Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 171
Scan 171
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 151. See the scan on archive.org.
1The poor German artiste had never been favoured by fortune; and his suffering appears to have reached its climax when his young wife Anna, a mere girl, a charming jungfrau, fresh and blooming as the wild flowers of her native hills, died of fever only a few days after the birth of their first child, the subject of my narrative.
3Poor before, he was now utterly miserable. The world had become a blank for him, and he cared for nothing. He became quite incapable of throwing off his despondency and emerging from the social obscurity with which he was surrounded in the dull little town.
5One thing alone seemed to rouse Schmöhling's broken spirits; it was when his eyes happened to fall upon his little child, the offspring of the dearly beloved Anna, and the living image of its mother, so soon removed for ever from this world of anxious care and strife. The sight of her stimulated him to fresh exertions, though his life had lost all its charms, and misery of every kind weighed heavily upon him.
7His modest and dingy lodging was on the second floor of a little house near the entrance to the town; it was of the poorest description; and now grief and distress added their mournful tints to the picture.
9Whilst the father, in pursuit of daily sustenance, was absent from home—if, indeed, such a deno-
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