PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 AMERICANA GERMANICA 
 
 MONOGRAPHS DEVOTED TO THE COMPARATIVE 
 STUDY OF THE 
 
 Literary, Linguistic and other Cultural Relations 
 
 OF 
 
 Germany and America 
 
 EDITOR 
 MARION DEXTER LEARNED 
 
 University of Pennsylvania 
 
 (See List at the End of the Book) 
 
IjALDUIN MOLLHAUSEN 
 
BALDUIN MOLLHAUSEN 
 
 THE 
 GERMAN COOPER 
 
 By 
 
 PRESTON ALBERT BARBA , PH.D. 
 
 Assistant Professor of German, Indiana University 
 
 Amrrirauci (Srrmautru 
 VOLUME 17 
 
 PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 1914 
 
COPYRIGHT 1914 
 
 BY 
 
 PRESTON A. BARBA 
 
TO 
 
 CAROLINA ALEXANDRA 
 FRAU BALDUIN MOLLHAUSEN 
 
 IN GRATITUDE AND RESPECT 
 
 353S60 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The purpose of this volume, like that of my monograph on Fried- 
 rich Armand Strubberg (Americana Gennanica, Vol. 16), is to pre 
 sent a personality occupying a significant position in the history of 
 the cultural relations of Germany and America. Balduin Mollhausen 
 was the last great exponent of that large mass of transatlantic Ger 
 man fiction which followed upon the introduction of Cooper s works 
 into Germany, and upon the great exodus of Germans to America 
 during the first half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The material here offered was gathered during my residence in 
 Germany as Harrison Research Fellow in Germanics at the Univer 
 sity of Pennsylvania for the academic year 1911-12, but the force 
 of circumstances has prevented an earlier publication of the same. 
 I take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the gener 
 osity of the University of Pennsylvania, and of the encouragement 
 given me by my former teacher, Professor Marion D. Learned, of 
 the same university. 
 
 I desire especially to acknowledge here my great gratitude to 
 Frau Carolina Mollhausen, the widow of the novelist, for so kindly 
 placing at my disposal the letters and manuscripts of her husband, 
 and for rendering me constantly, in spite of her advanced age, her 
 gracious assistance and encouragement. 
 
 Sincere thanks are further due to Herr Leutnant Alexander 
 Mollhausen, a son of the novelist, of Berlin, and to the members of 
 his family; to Justizrat Hubert Krupp of Bonn; and to Herr Karl 
 Vollrath, editor-in-chief of the Berliner Volkszeitung, for the many 
 courtesies which they have extended to me in the preparation of this 
 work. 
 
 PRESTON A. BARBA. 
 Chicago, August, 1914. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction by Frau Mollhausen 7 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. America in German Fiction 9 
 
 II. The Biography of Mollhausen 37 
 
 III. The Works of Mollhausen 73 
 
 Appendix 
 
 1. A List of the Editions of Mollhausen s Works 153 
 
 2. Letters 158 
 
 3. a. An Interview with Mollhausen 182 
 
 b. An Evening with Mollhausen at Dreilinden .... 185 
 
EINLEITUNG 
 
 Wie eine schone Melodic die einmal gehort noch lang im Ohr 
 nachklingt, so leben die Stunden gemeinsamer Arbeit mit dem 
 Verfasser dieses Buches fort in meinem Gedachtniss. Dass ich 
 noch lebte, es mir vergonnt war im zweiundachtzigsten Lebensjahr, 
 wie in geistiger Frische, diesem liebenswiirdigen von ernstem, nic 
 ermiidendem Fleiss beseelten jungen Gelehrten aus meinen Erin- 
 nerungen zu niitzen, das war ein unausprechlich grosses Gliick fur 
 inich. Aber auch ein schones ehrenvolles Unternehmen der Uni- 
 versitat von Pennsylvanien. Balduin Mollhausen, dessen Werke 
 augenblicklich in illustrirter Volksausgabe, bei Paul List, Leipzig, 
 erscheinen, ist in Wahrheit noch heut "Liebling des Lesepub- 
 likums", wie Doctor Kurz von der Staatsbiirger Zeitung ihn zum 
 achtzigsten Geburtstag genannt. Amerika aber gebiihrt der Ruhm 
 durch dies Buch dem Volk auch die Person des Erzahlers, sein 
 Kampfen und Ringen, denn ohne Kampf kein Sieg; seine Bezie- 
 hungen zu hochgestellten und bedeutenden Menschen, naher ge- 
 bracht zu haben. Was Balduin Mollhausen unter unsaglichen Ent- 
 behrungen wahrend seines vielbewegten VVanderns in der Wildniss, 
 an lebensfrischen Schilderungen in seinen Werken niedergelegt, 
 durch dies Buch wird er fortleben im Volk, dessen Freund er immer 
 gewesen ; als ein selbstloser vortrefflicher Character, als ein treuer 
 Arbeiter. 
 
 Nur durch gute Biicher ist es moglich Erhohung der Intelligenz 
 und veredelnde Sittlichkeit auch in die armeren arbeitenden, und 
 schon deshalb um so beachtenswerteren Schichten des Volkslebens 
 dringen zu lassen. Die edelste, und eine unverwelkliche Bliite des 
 Wohlstandes ist die, welche sich im Schosse fortschreitender gei 
 stiger Kultur entfaltet. Worte fehlen mir um diesem grossen, 
 (lurch Kunstliebe und Gewerbfleiss verherrlichten Lande, meinen 
 tiefempfundenen Dank dafiir darzubringen. 
 
Fiinfzig Jahre des reinsten Gliicks an der Seite des besten 
 Mannes mit den Erinnerungen aus der Jugendzeit an das Haus in 
 dem ich unter den Augen eines Alexander von Humboldt auf wuchs ; 
 welch reiches Leben liegt hinter mir. Wie Spiegelungen aus 
 dem unergriindlichen Meer, tauchen Bilder auf Bilder empor. 
 Wohl erfiillen sie die Seele mit Sehnsucht. Liebe und Heiterkeit 
 aber, die Stiitzen des Lebens, fiihren den trunkenen Blick zuriick 
 zur Vergangenheit, zu dem Zauber entschwundenen Gliicks. 
 
 Carolina Alexandra 
 Berlin, im Juni, 1912. Frau Balduin Mollhausen. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 AMERICA IN GERMAN FICTION 
 
 Deeply seated in the nature of the German is his love for the 
 exotic. This trait, which finds further expression in the character 
 istic German "Wanderlust", explains the delight which the Germans 
 took in such mediaeval epics as the Ale.vanderlied (ca. 1140), Konig 
 Rother (ca. 1160), and Herzog Ernst (ca. 1180), which display the 
 knowledge the crusaders had brought to Western Europe from the 
 Orient. To it may also be ascribed the later successes which the 
 Spanish picaresque romances and their German imitations, as well 
 as the numerous Robinsonades of every conceivable nature which 
 followed upon Defoe s work, enjoyed in Germany. In spite of the 
 repeated satire and criticism of thinkers and patriots, this trait 
 continues to persist. It is too firmly rooted in that inherent Germanic 
 idealism which finds no contentment in the now and the here. 
 Goethe s question and exhortation : 
 
 Willst du immer weiter schweifen? 
 Sieh, das Gute liegt so nah. 
 Lerne nur das Gliick ergreifen, 
 Denn das Gluck ist immer da, 
 
 is today, as ever, unanswered and unheeded. 
 
 It is safe to assert that no one thing in modern times has so long 
 fascinated the German mind and so fired the German imagination as 
 did America with its hidden wealth, its unexplored areas, and its 
 unbounded possibilities. There beyond the Atlantic the dreams 
 dreamt for ages were to be realized: for the poet and thinker, a 
 Utopia ; for the peasant an El Dorado. 
 
 The name America was familiar to the Germans since the begin 
 ning of the sixteenth century, having been given to the newly dis 
 covered lands by their compatriot Martin Waldseermiller in his 
 Cosmo graphiae Introductio, 1507. During the same and the follow 
 ing century there appeared various works by explorers and cos- 
 mographers, which, if not always accurate, were at least instrumental 
 in creating further interest. In the early part of the eighteenth 
 century the attention of the Germans was centered upon America 
 
io Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 through the great emigrations thither from southwestern Germany 
 due to wars, tyranny, and religious intolerance. In the latter part 
 of the eighteenth century the eyes of all Germany were focused upon 
 the struggles of the American Colonies for independence from 
 England. 
 
 Historians have taken considerable pains to trace the influence of 
 Germany upon the development of American culture, but strangely 
 enough little attention has been given to the influence the American 
 republic has exercised upon the German. Especially has this been 
 the case with regard to German fiction. It must certainly be a 
 source of some gratification to the American student of literature to 
 find that no mean portion of the German fiction of the nineteenth 
 century is concerned directly or indirectly with America. Of course 
 German men of letters before that time had not been wholly unmind 
 ful of the literary asset which lay in America, yet their interest in 
 the same had manifested itself in German literature only in sporadic 
 instances. With the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, 
 America became a significant factor. At this time two potent 
 forces were at work which were to give new life to German fiction 
 and create for it a distinct species. The one force came from 
 America, the other emanated from Germany and directed itself to 
 ward America. The former came with the introduction of Cooper s 
 works into Germany, the other grew from those inner social and 
 political conditions which finally brought on the great exodus of 
 Germans to the western continent. These two forces are of suf 
 ficient importance to be considered more minutely. 
 
 I. Cooper and Indian Fiction in Germany. Ever since the pre 
 sentation of six Indians at the court of Spain by Columbus upon the 
 return from his first voyage of discovery, the aborigines of the 
 western continent possessed a strange fascination for the European. 
 The Germans, not being a sea-faring people, and less engaged in 
 colonization, had also more limited sources of information than did 
 the French, English and Spanish. In those early days they were 
 dependent upon such works as Michael Herr s Die neue Welt (1534), 
 Sebastian Franck s Spiegel un bildtniss des ganzten erdbodens in 
 zner Biicher, etc. (1534), Sebastian Minister s Cosmographia. Be- 
 schreibung oiler Lander, etc. (1544), and Nickolaus Federmann s 
 Indianische Historia (1557). Throughout the following centuries 
 works descriptive of America appeared more frequently, and the 
 German public had ampler opportunity to inform itself concerning 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper n 
 
 the Indian. In the eighteenth century there appeared in Germany 
 Adair s Geschichte der nordamerik. Indianer (1782), Mrt. Dobritz- 
 hoffer s Geschichte der Abiponer (1783), and Wm. Bartram s Reisen 
 dnrch Nord- und Sud-Karolina, Georgien, Ost- und West-Florida, 
 das Gebiet der Tscherokesen, Kriks, und Tschaktahs, etc., (Uber- 
 setzt v. Zimmerman). 
 
 In the latter part of the eighteenth century, too, came the great 
 cultural revolt brought on by Rousseau s doctrine of the goodness 
 of primitive man, a doctrine which had taken firm root in Germany. 
 Upon the spread of Rousseauism appeared such works as Herder s 
 Stimmen der Volkcr (1778-79) and Ideen rrur Philosophie der Ge 
 schichte der Menschheit (1784-1791), in the latter of which he con 
 sidered the characteristics of the Indian. Also there appeared such 
 poems as Schubart s Der sterbende Indianer an seinen Sohn, Schil 
 ler s Nadowessische Totenklage, and Seume s celebrated Der Wilde, 
 in which, though perhaps also influenced by the American Revolu 
 tion, 1 the Rousseauian doctrine is hardly negligible. 
 
 From Rousseau s abstract child of nature to the American 
 Indian was an easy leap, and the romantic mind of Europe saw in 
 the redman a noble exemplification of the former. Of course 
 Chateaubriand s Atala (1801), Rene (1802) and Natchez (1826), 
 are to a large degree responsible for this romantic attitude toward 
 the redman. In these works the Indian, though essentially a salon- 
 Indian and vested with a sentimentality and glamour almost un- 
 pleasing to the reader of today, for the first time appears in fiction. 
 Translations of these works were widely circulated. With the 
 appearance of Cooper, however, their popularity waned. The critics 
 of our day find the novels of Cooper romantic and his Indians 
 idealized. The fact nevertheless remains that to a public which had 
 for a quarter of a century known no other Indian in fiction than 
 Chateaubriand s salon-Indian, those of Cooper appeared intensely 
 real. 
 
 After the successes of his second novel, The Spy (1821), which 
 was translated into the various languages of Europe, Cooper soon 
 became recognized as the first representative American writer. To 
 him belongs the credit of having given American literature a respect 
 able place beside the literatures of Europe. Cooper s popularity 
 
 1 Cf. J. T. Hatfield and E. Hochbaum : The Influence of the American Revo 
 lution upon German Literature. Americana Germanica. Vol. 3. 
 
12 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 spread to nearly all of the civilized countries of the world, and rose 
 to a height perhaps unparalleled in the history of fiction. The works 
 of an author so intensely American by temperament could not have 
 been so widely read by the peoples of Europe without also affecting 
 their subsequent literature. In no country was Cooper s influence 
 more vital than in Germany. 
 
 When the German translation of The Spy made its appearance 
 in Germany in 1824 there was no German novelist who preeminently 
 commanded the attention of the reading public. The only notable 
 contributions to German novelistic literature in the immediately 
 preceding years were the fragmentary Kronenwdchter (1817) of 
 L. A. von Arnim, Wilhelm Meisters Wander jahre (1821) of Goethe 
 and several of the fantastic novels of E. T. A. Hoffman. The one 
 dominating influence in German fiction at this time was a foreign 
 one, namely that of Walter Scott. But the popularity of the Scotch 
 novelist was soon to be surpassed by that of Cooper, especially 
 among the lower classes. This is to be explained, at least in part, 
 by the nature of the contents of his novels. Cooper had, so to speak, 
 broken virgin soil in the domain of literature. In these works the 
 German saw for the first time something distinctly national in 
 American fiction. In them the American Indian, freed from all old- 
 world doctrines, became for the German public an intense reality. 
 
 In 1824, a year after its appearance, Cooper s novel, The 
 Pioneers, was translated into German and from that time forth 
 German translations followed immediately upon each of Cooper s 
 works. Yet these translations proved in no wise sufficient to satisfy 
 the demand among the German people for Indian fiction. Contem 
 porary with Cooper, and subsequently, there arose in Germany an 
 enormous amount of Indian literature. I have pointed out else 
 where that there are several coexisting types of Indian in all this 
 literature. 2 Beside the Indian of Cooper there continued to appear 
 the romantic Rousseauian Indian of Chateaubriand, to which was 
 added later the pitifully degraded Indian of the second half of the 
 past century. 
 
 Scott s novels had found ready and successful imitation in Ger 
 many at the hands of Hauff and Alexis. It was only necessary to 
 apply Scott s methods to German history. Cooper s novels, on the 
 
 *Cf. My article The American Indian in German Fiction in the German 
 American Annals, May-August, 1913. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 13 
 
 contrary, could not in the same way be transplanted into German 
 soil ; nor did their nature admit of imitation readily unless by 
 writers who were acquainted with conditions in America. The 
 works of Cooper, though more vividly read than Scott s, therefore 
 at first exerted an influence far less apparent. 
 
