Highly esteemed Friend!
As you seem to have assumed the task of making my stay in Bayreuth as agreeable as possible, I beg of you to communicate the following requests to the editor of the local Tageblatt.
The editors will be good enough to leave my name entirely out of their columns, except when it has to do with an actual report of my activity here, and about which they are able to express themselves with authority. To regale the citizens of Bayreuth with newspaper gossip from other places about me in the well-known anecdotal manner, or to report events, concerning which their own experience and exact knowledge does not justify them in forming an opinion, will prove the surest means of spoiling my life for me in Bayreuth.
My request to be spared such nonsense seems to be permissible, as I assume the obligation of giving the editors privately and truthfully all necessary information in regard to important notices. . . .
With sincere thanks for all friendliness and kind offices.
Your truly devoted
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 29