[Autograph in the Liszt Museum at Weimar]
Budapest, March 22nd, 1883
Dear and most excellent One,
[Chere excellentissime]
It is really extraordinary that after so many years of constant practice in works of mercy you are not ruined. Your life seems to me one vast symphony of generosity, munificence, charities, gifts and attentions as delicate as they are costly. To begin with, there are Garibaldi and his people, and to continue indefinitely there are those poor German fellows, ill at Rome, and buried there at your expense; and then the fighting Cretans, the infirm people in your hospital at Jena, the societies for the protection of animals, etc., etc.
I admire you and bow before your perpetual kindnesses and goodness,—all the more because you exercise them unobtrusively, as it were in the shade, without any flourish of trumpets and drums.
Do not scold me for having divided the gift you confided to me for the sufferers from the inundations at Raab. 300 florins were amply sufficient for them, and the other 300 florins of your 50 pounds sterling were well employed for the children's gardens (an admirable institution of Frobel's), of which Madame Tisza, the wife of the President of Council of the Ministers of Hungary, is the president in this country.
I send you herewith Madame Tisza's thanks (in Hungarian, with a
German translation), and the receipt of Count Thun,—supreme
Count (an ancient title still preserved,—"Obergespan" in German)
of the Committee of Raab.
I preferred to send your gift in the name of Madame E. de Schwartz, and not to mix up your nom de plume of Elpis Melena with it. Pardon me this innocent bit of arbitrariness.
Shall I see you again, my very dear friend, this summer at
Weimar? I hope so, and I remain sempper ubique