 Goethe, in his old age, took delight in reading Cooper, as is 
 shown in the Tagebiicher, and betrays his indebtedness to the Ameri 
 can novelist in his Novelle (i827). 3 Adalbert Stifter s interest in 
 America as expressed in Der Kondor (1840) and Feldblumen 
 (1840) and the "Waldromantik" of Der Hocliu ald (1841) were in 
 all probability fostered by Cooper s novels. Cooper s popularity is 
 reflected in Fanny Lewald s delightful novel Diogena (1847). The 
 influence of Cooper is very evident in Johannes Scherr s Pilger der 
 Wildness (1853) whose subject matter, namely the great struggle 
 between the pilgrims of Connecticut and the Indians under Metacom 
 commonly known as King Philip s War, is identical with that of 
 Cooper s Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829).* 
 
 The Cooperian influence upon the authors mentioned above, 
 must after all be considered as only sporadic. Not one of these 
 authors was a disciple of Cooper in the sense that Hauff and Alexis 
 were of Scott. For such followers we must turn to the exotic 
 school of novelists, many of whom identified themselves exclusively 
 with the transatlantic novel. These writers were nearly all men 
 whom conditions at home or pure "Auswanderungslust" had 
 brought to the shores of America. In some instances they diverge 
 far from the path of Cooper. Since Cooper s early novels the Far 
 West had been opened, and different conditions, both among the 
 Indians and the frontiersmen, presented themselves to the novelist. 
 The novel itself had evolved toward a greater realism. In spite of 
 all this, Cooper s novels remained the dominating factor in the 
 enormous Indian literature which followed upon their introduction 
 into Germany. 
 
 Charles Sealsfield (1793-1864), commonly known as the father 
 of the exotic novel, was the first to write an Indian novel in German 
 after the manner of Cooper. Monastic life in Prague was too 
 restraining for the impetuous young Austrian monk, Carl Postl. He 
 
 1 Cf. Dr. Sp. Wukadinovic. Goethes Novelle. Halle a. S. 1909. 
 
 4 Cf. August Sauer. Uber den EinAuss der nordamerikanischen Literatur 
 auf die deutsche. Im Jahrbuch der Grillparzer-Gesellschaft. 16. Jahrgang, 
 1906. 
 
14 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 fled to America and was henceforth known to the world as Charles 
 Sealsfield. In 1828 Sealsfield s first novel Tokeah or the White 
 Rose, an Indian Tale appeared in English. This novel was later 
 rewritten and appeared in German in 1833 as Der Legitime und 
 die Republikaner. In it Sealsfield champions the cause of the red- 
 man. The elegiac note which Cooper had struck in his Last of the 
 Mohicans here becomes a cry of injustice. The author evidently 
 desired to depict in this novel the last struggle of the legitimate 
 heirs to the American soil against the white intruders. In this 
 historical novel we witness the wars of some tribes of Creeks, whose 
 former lands lay in Georgia and Alabama, under their chief Tokeah 
 against the whites under the great Republican General Jackson. 
 Tokeah finally gives up the land of his ancestors and leaves to find 
 a new home among the Comanches in the Far West. Tokeah dies 
 while still east of the Mississippi, but his remains are brought to the 
 lands beyond the great river where he had hoped to live unmolested 
 with his people. 
 
 Much as the situation of the American Indian may have inter 
 ested Sealsfield, Der Legitime und die Republikaner is the only novel 
 in which the Indian plays any considerable role. In Der Virey und 
 die Aristokraten, oder Mexico im Jahre 1812 (i834)j a tale of the 
 Mexican uprisings against Spanish oppression, Mexican Indians are 
 only incidentally introduced. In his last novel, Suden und Norden 
 (1842-1843), another Mexican tale, an attack by Indians upon the 
 American party is described. In the humorous tale Christophorus 
 Barenhauter, attached to the second volume of the first edition of the 
 Transatlantische Reiseskizsen (1834), Jemima, the mannish wife of 
 Christophorus is attacked by the Indians and carried to their village 
 on the Miami. After living among the Indians she manages to 
 escape to her old home, only to find her husband remarried. She 
 returns to the Indian village, gives her hand to the chieftain Toma 
 hawk, whom she domineers and changes into a respectable tiller of 
 the soil. 
 
 In his other works Sealsfield chose to operate with phases of 
 American society with which he was better acquainted. We have 
 no reason to think that he ever had any opportunity for studying 
 the customs and manners of the Indian. In that respect Cooper was 
 much better equipped and conveys in the course of his novels a great 
 deal more of Indian material to his reader than does Sealsfield. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 15 
 
 While Cooper and Sealsfield were at the height of their popu 
 larity there rose in Germany a small group of writers who by no 
 means possessed the literary ability of their predecessors, but they 
 had been actual observers and students of Indian life and manners. 
 This group consisted of men who were in a sense adventurers : 
 some had fought against the Indians, some had lived peacefully 
 among them, and all only later took to the writing of fiction. What 
 their works lack in point of literary quality, they make up in vivid 
 portrayal of Indian life as it existed at a later period, when the red 
 man had lost much of that glory he possessed before he fell a victim 
 to the vices of his conquerors. 
 
 The first of this group, and Sealsfield s great successor in the 
 field of the exotic novel, was Gerstacker. Friedrich Gerstacker 
 (1816-1872) was early seized with an unconquerable "Drang in die 
 Feme." In 1837 he made his first journey to America where he 
 remained until 1843, i n tne meanwhile living a most varied life as 
 hunter, sailor, cook, silversmith, manufacturer and hotelkeeper. He 
 made three subsequent journeys to America. 
 
 Upon returning from his first journey to America Gerstacker 
 published his Streif- nnd Jagdziige dnrch die Vereinigten Staaten 
 Nordamerikas (1844), in which he relates in sketches his various 
 experiences in the new world. Gerstacker was soon looked upon as 
 the foremost writer of the exotic novel which Sealsfield had founded. 
 Endowed with keen powers of observation, a glowing imagination, 
 and a facile way of expressing what he had seen, he knew well how to 
 cater to the prevailing demand and for nearly thirty years main 
 tained an enviable position as a writer of exotic fiction. Between 
 the appearance of his Streif- nnd Jagdziige in 1844, and his death 
 in 1872 he published upwards of one hundred and fifty volumes. 
 His best works were his early novels and books of travel. Upon 
 his Sfreif- Mid Jagdziige appeared Die Regulator en in Arkansas 
 (1846), and its continuation, Die Flusspiraten des Mississippi 
 (1848). About the same time appeared Mississippi-Bilder, Licht- 
 und Schattenseiten transatlantischcn Lebens (1847-1848). The fol 
 lowing year was published Amerikanische W aid- und Strombilder 
 (1849). During the gold fever of 1849 Gerstacker was in Cali 
 fornia. Calif orniens Gold- und Quecksilber-District. Nach The 
 California Herald (1849), which went through three editions in the 
 same year, and his Gold! Ein Calif orn ische s Lebensbild aus dem 
 Jahre 1849 ( T 8s8), reflect this interesting period. 
 
1 6 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Gerstacker s name is for the German always associated with 
 Western life in America. Yet Gerstacker was by no means ex 
 clusively an "Amerika" writer. After he had used the experiences 
 of his first and second trips to America in his works, he turned to 
 other fields. For a time he drew upon nearly all the uncivilized 
 portions of the globe for material, later, however, again returning 
 to American sources. Among the later works which would interest 
 us here on account of their American material are Zwei Republiken 
 (1865), Untcr den Penchuenchen, Chilenischer Roman (1867), 
 Die Blaucn und Gelben, Venezuelanisches Characterbild aus der 
 letzten Revolution ron 1868 (1870), and Die Pampas-Indianer 
 (1874). 
 
 Gerstacker s works, while not possessing the literary quality of 
 Sealsfield s, were far more effective in spreading knowledge con 
 cerning Indian life. Sealsfield s works never found their way into 
 the hearts of the common people as did those of Gerstacker. 
 Through the works of the latter the Indian as seen through a 
 German temperament first became common German property. 
 
 One of the most interesting figures in this group of writers was 
 that of Friedrich Armand Strubberg (1806-1889) who, in company 
 with several other Germans, lived a number of adventurous years 
 in a palisaded fortress on the extreme frontier of Texas. Returning 
 to Germany, he settled again in his native town of Kassel, where 
 he soon became well known as a fascinating narrator of life in 
 America. Induced by his friends to put his interesting adventures 
 into literary form, Strubberg published Amerikanische Jagd- und 
 Reiseabenteuer (1858). Encouraged by the reception given his 
 first work, he now entered upon his literary career, although already 
 more than fifty years old. Between the ages of fifty-two and 
 seventy-two he published more than fifty volumes of novels. 
 
 In Amerikanische Jagd- und Reiseabenteuer the author describes 
 his own experiences during the years he dwelt on territory of the 
 Comanches on the Leona. Bis in die Wildniss (1858) describes his 
 journey to the frontier of Texas. In An der Indianergrenze, oder 
 Treuer Liebe Lohn (1859), the author gives a graphic picture of 
 western frontier life. Against a realistic setting of primitive 
 squatter life and all its dangers he paints a delicate idyl of the 
 Indian maid Owaja and her love for the settler Farnwald. The 
 material employed in Ralph Norwood (1860) bears some similarity 
 to that of Sealsfield s Der Legitime und die Republikaner, being the 
 
Balduin Mollhauscu, I he German Cooper 17 
 
 story of the struggles of the Seminoles in Florida and the final 
 removal of the small remaining number by the government to the 
 Far West. Fricdrichsburg, die Colonie des dcutschen Fiirsten- 
 yercins in Texas (1867) ls m point of historical value the most 
 interesting of Strubberg s works. It reflects pioneer life in the 
 German colony of Friedrichsburg, which was established in Texas 
 by the "Mainzer Adelsverein" in 1846, and with which Strubberg 
 was connected as Colonial Director soon after its beginnings. The 
 work is exceedingly rich in Indian material. All of Strubberg s 
 works deal, to a greater or less extent, with America, and in a 
 large number of them the Indian plays a conspicuous part. 
 
 No German writer of Indian fiction was better acquainted with 
 the Indian of North America than Strubberg. Many of his Indians 
 are splendidly realistic portraits of the redskin of the Far West in 
 the middle of the nineteenth century. But among these we meet 
 also more romantic types, the descendants of the Indians of Cooper 
 and of Chateaubriand. The majority of Strubberg s Indians are, 
 however, realistic enough. They must of necessity differ from 
 the Indian Cooper had known on the frontier of western New 
 York. The Indian Strubberg had known and faithfully portrayed 
 for us is the Indian who has lived through a century of shame and 
 dishonor, one broken in strength, retreating ever farther to his 
 destiny in the land of the setting sun. 5 
 
 Another very prolific writer of transatlantic fiction was Ernst 
 Freiherr von Bibra (1806-1878). He had studied jurisprudence 
 at the University of Wiirzburg, but later turned to chemistry and 
 the natural sciences. In 1850 he entered upon extensive travels in 
 South America. Upon his return he settled in Nuremberg and 
 devoted himself to the writing of fiction. Bibra operates largely 
 with South American material. His Indian is of course the Indian 
 of South America. The following works may be mentioned here : 
 Reisen in Siidamerika (1854); Erinnerungen aus Sudamerika 
 (1861) ; Aus Chili, Peru und Brasilien (1862) ; Ein Juwel (1863) ; 
 Hoffnungen in Peru (1864); Reiseskizsen und Novellen (1864); 
 Die Abenteuer eines jungen Peruaners in Deutschland (1870) ; In 
 Sudamerika und in Euro pa (1874). 
 
 "For a detailed account of Strnbberg s works see my monograph, The 
 Life and Works of Friedrich Armand Strubberg. Americana Germanica. 
 Vol. 16 
 
1 8 Balduin Mdllhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 The great mass of Indian literature which came from the pens 
 of the above writers in the nineteenth century seems not at all to 
 have injured the sale of Cooper s works in Germany. In addition 
 to the early publication of translations by Wienbrack in Leipzig 
 and Sauerlander in Frankfort, there had been appearing since 1853 
 the large Stuttgart edition of Cooper s works besides single editions 
 and retranslations without number. 6 Nor do these translations of 
 Cooper and the numerous works of the writers considered above 
 appear to have satisfied the demand of the German reading public 
 for Indian fiction. Through Cooper attention had been generally 
 drawn to the progress of literature in America and translators were 
 soon occupied with the preparation of other works by American 
 authors for the German market. Sauerlander was also giving the 
 Germans the works of Washington Irving. Very soon after the 
 introduction of Irving into Germany there followed translations 
 from the works of James K. Paulding (1779-1860), the friend of 
 Irving; of the English novelist Frederick Marryat (1792-1848); 
 of the once much read American, Dr. Robert M. Bird (1803-1854) ; 
 of our Southern novelist W. Gilmore Simms (1806-1870) ; of the 
 English writer Sir Charles Augustus Murray (1806-1895) whose 
 works on America were much admired by the historian Prescott; 
 of the English novelist Captain Mayne Reid (1818-1883) ; as also 
 translations of many isolated works by less known writers. 
 
 While these translations from English and American sources 
 were making their way into Germany and finding a ready market 
 there, translators had not been unmindful of parallel French fiction. 
 In France Cooper s works had had a similar influence. The most 
 prominent of the French writers following in the paths of Cooper 
 were Gabriel Ferry, the pen name for Louis de Bellemarre (1809- 
 1852), who met his death at sea while on his way to California; 
 Paul Duplessis (ca. 1815-1865) ; and Gustave Aimard (1818-1883), 
 who had come to America as a young man, and for a number of 
 years dwelt among the Indians of the West. Many of the works of 
 these men were translated into German and extensively read. 
 
 Two belated writers of Indian fiction, who nevertheless gained 
 an extensive reading public, are Pajeken and May. Friedrich Pa- 
 jeken (1855 ), after spending a number of years in a mercantile 
 
 6 Cf . My article Cooper in Germany. German American Annals. Jan.- 
 Feb., 1914. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 19 
 
 house in his native city of Bremen, went to Venezuela, where he 
 remained four years, during which time he conceived the idea of 
 employing his experiences and observations in literature. Later he 
 went to the western part of North America, where he studied the 
 Indians and gathered material for his future works. Pajeken pur 
 posed, as he himself remarks in the introduction to Im wilden IVesten, 
 to counteract the alluring but evil influence of the sensational Indian 
 novels then flooding the market, and to that end heaps up the hard 
 ships and dangers of western life, and causes his characters to 
 moralize upon their misdeeds. Karl May (1842-1912), the more 
 popular of the two writers, also wrote at a time when Indian fiction 
 had nearly outlived itself. He employs in his novels the technic of 
 the cheap Nick Carter and Sherlock Holmes stories, in which no 
 situation is too difficult for the hero and no obstacle so great that it 
 cannot be overcome. Yet Karl May won and maintained for a num 
 ber of years a larger reading public than any other writer of Indian 
 fiction, unless we except Cooper. No serious reader will give Karl 
 May an important place in German literature, many have even 
 considered him an impostor, and yet there are few Germans of this 
 generation who have been able to resist his thrilling narrative. 
 
 This great stream of Indian fiction whose source lay in Chateau 
 briand, but whose supporting tributary had for three quarters of 
 a century been Cooper, may be said to have spent itself in the works 
 of Karl May. 
 
 II. German Emigration Fiction. At the beginning of the nine 
 teenth century the common people of Germany were still feasting 
 on the romances of robbery and chivalry as produced by Spiess, 
 Vulpius, Cramer, and others. But they were shortly to turn to a 
 species of fiction in which they were to find themselves and their 
 own cause reflected. The more aristocratic note which had been 
 struck in German fiction by the early romanticists was gradually 
 dying out; only a faint sound still lingered in the later works of 
 Tieck and those of Immermann. Der junge Tischlermeister (1836) 
 of the former and Der Oberhof (in Miinchhausen, eine Geschichte 
 in Arabesken, 1839) of the latter had already advanced decidedly 
 toward the presentation of common life. In 1815 a German trans 
 lation of Scott was published. For the next ten years the works of 
 Scott and those of his two great German followers, Hauff and 
 Alexis, may be said to have commanded the literary interest of 
 
20 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Germany almost exclusively. 7 Scott had introduced into his works 
 all classes of society. With the introduction of the lower classes 
 into German fiction was made a decided step toward that realism 
 which was to revivify the German novel. 
 
