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What he owed to the schoolmaster's wife may be inferred from the
fact that she compelled him to wear a wig "for the sake of
cleanliness." All his life through Haydn was most particular
about his personal appearance, and when quite an old man it
pained him greatly to recall the way in which he was neglected by
Frau Frankh. "I could not help perceiving," he remarked to Dies,
"much to my distress, that I was gradually getting very dirty,
and though I thought a good deal of my little person, was not
always able to avoid spots of dirt on my clothes, of which I was
dreadfully ashamed. In fact, I was a regular little urchin."
Perhaps we should not be wrong in surmising that the old man was
here reading into his childhood the habits and sentiments of his
later years. Young boys of his class are not usually deeply
concerned about grease spots or disheveled hair.
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