203.—WAGNER AND THE BEGGARS.
Wagner had a favorite walk near his Bayreuth home, which ran through some two miles of beautiful scenery, and over this route he could wander undisturbed, for the little Franconian peasant boys and girls who saw him from afar would not molest him, having heard from their parents that the affairs of Germany would somehow get out of joint if they disturbed the great man in his meditation.
One day a small maiden was so hardy as to loiter in his path and beg for a Silbergroschen. With a smile of surprise Wagner lifted the child, kissed her, and presented her with a golden tenthaler piece, for, though keen to make money, he was free in expenditure when he had any whim to gratify. The news of his liberality brought out a troop of Franconian beggars of all sizes; but the composer's mood had changed, and he plied the backs of his tormentors with the famous ebony and gold staff given him by the Männergesangverein of Vienna. The Burgomaster of Bayreuth was much agitated over this affair, and had serious thoughts of providing the composer with an escort of policemen, so that his path might be kept clear every day.
For some time Wagner did not put in an appearance at Angermann's Brauerei, where he had been accustomed to spend an hour or two every afternoon; and it was rumored that he intended to leave the city. But he had only secluded himself for one of his periodical paroxysms of composition, during which he was unapproachable; but after he had again returned to the outer world he came back to his usual haunts, and magnanimously forgave the beggars he had beaten.