 With the works of Cooper came a new stream of realism and a 
 considerable force in the democratizing of German fiction. We 
 have considered Cooper in his relation to German Indian fiction and 
 the great popularity his Indians enjoyed. But perhaps just as attrac 
 tive to the German reader as the Indian were Cooper s pictures of 
 American life, especially frontier life, which appealed directly to 
 the German at this time. It was the period preceding the reaction 
 commonly known as the "Young German" movement. Germany 
 was suffering political ignominy. Under the fearful rule of Metter- 
 nich there was little hope that the German s dreams for a united 
 Fatherland could ever be realized. A last resort for the afflicted 
 German lay in the young republic beyond the sea. The word 
 "Amerika !" was an open sesame which presented undreamed pros 
 pects. With the great exodus of Germans to the western continent 
 came the most decisive impact which German fiction received 
 toward democracy. The great migrations of the nineteenth century 
 began with the year 1817. In that year twenty thousand Germans 
 were driven to the shores of America. Between 1820-30, fifteen 
 thousand more Germans had immigrated. The uprisings of 1832 
 and 1833, as a result of the "Bundestags Ordonnanzen" of 1831 
 greatly increased emigration. Between 1831-40 the number of 
 emigrants rose to almost one hundred and fifty thousand. 8 While 
 these migrations were mainly due to oppression at home, they were 
 also fostered by certain works on emigration and the endeavors of 
 Emigration Societies. These circumstances could not help but 
 vitally influence German literature. In the wake of German emi 
 gration to America followed a great and varied mass of fiction which 
 has received little consideration at the hands of literary historians. 
 
 We have observed above that literary Germany had been not 
 wholly unmindful of the young republic on the western continent, 
 but only after the great migrations of the nineteenth century can we 
 speak of the German Emigration Novel as a distinct species of 
 German fiction. 
 
 7 Cf. Hellmuth Mielke: Der deutsche Roman: p. 61, 4. Ausg., 1914. 
 8 Cf. G. Korner: Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten von 
 Nordamerika, 1818-1848. Cincinnati, 1880; p. 432. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, I he (irrnuni c oo/v _M 
 
 Goethe was of the opinion that with German emigration a great 
 field would be opened up for fresh literary activity and it appears 
 that he had for some time busied himself with such material. His 
 own advanced age, perhaps, hindered him from himself employing 
 such material, but he did not hesitate to point the way to the younger 
 generation. Goethe had actually drawn plans for an emigration 
 novel! Under the title Staff und Gehalt, sur Bearbeitung vor- 
 geschlagen* dated 1827 Goethe considers the work Ludwig Galls 
 Auswanderung nach den Vereinigten Staaten (Trier, 1822) and 
 comments at length upon the interesting jnaterial offered therein to 
 the novelist. 
 
 "Urn dieses dritte Werk gehorig zu benutzen," Goethe continues, 
 "wiirde das vorziiglichste Talent verlangt, das zu vielen Vorar- 
 beiten sich entschlosse, sodann aber eine freie Umsicht zu ervverben 
 fahig und gliicklich genug ware. Der Bearbeitende miisste den 
 Stolz haben, mit Cooper zu wetteifern, und deshalb die klarste Ein- 
 sicht in jene iiberseeischen Gegenstande zu gewinnen suchen. Von 
 der friihsten Kolonisation an, von der Zeit des Kampfes an, den die 
 Europaer erst mit den Urbewohnern, dann unter sich selbst fiihr- 
 ten, von dem Vollbesitz an des grossen Reiches, das die Englander 
 sich gewonnen, bis zum Abfall der nachher vereinigten Staaten, 
 bis zu dem Freiheitskriege, dessen Resultat und Folgen diese Zu- 
 stande samtlich mussten ihm iiberhaupt gegenwartig und im Be- 
 sonderen klar sein. In welche Epoche jedoch er seine Handlung 
 setzen wolle, ware mancher Uberlegung wert. 
 
 "Die Hauptfigur, der protestantische Geistliche, der selbst 
 auswanderungslustig, die Auswandernden ans Meer und dann 
 hiniibergefiihrt und oft an Moses in den Wiisten erinnern 
 wiirde, miisste eine Art von Dr. Primrose sein, der mit so viel 
 Verstand als gutem Willen, mit so viel Bildung als Thatigkeit bei 
 Allem, was er unternimmt und fordert, doch immer nicht weiss, 
 was er thut, von seiner ruling passion fortgetrieben, dasjenige, was 
 er sich vorsetzte, durchzufiihren genotigt wird und erst am Ende 
 zu Atem kommt.wenn aus grenzenlosem Unverstand und uniiber- 
 sehbarem Unheil sich zulezt noch ein ganz leidliches Dasein her- 
 vorthut. 
 
 "Was den Personenbestand betrifft, so hat weder ein epischer, 
 noch dramatischer Dichter je zur Auswahl einen solchen Keichtum 
 
 See Goethes Werke. Cottasche Ausg. (Goedeke) Bd. 18, s. 261 f. 
 
22 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 vor sich gesehen. Die Unzufriedenen beider Weltteile stehen ihm 
 zu Gebot ; er kann sie zum Teil nach und nach zu Grunde gehen, 
 endlich aber, wenn er seine Favoriten giinstig untergebracht hat, 
 die iibrigen stufenweise mit sehr massigen Zustanden sich be- 
 gniigen lassen." 
 
 Goethe s advice to German writers as to the employment of 
 such American material remained unheeded, perhaps because none 
 were sufficiently acquainted with such material. Ten years later, 
 however, appeared a novel which was in a sense a precursor of the 
 long line of Emigration Fiction. It is Die Europamuden (1837) 
 of Ernst Willkomm (1810-1886). In this work the discontent of 
 "Jung-Deutschland" reached an hysterical climax. As a novel the 
 work possesses little value. Here it is of interest inasmuch as it 
 directs Germany s discontent and yearnings toward America for 
 relief. Willkomm has employed a Protestant clergyman in his 
 novel, as Goethe suggested, but it is not the modern patriarchal 
 Moses leading his flock to a new home across the sea. He is a 
 dissenting "Europamiider" who with the voice of a scourging 
 prophet declares : "Die Siinden der Welt sind die Folgen der fluch- 
 wiirdigen Verhaltnisse, die geboren wurden aus socialer Unnatur, 
 mystischer Heuchelei weil man den Sinn aller Religiositat von 
 Anfang an misverstancl schwachender Knechtsgesinnung und 
 schlaffer Lebenssitte, die alles mit der Schminke der Etiquette besu- 
 delte. Daran stirbt Europa, dadurch wird es der Sklave zuerden des 
 Westens, in dem es zwar Siinden gibt und Laster, aber nur Siinden 
 
 der Kraft und des Ubermuthes Driiben aber iiber 
 
 den Wogen des atlantischen Oceans liegt das Land der Verheissung 
 im heiligen Schatten des Urwalds gebettet, der es umfangt und 
 mit den Locken der Hoffnung umschmeichelt, wie eine Mutter 
 ihr lachelndes, Kraftvolles Kind ! Dorthin hat sich gefliichtet die 
 Natur, als Europa sie vertrieb. In der durchsichtigen Fluth des 
 Ohio bespiegelt sie sich, schuldlos, weil sie stark, und fromm, weil 
 sie frei ist." (Part i, p. 353.) 
 
 Die Europamuden was but a forerunner. For the further de 
 velopment of the emigration novel we must turn to a small group 
 of Germans who had themselves lived in America. They were 
 without exception men who had gone to America either because 
 their political views made a longer stay in Germany uncomfortable, 
 or else because the German "Wanderlust" had taken possession of 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 23 
 
 them. Many of them were, so to speak, adventurers, who only later 
 accidently turned to literature. Some of them, such as Sealsfield, 
 Gerstacker, and Strubberg, had identified themselves both with 
 Indian and emigration fiction and must therefore also receive con 
 sideration here. 
 
 Since Sealsfield was the first writer in German to gather up 
 the exotic and ethnographic threads of our varied American life 
 and present them in literary form, it is only natural to look for a 
 portrayal of German emigrant life in his works. Yet there are com 
 paratively few Germans among the motley array of Yankees, Eng 
 lishmen, Frenchmen, Creoles, negroes, and Indians. In fact there 
 is reason to believe that Sealsfield, though himself a Teuton, 
 was not kindly disposed towards the German "Michel" seeking his 
 fortune in the new world. 
 
 In 1835 appeared Sealsfield s Morton oder die grosse Tour, in 
 which the author endeavors to show the power of gold in determin 
 ing the fate of man. Chapter II of Part I is entitled Die deutschen 
 Emigranten. Young Morton has put his entire fortune into the 
 schooner "Mary" which is lost at sea. In despair he mounts his 
 horse Cyrus, rides along the Susquehanna, and halts at a precipitous 
 bank above Harrisburg. Here, while wrapped in the thought of 
 committing suicide, he is approached from one direction by Colonel 
 I sling, the county judge, from the other by a family of wretched 
 German immigrants. Sealsfield, with bitter pen, writes of the latter 
 (p. 48) : "Beim ersten Anblicke gewahrte man. dass es Kinder des 
 unglikklichen Landes waren, die seit so vielen Jahren die Erde mit 
 ihrem Blute zu diingen, die Welt mit ihrer Nacktheit und ihrem 
 Elencle anzuekeln bestimmt zu seyn scheinen ; eines jener Bilder 
 serviler Unterwiirfigkeit, wie wir sie auf den Werften unserer See- 
 stadte haufig als Exemplare dieser Nation zu schauen bekommen, 
 und die tins bereits wider Willen gezwungen haben, der unbegrenz- 
 ten Hospitalitat unseres Landes Schranken zu setzen." This family 
 had landed in Philadelphia without a penny. Receiving five dollars 
 from the German Aid Society, the head of the family bought a 
 wheelbarrow on which he loaded his few possessions and proceeded 
 to Ohio. In Colonel Isling Sealsfield portrays a German of the 
 previous generation and compares him with the type of German 
 now coming to America. Isling, who had come as a Hessian lieu 
 tenant to fight for the English, was taken prisoner at Trenton, and 
 later entered the Colonial army. In his conversation with young 
 
24 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Morton, with whose uncle, a signer of the Declaration of Independ 
 ence, he had been acquainted, Isling shows himself a staunch 
 patriot, and eulogizes Washington and Baron von Steuben. The 
 old colonel, having spoken words of encouragement to Morton, 
 accompanies him to Bethlehem and there directs him by mail-coach 
 to Philadelphia with a letter to Stephy (Girard). Morton presents 
 his letter to Stephy who says of old Isling: "Allen Respekt vor alten 
 Deutschen, sind wie ihre alten Weine; sind aber, hore ich, alle 
 von den Franzosen ausgetrunken worden, ihre alten Weine, und 
 die jungen taugen nichts, oder nicht viel." In this same chapter 
 is contained the story of the German immigrant who succeeds by 
 niggardliness and menial traits to acquire a farm in Pennsylvania. 
 Here Sealsfield again ridicules the German for his servile habits 
 and lack of national pride. This story is of further interest for 
 the reason that it was afterwards plagiarized by Fredinand Kiirn- 
 berger in his well known novel Der Amerikamiide (1856). 
 
 In Die Deutsch-amerikanischen Wahlverwandschaften (1839) 
 Sealsfield introduces several Germans but does not operate with 
 them as elements of Amerian society. 
 
 In the story Christophorus Barenhaufer (1834) the author em 
 ploys Pennsylvania-German material with which he had the oppor 
 tunity to become acquainted during his stay in that state. Baren- 
 hauter, whose family had migrated from the Black Forest, is a 
 young farmer living in western Pennsylvania. The author com 
 pares the thrifty habits and well kept farm of the family with those 
 of the slovenly Irish and Scotch settlers, but again emphasizes the 
 stupidity of the German and places Christophorus in a ludicrous 
 light. 
 
 In the author s last work Suden und Nor den (1842-43) he de 
 scribes a journey in southern Mexico, calling it "eine befremdende 
 Mischung von Dichtung und Wahrheit". In the expedition is Herr 
 Bohne, a very well informed young German, who, in spite of his 
 knowledge, is the constant butt for the party s jokes. 
 
 It is evident that Sealsfield was not partial to his own race. In 
 fact his portrayal of the German immigrant rather aggravated the 
 keen injuries he had suffered at the hands of the Anglo-Saxon whose 
 derisive "damn Dutchman" has not yet quite died out. The love 
 and trust which Washington, Franklin and Paine had disseminated 
 among the poor and oppressed of all nations were being turned to 
 hatred by their offspring. The nativism of the Know-nothings of 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 25 
 
 the forties and fifties had developed a bitter antagonism toward 
 the immigrant. Nor was this felt by the immigrant alone ; it was 
 realized as an insult by the intelligent minds in Germany. 10 
 
 It is quite natural that a writer should at last come forth to 
 champion the cause of his maltreated countrymen in the new world. 
 Dr. Otto Ruppius, born in Glauchau, 1819, was a German who had 
 lived and experienced much in America without ever becoming so 
 intensely Americanized as Sealsfield. Ruppius early interested him 
 self for the intellectual improvement of the German working-classes. 
 In 1848 he edited and published Die Burger- und Baiiernzeitung. 
 In consequence of an article published in this paper on the dissolu 
 tion of the National Convention in Prussia (Nov., 1848), Ruppius 
 was condemned to a term of nine months imprisonment. He fled 
 to America in 1849 where he was active for a number of years as 
 professor of music, orchestral conductor and journalist. The first 
 literary product of this period appears to have been Die Waldspinne. 
 Aus dem IVesten Amerikas (Genrebild, 1856). Upon this work 
 appeared Der Pedlar (1857) and its sequel Das I ermiichtniss des 
 Pedlars (1859). Upon these two novels, in which are related the 
 hardships of Helmstadt, a young Prussian revolutionist of 1848, 
 now in exile in America, the fame of the author largely rests. Their 
 truthful portrayal of American life, a lack of that gaudiness and 
 sensation which characterized so many of the reports of life in the 
 new world, and the favorable attitude toward the German immi 
 grant, made them very popular with the Germans in America as 
 well as among those at home. The Civil War, threatening financial 
 ruin, now began, when fortunately the final amnesty of Prussia 
 was declared in 1861 and Ruppius, with his wife and children, re 
 turned to Germany. The years which followed upon his return to 
 his native land proved to be very productive ones. There had ap 
 peared in rapid succession : Geld und Geist. Roman aus dem amer. 
 Leben (1860); Der Prairie-Teufel (1861; Genrebilder aiis dem 
 Deutsch-amer. Lebcn (i86i); n Im Westen (1862); Aus dem 
 Deutschen Volksleben ( 1862) ; Bin Deutscher. Roman aus der amer. 
 
 10 Cf. Article Nativismus und Know-nothings in Atlantische Studicn. /. 
 Bd. Gottingen, 1855. 
 
 " This work received much praise and was even suggested as suitable 
 for making propaganda for the "Berliner Auswanderungsverein." Cf. Vos- 
 sische Zeitung, n. Okt., 1861. 
 
26 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Gesellschaft ( 1862) ; Sudwest. Erz dhlungen aus dem Dents ch-amer. 
 Leben (1863) ; Die drei Vagabonden. Roman aus dem Deutch- 
 amer. Leben (appeared in the Sonntagsblatt, 1863) ; Zwei Welten 
 (1863). But Ruppius was not long to enjoy the fruits of his labors. 
 He died in June, 1864, mourned by the common people as one who 
 had been their champion and labored in their behalf. 
 
