A young engineering student named Herbert Hoover was working his way through Stanford University by a variety of methods. First he organized a laundry pick-up and delivery service. Then, with another student for a partner, he opened a lecture and concert bureau. The amateur managers had not done well with their last attraction--a speech by William Jennings Bryan--and they hoped to recoup with their big spring attraction, Paderewski. But the concert business is filled with pitfalls for the unwary, as the young men were about to learn. Paderewski's fee was high for those days--$2,000. Therefore the price of the tickets was high--higher than the residents of San Jose and environs were used to paying. The managers had also failed to notice that the date selected for their concert was in Holy Week, which cut down attendance still further. Their Paderewski concert turned out to be an artistic triumph--but a financial disaster. When the last word was in from the box office, the poor impresarios found themselves somewhat short of their expenses. It was a solemn moment.
The two students held a hasty conference. The first obligation, of course, was to pay the artist. The local people to whom they owed money for the rental of the hall, the advertising, the printing, and all the rest, would probably accept i.o.u.'s until they could find a way to pay their debts. Fortunately for the two students, word of this leaked out to Paderewski. He took quite a different view of the situation.
"Add up all the expenses of presenting this concert, down to the last penny," he told the young men. "Then subtract it from the box office receipts. Whatever you have left is enough for me."
"But Mr. Paderewski--that will leave you $400 short of your fee! Let us give you a note and pay it back as soon as--"
"No, no, no." He waved aside the suggestion good-naturedly. "It is enough. After all, if I did not _earn_ my fee for you, why should you pay it to me?"
This was the sort of fuzzy remark that nearly drove poor Goerlitz out of his mind.
"I hope that some day there'll be something I can do for you!" young Hoover said, as managers and artist shook hands. But he felt slightly foolish as soon as he said it. It was unlikely that a poor engineering student would ever be able to do anything for the most famous concert artist in the world.