“That man was smarter than I thought. In a few months he was better known at Vienna than myself; his Paganini cab created a sensation. He had great good luck with it, for everybody wanted to ride in it and he charged good prices.
“When I returned to Vienna two years later, my driver was the owner of the hotel at which I had stayed, and an Englishman had bought the cabriolet for one thousand pounds.”
Meyerbeer’s Preference
Meyerbeer’s nephew came to Rossini, to beg of him to listen to a funeral march he had composed on the death of his uncle, and to pass his judgment upon it.
After Rossini had listened patiently he said:
“That is all very well. Yet, I should like it better if you had died and your uncle had composed the funeral march.”
Rossini and His Watch
The famous composer possessed a magnificent watch that his king had presented to him. It was a repeater and also a musical watch, for it played the maestro’s prayer from “Moses in Egypt.” But not until after he had owned it for six years, did he understand it fully. Rossini took a boyish delight in showing it and making it play, and one day he did so while in a café.
A stranger who sat near was attracted by the music, and just as Rossini was going to put it back in his pocket, he stepped up to him and said: “You have a very valuable watch there, sir, but I’ll wager that you do not know all its capabilities.”
Rossini, much surprised said: “I have carried it now for six years, in honor of my king. It has never varied one minute, it repeats the hour, quarter-hour, tells the minutes and the day of the month, and plays as you have just heard, the prayer from ‘Moses.’”