To punish her, the father declared he would make her learn to play the instrument she had tampered with. He expected she would shrink from this as a heavy punishment, but was greatly surprised to see her run eagerly to the violin and draw from it a series of smooth and pleasant musical tones.
Being a sensible man, he resolved to cultivate this faculty, and in due time Mara became a brilliant violinist, and later, winning great renown as a singer, the father was able to lay aside the repairing of voices and instruments.
248.—RICHARD WAGNER AND THE NUMBER "13."
If the number "13" is, as many people believe, an unlucky one, certainly the life of Richard Wagner must have been full of ill-luck; for this cabalistic set of figures turns up at all times and places in his biography. While Wagner had, during some periods of his life, a hard battle with the non-appreciation of his fellow-musicians, we would hardly like to believe, after reading the last thirty years of his biography, that his life was an utter failure! So perhaps there is not so much bad fortune in the number "13" as the superstitious Scotchmen would have us believe. But the recurrence of this number so frequently is a peculiar coincidence.
A statistically inclined writer has made the following list:—
Wagner was born in 1813 and died on the 13th of the month; there are 13 letters in his name, and the sum of the figures in 1813 equals 13. The full date of his death was the 13th day of the second month in '83; it makes 13 twice viz., first 13, and again 2+8+3=13. He composed 13 operas or "music-dramas." His first and determining impression in favor of a dramatic career was formed on the 13th of the month. He was influenced in his choice emphatically by hearing Weber's "Freischütz," and by Wilhelmine Shröder-Devrient. The latter went