 The continued popularity of Ruppius can readily be understood. 
 Unlike his contemporaries, Sealsfield and Gerstacker, he did not 
 allow the exotic element to predominate in his works. Uppermost 
 is his portrayal of the German immigrant, his struggles for an 
 existence on foreign soil, his hopes and longings. A favorite theme 
 of the author was the following out of the career of a young German 
 "greenhorn" through all manners of trials and tribulations to a 
 successful end. Though Ruppius faith in his fellow countrymen 
 in the New World led him to portray his characters in too glow 
 ing colors, these portrayals were instrumental in awakening the 
 downtrodden German to a consciousness of his own rights and 
 possibilities and served as a healthy reaction against the prevailing 
 antipathy toward the German immigrant. 
 
 Frederich Gerstacker, who was at this time the most popular 
 writer of transatlantic fiction, had found in German emigration 
 to America a rich source for material. One of Gerstacker s earliest 
 works was Der Deutschen Auswanderer Fahrten und Schicksale 
 (1847). Though in the garb of a novel, this work was for wealth 
 of material concerning the conditions and prospects of German 
 immigrants in America one of the most valuable that had up to 
 that time appeared. The author very graphically relates the ad 
 ventures of a German Emigrant Colony which crosses the Atlantic 
 to find a Paradise in the new world. After a wretched voyage in 
 unsanitary steerage quarters the little colony finally arrives in New 
 York where its members naively entrust themselves to sharp hotel- 
 keepers who grossly overcharge them. Their emigration to Tennes 
 see where they had bought lands and fallen victims to the land-shark, 
 Doctor Normann, and their further tribulations as they later proceed 
 west to the banks of the Colorado, are all skillfully portrayed with 
 a realism that gave very little encouragement to prospective German 
 emigrants. Indeed it was thought that this work might check emi 
 gration to America. Two years later appeared a work which the 
 author was very well qualified to write, and one which must have 
 had no little influence upon German emigration namely : Wie ist es 
 
Balduin Mdllhausen, The German Cooper 27 
 
 denn nun eigentlich in Amerikaf Eine kurze Schilderung dessen, 
 zuas der Auswandercr zn thun und dafiir zu hoffen und zu erwarten 
 hat (1849). Although it can not be classed as a novel, it shows the 
 interest the novelist had in emigration. Gerstacker s most popular 
 emigration novel was probably Nach Amerka! Bin Volksbuch 
 (1855), a book for the people in the right sense of the word. It is 
 a splendid gallery of German emigrant types, drawn from actual 
 life. Gerstacker s continued interest in the progress of German 
 immigrants in America and their part in American affairs is ex 
 pressed in one of the author s last works, written as a sequel to the 
 above many years later, his In Amerika. Amerikanisches Lebensbild 
 aus neuerer Zeit. Im Anschluss an "Nach Amerika" 1872). 
 Upon his visits to the German colonies in South America appeared 
 Die Colonie. Brasilianisches Lebensbild (1864). The above works 
 deal specifically with German emigration. There are, however, 
 many isolated German characters to be found throughout Ger 
 stacker s other transatlantic novels. 
 
 Gerstacker knew how to exploit the rich experiences of his ex 
 tensive travels to the best advantage. Further, he was endowed with 
 acute powers of observation, a glowing imagination, and a talent 
 for plastic description and vivid narrative, with which he retained 
 the attention of the reader from beginning to end. His works lack 
 form, however; they are frequently but a series of sketches. Nor 
 is the author capable of depicting the deep surges of emotion which 
 characterize his predecessor Sealsfield. The importance of Ger 
 stacker for us here lies in his endeavors to portray in fiction an im 
 portant period in the history of German emigration to America. 
 
 No writer of exotic novels has more exclusively dealt with 
 North American material than Friedrich Armand Strubberg. In 
 nearly all of his novels Strubberg has introduced German immi 
 grants. To be sure they play only a very minor part in some of his 
 works. In not a few, however, emigration is an important element, 
 and in several it is made the chief feature. Strubberg had in reality 
 but one great- theme, his own life on the extreme frontier of Texas. 
 It is not surprising then to find a great number of his works auto 
 biographic. Amerikanische Jagd- und Reiseabenteuer is devoted 
 to those years when the author and his three German companions 
 lived on the banks of the Leona. Bis in die Wildniss ( 1858) ) depicts 
 Strubberg s life before he settled on the frontier. The time of 
 
28 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 An der Indianer-Grenze oder Treiier Liebe Lohn (1859) is a few 
 years later when Strubberg had been overtaken in his remote fron 
 tier home by encroaching civilization. A us Armands Frontierleben 
 (1868) further reflects the author s clays as a frontiersman in 
 Texas. These four works are interesting documents of the west 
 ward course of a great nation. To a lesser degree autobiographic are 
 Ralph Norwood (1860), Sklaverei in Amerika oder Schwarzes 
 Blut (1862), Der Krosus von Philadelphia (1870), Die alte span- 
 ische Urkunde (1872) in all of which Strubberg himself appears 
 under an assumed name, though playing very subordinate parts. In 
 the novel In Mexico (1865) the main male character is the young 
 German artist Lothar von Colmar. In Sud-Karolina und auf dem 
 Schlachtfelde von Langensalza (1869) we follow the career of Wall- 
 stein, a young German enthusiast for the American republic who 
 crosses the Atlantic to serve in the Civil War. His unpleasant 
 experiences, and his ideas of the republic and on slavery, form an 
 interesting part of the novel. In the author s last work Vornehm 
 und Burge rlich (1878) is described the emigration of a few demo 
 cratic-minded Germans to America, their many hardships, and 
 their final settlement on the Ohio, near Cincinnati, where they 
 plant large vineyards, make wine, prosper, and become prominent 
 citizens biirgerlich und doch vornehm ! 
 
 Strubberg s greatest contribution to the emigration novel is 
 his portrayal of one of the darkest periods in the history of the 
 state of Texas : the planting of German colonies in Texas by the 
 "Mainzer Adelsverein" through whose misdirected efforts thou 
 sands of Germans suffered untold miseries and hundreds died a 
 wretched death. This period has received the attention of historians 
 but it remained for Strubberg to give the struggles and sufferings of 
 these rugged German pioneers a place in literature. In 1859 ap 
 peared Alte und neue Heimath. As a novel it is one of Strubberg s 
 most readable works. As a cultural document it is invaluable. In 
 November, 1884, the first ship with immigrants sent by the "Verein" 
 had arrived ; soon thereafter came two others, bringing in all about 
 seven hundred people. Late in 1845, f ur thousand three hundred 
 and four more arrived. The immigrants of 1844 could not be con 
 veyed at once to the lands proposed. They were obliged to camp 
 on the coast, and only after some time transported to the interior, 
 where the town of Neu-Braunfels was founded. Those of 1845 
 fared even worse. Transportation was made practically impossible 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 29 
 
 through the fact that nearly all vehicles had been called into service 
 by the American army for the Mexican war. They were obliged to 
 camp on the coast in wretched shelter with only the poorest food. 
 The winter was a severe one, disease spread, and hundreds died. 
 Strubberg has taken for his subject the hardships of the first arrival 
 of immigrants, but he has apparently drawn on the incidents con 
 nected with the combined arrivals of 1844 and 1845. The author 
 was at this time in all probability living in the interior of Texas. He 
 was only called to Friedrichsburg as colonial director in 1846. He 
 was therefore not acquainted with his material at first hand, but he 
 had beyond a doubt abundant opportunity later to hear the immi 
 grants relate their wanderings from the coast to the interior. In 
 Friedrichsburg, die Colonie des dentschen F \\rsten-Vere-\ns in Texas 
 ( 1867) Strubberg has devoted himself in particular to the life 
 of the colony during its early period when he himself was active 
 there as director. Emigration to Texas is further reflected in Carl 
 Scharnhorst (1863), Die Fiirstentochter (1872), and Die geraubten 
 Kinder (1875). 
 
 That this great mass of emigration fiction found a ready market 
 testifies to the exceeding popularity of this class of fiction. The 
 demand for such literature is easily explained when we remember 
 that there was hardly a family, even in the remoter villages of 
 Germany which did not have a member, friend, or relative seeking 
 his fortune in America. Nor was the popularity of the trans 
 atlantic novel confined to the lower classes. We need only to look 
 into the newspapers and periodicals of the fifties and sixties to 
 discover the important place such literature occupied. The well 
 known weekly Uber Land und Meer, founded in 1858 by the novelist 
 F. W. Hackliinder is especially rich in tales and novelettes dealing 
 with America. The Sonntagsblatt, founded by the novelist Ruppius 
 in 1863, besides publishing much from the pen of Ruppius himself, 
 printed a great number of emigration stories. The Gartenlaube, the 
 most popular periodical of the time contains much from the pens of 
 Gerstacker and other writers of exotic fiction. 
 
 In spite of this great mass of emigration fiction the demand for 
 the same seems to have continued. There were other writers of 
 emigration novels who also found a ready sale for their works. 
 Like the group considered above, they had also been in America; 
 some had fled thither to escape persecution at home. Unlike those, 
 they did not confine themselves in their literary activities to material 
 
30 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 relating to America. They had, however, written emigration fiction 
 which was once widely read and which set them on a plane of 
 popularity with the above group. For that reason they deserve our 
 attention here. 
 
 Karl Theodor Griesinger (1809-1884), no longer contented 
 with the conditions at home, emigrated to America with his family 
 in 1852. His earliest work on America, published soon upon his 
 return again to Germany is Lebende Bilder aus Amerika (1858). 
 This was followed by Emigrantengeschichten (1858), two volumes 
 of extremely interesting and realistic tales. They describe i n a 
 simple style the conditions of German emigrants who have not yet 
 acquainted themselves with the conditions of life in America. These 
 six stories illustrate the American motto : God helps those who 
 help themselves! The best ones are probably Zwei Weiber und 
 falsch Geld, French Louis der Loaferkonig, and Germania in 
 Amerika. The last pictures the joys and sorrows of a German 
 colony, whose members, on account of their idealistic tendencies, 
 and their lack of practicality and organizing power, suffer many 
 hardships. Freiheit und Sklaverei unter dem Sternenbanner, oder 
 Land und Leute in Amerika (1862) is a work which tended to dis 
 courage emigration. It presents the dark sides of American life 
 with a merciless pen. 
 
 Adalbert Graf von Baudissin (1820-1871), who spent ten years 
 in America, published upon his return to Germany in 1862 a work 
 which went through several editions and gave the author a promi 
 nent place as a German humorist. Peter Tiitt. Zustande in Amerika 
 is written in a delightfully humorous vein but it bears evidence that 
 its author, like Griesinger in Land und Leute desires to discourage 
 emigration by frankly and impartially revealing the darker sides of 
 the young republic. In the introduction the author expresses his 
 intentions of having the book serve as a reaction against republican 
 enthusiasm in Germany. Baudissin s next work Huben und Drilben 
 (1862) also brought forth favorable comment. It relates the career 
 of a young nobleman who has made a mesalliance, upon which he 
 goes to America. Here he lives the life of a common man, is suc 
 cessful financially, returns to Germany at the outbreak of the Schles- 
 wig-Holstein war, marries his early love of low degree and lives 
 happily. 
 
 Karl Friedrich von Wickede (1821-1881), who led a most 
 varied life in America for many years, wrote upon his return to 
 
Baldnin M ollluniscn, The (icrnmn Cooper 31 
 
 Germany two series of short stories which were much admired and 
 which have found a place in Reclams Univfrsal-BibKothek. The 
 Amerikanische Novellen appeared in 1878 and were followed by a 
 Neue Folge in 1879. These series consist of delightfully written 
 tales, a number of which are built on episodes of the Civil War. In 
 Ein New-Yorker Spielhaus and Ein deutscher fndustrieritter in 
 der Fretnde the author has employed German characters. 
 
 A writer whom America can be proud to place among her list 
 of distinguished Germans is Therese Robinson, better known by her 
 pseudonym Talvj, formed from the initials of her full name, Therese 
 Albertine Louise von Jacob (1797-1870). Among the women of 
 the nineteenth century, perhaps only Margaret Fuller deserves to be 
 compared with her for range of learning. As the wife of the Ameri 
 can theologian, Edward Robinson, she lived in America almost con 
 tinuously from 1828 to 1864. Her home in New York was open to 
 strangers of all lands, but especially so to the German immigrant. 
 Talvj was a woman of many interests and her literary activity was 
 therefore very varied. One of her most interesting works is her 
 novel Die Ansivanderer. Eine Ercahlung (1852). The authoress 
 had first written it in English and published it under the title 
 The Exiles in 1851. In the introduction she sets forth her inten 
 tion of giving the world a series of American scenes such as she 
 herself had witnessed during her long stay in America. The 
 pleasure-seeker, the religious enthusiast, the Cavalier, the farmer, 
 the philanthropist, the Pharisee, and other national characters were 
 to be portrayed. The influence of Methodism is traced out. Poli 
 tics has been intentionally avoided, except where it was impossible 
 to do so. Die Auswanderer is one of the most interesting of the 
 emigration novels and one of the few produced on American soil. 
 
 Reinhold Solger (1820-1866), another distinguished German- 
 American, published in 1862 the novel Anton in Amerika. Seiten- 
 stiick zu Freytag s "Soil und Haben". Aus dem deutsch-omerika- 
 nischen Leben. This is one of the most notable German-American 
 productions and caused considerable comment in Germany. Das 
 belletristische Journal of New York had offered a prize for the best 
 German novel on German-American life, appointing as judges 
 these three German-American literary men: Friedrich Kapp, Wil- 
 helm Aufermann, and Dr. Karl Dilthey. Anton was chosen from 
 among a number of other novels offered. The judges in their 
 letter to the Journal concerning their decision said of it : "Von der 
 
32 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 ersten Zeile wird es dem Leser klar, dass er es hier mit einem iiber- 
 legnen Geiste zu thun hat, der nicht nur als Mann von Welt in den 
 beiderseitigen Ausserlichkeiten des deutsh-amer. Lebens vollkom- 
 men zu Hause ist, sondern sich auch in dessen psychologischen 
 Tiefen mit souveraner Sicherheit bewegt, wahrend er zugleich sei- 
 nen Gegenstand von der Hohe des Kulturhistorischen Standpunktes 
 
 aus iibersieht Sie haben durch Ihre Aufforderung 
 
 Arbeiten ans Licht gefordert, wodurch sich die deutsch-amer. 
 Novellenliteratur der vaterlandischen wiirdig an die Seite stellt." 12 
 This novel is in a measure a continuation of Freytag s Soil und 
 Haben. Freytag s character is brought to America and there enters 
 upon a varied career. The characters bear vestiges of being taken 
 from actual life. 
 
 In addition to the works of these writers, who as we have seen, 
 had more or less identified themselves with America, there are of 
 course numbers of other more isolated works which have for their 
 theme the Germans in America. 13 There are also scattered through 
 out the Greman periodicals of the fifties and sixties a great many 
 pieces of fiction which reflect various interesting phases of German 
 culture in America. 
 
 There remain to be considered a few noteworthy productions 
 which, though written under circumstances different from those of 
 most other emigration novels, deserve to be classed with them. 
 They were written by men who had never seen America. How 
 ever, we need not marvel at their truthful portrayal of life in 
 America when we recall how easily accessible such material was 
 in the periodicals, the emigration journals, and the books of travel 
 of the period. 
 
