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The great size of the timber here impressed me. The officer in charge turned out to be an old friend from Toronto, Major A. M. Jarvis. I also met John Schott, the gigantic half-breed, who went to the Barren Grounds with Caspar Whitney in 1895. He seemed to have great respect for Whitney as a tramper, and talked much of the trip, evidently having forgotten his own shortcomings of the time.
Being animated by the desire to provide myself with money for as long a time as possible, I offered him not only the literary rights, but also the rights of performance for my work, for the sum of twenty thousand francs. A telegram from Schott containing an absolute refusal at once destroyed all hope. As I was now obliged to think of other means, I decided to turn to Berlin.
Gaspar Schott of Numberg, in 1664, refers to this Greek machine as an "aquatic kettle;" but mentions, as preferable in his estimation, a species of "aquatic armour," which enabled those who wore it to walk under water. The "aquatic kettle" was doubtless the embryo of the diving-bell.
At that he reaches into the port side of his coat, unbuttons the lining, and hauls out another sheaf of leaves. "Then we are able to offer you," says Schott, "a choice of bindings which includes samples of work from the most skilful artisans in that line. At tremendous expense we have reproduced twelve celebrated bindings. I have them here."
Dowd, the golf addict, is still in the private office givin' Old Hickory another earful about the Scotch plague, ain't he?" "No, sir," says Vincent. "Mr. Ellins asked him to wait half an hour or so. He's in the director's room." "Maybe I'd better take a look at your Mr. Schott first then," says I. But after I'd gone out and given him the north and south careful I was right where I started.
Schott produces from somewhere inside his coat a half pound or so of printed pages and shoves them on Dowd. "The illustrations," he goes on, "are all reproduced in colors by our new process, and are copies of famous paintings by the world's greatest artists. There are to be more than three hundred, but I have here a few prints of these priceless works of art which will give you an idea."
My leavetaking at the station was made particularly gay by Cornelius, who whispered to me with mysterious enthusiasm a stanza of 'Sachs' which I had communicated to him. In Mayence I got to know the Schott family, with whom I had only had a casual acquaintance in Paris, more intimately.
Subsequently, when I had made a quick reputation for myself in Dresden through my Rienzi, Schott the publisher in Mainz, who dealt almost exclusively in works translated from the French, thought it advisable to bring out a German edition of the Two Grenadiers.
Schott of Mayence, one thousand florins having been obtained for the Mass, and six hundred for the Symphony. This put him in easy circumstances for a while, although the money question was a source of anxiety to him, more or less, for the remainder of his life. The ten thousand florins invested in Bank of Austria shares in 1815 was almost intact.
I announced my intention to my friends there immediately, but decided first to try and provide myself with enough money to be in a position to suggest a composition with my creditors. To this end I had written most urgently to Schott at Mayence, and did not refrain from reproaching him bitterly for his behaviour to me.