# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S206
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206

I was paid, and at times I had a plentiful income, particularly from boarding students, of whom I even received a number from the city itself. But it was not always the same, because conditions there in New Orleans are so unstable; often I had to spend again what I had managed to save in a favorable time.

A number of the leading families in the city did not want to send their boys to the public schools and had therefore hired a teacher for that purpose; they were mostly Episcopalians and Presbyterians who wanted no religious instruction in the school, but still wanted a Christian teacher. Their teacher had died in the epidemic of 1878; so they came to me and asked me to establish a select school for their children, and committed themselves to paying 5 dollars a month for each child. Thereupon I rented the Episcopalians' chapel, at the corner of Camp and Race Streets, and took my previous students over with me. Even the superintendent of the public schools, City Attorney H. W. Rogers, assigned students to me. I continued this purely English school (in which, of course, German instruction was also given) until the year 1881, when I was encouraged by the Gulf States Conference of our Synod to establish a pro-gymnasium in New Orleans, to whose directorship and professorship I was called. I accepted this call. On April 17, 1883, this pro-gymnasium was adopted by the Synod of the Southern District as a synodical institution, at the convention in Houston, Tex. Besides those who wanted to devote themselves to the ministry or the teaching profession, there were now also a good number of children of congregation members and others in this school. Students from out of town received lodging and board, etc., in my house, for which a monthly board fee of $12.00 was charged them. Some outsiders found this excessively high, and yet I can truthfully affirm that from what I earned in the years 1881 to 1886 I added more than 800 dollars to the pro-gymnasium. Outsiders simply do not know what prices prevail in New Orleans. As an example I will cite here just one bill I received from a member of the congregation for painting my house; it amounts to $280.00.

In July 1885 Professor Stöckhardt, to whom it was no secret that I had for years occupied myself extensively with Luther's works in general, and especially with his Table Talk, urged me to prepare the volume of the Table Talk for printing in our edition of Luther. This I did, and finished my work in September 1886; in October it was sent off to St. Louis. Almost at the same time I was called by the board of directors of Concordia Publishing House to the editorship of the Luther edition, with the urgent request that I proceed at once to my new field of work. As early as November 3 I traveled with my family and the pro-gymnasium students who wanted to study (these were assigned to various of our educational institutions) to St. Louis, and was most kindly hosted there by my longtime friend Louis Lange until I found a suitable dwelling near our printing house. Toward the middle of November I was able to begin the work, which up to the present day (August 1903) I have carried on without interruption, in good health (only the flu hindered me for a month), and which by God's gracious help I completed in manuscript in May 1903. The last part will probably be finished in print around Easter 1904. At present I am working on preparing the index for the whole work.

As early as 1862 I contributed, in a longer article for "Lehre und Wehre," a "Contribution toward the Improvement of the Editions of Luther's Works"; hence I have repeatedly been asked, particularly by the late Professor Lange, how I came to occupy myself, in a literary way, with Luther's writings. I wish to set down here the answer to this question from the commemorative address which, at the request made of me, I gave at the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther on November 10, 1890, in the auditorium of Concordia Seminary, before the assembled student body and many invited guests: "In the year 1857 the then reverend President of our Synod, the late Wyneken, held visitation in my congregation for the first time. On such an occasion he was accustomed also to inspect the library of the pastor concerned. He was soon finished examining mine, for on account of the meagerness of my circumstances it consisted, apart from Luther's works, of only a few volumes. Then he turned to me with a serious face and asked me in a gruff tone: 'Do you have no sermon books at all?' Startled almost by the manner in which this question was put to me, I answered timidly: 'I have no sermons beyond those contained in Luther's works.' Suddenly his face brightened, he tapped me benevolently on the shoulder and said: 'Dear Hoppe, that pleases me exceedingly. Study and preach from that quite diligently; that is the best thing you can do for yourself and your congregation.' I took this word to heart and have also followed it. The simple words of the late Wyneken became for me an occasion for thorough study of Luther's writings."

Finally, I would like to address an exhortation to young people, that they should let no opportunity that offers itself pass by for learning something useful, even if they think they have no use for it. One cannot know when the use of some acquired knowledge or skill may arise and then prove most welcome. At Rostock, the learning of the English language was compulsory at the gymnasium, and under no circumstances was one exempted from it. The merchant community contributed part of the teachers' salaries and had attached to this the condition that English be taught and learned. This was very distasteful to us students, because at other gymnasiums this burden did not apply, while we also had to pass the examination in this language in the graduation exam, for which we thought we had no use. But from what has gone before it can be seen that without knowledge of the English language I might perhaps have had to suffer hunger or come to ruin; whereas now I was able not only to give English instruction in the parish school from the beginning, but even to administer the office of Corresponding Secretary in the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, which I held for ten years, from 1858 to 1868, and to take the place of the Recording Secretary in his absence. The French language was useful to me in