 A novel which has been of special interest to the German- Ameri 
 cans and which has been the object of considerable critical investi 
 gation is Kiirnberger s Der Amerikamude (1856), which first 
 
 12 See Magazin fur die Literatur des Auslandes. 28. Jan., 1863. 
 
 "The following have come to my notice: Das Auswandern. Eine Er- 
 zahlung. 1848. See Neueste V olksbibliothek ; Die Ausgewanderten und der 
 Indianer. Ed. v. Ambach. 1854; Die Auswanderer (?). Fr. Hoffman; Die 
 Hamburger in Amerika. Romantisch-poHtisches Gemalde, etc. Moritz 
 Reichenbach. 1864; Amer. Lebensbilder, oder Erlebnisse deutscher Auswan- 
 derer in Amerika. Luise Weil. 1865; Mein Onkel Fischer in Baltimore. 
 Pub. in Steiger s Deutsch-amer. Bibliothek. Karl Dilthey. 1872; In der 
 Frcmde. Eine Volksgeschichte fur Auswanderungslustige. Dietr. Theden. 
 Leipzig u. Berlin. 1883; Aus Kleindeutschland (Skizzen a. d. deutsch-amer. 
 Leben). A. Zapp. 1886; Der junge Auswanderer. K. Miiller. 1887-89. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 33 
 
 appeared as Vol. 8 of the Deutsche Bibliotlitk. The title is a re 
 actionary one against Willkomm s Die Europamiidcn, a term which 
 had since the writing of the latter work in 1837, become a byword 
 throughout Germany. The works of Griesinger and Baudissin 
 already contain an undertone of discontent concerning American 
 affairs, but Kurnberger s novel was by far the bitterest invective 
 against German enthusiasm for America that had appeared since 
 the word "Europamiide" came into vogue. Kiirnberger (1823- 
 1879) describes the fortunes of a young German poet who has 
 come to America where he had hoped to find everything superior 
 to that in the old world, but finds on the contrary only conceit, 
 bragging, lack of refinement, and corruption. He soon tires and is 
 glad to return again to Germany. The work was at the time of its 
 publication considered a faithful portrayal of life in America. To 
 the American of today there are many features which appear glar 
 ingly exaggerated and unjust. The novel has perhaps received more 
 than its share of prominence due to the belief that Kurnberger has 
 portrayed in it the poet Lenau and his unfortunate experiences in 
 America. Investigations now point out that only very late in the 
 developing of the novel did the author vest his hero with a few 
 external features of the unhappy Lenau. 14 
 
 Another noteworthy novel is Friedrich Spielhagen s Deutsche 
 Pioniere. Eine Geschichte aus dem vorigen Jahrhundert (1871). 
 The great German novelist had never been in America. He took 
 a keen interest in American affairs, however, followed the activities 
 of the German immigrants there, and studied American literature. 
 The novelette, Die schonen Amerikanerinnen (1868), and the ex 
 cellent preface to his Amerikanische Gedichte (1872), translations 
 of American poetry, bear testimony of this interest. The author has 
 employed an early phase of German emigration in his Deutsche 
 Pioniere, that of German colonization in the valley of the Mohawk, 
 along the Canada and the Schoharie, about the middle of the eight 
 eenth century. Spielhagen shows how these early German pioneers 
 had to contend with their unfriendly neighbors, the English and 
 the Dutch, and, being unsuccessful were finally obliged to seek the 
 
 "Cf. G. A. Mulhnger: Ferd. Kiirnbcrgers Roman "Der Amerikamude. 
 German American Annals. Vol. I. 
 
34 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 frontier ,of New York where they were at the mercy of the French 
 and the Indians. They had fled from tyranny and disunity at home 
 only to find the same in the new world. Deutsche Pioniere is dedi 
 cated to Friedrich Kapp, "dem griindlichen Forscher, dem geist- 
 reichen Darsteller des Deutschtums in Amerika". 
 
 Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882) reflects German emigration 
 in Das Landhaus am Rhein (1869) in which Herr Sonnenkamp, 
 about whom the novel turns, had migrated to America, and be 
 come a slave-trader and millionaire. He returns to Germany and 
 builds a splendid villa on the Rhine. He endeavors to hide his past 
 in order that he may gain entrance to German aristocracy. His 
 past life is discovered and he again returns to America where he 
 fights in the Confederate army and dies. 
 
 Theodor Storm (1817-1888) in his charming novelette Von 
 jenseit des Meeres (1867) portrays the soul-conflicts of Jenni, the 
 daughter of a German planter in the West Indies by a colored 
 woman. The child is early torn from her socially impossible mother 
 and brought to Germany where she developes into a cultured young 
 lady. As she grows to womanhood her instincts demand the love 
 of a mother of whom she has been robbed. One day Sealsfield s 
 novel Pflanzerleben comes to her hands and through it she learns 
 fully to realize her own situation and that of the colored race of 
 which she is a part. She escapes from her wealthy father to join her 
 mother in St. Croix, but finds her father s once beautiful mistress 
 now become only a coarse old negress. Jenni s European culture 
 prevails against her instincts toward her mother and she returns to 
 Germany. 
 
 Wilhelm Schroder s (1808-1878) Schneider Piepenbrinks Jagd 
 auf nen Buff el in der amerikanischen Prairie takes rank among 
 Germany s choicest tales of humor. It is the story of Hans Peter 
 Piepenbrink, a naive tailor apprentice who went about making 
 revolutionary speeches in 1847. Hans is imprisoned consequently 
 but escapes to America where he takes a position as tailor with a 
 western fur company and prospers. 
 
 The above is a brief consideration of that great wave of emi 
 gration fiction which flooded the remotest recesses of Germany. It 
 had given expression to much that lay deep in the hearts of the 
 German people. Who shall say that the present German s keen 
 interest in and sympathy with the great republic beyond the Atlan 
 tic was not fostered by the Emigration Novel? 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 35 
 
 With the creation of the new German Empire in 1871, and its 
 resultant prosperity, that interest which the Germans had so long 
 had in America gradually waned. In the development of a larger 
 national consciousness the attention of the Germans was drawn 
 away from America and directed to the colonies in Africa. The 
 once so popular Indian story was now being displaced by tales which 
 depicted colonial life in Germany s own new possessions. A great 
 deal of Indian literature nevertheless continued to appear, but it 
 made its appeal to a different type of reader. Much of it must be 
 classed as juvenile literature whose authors speculated upon the 
 adventure-loving period of adolescence. In many of these works 
 the cultural and ethnographic material is rather incidental and a 
 gaudy, sensational story receives the main consideration. With the 
 increasing prosperity of a united Germany and the growth of its 
 African colonies many of the causes for German emigration to 
 America had ceased, and with the great decrease in emigration, 
 emigration fiction also grew out of fashion. 
 
 For more than half a century Indian and emigration fiction 
 represented no mean portion of the entire output of German fiction. 
 These two types of fiction may, from the standpoint of some his 
 torians of German literature, continue to be considered as only 
 insignificant undercurrents in the great stream of German novelistic 
 literature. It is true that this fiction was written by men who were 
 in many instances but poorly schooled in literary art, and is therefore 
 only too often without form. Most of these men had, however, lived 
 lives freed from the convention and artificiality of the old culture 
 of Europe. They have in consequence bequeathed to German fic 
 tion a rich legacy of healthy realism, a keen appreciation of nature, 
 a spirt of democracy, and a more normal, though often uncouth, 
 love of life in its full round of activities. These works present to 
 us of today an interesting chapter in the cultural history of America, 
 huge frescoes, so to speak, of the great struggle of the nations 
 towards the unclaimed West, lurid perhaps and unrefined in color, 
 but epical in character and action, pulsating with that elemental 
 vigor of life which was to build up the greatest republic in the 
 history of the world. 
 
 This chapter on "America in German Fiction" is to serve as 
 an introduction to a German novelist who is a representative of both 
 Indian and emigration fiction, but who, for reasons sufficiently 
 
36 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 obvious, was left unmentioned in the above consideration. Balduin 
 Mollhausen was the most prolific, and at the same time the last 
 great exponent of transatlantic fiction in Germany. He did not write 
 with the passionate pen of Sealsfield ; he did not give the Indian so 
 prominent a place in his novels as Strubberg did, nor did he paint 
 western scenery with the latter s lurid brush ; he may lack Ger- 
 stacker s facile style of narrative ; but in point of form, and in the 
 skillful motivation of a plot he is the master of all these. There is 
 no German writer who has, in the course of his many novels, so 
 artistically depicted the varied phases of our American life, and 
 especially so the motley racial conflicts which were enacted on the 
 frontier of the young republic in its forward march toward the West. 
 In view of his splendid portrayals of Indian and pioneer life, and 
 by virtue of the high character of his sea-novels, there is none who 
 deserves so much the title of "The German Cooper". The follow 
 ing pages are devoted to a consideration of the life and works of 
 Balduin Mollhausen. 
 
MOLLHAUSEN AS A HUNTER IN WESTERN 
 
 AMERICA IN 1854 
 
CHAPTER II 
 fin. BIOGRAPHY OK MOLLHAUSEN 
 
 Heinrich Balduin Mollhausen was born January 27, 1825. At 
 the time of his birth the parents dwelt upon the "Jesuitenhof", a 
 small estate on the Rhine near Bonn. His father, Heinrich Moll 
 hausen, had formerly been stationed at Cologne as a Prussian ar 
 tillery officer, but later practiced the profession of a civil engineer. 1 
 His mother, Elisabeth Baronesse von Falkenstein, had, in the esti 
 mation of her relatives, brought little credit upon herself by marry 
 ing Heinrich Mollhausen. The latter was a very active and enter 
 prising man, but of a restless and wandering disposition. He 
 possessed an uncontrollable desire for collecting copper engravings, 
 which led him to squander the larger part of his income, leaving the 
 family in pecuniary embarrassment. Upon the early death of his 
 wife, Heinrich Mollhausen seems more than ever to have yielded 
 to his restless temperament. He was last engaged in the building 
 of the first railroad in Greece, during which time he was overtaken 
 by death and buried in Odessa. 
 
 Of the five children, two had died in early infancy. Heinrich 
 Balduin (later commonly known as Balduin), the eldest of the 
 remaining children, with Gustav, and Louisa were placed under the 
 guardianship of Graf Krassow. The rearing of the children was 
 largely in the hands of an aunt, Fraulein Adelheid von Falkenstein 
 who had settled at Waren in Mecklenburg, and there established 
 a school. Here in Mecklenburg Balduin s earliest days were ap 
 parently spent. Later, however, he was placed in the gymnasium 
 in Bonn where he remained until his fourteenth year. Unfortu 
 nately want of means did not allow him to enter the university. 
 His relatives were of the opinion that the lad would not distinguish 
 
 * According to ancient chronicles, one of his ancestors fought at 
 nna and Pavia as Mellhausen, another in the Thirty Years War, 
 
 Ra 
 
 venna and Pavia as Mellhausen, another in the Thirty Years War, and 
 still another, a captain of cavalry, fell at Torgau in the Seven Years War. 
 Heinrich Mollhausen himself had in his youth served in the Wars of the 
 Liberation as a volunteer in Lutzow s Corps. Cf. Die Osterreichischen Rilter- 
 Orden. Band I. 1898. Hrsg. anlasslich des 50 jahrigen Herrscher-Jubilaums 
 Seiner Majestat des Kaisers, Franz Joseph I. unter gefalliger Mitarbeiter- 
 schaft zahlreicher Ordensritter, von der Verlags-Anstalt "Universum." 
 
38 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 himself in an academic career. From his father he had inherited 
 an artistic bent which was early directed toward painting. Here, 
 too, further education was denied him and he was sent by his 
 relatives to Pomerania where he was to take up agriculture. Here 
 he remained until 1846, when he entered upon his year of military 
 service in Stralsund. Upon the suggestion of his guardian, Graf 
 Krassow, young Mollhausen went to Vienna with the intention of 
 becoming an officer in the Austrian army, but soon returned again, 
 having learned that his means did not permit him to enter upon 
 a military career. During the Revolution of 1848 he was levied 
 and quartered for some time in Schloss Monbijou, Berlin, from 
 which he often marched forth to stand guard before the mansion 
 of Alexander von Humboldt, who was a little later to take such 
 kindly interest in the young man. The political unrest during these 
 years, at which time he was frequently called into irksome military 
 service, together with a restlessness and an irresistible longing for 
 life in a freer and more primitive atmosphere, probably inherited 
 in part from his restless father, caused him to go to America, 
 whither the eyes of so many of his countrymen were directed and 
 where so many had already found refuge. 
 
 In the fall of 1849 Balduin Mollhausen sailed for America with 
 600 Thaler in his pocket, having left the military service as a 
 subaltern "with the most honorable testimonials from his superior 
 officers". 2 Mollhausen wandered to the Middle West and for a 
 time led the roving life of a hunter in the region of the Kaskaskia 
 river in southwestern Illinois. For a time too he seems to have 
 found employment as a sign-painter. In Belleville, Illinois, he be 
 came acquainted with a certain Mr. Winkel who was a court- 
 clerk. Having resigned this position for that of bookkeeper in a 
 large mercantile house, Mr. Winkel advised Mollhausen to apply 
 for his former position. For several months Mollhausen appears 
 to have filled this position, availing himself of the opportunity to 
 further his knowledge of the English language. But an unconquer 
 able "Drang" toward a freer life did not permit him long to con 
 tinue in this capacity. A few months later we find him wandering 
 with a gun upon his shoulders in the lands of his dreams, the western 
 prairies. 
 
 2 See Alexander von Humboldt s Introduction to Mollhausen s Tagebuch 
 einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Kiislen der Sildsee. Leipzig. 1858. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 39 
 
 Near the banks of the Mississippi Mollhausen chanced to hear 
 of the scientific expedition which Duke Paul William of Wiirttem- 
 berg 1 was about to make to the Rocky Mountains. He was eager to 
 join the expedition of so eminent a traveller, and his request to do 
 so was graciously granted him by the Duke. 
 
 The party journeyed westward to Fort Laramie on the Platte 
 river without much delay. Here the repeated attacks of Indians, 
 the death of a great number of horses which were indispensable for 
 the continuation of the journey, and an affection of the eyes of the 
 men due to the snow, forced the Duke to discontinue his plans for 
 the time. 4 Late in the autumn of 1851 we find the Duke and 
 Mollhausen as his only companion making their way back to the 
 Missouri. 5 The Duke drove in a vehicle drawn by two horses, 
 while Mollhausen rode on a horse, having in addition, charge of a 
 mule. Once, on crossing the Platte river, the wagon of the Duke 
 got into drifting sands and could not be moved. A band of Oglalas 
 was about to relieve them of all their sugar and coffee when the 
 U. S. mail-coach returning from Fort Laramie appeared upon the 
 scene and aided them. They now continued their course on the 
 
 * Friedrich Paul Wilhelm, Herzog von Wiirttemberg, was born in Karls 
 ruhe, Silesia, July 25, 1797, and died at Mergentheim, November 25, 1860. 
 After serving for some time in the armies of Prussia and Wiirttemberg (he 
 had attained to the rank of Major-General in the latter) he devoted himself 
 exclusively to the natural sciences and to exploration. He was one of the 
 foremost travellers and explorers of his day. From October, 1822, to Decem 
 ber, 1824, he travelled in the valleys of the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri, 
 concerning which travels he published an account in the form of a diary 
 (Stuttgart 1835). From 1829 to 1832 he was in northern Mexico, and the 
 bordering territory of the United States. Also he gave some time to the 
 study of the islands in the Gulf of Mexico. From September, 1839, to August, 
 1840, he was attached to the military expedition undertaken by the Viceroy 
 of Egypt into some of the unexplored regions of the upper Nile. In the 
 spring of 1849 he again went to America and remained there until 1856, mak 
 ing various journeys from the northwestern parts of the United States and 
 Canada to the Magellan Straits. In 1857 he travelled once more m the valley 
 of the Mississippi. In 1827 he had married Princess Sophie von Thurn und 
 Taxis. Through this marriage he acquired Schloss Mergentheim as a dwelling- 
 seat. Here he arranged his collections of objects of natural history and 
 ethnography. These were unfortunately scattered after his death. The 
 University of Tubingen had given Duke Paul a doctorate honoris causa in 
 recognition of his services in the field of natural history. Cf. A. D. B. Bd. 25. 
 
