air left
Warsaw September 9, 1828, and after five days travel in a diligence
arrived at Berlin. This was a period of leisure travelling and living.
Frederic saw Spontini, Mendelssohn and Zelter at a distance and heard
"Freischutz." He attended the congress and made sport of the
scientists, Alexander von Humboldt included. On the way home they
stopped at a place called Zullichau, and Chopin improvised on Polish
airs so charmingly that the stage was delayed, "all hands turning in"
to listen. This is another of the anecdotes of honorable antiquity.
Count Tarnowski relates that "Chopin left Warsaw with a light heart,
with a mind full of ideas, perhaps full of dreams of fame and
happiness. 'I have only twenty kreuzers in my pockets,' he writes in
his note-book, 'and it seems to me that I am richer than Arthur
Potocki, whom I met only a moment ago;' besides this, witty
conceptions, fun, showing a quiet and cheerful spirit; for example,
'May it be permitted to me to sign myself as belonging to the circle of
your friends,--F. Chopin.' Or, 'A welcome moment in which I can express
to you my friendship.--F. Chopin, office clerk.' Or again, 'Ah, my most
lordly sir, I do not myself yet understand the joy which I feel on
entering the circle of your real friends.--F. Chopin, penniless'!"

These letters have a Micawber ring, but they indicate Chopin's love of
jest. Sikorski tells a story of the lad's improvising in church so that
the priest, choir and congregation were forgotten by him.

The travellers arrived at Warsaw October 6 after staying a few days in
Posen where the Prince Radziwill lived; here Chopin played in private.
This prince-composer, despite what Liszt wrote, did not contribute a
penny to the youth's musical education, though he always treated him in
a sympathetic manner.

Hummel and Paganini visited Warsaw in 1829. The former he met and
admired, the latter he worshipped. This year may have seen the
composition, if not the publication of the "Souvenir de Paganini," said
to be in the key of A major and first published in the supplement of
the "Warsaw Echo Muzyczne." Niecks writes that he never saw a copy of
this rare composition. Paderewski tells me he has the piece and that it
is weak, having historic interest only. I cannot find much about the
Polish poet, Julius Slowacki, who died the same year, 1849, as Edgar
Allan Poe. Tarnowski declares him to have been Chopin's warmest friend
and in his poetry a starting point o