186.—A KIND ACT.
Paganini was not, as a general thing, noted for deeds of charity. In fact, he became quite a miser in his later days. For this reason the following incident is all the more peculiar.
He happened, in the course of a walk on the streets of Vienna, to come across a miserable little fellow sawing away on an old fiddle. On inquiry the great violinist learned that the boy was trying to maintain an invalid mother and several little brothers and sisters by his street playing. Paganini, touched by the boy's destitute circumstances, took the old fiddle and began to play in his marvelous manner; and after a crowd had collected he himself passed around the hat and collected a goodly sum from the bystanders, adding to it all the money he had in his own pockets.