 *Cf. Humboldt s Introduction to Mollhausen s Tagebuch einer Reise, etc. 
 
 - My sources for the details of this journey are the Tagebuch einer Reise 
 rom Mississippi nach den Kilsten der Siidsee (1858) and the Reisen in dif 
 Felsengcbirge Nordamerikas bis sum Hoch-Plateau von Neu-Mexico, etc. 
 (1861), accounts of Mollhausen s second and third journeys to America 
 respectively, but in both of which he has woven accounts of his journey 
 with Duke Paul. 
 
4O Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 broad emigrant road along the south bank of the Platte, hoping to 
 reach the settlements on the Missouri before the snow-storms set 
 in. Their horses were fast losing strength, the grass on the prairies 
 having been gnawed to the roots by the buffaloes. To make matters 
 worse they were overtaken by some Kioways who killed one of their 
 horses. Their own escape was due to the accidental discovery of 
 Mollhausen s sketch-book by one of the Indians. The many sketches 
 of Indians in it impressed the Kioways as works of magic. They 
 appropriated the sketch-book, together with some weapons, and 
 continued on their way. The Duke and Mollhausen finally reached 
 Fort Kearney, a military station erected by the U. S. government 
 for the protection of emigrants. Some distance further they lost 
 two of their animals through accident and cold weather. Also 
 some Pawnees had robbed them of considerable clothing and pro 
 vision. Under great difficulty they had got to the confluence of 
 Sandy Hill Creek and the Big Blue river where they found a 
 suitable camping-place and hoped to remain several days in order 
 to refresh themselves physically for the journey which remained. 
 Here they passed a few wretched days in a small Indian tent which 
 they had bought from a fur hunter at Fort Laramie, having for 
 food only some bad buffalo meat, and some rice and Indian corn. 
 A fearful snow-storm set in, their last horse succumbed to it, the 
 wolves gathered about the camp, and both the Duke and Mollhausen 
 fell ill. *Such was their condition when the U. S. mail-coach, on its 
 way from Fort Kearney to the Platte, passed by and offered to take 
 one of them along while the other should remain in the tent with 
 the goods till horses could be sent from the Catholic Mission which 
 the coach would pass eighty or a hundred miles farther on. It fell 
 to the lot of Mollhausen to remain alone in this desolate place. He 
 first set to work to defend himself against the cold and the drifting 
 snow by raising a firm wall of snow about his tent and then dragging 
 a quantity of wood from the river and piling it before the entrance 
 to the tent. He had calculated that help from the Mission might 
 be expected to arrive in about fourteen days, and therefore pro 
 ceeded to divide his buffalo meat, rice, coffee, etc., into fourteen 
 parts. The only sound whch came to him in the loneliness of the 
 first night was the howling of the prairie wolves. "One night is 
 got through", he thought the following morning and cut a notch in 
 one of the tent-poles. It was about November 17, and he consoled 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 41 
 
 himself with the thought that by Christmas he might be safely at the 
 mission ; but he was to be sadly disappointed. On the second day 
 some horsemen approached, who, on coming nearer, proved to be 
 Indians returning from the beaver hunt to their settlements on the 
 Kansas. Mollhausen was pleasantly relieved on finding himself ad 
 dressed in English by one who declared himself to be a Delaware. 
 The Indian tried to persuade Mollhausen to abandon the goods and 
 accompany him to his wigwam before he fell a victim to the wolves 
 and wandering Pawnees. Also he declared that the whites would 
 not venture forth from the mission. Mollhausen persistently re 
 fused to accompany the Indian and regretted it much afterwards. 
 Fourteen days of extreme misery had passed and no help from 
 the mission had come. He had been forced to eat of the flesh of the 
 wolves to keep him from starvation. Hunger, sleeplessness, and 
 cold had driven him to take of the laudanum which, with some 
 quinine, made up the medicine-chest of the expedition. With con 
 tinued privation and suffering the first days of January had come. 
 Lying one day in his tent he was wakened from his reveries by the 
 Indian salutation Au-tarro-hau (Holloa, friend!). Then, with the 
 English words, "You are in a bad case here, friend," a dirty Indian 
 came crawling into the tent. He explained that his father had been 
 white and his mother red, but he preferred to be an Indian. Louis 
 Farfar, for that was the name of the half-breed, belonged to the 
 Ottoes, and was on his way with five others and their women, to the 
 wigwams at Council Bluffs. The Ottoes were friends of the whites 
 and Mollhausen yielded to their invitation to accompany them to 
 their village on the Missouri. It was agreed that the whole party 
 were to stop at Mollhausen s tent the following day and take him 
 and his goods with them. Six weeks Mollhausen had lived in soli 
 tude on the prairie. It was with joyful spirits, therefore, that he 
 joined the little band of Ottoes upon the following morning. During 
 the time spent with these hospitable redskins Mollhausen had learned 
 much concerning their modes of life, which was to serve him to 
 good purpose in his later life. The tall, blond Teuton had grown 
 to be a favorite among the Ottoes. Wakitamonee, the medicine 
 man, was especially fond of him, and wished to make of him an 
 Indian. It was not always easy for Mollhausen to circumvent 
 the extreme hospitality shown him. It was only through skillful 
 diplomacy that he escaped taking two of the medicine-man s daugh 
 ters into his tent as squaws ! Mollhausen and the Ottoes had been 
 
42 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 travelling together four weeks when Louis Farfar informed him 
 that they would probably reach the Missouri on that same day and 
 that efforts would be made to further him immediately to the little 
 settlement of white fur-traders on its eastern shore. That day they 
 came to three wigwams of the Ottoes in the angle of the Nebraska 
 and the Missouri . Here Mollhausen made the acquaintance of a Mr. 
 Martin who invited him to his log house on the other side of the river. 
 The little wagon with his goods was pushed over the thick ice of the 
 Missouri, and that evening Mollhausen found himself once more 
 by the fireside of white people, eating bread and drinking hot punch. 
 This little settlement of traders was called Bethlehem. Here he 
 spent a week, recovering from his strenuous days with the Indians 
 and having some new garments made, of which he was sorely in 
 need. He had heard of an Omaha village twelve miles northward 
 from Bethlehem, and not far from it a trading-post of the St. Louis 
 Fur Company, an Indian Agency, and a Presbyterian Mission, which 
 he wished to visit. After several days with his Indian friends 
 nearby, he set out one cold morning in company with Louis Farfar 
 and several young Ottoes, and continued up the Missouri. When 
 they had got as far as the confluence of the Papillon or Butterfly 
 Creek with the Missouri, they found themselves on the edge of a 
 broad prairie, and could see in the distance the Mission and the 
 Agency. At sundown Mollhausen found himself at the door of 
 Mr. Sarpy, the chief of the fur trading-post, who received him with 
 the hospitality which was characteristic of western frontier life. 
 Mollhausen later decided that Mr. Sarpy was the most complete 
 specimen of backwoodsman that he had seen, and he in all proba 
 bility served as a model for a number of the finely portrayed fron 
 tiersmen in the author s novels. At this time Mollhausen had 
 nothing that he could call his own except his weapons. Even his 
 clothes were got on credit. Here in the trading post of the fur 
 company Mollhausen had, for the time, nothing to do but study the 
 peculiarities of the motley crowd which gathered there. "People 
 went and came", Mollhausen narrates, "new faces and new forms 
 crowded Mr. Sarpy s hall, which resembled a well filled stage, and 
 all the more because the tremendous severity of the winter mostly 
 kept both guests and host within doors. I had an excellent op 
 portunity here of keeping myself in practice in drawing, and I 
 was the more inclined to do so, as I contemplated carrying away 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 43 
 
 with me to my home something more than mere recollections of 
 what I had seen." 6 
 
 This trading-station, known as Belle Vue, was somewhat south 
 of Council Bluffs. It had intercourse chiefly with the Omaha In 
 dians, whose village lay on a high bank of the Papillon Creek, about 
 six miles from the Missouri. Here Mollhausen remained fourteen 
 weeks, during which time he often accompanied the Omahas on 
 their hunting expeditions, and learned much of their modes of life. 
 He was again in possession of his usual robust health and seems to 
 have enjoyed to the full the role he was taking as a frontiersman. 
 He had engaged some of the most skillful squaws to make him an 
 Indian outfit, and soon thereafter went about dressed from head to 
 foot in leather garments with handsome embroideries and fringes. 
 Also, if we may accept his own narrative on this point, he had fallen 
 in love with the beautiful half-breed maiden, Amelia Papin, the 
 daughter of a Pawnee Indian woman by a Frenchman. Urged by 
 Mr. Sarpy, he now entertained for a time the thought of settling 
 upon the Missouri. "In the meanwhile," writes Mollhausen, "the 
 last ice had been carried away by the muddy waves of the Missouri, 
 and given over to the Mississippi for complete solution ; the buds on 
 the trees began to swell, immense flocks of birds were seen flying 
 towards the north, crowds of emigrants assembled at Bell Vue 
 to proceed to Utah Lake or California, and I too began to be con 
 scious of a revival of my old desire for travelling." 7 There arrived 
 at Belle Vue at this time a caravan of Mormons, who, hearing that 
 Mollhausen knew the road to the Rocky Mountains and the best 
 places for camping, offered him a tempting salary if he would 
 accompany them as a buffalo hunter. Mollhausen felt quite un 
 certain as to whether he should accept the offer of the Mormons, 
 or whether he should settle at Council Bluffs and enter upon Mr. 
 Sarpy s offered employment, when an enexpected but very fortu 
 nate circumstance came to his aid. 
 
 From Bethlehem Mollhausen had directed letters to St. Louis 
 with inquiries concerning his former travelling companion, the Duke 
 of Wurttemberg. 8 After a period of three months he received a 
 
 * See Mollhausen s Diary of a journey from the Mississippi to the Coasts 
 of the Pacific. Translated by Mrs. Percy Sinnett. 2 Vols. London. 1858. 
 Vol. I, p. 252. 
 
 7 See the Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi, etc. Vol. I, p. 299. 
 
 8 These letters were in all probability directed to Angelrodt, at that time 
 German consul in St. Louis, who must have received instructions from the 
 Duke. 
 
44 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 reply containing the news that Duke Paul had arrived safely in 
 New Orleans, and had long ago given up hope of ever seeing 
 Mollhausen again. The letter contained letters of credit and the 
 request that he join the Duke in New Orleans. 9 
 
 Mollhausen was not long in deciding what course to pursue. 
 He bade his many hospitable friends a cordial farewell and took 
 an early steamer down the Missouri to St. Louis. How long he 
 remained in St. Louis is not known. From here he seems to have 
 revisited Belleville, Illinois, and renewed old acquaintances made 
 during his earlier sojourn in that vicinity. Finally he arrived in 
 New Orleans where he once more met the Duke. 10 Mollhausen 
 then accompanied the Duke upon several excursions and assisted 
 him in gathering material for his geological collection. The Prus 
 sian consul Angelrodt, stationed at St. Louis, had entrusted to 
 the care of Mollhausen a number of American animals, among which 
 were beavers and grey bears. They were to accompany Mollhausen 
 on his return to Germany, and there be given over to the zoological 
 garden in Berlin. It must have been late in the autumn of 1852 
 when Mollhausen finally embarked on a vessel bound for Bremen. 
 On January 6, 1853, he arrived safely in Berlin where he presented 
 himself to Professor Lichtenstein, the founder of the Berlin zoologi 
 cal garden, and delivered to him the animals which had been en 
 trusted to his care upon the voyage. Professor Lichtenstein was at 
 tracted to the young traveller and introduced him to Alexander 
 von Humboldt. Young Mollhausen s attractive personality and 
 his happy manner in giving expression to his many interesting ex 
 periences in the New World won for him the friendship of the aged 
 scientist. He subsequently became a frequent and welcome visitor 
 in the well known mansion near the Oranienburger Thor. Nothing 
 could have been more fortunate for the young man than the kindly 
 interest which Humboldt manifested in him. The friendship and 
 patronage of this world-renowned man went far toward winning 
 that recognition which Mollhausen later enjoyed as a traveller and 
 author. 
 
 See also the Duke s interesting letter from New Orleans addressed to 
 Mollhausen at Bethlehem on the banks of the Missouri (Appendix, Letter 
 No. 2). 
 
 10 The writer has no data concerning the definite time of Mollhausen s 
 sojourn in New Orleans and his final departure. 
 
Balduin Molllhmsai. I he German Cooper 45 
 
 Mollhausen seems at this time to have entertained no idea 
 whatever of putting his experiences in literary form. His aesthetic 
 sense for the beauties of the New World had expressed itself in a 
 great wealth of sketches whose beauty and faithfulness to nature 
 had called forth the admiration of Alexander von Humboldt. King 
 Friederich Wilhelm IV, to whom these sketches had been shown by 
 Humboldt, also expressed great interest in the work of the skillful 
 young artist, and was pleased to see him in his palace. 11 Recognizing 
 the ethnographic value of Mollhausen s sketches of Indian life, 
 Humboldt encouraged him to return to America. During his 
 stay in Berlin Mollhausen had been studying to develop himself 
 in certain branches of his art. But in April of 1853, a f ter l ess tnan 
 four months in Berlin, he was already preparing to enter upon his 
 second journey to America. Before leaving for America, he had 
 become engaged to Carolina Alexandra, the daughter of Herr 
 Seifert, the secretary and travelling companion of Humboldt. He 
 had learned to know her in the mansion of Alexander von Humboldt 
 where she had been reared. She had been educated under the per 
 sonal supervision of the scientist himself. 
 
 Well provided with recommendations, entrusted with despatches 
 from the American embassy at Berlin, and having with him a gift 
 of fifty Friederichs d or from the gracious King Friederich Wil 
 helm IV, Mollhausen sailed from Hamburg on April 15, 1853, and 
 landed in New York on May 3. He hastened at once to Wash 
 ington, delivered the dispatches and presented his letters of in 
 troduction to the Prussian ambassador, Leo Gerolt. The warm 
 recommendation 1 - of Humboldt whose own visits and explorations 
 in America were not forgotten, won for him the recognition of in 
 fluential men in Washington, who could be of service to him in 
 executing his plans to visit the western slopes of the Rocky Moun 
 tains. 
 
