Part 4 (1/2)

Greatly as my suspicions were increased by this, I hoped that everything was due merely to misunderstanding, and I proposed to Herr Andre to let me go to Vienna, where I would inform myself thoroughly and make strong efforts to obtain the franchise. He denied my request, saying that there was nothing more to do in Vienna, as the Government had turned both women away, and the whole plan was spoiled as the whole art and copper-etching trade had become apprehensive and was united in opposition to the new process. He said that I should rather go quickly to work to transfer his music from zinc plates to the stone, because he had an excellent opportunity to sell his entire stock of zincs, which would give us a new capital of forty thousand gulden for the greater enterprises.

I realized the good sense of this, but would not admit that a delay of three or four weeks could interfere with it, as the entire transfers could not be completed in less than a year, and the slight delay, therefore, could be made up by additional work or by engaging a few more a.s.sistants. I insisted on my demand, all the more as I had spent seven months in England on his account. In the heat of the succeeding dispute he reminded me of the helpless position in which he had found me, and said that as partner in his business, I owed him all my present fortune.

Conscious as I was of my honest intention to help him to the best of my ability, and also of the unbounded trustfulness with which I had imparted to him far more than was called for in our contract, I was so deeply hurt that I forgot myself and tore up our agreement, which had been signed only the day before and which a.s.sured for me one fifth of all profits of the Andre business. I threw the pieces down with the exclamation that I did not wish to make my fortune through his means.

This was one of the most important moments in my life, and in the process of lithography. It gave my work an entirely new direction, hurled me into a ma.s.s of troubles, and brought it about that Herr Andre himself did not gain anything like the expected profits from the new art. Indeed, he lost heavily in London and France, whereas, had we remained together, lithography might now be highly perfected in both these countries and produce no small wealth for its users.

When Andre saw that I was determined to go to Vienna, he yielded, but a.s.sured me that I would go in vain and achieve no result.

The lawsuit between Madame Gleissner and my mother, which Herr Andre considered the greatest obstacle in his way, still continued; and in order to get it out of the way once and for all, I took my brothers, George and Theobald, who had been dismissed by Herr Andre, to Vienna with me to combine with me. Andre told me afterward, after our relations had reached final rupture, that this act had annoyed him most, and that it was the main reason for giving up all dealings with me, because it was inconceivable to him how any one, without the utmost weakness of character, could forgive such treachery as theirs. He did not reflect that I, who knew selfishness only by name, had not felt their affront so keenly, and that my brotherly affection excused it and made me trust that it never had been their intention to shut me out entirely from any gains they might make.

PART II

FROM 1800 TO 1806

It was in August, 1800, that I went to Vienna with my brothers. In Regensburg we met my mother, who had come to visit one of her daughters because the decision of the Imperial Austrian Government had been delayed too long for her patience. She a.s.sured me that when she pet.i.tioned for the privilege she had named not only my brothers but me, too, and had asked it for us three.

This a.s.surance gave me great joy, and I determined absolutely to urge Madame Gleissner to accept my brothers as partners. I thought that if we three worked industriously and unitedly, we would succeed much better and more quickly. I entered Vienna with excellent hopes, based mostly on a letter from Madame Gleissner, saying that the influential man who was interested in our cause had promised to advance us six thousand gulden.

But these fine things retired into dark shadows when I learned, in my first conversation with her, that all these promises were made dependent on conditions.

The whole understanding rested on the following: Madame Gleissner lodged with a prominent family. Andre himself had told her that she was to live well and exhibit no lack of money, because she was much more likely to obtain the franchise if the Government were led to expect that it would bring wealthy people into the country. Therefore Madame Gleissner considered it necessary to take part in all amus.e.m.e.nts and fas.h.i.+ons of her hosts. Her monthly expenditures were beyond the sum considered necessary by Herr Andre's friend in Vienna, who had been authorized to pay her an allowance. Friendly solicitude caused him to write to Offenbach that Madame Gleissner knew nothing of economy, and that it was to be feared if the franchise were not granted in Herr Andre's name, he would have too little power to check her extravagance in the future. He added that judging from her utterances and her present behavior, with the franchise still in question, it was only too likely that she intended to spend Herr Andre's money for show and society instead of for the business.

Therefore, he advised that, unless Andre was sure that Senefelder had enough character to oppose her with the necessary firmness, we be treated solely as subordinates and thus be prevented from using his credit to his loss.

Well meant as this counsel was, it simply furnishes an addition to the thousands of cases where exaggerated timidity, coupled with secrecy, does more harm than good.

Andre knew my intense grat.i.tude to Herr Gleissner and his family, and he suspected that I would always live in a certain dependence on them and would pay little attention to their financial doings. The Gleissners had awakened a fear of their extravagance in him before this time. He knew, for instance, that I had kept little of the money he had paid me for the secret of our process, but had turned almost all over to them. Again, he had granted us the sum of one thousand six hundred gulden for our support in Offenbach until the business should be in operation. Of this Herr Gleissner was to draw six hundred gulden and I one thousand gulden.

