It was arranged that there be an accounting each month, and I looked forward to the end of the first month with great impatience, because I hoped for a considerable income. It was highly necessary, to help me pay off the debt that I had loaded on myself to defray Herr Gleissner's traveling expenses,—a debt that now had stood for two years, and that the skillful manipulations of my dear landlady and her faithful legal adviser had increased from four hundred gulden to two thousand. Many times during the month I inquired as to the sales and received the answer that they were good. I was satisfied, and did not require further statements, as I did not wish to anticipate the pleasant surprise that I expected when the month's accounting was made. But alas! How I was shocked at the end of the month when the sum of ten gulden and forty-eight kreuzer turned out to be all! I did not know how I could appear before Herr von Hartl with the news. My walk to his house was one of the bitterest of my life. I was not received as badly as I had expected. On the contrary, Herr von Hartl comforted me and advised me to have patience, that all beginnings were slow, etc. In short, I enjoyed the most pleasant anticipations again. Unhappily, at the end of the second month the accounting gave us one gulden, thirty-six kreuzer. Now the patience of Herr von Hartl reached its end.
He had just lost heavily again in the Mistelbauer affair. It worried him seriously, and as his health continued poor, he inclined to listen to the advice of his wife, who represented to him that he did not need to burden himself thus, and that he would better pocket his losses and retire from all the matters that worried him.
Therefore, when his secretary, Steiner, advised him to send a certain Grasnitzky to Helmannsöd, he accepted the suggestion, and Grasnitzky went there with unlimited power to do what he thought best. Now of course it was vital that Grasnitzky be absolutely honest, as otherwise it was certain that he would make the worst possible report in order to get everything into his own hands. Hardly had he made a superficial inspection before he reported that Herr von Hartl was being cheated by Mistelbauer. As soon as he had driven the man and his family out of the house and had gained possession of the finished stock that was on hand, he took away everything that was in the hands of the local weavers, and transported it to Linz to be finished and sold.
Hardly had Herr von Hartl received the alarming news that only the highest degree of commercial talent could save the capital that he had invested in this business, before worse news came. While Grasnitzky was in Linz, fire started in Helmannsöd and spread to Mistelbauer's house, which Grasnitzky had locked up. The peasants saved their own houses and were not at all displeased to let the handsome new building, with all its machinery and stock, burn down.
The hard blows were too much for poor Mistelbauer, who was now reduced to total beggary. He became ill and died soon afterward in great misery. Nothing was left now except for Grasnitzky to finish the goods he had saved, and to sell them as well as possible.
Naturally the loss was considerable, despite all efforts; and of course it was an unfavorable circumstance for me that this affair should be contemporary with my failure to sell the sheet-music. Herr von Hartl lost all hope of success with stone-printing, and probably would have given it up entirely, had his secretary, Steiner, not advised him to continue. He pointed out that the small sales were due not to the printing, but to the unwise selection of work, which was almost wholly the composition of a composer quite unknown in Vienna. He said that they needed a man as manager who had the necessary knowledge and who also had a good shop for making sales, and that thus stone-printing would become a veritable gold mine. He proposed the antiquarian Grund, who had a shop in the same street as Herr von Hartl's house. Herr von Hartl agreed.
I was informed that hereafter I was to communicate only with Herr Grund about work, and that he would make all payments in Herr von Hartl's name, select the works to be published, and make quarterly accountings, at which he would deduct thirty per cent for himself.
I was glad, because it relieved me of many cares and I foresaw success once more. New life came into the work. We hired two more writers, and printed bravely. Grund succeeded in inducing Herr von Hartl to increase his investment during the first year so that the original capital of six thousand gulden that was already sunk in the work had grown to twenty thousand gulden. But when at last the fourth quarter passed without an accounting from Grund, and still there was no dividend, he lost patience again, and no doubt Steiner had to bear some censure because of his unfortunate suggestion. To soothe his master he proposed to take everything out of Grund's hands and establish a publishing house. As this would demand more capital, Herr von Hartl declined, being quite sated. Then Steiner came out with the project: he would seek to induce Grasnitzky, who had done so much already, to undertake this business also; he added that he himself was disposed to put in some capital and take a personal part in the business, for a third part of the profits.
Just then I was in fatal embarrassment. The legal adviser of our landlady pressed harshly for payment. He even went to Herr von Hartl. That gentleman sent for me immediately and declared that he would try Steiner's plan, and that it would be his last attempt, and that I could see myself that there was nothing else to do. Since he promised to pay my debt, and I hoped for good results anyway from Herr Steiner's coöperation, I agreed willingly.
Now passed another year, during which a number of pieces of music were printed under Grasnitzky's and Steiner's directions, and some experiments made in art work. An artist, Karl Müller, learned to draw nicely on stone partly with the pen, partly with the brush. Among many, often very excellent efforts, one of his most successful was a copy of Preissler's drawing-lessons. The first number was printed under my direction and came out very well. The other numbers, which were printed when I was in Munich again, were reported as not having been so good. The reason probably was that they were printed with a new press ordered by Herr Grasnitzky, which did not have the power necessary for printing from stone, thus making necessary a softer color not satisfactory for pen-drawing. In the end Herr Steiner is credited with having improved this press very much. I shall describe it in its most complete form in my description of presses which will follow.