Sunday, October 4:
Various Hoffmann and Bruckner capers, to the great annoyance of Richard, whose work is much hindered thereby. Visit from a cathedral organist from Augsburg, an enthusiastic Swabian with all the warmth and vitality of the South German character. In the evening the mayor, still in connection with the Hoffmann affair.
R. tells me that when he was drinking his beer at Angermann’s, a Jewish piano teacher tripped over Rus; when R. asked his pardon on Rus’s behalf, Karpeles replied: “Oh, for me your dogs are sacred creatures, I know about Fips and Peps.” We are astonished over these propensities of the Jews, who, like the Jesuits, can sniff out everything.
R. forbids our painter the word “colossal,” which he is constantly using; he tells me that in his youth he had also used such words and it was Schröder-Devrient who had drawn his attention to it, saying to him, “Don’t speak in such an affected way” — “a sign that she was interested in me,” R. adds, “and I was ashamed.”