Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/107

 subjects. After this had gone on for a day, or even a few days, they remembered that it was high time for them to return home; then they took leave in the most touching manner, kissed one another, sometimes even shedding tears at the parting, and each one went his way without having talked of the business matters which had brought them together. Of course their affairs drifted from worse to worse, and some further daring grain speculations only served to hasten on the final disaster.

My father was not directly implicated in those speculations, but he could not keep from getting entangled in the difficulties which sprung from them. Although youth is inclined to take matters of business lightly, I became gradually aware that my parents were often in pressing need of money, and I began to share their anxieties. I myself raised the question whether it would be possible for them to keep me any longer at the gymnasium. This was quickly answered by my obtaining a fellowship which covered a large part of my expenses; and besides I resolved to tutor junior pupils, thus earning the rest of the money needed. I threw myself into this new task with eagerness. The tuition fees amounted to about six and a half cents per hour, but they were sufficient to enable me to work my way up to the highest class but one.

Suddenly my parents were cheered by apparently more hopeful prospects. My father found an opportunity for selling his property in Liblar at a price which would enable him to discharge his obligations and furnish the means for a new livelihood. As soon as the sale was concluded he removed with the family to Bonn, where I was to go to the university after having absolved the gymnasium. In Bonn my father made arrangements with an old friend which put him in possession of a spacious house, the lower part of which was used as a restaurant for students, while in the upper stories were several