himself,) he tries all kinds of passages and runs on it, and
works away at it, testing its powers till it is capable of doing
anything, for he labors not for his own benefit alone, (or he
might be saved much trouble,) but for that of music. He often
says, "If I were not such a passionate lover of music, playing
also myself a little on the piano, I should long ago have lost
patience with my work, but I like my instruments to respond to
the player, and to be durable." His pianos do really last well.
He warrants the sounding-board neither breaking nor cracking;
when he has finished one, he exposes it in the air to rain, snow,
sun, and every kind of devilry, that it may give way, and then
inserts slips of wood which he glues in, making it quite strong
and solid. He is very glad when it does crack, for then he is
pretty sure nothing further can happen to it. He frequently makes
cuts into them himself, and then glues them up, thus making them
doubly strong. He has three of these pianos at this moment
finished, and I played on them again to-day.

We dined to-day with young Herr Gassner, who is the handsome
widower of a lovely young wife; they were only married two years.
He is an excellent and kind young man; he gave us a capital
dinner. A colleague of the Abbe Henri Bullinger, and Wishofer
also dined there, and an ex-Jesuit, who is at present
Capellmeister in the cathedral here. He knows Herr Schachtner
well [court-trumpeter at Salzburg], and was leader of his band in
Ingolstadt; he is called Father Gerbl. Herr Gassner, and one of
his wife's unmarried sisters, mamma, our cousin, and I went after
dinner to Herr Stein's. At four o'clock came the Capellmeister
and Herr Schmittbauer, the organist of St. Ulrich, a worthy good
old man. I played at sight a sonata of Becke's, which was rather