 Mollhausen arrived in Washington at a very opportune time. 
 The U. S. government was just sending out three different ex 
 peditions for finding out the best course for a railroad to the Pacific 
 Ocean. The first of these, under the command of Governor Stevens 
 was to go westward between the 47th and 49th parallels, north 
 latitude, cross the Rocky Mountains near the sources of the Mis- 
 
 11 Cf. Letter No. 6 in the Appendix. 
 13 Cf. Letter No. 4. 
 
46 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 souri and Columbia, and keep along the valleys in order to find 
 what facilities were afforded for railway construction. The second, 
 under Captain Gunnison, was to go along the 38th parallel, tracing 
 the shortest route between San Francisco and St. Louis. The third 
 expedition under Lieutenant Whipple was to proceed along the 
 35th parallel to California by way of Fort Smith and Albuquerque. 
 The first two expeditions had already started, but the third was not 
 yet fully equipped. The position of a topographer was not yet 
 filled. Upon the recommendation of the Prussian ambassador, Leo 
 Gerolt, Mollhausen applied for the position and in a few days re 
 ceived the announcement of his appointment. 13 He was to receive 
 maintenance, travelling expenses, and one hundred dollars per 
 month for his services. The Smithsonian Institute had commis 
 sioned him to make certain physical observations on this journey. 
 Also the office of naturalist to the expedition had been entrusted to 
 him. After spending several weeks in preparing himself for his 
 work, Mollhausen took the train across the Alleghenies to Cincinnati. 
 There he embarked on a steamer down the Ohio and reached Cairo 
 on June 9. The steamer continued down the Mississippi and 
 reached Fort Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas, June 12. 
 Several other members of Lieutenant Whipple s expedition had 
 already arrived there and were waiting for an opportunity of getting 
 to Fort Smith. They were obliged to wait two days longer for the 
 reason that the captain of the boat on the Arkansas had thought 
 the number of passengers too small to make the trip up the river. 
 Finally they arrived at Fort Smith where the actual labors of the 
 expedition in marking out the best line for a railway from this 
 point to Pueblo de los Angelos on the Pacific were to begin. All 
 the members of the expedition, including geologists, surgeons, bota 
 nists, astronomers, and draughtsmen, twelve in number, had 
 
 Washington, May 10, 1853. 
 M Mr. Mollhausen: 
 
 You are hereby appointed to accompany, as topographer or draughts 
 man, the expedition under my command; you will therefore proceed to 
 Fort Smith on the Arkansas, in the State of Arkansas, and there await further 
 orders. At Fort Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas, your duties will 
 begin, and you will thence keep an official journal, making such drawings and 
 memoranda as may appear to you of value or interest for the expedition to 
 which you belong. 
 
 A. W. Whipple. 
 
 Commander of the Southern Expedition for deter 
 mining the line of Railway to the Pacific Ocean. 
 (Quoted from the author s Preface to the Tagebuch einer Reise, etc.) 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 47 
 
 gathered here. Several weeks were spent at Fort Smith in prepar 
 ing for the long journey. At last the necessary wagons, mules, 
 and laborers had all been got together. On July 15, 1853, the ex 
 pedition, consisting of seventy persons (which included a military 
 escort), left Fort Smith, crossed the Poteau river and followed the 
 road over the marshy bottomlands in the angle of the Arkansas and 
 Poteau. Passing through some Choctaw lands, the party crossed 
 the Sans-Bois creek, continued along the south bank of the Cana 
 dian, and finally reached Fort Arbuckle, where they remained for 
 a time. After they had journeyed several weeks across the prairies, 
 under a most oppressive sun they came to the valley of the Canadian. 
 Here they met various tribes of Indians. Upon reaching Shady 
 Creek the party turned from the Canadian and approached the 
 eastern end of the Llano Estacado. On September 23 they had 
 reached the Tucumcari Mountains, and two days later came to the 
 Gallinas a few miles above its union with the Pecos, somewhat to 
 the east of the Santa Fc Mountains. They pitched their tents at 
 a spring near by, and since they were soon to reach the Spanish 
 towns in New Mexico, Lieutenant Whipple set out in advance in 
 a light conveyance for Anton Chico to inform the people of the 
 approaching expedition. The arrival of the party on the following 
 day caused considerable curiosity in the little frontier village, whose 
 entire population numbered no more than three hundred inhabi 
 tants. They were very courteously received by the Mexican Alcalde, 
 who invited them to a festive fandango for the following 
 day. At Anton Chico Lieutenant Whipple divided the expedition 
 into two parties. Lieutenant Whipple himself, together with a 
 topographer, the geologist, the botanist, and Mollhausen, were to 
 visit the valley of Cuesta, and then to meet the other party at the 
 end of the Canon Blanco. Thereupon they were to part again, the 
 Lieutenant and his men turning in a northwesterly direction, meet 
 ing the Rio Grande at the Pueblo St. Domingo, and going down the 
 river to Albuquerque, while the main body of the expedition was to 
 travel in a straight line southward from the Gold Mountains through 
 the San Pedro Pass, and reach Albuquerque two days before the 
 Lieutenant s party. In the first week of October the two parties 
 of the expedition met in Albuquerque, 14 where they celebrated the 
 
 "In the Amigo del Pais, the weekly paper of Albuquerque, appeared the 
 
 :>ur town the 
 which arrived 
 
 .*i niv. sirruyu uct i i/K>, me wccMj yd-pci <ji ^viuuq^uci *4uc, djjyctiicu me 
 
 following: "We have had the pleasure of welcoming in our town the 
 "ailroad Expedition under command of Lieutenant Whipple, wh! 
 
48 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 occasion by a banquet in the open air. Here, too, they at last re 
 ceived mail which had been forwarded to them by the U. S. 
 government in Washington by means of the Santa Fe Post. 
 
 With the arrival of the expedition at Albuquerque the first, and 
 by far the easier half of the journey was completed. Brevet 
 Second Lieutenant Ives, who was to proceed from the coast of 
 Texas and join them in Albuquerque had not yet arrived. A longer 
 stay in this place was found to be necessary. Maps and profiles 
 of the country were worked out, and astronomical and meteorologi 
 cal observations were made. Also herbariums and geological 
 collections were arranged during this time. Mollhausen himself 
 was busy with his collection of reptiles, and making duplicates of his 
 sketches. All collections and notes were then carefully packed and 
 forwarded to the United States by a trading caravan, so as not 
 to expose them to any dangers on the continued journey. In a 
 letter to Alexander von Humboldt, dated at Baltimore on Novem 
 ber 28, 1853, the Prussian ambassador to the United States, Leo 
 Gerolt, has occasion to speak of the beautiful drawings which 
 Mollhausen had already sent to the Smithsonian Institute. He 
 speaks of 400 dollars received from Mollhausen, which he had al 
 ready saved from his salary, and which the ambassador was to 
 send to Berlin where it was to be placed to the account of his 
 betrothed, Fraulein Carolina Seifert. Also he mentions that no 
 further news need be expected from Mollhausen before the expedi 
 tion reaches California, and begs Humboldt to comfort Fraulein 
 Seifert in the meanwhile. The high esteem in which the ambassa 
 dor himself regards the young man is expressed in the following 
 words: "Gestatten Euer Excellenz (Humboldt) dass ich im Geiste 
 und in Gebete mich den frommen Wiinschen und Huldigungen an- 
 
 here safely on the third of October, 1853. The expedition consists of the 
 following members: Lieutenant Ives, First Asst. of Lieutenant Whipple in 
 the Topographical Department; Dr. John M. Bigelow, Physician and Bota 
 nist; Jules Marcou, Geologist and Mineralogist; H. B. Mollhausen, Natural 
 ist and Topographical Draughtsman; C. B. Kennerley, Naturalist; Albert 
 Campbell, Engineer and Surveyor; Hugh Campbell, Astronomer; W. White, 
 Meteorologist; George Garner, Astronomer and Secretary; John P. Sher 
 wood, Meteorologist; Thomas Park, Astronomer; Lieutenant Johns, 7th 
 Infantry Regiment, Commander of the Escort; D. S. Stanley, Quartermaster 
 and Commissary. We have received from Lieutenant Whipple the most 
 satisfactory intelligence concerning the route examined by the Expedition." 
 (Cited from Mollhausen s Tagebuch einer Reise, etc.) 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 49 
 
 schliesse welche der reine und kraftige Jungling Ihnen zum neuen 
 Jahre darbringt." 10 
 
 In Albuquerque the services of the well known Canadian guide 
 Leroux were secured. As a second guide Lieutenant Whipple en 
 gaged a Mexican to accompany them to California. During the 
 fifth week of their stay in Albuquerque, Lieutenant Ives and his 
 men arrived from Texas, making the number of men in the expedi 
 tion one hundred and fourteen. They started out on their journey 
 westward during the second week in November. About November 
 20 they had arrived upon the summit of the ridge of the Sierra 
 Madre, the watershed between the Atlantic and the Pacific. After 
 a number of days spent in visiting the towns of the Zuiii Indians, 
 the party, with the assistance of two native guides, went on to the 
 Little Colorado. On December 2 they came to the valley of the 
 Rio Seceo, somewhat west of Zuiii. Here they saw before them 
 a stretch of land which appeared like timber-land upon which the 
 trees had been felled and left lying. On coming nearer they found 
 fossil trees, since known as the Petrified Forest. Mollhausen made 
 careful observations of the phenomenon, and, on arriving in New 
 York again late in April, 1854, sent these to Fraulein Seifert who 
 arranged them and presented them to the Geographical Society of 
 Berlin where they were read. Fragments of the petrified wood were 
 brought to Germany by Mollhausen, where they received careful 
 investigation at the hands of Geh. Med. Rath Goppert, Director of 
 the Botanical Garden at Breslau. One of these specimens was 
 named Araucarites M ollhansianus in honor of its discoverer. 10 
 
 Christmas day was celebrated in camp on the eastern slope of 
 the San Francisco Mountains. On January 23, 1854, the expedi 
 tion was entering upon the march up the Aztec Pass, where a 
 great many obstacles had to be removed. On February i they 
 descended into the Cactus Pass, and followed along Bill Williams s 
 Fork. For four weeks they had been looking in vain for the Colo 
 rado. From the heights they saw only endless wilderness. On 
 February 20 a sudden turn of the valley revealed to them a full 
 view of the long looked for river. They continued northwesterly 
 along its valley for about a week and then left it to proceed west 
 ward. On March I the party found itself on the edge of an arid 
 
 11 See Letter No. 8. 
 
 "Cf. Extract from a lecture by Goppert, "On the Fragments of wood 
 brought by Mollhausen from the Petrified Forest". In Notes to Vol. II of 
 Mollhausen s Tagebucli einer Reise, etc. 
 
50 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 desert stretching from the Gila for more than a hundred miles. But 
 for the competent guidance of two Mohaves, the party had prob 
 ably never taken its way across the desert. On March 12 they 
 met some travellers for the first time since leaving the Rio Grande. 
 They were four Mormons making their way to Salt Lake. From 
 them they first learned the sad fate of Captain Gunnison, commander 
 of the expedition north of theirs, who, with others of his men, had 
 fallen a victim to murderous Indians. On March 13 they left the 
 Mohave and continued across the San Bernardino Mountains, and 
 finally on March 20 arrived in the town of Pueblo de los Angelos. 
 They had been travelling eleven months and their outward persons 
 bore signs of their many hardships. Lieutenant Whipple went 
 down into the town to put himself into communication with the 
 authorities and to find when the party could leave Los Angelos. 
 A steamer came every week to San Pedro, twenty-five miles away, 
 and then returned to San Diego and San Francisco. A steamer was 
 due March 24 and as it remained only a few hours, the party had 
 much to do in preparing itself for departure. An auction was 
 held at which the entire stock of mules and other property no 
 longer needed by the party was sold. The members carefully 
 packed their notes and. collections and sent them on to San Pedro, 
 where they themselves arrived by post coach on the evening of 
 March 23. The purposes of the expedition had now been carried 
 out and all that remained to do was to return by the shortest way 
 to Washington and there draw up the reports to be laid before 
 Congress. 
 
 The passage from San Pedro to San Francisco required three 
 days. On April 2 the steamer "Oregon" was to leave San Fran 
 cisco for Panama. Lieutenant Whipple and a few others proposed 
 remaining in San Francisco a little longer. Mollhausen with five 
 others of the party took passage on the "Oregon" and arrived at 
 Panama on April 15. They crossed the isthmus, partly by mules, 
 partly by rail, to Aspinwall, where they took a steamer for New 
 York. After a passage of nine days they landed in New York 
 on April 28. Mollhausen remained in New York only two days and 
 then hastened on to Washington, where, after several weeks he once 
 more met Lieutenant Whipple and his old comrades in the govern 
 ment offices. 
 
 In August, 1854, Mollhausen was again in Berlin and for the 
 time resided in the home of Alex, von Humboldt. On February 6, 
 1855, he was married to Frl. Carolina Seifert, a faithful wife and 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 51 
 
 companion through fifty years, and the sharer of his later literary 
 successes. 17 Through the solicitations of Humboldt, Frederick Wil 
 liam IV, the art-loving king of Prussia, who had previously ex 
 pressed an interest in the drawings and paintings of the talented 
 young traveller, created for him the position of custodian of the 
 libraries in the royal residences in and about Potsdam, a position 
 which Mollhausen held until his death in 1905. The King had also 
 offered Mollhausen a residence on the Pfauen Insel, which he, how 
 ever, declined on account of Fran Mollhausen s preference to reside 
 in Potsdam. In September, 1856, a son was born to them. 
 
 Due to the graciousness of the king, Mollhausen s position of 
 custodian of the libraries was nothing less than a sinecure, and he 
 had much time for his private pursuits. Perhaps encouraged by the 
 favorable reception given the reports of his travels in the Far West 
 by the Geographical Society of Berlin, to which they had been 
 presented by its chairman, Director Lichtenstein, Mollhausen now 
 set out to give his experiences and observations made on the western 
 continent more permanent form. The result was the Tagebuch 
 einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Kiisten der Siidsee (1858), 
 the manuscript of which he presented to Alex, von Humboldt for 
 consideration. The latter was not only pleased with the material 
 but also with the skillful manner of presentation, and predicted that 
 a publisher would soon be found. 18 Humboldt s admiration for the 
 work is further expressed by the fact that he was pleased to write 
 an introduction to it, all the more significant for the reason that 
 Humboldt, during his long and illustrious career had written intro 
 ductory prefaces to other works than his own only four times. 19 
 In this work Mollhausen relates in a popularly scientific manner 
 the experiences of the expedition sent by the United States govern- 
 
 " Reared in the home of Alex, von Humboldt, educated under his care, 
 and having enjoyed the acquaintane of many of the illustrious persons who 
 gathered about the great scientist, this remarkable lady, now in her eighty- 
 fifth year, is one of the most interesting personalities in the Prussian capi 
 tal. The following lines written by Humboldt in an autograph book of 
 Frau Mollhausen, may be of some interest : "In meinem Hause aufgewach- 
 sen, und anmutig ausgebildet zur Freude ihrer theuren Altern, mogest Du 
 oft, theure Karolina, wenn ich nicht mehr sein werde, diese frommen Zeilen 
 beherzigen und meiner gedenken in Liebe und Heiterkeit den Stiitzen des 
 Lebens. 
 
 Alex. v. Humboldt." 
 
 M Cf. Letter No. 14. 
 
 18 Cf. Humboldt s Introduction. 
 
52 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 ment under Lieutenant Whipple with the purpose of finding out 
 the shortest route for a railway to the Pacific coast. He incidentally 
 relates in it also many of the adventures of his first trip to America 
 when he accompanied the Duke of Wurtemberg. The pleasing 
 stories of "Inez Gonzales/ "Love in a Log House," and the old 
 trapper s story, woven into this work, already betray the facile pen 
 of the later novelist. This work won for him the recognition of 
 Franz Josef, emperor of Austria, who honored him with the great 
 golden medal for Art and Science. 
 
