My Life and My Efforts Part 10

"Isn't it so, it was yourself you were talking about?"

"Yes", I answered.

"Did you understand everything?"

"No, not yet."

"What about this here?"

He opened a page, where it read: "He who suffers of these severe afflictions, shall keep clear of the place where he was born. He shall never live there for a longer time. And most of all, if he should ever get married, he should by no means get his wife from this place!"

"No, I don't understand this yet", I admitted.

"Nor do I", he conceded. "But think about it!"

This thinking, he had advised me to do, brought me no results.

This was a purely psychological question. In this, experience is the only knowing teacher, and I had to make this experience, before I understood; unfortunately, unfortunately! - - -

VI. Working for the Colportage

I had suffered through it. I returned home. It was a stormy day in spring, it was raining and snowing. Father came towards me.

This time, it also did not cross his mind to give my any reproach.

He had read my ma.n.u.scripts, and he almost knew my letters by heart. He knew now that he had nothing to fear any more concerning my future. He also used this opportunity to talk about Munchmeyer and about the fact that he wanted to come to see me.

"Nothing will come out of it", I said. "This man wants trashy novels, exciting love-stories, nothing else. I won't write this kind of stuff. He'd probably think that I'd be so dishonourable, to piece together a colportage novel out of the gibberish the people have said about me, which would surely earn him a lot of money, but be my destruction. There, he's mistaken. I have entirely different purposes and goals!"

Father agreed with me. When he had reached the hill before the town and saw it lying before us, he pointed at the next village, at a single, newly build house at a distance from the others and asked me:

"Do you know this over there?"

"Isn't this the place where that fire had been?"

"Yes. A few days after you were gone, they found out who had started it. The perpetrator was very swiftly sentenced. He got to prison even before you did. Mother will tell you about it."

"Oh no! I don't want to know anything, nothing at all. Ask her to keep silent about this!"

As early as the very same night, I found out that the local police sergeant had been boasting in the public bar, how harshly he would receive and supervise me for the next two years; he would not let me out of his sight for a single day! He came as soon as the next morning and took on such a haughty posture, that really no person being treated in such a manner could be blamed if he would be turned back to life of crime by this. He a.s.serted that he was my superior for two years, with whom I had to report daily. Than, he pulled a book with the relevant articles of the law out of his pocket, to lecture me on my duties. I did not say a word, but opened the door and motioned him to leave. When he hesitated to comply, I left. I went to the mayor and put an end to this matter. I demanded a pa.s.sport to travel abroad, and when I was informed that this could not be done as easy as this, I went on my way as early as the next day without any pa.s.sport.

On the train, I sat in an otherwise empty compartment. I went across the border. Then, suddenly, raging mad voices started to scream loudly inside of me, shouting and roaring like in a village inn, where the farm-hands are beating each others up with the legs of the chairs. There were hundreds of characters and hundreds of voices, who made this sound. I past times, it would have horrified me; but today I kept cool. These reminiscences of the mora.s.ses, who did not want to set me free, had lost their power over me. I did not react to them, and thus, they were to turn quiet one after another all by themselves.

Where this journey took me and what happened on it, shall be reported in the second volume. In the meantime, Munchmeyer came to ask for me. I was already gone. So, he payed the royalties and went back home without having achieved anything further.

About three quarters of a year later, he appeared again, and not alone, but with his brother. This time, he found me at home, because I had returned to write my "Geographical Sermons" and to have them printed. His brother had been a tailor and had after that also become a colporteur. The business had been running well up to that time, even extraordinarily well; but now it was in danger of collapsing all of a sudden. They needed someone to save them, and this was supposed to be me, me out of all persons! This was incomprehensible to me, because I have had never anything to do with Munchmeyer before and also did not want to have anything to do with him and neither knew him nor the situation he was in.

He explained it to me. He was a cleverly calculating, very eloquent man, and his brother a.s.sisted him in such an excellent manner that I did not simply tell them to leave, but allowed them to state their case. But after they had done this, I was - - - in their web, though I had never thought it possible before that I could ever engage in any kind of business with the "colportage".

Munchmeyer had worked his way up and now owned a not too small printing-office with a large composing room, stereotype printing, etc. But what he published was indeed the lowest form of colportage. He talked about a so-called "Black Book" with lots of stories about criminals, about a so-called "Venustempel" , which would be a real goldmine, and about a few other productions of the same kind. But for today, he was concerned with a weekly magazine, which he published under the t.i.tle "Der Beobachter an der Elbe" . Founder and editor of this magazine was an author from Berlin by the name of Otto Freytag, a very skilful, hard working, but in business matters extremely dangerous person. This man had turned against him, had suddenly run out of the office, had taken all ma.n.u.scripts with him, and now wanted to publish a magazine very similar to the "Observer by the River Elbe", to destroy him. "If I don't get another editor right away, who is better than that person and can take him on, I'm lost!" Munchmeyer concluded his report.