I was a bachelor and did not need so much as a family. Therefore I reversed this, and gave Herr Gleissner one thousand gulden, keeping six hundred for myself. But the latter also went into the Gleissner treasury, because Herr Andre, who had come to like me very much, made me live in his house and eat with him. He even kept a horse for me, that I might have the exercise necessary for my health, and if he bought himself a new article of dress I was sure to get one like it; and I had to take part in all the amus.e.m.e.nts of his home, though many times I would rather have worked.

Thus I had absolutely no needs and did not require money. All the more did Madame Gleissner require. She strained everything to be very elegant and could not get along with the money she received, but asked for further, quite considerable advances while I was in London, and Herr Andre granted these willingly through friends.h.i.+p for me.

Therefore Andre's suspicions seemed well founded; and as in his heart he was firmly determined to treat me as a brother, he believed that a mere outward formality and my hitherto quite unknown name would make no real difference, but rather that the Vienna undertaking would benefit if it had his own well-known name and excellent credit at its head in the very beginning.

So he wrote to his friend in Vienna that he agreed with him, and he gave authority to him to act as he thought best for the mutual good.

This gentleman told Madame Gleissner at once that Herr Andre had decided to ask for the franchise in his own name to give value to the undertaking, and that she was to appear before court and declare that she withdrew her pet.i.tion and turned it over to him. She suspected a trick and refused. A dispute followed, and there came rebukes for her heavy expenditures. The climax was reached with the threat that, if she insisted on her refusal, Herr Andre would cease from that moment to let her have any money and would let her support herself.

This last, which Madame Gleissner wrote me in a very bitter letter, outraged me; for I held it cruel to send a woman to a strange city where she had no relatives or friends, and then to tell her: ”Now do my will, or I will leave it to bitter necessity and your own helplessness to tame you.” To be sure, it was only a threat, and surely it never lay in Herr Andre's mind. His friend never ceased to give her money. But the harm had been done.

Madame Gleissner appeared at her host's table with signs of tears that aroused the sympathy of her host, Herr von Bogner, a most worthy and reputable merchant. She told him everything, complained bitterly about my gullibility, and generally painted everything in such colors that Herr Bogner could not well help thinking that Herr Andre did not consider promises any too sincerely. It was only then that he learned Madame Gleissner's business and was told that the new art promised a great profit.

Herr Andre's far-reaching plans for foreign exploitation seemed to him to confirm what she said. Herr Bogner thought that Herr Andre would not invest so much money if stone-print were not a valuable invention, and he asked Madame Gleissner, point-blank: ”Why do you need Herr Andre at all? Try to obtain the Austrian franchise for yourself, and then, if you choose, you can take him into the company. Then he will be obligated to you and will have to meet your wishes, whereas now the reverse is the case.”

Madame Gleissner interposed that Herr Andre had the capital necessary for establis.h.i.+ng the process on a large scale, to which Herr Bogner responded that it was better to begin modestly. ”A good thing,” said he, ”grows of itself. And you must not imagine that we here in Austria have no appreciation of useful inventions and undertakings. There are many who will a.s.sist the arts and industries. There is even a special fund from which as much as one thousand gulden may be advanced to develop an invention that has proved itself to be of merit. I myself might not be disinclined to become a partner after I have examined the matter properly; also I can recommend a very enterprising, active man, who has much weight with the Ministers and even with His Majesty the Emperor, and who has obtained exclusive franchises for others. He is named von Hartl, is Imperial Court Agent, and is a very sensible and honorable man, who will surely tell you at once whether or not anything can be done here with the process.”

Herr von Bogner kept his promise, and introduced Madame Gleissner the very next day to Herr von Hartl. She explained our relations with Andre and described the new invention, wherein, to be sure, she did not fail to boast of its advantages and beauties. Among other specimens she produced a piece of cotton which I had printed in Offenbach.

This was very pretty, the print being so sharp and clear that it seemed to exceed the best English work. It happened that just then a great company with a capital of one and one half million gulden had been formed by Herr von Hartl to introduce English machine-spinning in Austria. They had secured a very skillful English mechanic named Thornton, who had been under contract to erect similar machines for a Hamburg merchant. They had paid a great sum to have him released from this contract, had bought his machines, and had done enough sample work so that it had been resolved to push the enterprise through even if several more millions were needed. The chief objection that was urged at that time was that an adequate sale of the products was doubtful because of the widespread business that the English controlled. The reply was that they must seek to work up a great part of their product themselves,--that is, combine with their spinnery the industries of weaving, dyeing, and cotton-printing.