennial pilgrimage.
For a pilgrimage is what it is.The devotees come from the very ends of the earth to worship their prophet in his own Kaaba in his own Mecca.
If you are living in New York or San Francisco or Chicago or anywhere else in America, and you conclude, by the middle of May, that you would like to attend the Bayreuth opera two months and a half later, you must use the cable and get about it immediately or you will get no seats, and you must cable for lodgings, too.
Then if you are lucky you will get seats in the last row and lodgings in the fringe of the town.If you stop to write you will get nothing.There were plenty of people in Nuremberg when we passed through who had come on pilgrimage without first securing seats and lodgings.They had found neither in Bayreuth;they had walked Bayreuth streets a while in sorrow, then had gone to Nuremberg and found neither beds nor standing room, and had walked those quaint streets all night, waiting for the hotels to open and empty their guests into trains, and so make room for these, their defeated brethren and sisters in the faith.They had endured from thirty to forty hours' railroading on the continent of Europe--with all which that implies of worry, fatigue, and financial impoverishment--and all they had got and all they were to get for it was handiness and accuracy in kicking themselves, acquired by practice in the back streets of the two towns when other people were in bed; for back they must go over that unspeakable journey with their pious mission unfulfilled.