"But why do you come to me out of all persons?" I inquired. "I'm neither an editor, nor have I proven my abilities in any other manner!"

"Let me worry about this! I've heard much about you, and, most of all, I've read your ma.n.u.scripts. I know about these things.

You're the one I need!"

"But I'm planning entirely different things, and no one will persuade me to work for the colportage!"

"Because you don't know it. Good things can just as well be achieved by it. What are your plans anyway?"

I explained my plans to him. This kindled his enthusiasm; he became pa.s.sionate for them. He was one of these people, who enjoy talking ravingly about the higher matters, but make their living of the low things.

"That's really excellent, perfectly excellent!" he exclaimed.

"And you can achieve all of this with me, the best and fastest way is with me!"

"Why?"

"You'll have this stuff printed by me, and you'll destroy this Freytag and his new magazine with this!"

"This would really make things easier. But what if I don't like your 'Observer by the River Elbe'? After all, I don't know it."

"So, we'll discontinue it, and you'll found a new magazine in its place!"

"What kind of a magazine?"

"Whatever you please, as you see fit for your purposes!"

I confess that by this promise he had already won me over more than half of the way. In respect to my plans, this sounded almost like a gift from heaven! He added even further promises, by means of which he made it easy for me to agree to his wishes. In addition, there were my own considerations. Quite unexpectedly, I was hereby offered this most outstanding opportunity to get acquainted with printing, typesetting, stereotyping, and everything else which was a part of this, in the most comfortable manner. For me as an author, this was a very valuable experience, and such an offer would probably never come to me again. The salary, Munchmeyer could afford to pay me, was not so very much, but I was earning enough in royalties on the side that I did not really need it at all. And I was not tied to him at all. He offered me the right to quit quarterannually. Thus, I could have left after every three month, if I should not like it.

"Give it a try! Say yes!" he urged me, counting one month's salary onto the table.

"When would I have to start?" I asked.

"The day after tomorrow or sooner. It's urgent. This Freytag mustn't get the jump on us."

"But you do know that I've been to prison!"

"I know everything. But this doesn't matter."

"And I'm even under police supervision!"

"I didn't know that; but that doesn't matter either. You're the one I'd like to have most of all for this job, not in spite, but because of this! Let's shake hands on it!"

This sounded perfectly moving. He stretched out his hand to me; father and mother nodded to me, asking me to do it; so, I shook hands with him; I was - - - an editor.

When I came to Dresden, I took a furnished room at first, but very soon afterwards, Munchmeyer supplied me with several rooms as the editor's apartment, and I bought the furniture for it. The publis.h.i.+ng company struck me as immensely ugly. The "Black Book"

was downright revoltingly criminal. The "Temple of Venus" turned out to be an abominable project, aiming at the lowest pleasures of the senses, with ribald descriptions and horribly nude, exciting ill.u.s.trations. It was supplemented with remedies for s.e.xually transmitted diseases, with which such large amounts of money were earned, that it seemed almost unbelievable to me. These shameless booklets and pictures were lying around all over the place. The workers, both male and female, took them home. Munchmeyer's four daughters, still school-girls and children at this time, read them and played with them, and when I warned Mrs. Munchmeyer of the consequences, she answered: "What are you thinking! This is our best book! It earns us a lot of money!" I was resolved that this would either have to change or I would leave again without a formal resignation. As far as the "Observer by the River Elbe"

was concerned, the editor of which I had become, I saw right away at the first glance that it would have to disappear. Munchmeyer was reasonable enough to admit this. We discontinued the magazine, and I founded three others in its place, these were two decent, entertaining magazines, which were ent.i.tled "Deutsches Familienblatt" and "Feierstunden" , and a technical as well as entertaining magazine for miners, smelters, and iron-workers, which I gave the t.i.tle "Schacht und Hutte"

. These three magazines were designed to satisfy mainly the spiritual needs of their readers and to bring suns.h.i.+ne into their houses and hearts. Concerning "Schacht und Hutte", I travelled through Germany and Austria to get the large companies e.g. Hartmann, Krupp, Borsig, etc.

interested in it, and since there was a need for such a magazine at that time, I was so successful that even I myself was astonished at it. The circulation of our magazines increased so much that Munchmeyer gave me a piano for Christmas. His compet.i.tor Freytag tried his best, had some success in the beginning, but had to discontinue his magazine after just a short time.

It was in this time of development, that Munchmeyer was sued by authorities from out of town for the publication of the "Temple of Venus". The author of this shameful and trashy piece of literature had been that very same Otto Freytag, who had cut off his affiliation with Munchmeyer only because the latter would not allow him to share in the profits this publication was yielding.