Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great MusiciansHubbard, Elbert
History
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians
Hubbard, Elbert
Composers
Yes, Mozart needed me to plan his tours and market his wares. I'm no
genius, and although they say I was an infant terrible, I never was an
infant prodigy. At the tender age of six, Mozart was giving concerts and
astonishing Europe with his subtle skill. At a like age I could catch a
horse with a nubbin, climb his back, and without a saddle or bridle
drive him wherever I listed by the judicious use of a tattered hat. Of
course I took pains to mount only a horse that had arrived at years of
discretion, matronly brood-mares or run-down plow-horses; but this is
only proof of my practical turn of mind. Mozart never learned how to
control either horse or man by means of a tattered hat or diplomacy:
music was his hobby, and it was long years after his death before the
world discovered that his hobby was no hobby at all, but a genuine
automobile that carried him miles and miles, clear beyond all his
competitors: so far ahead that he was really out of shouting distance.
Indeed, Mozart took such an early start in life and drove his machinery
so steadily, not to say so furiously, that at thirty-five all the
bearings grew hot for lack of rebabbitting, and the vehicle went the way
of the one-horse shay--all at once and nothing first, just as bubbles do
when they burst.
At the age which Mozart died I had seen all I wanted to of business
life, in fact I had made a fortune, being the only man in America who
had all the money he wanted, and so just turned about and went to
college. This I firmly hold is a better way than to be sent to college
and then go into trade later and forget all you ever learned at school.
I had rather go to college than be sent. Every man should get rich, that
he might know the worthlessness of riches; and every man should have a
college education, just to realize how little the thing is worth.
Yes, Mozart needed a good friend whose abilities could have rounded out
and made good his deficiencies. Most certainly I could not do the
things that he did, but I should have been his helper, and might, too,
had not a century, one wide ocean, and a foreign language separated us.
* * * * *
Waterloo: Friendship is better than love for a steady diet. Suspicion,
jealousy, prejudice and strife follow in the wake of love; and disgrace,
murder and suicide lurk just around the corner from where love coos.
Love is a matter of propinquity; it makes demands, asks for proofs,
requires a token. But friendship seeks no ownership--it only hopes to
serve, and it grows by giving. Do not say, please, that this applies
also to love. Love bestows only that it may receive, and a one-sided
passion turns to hate in a night, and then demands vengeance as its
right and portion.
Friendship asks no rash promises, demands no foolish vows, is strongest
in absence, and most loyal when needed. It lends ballast to life, and
gives steadily to every venture. Through our friends we are made
brothers to all who live.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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