THE FIRST GERMAN PAPER-MAKER. 99 



account-books, that much paper was still brought in from Italy, 

 and that even the Council of Nuremberg was obliged to obtain 

 a part of its supply there. Therefore Stromer planned an en- 

 largement of his mill, and decided to add to the two wheels driv- 

 ing eighteen stamps a third. In this enterprise he had an op- 

 portunity to become acquainted with the worse side of the char- 

 acter of his Italian paper-makers. It did not escape them that 

 Stromer's paper-mill was profitable, and they observed its rapid 

 rise with much dissatisfaction. They tried to get the mill into 

 their own hands under favorable conditions and to enjoy the 

 profits. They sought to reach their object by artful means, 

 throwing every obstacle in the way of his business, and making 

 it unpleasant for him. They neglected their work, did not make 

 the best use of the stamps, and made less paper than they might 

 have made. Under the pretext that they could not do the work 

 alone, they asked him to send for a few more of their countrymen ; 

 and when he declined to employ more Italians, they summarily 

 refused to permit the third wheel. When they thought they had 

 tired their employer out, they broached their own plan. They 

 proposed that Stromer should lease them the mill for an annual 

 rent of two hundred gulden. When this was not accepted, they 

 offered him a certain quantity of their own made paper as a rent. 

 This proposition was also declined ; the disappointed Italians 

 carried their false play to the extreme, and gave their employer 

 all the trouble they could. 



He at last lost patience. He seized the Italians, put them in 

 the tower " behind the drying-kiln," and locked them up, as he 

 says, " in a little room/' They were not pleased with their quar- 

 ters in this " little room," and, giving up their spite, they sent on 

 the fourth day of their imprisonment for the three citizens, Hans 

 Groland, Stromer's brother-in-law, Fritz Amman, and Ulrich 

 Stremler, to negotiate for them with Stromer. He was disposed 

 to conciliation, and it was agreed that both sides should pledge 

 themselves to observe honorably all that should be ordered by 

 the -referees. The Italians were liberated, and all went to the 

 Augustine Convent, where the agreement was ratified anew. The 

 Italians had to swear a new oath that they would in future be 

 absolutely true to their former oath, and they would not try to 

 harm by word or deed any one who had been accessory to their 

 imprisonment; that they would have no contention with the 

 master, Ulman Stromer, his family, and servants, otherwise than 

 in the courts of Nuremberg ; and that they would interpose no 

 obstacles in the way of their employer and his heirs, and that 

 they would perform what he ordered, whether it were to have 

 one, two, or three wheels in the Gleissmillile, or to set them up in 

 another place. After Stromer had thus brought the Italians to 



