My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Karl Alvin, whom Lu knew from Vienna, and Erich Kleiber from
Berlin, who at that time was conducting a series of Beethoven
concerts. Once he invited us to attend a rehearsal of the Fifth
Symphony, for Lu's lectures coincided with the evening concerts.
Everything went smoothly during the rehearsal; only once or twice
did Kleiber use his baton to stop the orchestra. It was interesting to
note how he, without knowing any Spanish, could make himself
understood to the musicians. He told us one evening about the
difficulties he had to face during rehearsals. The musicians did not
want to work overtime, not even when they knew they would be
paid for· it. The Mexican way has always been to put leisure time
above money, and Kleiber had great difficulty in bringing the performance
up to his standard. In a way he was helpless against their
philosophy of life.
One day in February, something very funny happened to Lu. In
the afternoon he went to see Montes de Oca in his office. In the
course of the conversation, Montes de Oca told Lu that he would
take him to the dinner after the seminar. "Which dinner?" asked
Lu.
Montes de Oca laughed. "You really are a professor," he said.
"Don't you remember that today is the day when the university
gives a banquet in your honor?"
Now it was Lu's turn to be astonished. "I never got an invitation,"
he said.
Montes de Oca was startled. "But this is impossible. The rector
himself has arranged everything, has ordered the invitations, has
re.served a room in the Papillon." He went to the phone and rang
up the dean of the Economics Department, Silva Herzog, who told
him that he had only just discovered that the banquet had been
arranged, but that they had forgotten to send the guest of honor an
invitation!
One day Lu and I went alone to Chapultapec to visit the castle
where the unhappy young Austrian imperial couple had lived. As
usual we took a bus, which was an experience in itself. A smiling
young Indian with beautiful white teeth helped us into the bus. He
was clad in overalls and a clean blue shirt, and both Lu and I
believed him to be one of the passengers. But then he asked us for
the fare, and we realized he was the conductor. The bus was very
crowded, but immediately someone offered me a seat.
After visiting Chapultapec, Lu and I got very hungry. We went
to a nice looking restaurant opposite the park entrance, where
many cars were parked and benches stood around a fountain. Entering,
we saw that a luncheon meeting was under way, and we
were about to leave when a waiter took us to a nice table from
which we overlooked the room with the luncheon guests, about
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