 The King continued to take the greatest interest in Mollhausen. 
 The latter s many splendid sketches and paintings done on his recent 
 travels delighted him and he was pleased to purchase some of them. 
 In August, 1857, the King conferred upon the young man, as a 
 special token of his regard, the Order of the Red Eagle, fourth 
 class. 20 
 
 Before the manuscript of Mollhausen s first work had gone to 
 the printer, he received a letter from Lieutenant Ives, informing him 
 that the United States Secretary of War had appointed him as 
 assistant to an expedition which, under Lieutenant Ives, was to 
 explore and survey the Colorado river. Mollhausen was to be 
 prepared to leave for San Francisco on a steamer sailing from 
 New York about September 20, 1857. Mollhausen left Berlin on 
 August 12. The steamers of the Hamburg line had been rented 
 by the English government for the transport of troops to East India. 
 He therefore went to Liverpool and sailed thence for New York on 
 August 1 8. He was desirous of landing in New York before 
 September 5, in order that he might receive personal instructions 
 from his commander, Lieutenant Ives, for on that day the latter was 
 embarking for California. Mollhausen, with others of the ex 
 pedition were to follow two weeks later with the meteorological 
 and astronomical instruments. Mollhausen landed in New York 
 on September i. He was here informed by Lieutenant Ives that 
 a small river steamer for navigating on the Colorado had been 
 constructed in Philadelphia. It had been taken apart and for 
 warded to California. Lieutenant Ives was to hasten to California 
 in advance, in order to make the necessary purchases. These, 
 together with the small river steamer, were to be placed on a 
 government schooner, and accompanied by Lieutenant Ives, with 
 
 20 Cf. Letter No. 20. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The (icrumn Cooper 53 
 
 several of his assistants. The schooner was to sail around Cape 
 Lucas and up the Gulf of California to the mouth of the Colorado, 
 from whence the explorations were to begin. Lieutenant Ives 
 accordingly left New York on September 5. Mollhausen went 
 to Washington where he presented himself to President Buchanan 
 and to Secretary of War Hoyd. The encouragement he received 
 from both convinced him of the great interest taken in the Colorado 
 expedition, and how eagerly the results of the same were awaited. 
 On September 17. he was again in New York. Here he joined 
 Dr. Nevvberry, who was to be a physician to the expedition, and Herr 
 von Egloffstein, a Bavarian, who had been engaged as topographer. 
 On September 21 the three embarked on the steamer "Northern 
 Light which arrived at Aspimvall, Panama, on October I. The 
 following day they took train to the west coast of the Isthmus where 
 they embarked for California, arriving in San Francisco on 
 October 22. Here they met other members of the expedition. 
 Lieutenant Ives, in company with Mr. Carrol, the machine-master, 
 a smith, a carpenter, and several boatmen, intended to remain on 
 the schooner on which the small steamboat, camping-outfits, and 
 provisions had been brought from New York, and sail around Cape 
 Lucas, up the Gulf of California to the mouth of the Colorado, 
 where the small steamboat was to be joined together. With this 
 steamboat and several towboats they then intended to bring their 
 outfits to Fort Yuma where the members of the expedition were to 
 assemble. Lieutenant Ives s departure was fixed for November 2. 
 All other members were to take a boat bound for San Diego on the 
 following day and land at two different points. One division, con 
 sisting of Egloffstein, Taylor, Peacock, and M6!lhausen, were to 
 disembark at San Pedro, hire packers and muleteers, and proceed 
 with them in wagons to Fort Tejon, a United States military 
 station in the interior of California. There they were to take 
 charge of 120 mules and then continue to Fort Yuma. The other 
 division, consisting of Dr. Newberry, Bielawski, Booker, and 
 Lieutenant Tipton were to land in San Diego in order to get other 
 equipments at the military station there, and then follow the nearest 
 route to Fort Yuma. On November 3 Mollhausen, with the 
 others, embarked on the "Senator." On November 5 they arrived 
 at San Pedro where Mollhausen and the others of the first division 
 disembarked. They proceeded overland to Fort Tejon and re 
 mained there about ten days. This was the period of the hostilities 
 
54 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 between the United States government and the Mormons. In Los 
 Angeles several Mormons had already advised Mollhausen as a 
 foreigner to leave the expedition if he valued his life. The Mor 
 mons looked upon the expedition as having more than purely 
 scientific purposes. The party arrived at Fort Yuma on Decem 
 ber 20, and were there greeted by the other division which had 
 gone by way of San Diego. They learned here that Lieutenant 
 Ives had landed at the mouth of the Colorado on December I, and 
 that he might be expected at Fort Yuma during the early days of 
 January. In Fort Yuma Mollhausen received letters from Europe 
 with the news that his friend and benefactor, Lichtenstein, the 
 director of the Zoological Garden in Berlin, had died. On Janu 
 ary 6, 1858, Lieutenant Ives appeared at Fort Yuma, and on 
 January n, in the presence of all the white settlers and the Yuma 
 Indians, the little steamer "Explorer" began its memorable journey 
 up the Colorado. On February i, they were near the mouth of 
 Bill William s Fork, at which point Mollhausen and Lieutenant 
 Ives had both been in 1854 while in Whipple s expedition. Here 
 Mollhausen received mail from his famil) for the last time before 
 his return to New York in the following August. 21 On March 6 
 they came to the entrance of the Black Canon where the boat 
 struck bottom. After investigations had been made the river was 
 declared unnavigable from that point. On March 15, they re 
 turned down the river to a point from whence a land expedition for 
 exploring the Upper Colorado could be made. The party consisted 
 of Lieutenant Ives, Dr. Newberry, Herr von Egloffstein, Peacock, 
 and Mollhausen, together with a number of servants and twenty- 
 four soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Tipton. They 
 entered upon their journey on the left bank of the Colorado on 
 
 21 A letter from Alex, von Humboldt, dated December 21, 1857, only 
 reached Mollhausen here on the Colorado, far above the Mohave settlements, 
 whither it had been forwarded from Fort Yuma through an Indian runner. 
 The following excerpts will show the great interest manifested both by 
 Humboldt (in spite of his 88 years), and the king in Mollhausen and his 
 travels : 
 
 "Ich kann nur wenige Zeilen des Dankes und der innigen Freundschaft 
 
 dem Briefe Ihrer liebenswiirdigen Gattin beifiigen Sie haben 
 
 leider eine sehr sturmische Uberfahrt gehabt, aber Ihre gliickliche Ankunft 
 hat auch den kranken Konig, dem ich sie vorgestern erzahlte und der sich 
 Ihrer noch immer freundlich erinnert, sehr interessirt. Die Genesung des 
 Konigs macht Fortschritte ; mogen unsere Hoff nungen sich nicht tauschen. 
 Ich lege diesem Briefe, den Herr von Gerolt durch das Kriegsministerium 
 besorgen wird, das bei, was ich heute gemeinschaftlich mit Ihrer recht schrift- 
 stellerischen Frau habe iiber Ihre Reise, Theurer Mollhausen, in die Spen- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 55 
 
 March 23. Cutting across the country, they came to Leroux 
 Springs and the valley of the Colorado Chiquito late in April, fre 
 quently traversing the same road Captain Whipple had taken in 
 1854. Here the condition of the animals and lack of provisions did 
 not permit the entire party to continue the explorations. It was 
 therefore decided that Mollhausen, Peacock, Dr. Newberry and 
 Egloffstein, with the necessary servants and equipments should con 
 tinue in an easterly direction to Albuquerque, where their services 
 were to end. Lieutenant Ives, and a very limited party, were to 
 continue in their search. Mollhausen and his companions arrived 
 at Albuquerque on June i and camped there nine days. During 
 this time they received news from Fort Yuma that the steamboat 
 "Explorer" had reached safely again the mouth of the Colorado. 
 On June 7 Lieutenant Ives once more joined them and the ex 
 pedition was then dissolved, its members going on their various 
 ways. Mollhausen, Peacock, Dr. Newberry, Egloffstein, and three 
 servants were going to cross the prairies eastward on their own 
 accounts. They were directed by Lieutenant Ives to touch the 
 military station, Fort Union, where an American officer and his 
 family were to be given the opportunity to return with them to the 
 United States. They remained at Fort Union from June 18 to 
 23. From that point their immediate destination was Fort Leaven- 
 worth on the upper Missouri. A month later the small party 
 arrived at Fort Leaven worth and the long journey across the 
 prairies was at an end. Here they were to give up their animals, 
 wagons, harness, and saddles to the commander of the fort and 
 continue their journey by rail or boat as they chose, retaining only 
 their scientific collections and notebooks. Here also they bought 
 new clothes and visited a barber! Egloffstein remained in Leaven- 
 worth. The others took a steamer down the Missouri on July 27. 
 Peacock got off at Independence, his old home, leaving Mollhausen 
 
 ersche Zeitung setzen lassen Mein Befinden ist, wie Sie mich 
 
 verliessen, an Kraften abnehmend, ich klage aber nie. 
 
 "Empfehlen Sie mich freundschaftlichst Ihrem Commandanten, Herrn 
 Lieutenant Ives, und sagen Sie ihm, dass ich ihm dankbar bleibe fur Alles, 
 was er Ihnen Freundliches erweist. Ich rede nicht von Wiedersehen, weil 
 ich nicht daran glaube und Sie nicht betriiben will. Gott segne Ihr Un- 
 ternehmen ! Ihr treuer aber unleserlicher, 
 
 Alexander von Humboldt. 
 "Berlin, den 21. December, 1857." 
 
 (From the Introduction to Mollhausen s Reisen in die Felsengebirge 
 Nordamerikas, etc.) 
 
56 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 and Dr. Newberry to go to St. Louis alone. From the latter place 
 they took train to Cleveland, Ohio, where Mollhausen visited 
 Dr. Newberry and his family. Later he went by train to New York, 
 and thence to Washington. In the latter city he revisited many 
 friends and acquaintances. Upon the solicitations of Frau Moll 
 hausen he requested the Secretary of War in Washington for per 
 mission to complete his. sketches and scientific reports in Berlin.- 2 
 He was granted liberty to do so. On September i, 1858, just at 
 the time when New York was celebrating the completion of the 
 laying of the Atlantic cable, he embarked at that city on the steamer 
 "Saxonia" and arrived in Berlin about September 15, after an 
 _absence of thirteen months. 
 
 While Mollhausen was on his last journey in America Frau 
 Mollhausen with their small son, Alexander, had been living in 
 Berlin, but upon his return residence was again taken up in Pots 
 dam. Mollhausen s first work, the Tagebuch einer Reise, etc., 
 which was ready for the press at the time of his departure, had in 
 the meantime appeared, and with considerable success. Before his 
 return to Germany the work was already being translated into the 
 English and Dutch languages. During the time which followed 
 immediately upon his return Mollhausen was occupied in preparing 
 his reports for the United States government. The following year, 
 1859, his friend and patron, Alex, von Humboldt, to whom he was 
 so deeply indebted, died at the advanced age of ninety years. In the 
 more leisure hours which now followed, Mollhausen frequently 
 returned to his much loved avocation, the art of painting. In 1860 
 he was unanimously elected a Corresponding Member of the His 
 torical Society of New Mexico, a token of the regard in which Moll 
 hausen continued to be held in America. 23 In this year, also, 
 appeared a second edition of his first work, under the altered title : 
 Wanderungen durch die Prairien und Wilsten des westlichen Nord- 
 amerika vom Mississippi nach den Kiisten de"r Sildsee im Gefolgc 
 der von der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten unter Lieutenant 
 Whipple ausge sandten Expedition. At this time too he was pre 
 paring a work on his last journey to America, which was to be a 
 popular but scientific account of the expedition up the Colorado. 
 It appeared in 1861 under the following title: Reisen in die Felsen- 
 
 22 Cf. Letter No. 23. 
 
 23 Cf . Letter No. 24. 
 
Baldwin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 57 
 
 gebirge Nordamerikas bis cum Hoch-Plateau von Neu-Me.vico, 
 untcrnommen als Mitglicd der im Auftrage der Regierung dcr Ver- 
 einigten Staaten ansgcsandtcn Colorado-Expedition. It was dedi 
 cated as follows: "Seiner Koniglichen Hoheit dem Prinzen von 
 Preussen, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, Regenten, in tiefster Ehr- 
 furcht der Verfasser." In recognition of this work Mollhausen was 
 made Knight of the imperial Austrian order of Franz Josef. 
 
 In Potsdam Mollhausen s picturesque personality and jovial 
 nature soon won for him a host of friends. He possessed a won 
 derful gift of vigorous, plastic narrative, and often entertained his 
 friends with vivid accounts of his "Wander jahre." He had en 
 deared himself especially to the military men stationed at Pots 
 dam, who seem to have looked upon him as a hero. Many of them 
 took instruction in English from him, at which time, according to 
 the pleasant phrase of Frau Mollhausen "natiirlich mehr getrunken 
 wurde als Englisch gesprochen." Though Mollhausen appears at 
 this time often to have joined in the convivial gatherings of the 
 officers at Potsdam, he was nevertheless far from idle. From many 
 of his friends came the request that he attempt to express himself 
 in literary form. In 1860 there appeared in Die Gartenlaiibe his 
 first purely belletristic works, a series of sketches under the follow 
 ing titles: Scenen aus dem Volksleben in Neu-Orleans; Die Fata 
 Morgana in der Wiiste; Der Prairiebrand ; and Das Canalboot. 
 However, according to the words of his surviving widow, Moll 
 hausen was first encouraged to try his hand at more pretentious 
 fiction by an aunt, a Fraulein Adelheid von Falkenstein, Prioress 
 of a school at Earth near Stralsund. There followed the novel 
 Der Halbindianer. Erzahluny aus dem westlichen Xordamerika 
 (4 Bde.) which appeared in 1861. It was the author s pur 
 pose, as he states in his introduction, to furnish in a measure, an 
 illustration to his earlier scientific works. In the same year ap 
 peared his second novel Der Flnchtling. Erzahlung aus Neu- 
 Mexico und dem angrencenden Indianergebiet; im Anschluss an 
 den "Halbindianer" (4 Bde.) In the introduction to this 
 novel he informs the reader that it is the purpose of the Halb 
 indianer, and the Fliichtling, and other novels still to follow, not 
 merely to present a story, but also to make the same serve as a 
 means for more effective descriptions of nature and more plastic 
 presentations of the customs and manners of peoples in the new 
 
58 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 world than were otherwise possible. The Vossische Zeitung informs 
 us of another phase of Mollhausen s activities at this time. On 
 March 8, 1861, he addressed the "Literarische Gesellschaft" of 
 Potsdam, taking for his subject Calif ornische Reisebilder. 2 * 
 
 At about this time must have begun Mollhausen s more intimate 
 relations with Friedrich Karl, Prince of Prussia, to whom he be 
 came deeply attached, and whose praises he later sang in the Drei- 
 linden Lieder. From a letter written by the Prince on April 10, 
 1861, we learn that Mollhausen had sent the Prince one of his photo 
 graphs representing him in the leather garb of an American trapper, 
 upon which the Prince presented him one of his own, though, as he 
 added, in the dress of a "zahmerer Jager." 25 There now followed 
 nearly two decades of happy domestic life with his wife and two 
 sons in the quiet of their home in Potsdam. These years, though 
 to the outer world exceedingly uneventful, proved to be very pro 
 ductive ones. In the year 1863 appeared Der Major domo. Erzah- 
 lung aits dem siidlichen Kalifornien und Neu-Me.vico (4 Bde.), 
 which was a sequel to Der Halbindianer and Der Fliichtling, the 
 three together forming a trilogy, so to speak, on western life in 
 America at about the middle of the previous century. In the same 
 year was published Palmbldtter und Schneeflocken. Erzahlungen 
 aus demfernen Westen, (2 Bde.), a series of short tales and sketches 
 containing many bits of fine narrative. Encouraged by the favor 
 with which these early novels were received Mollhausen now en 
 tered upon a long and successful literary career. With that same 
 earnestness of spirit and vigor of body which characterized the 
 young man on his travels in the Far West, Mollhausen henceforth 
 devoted himself to letters. The numerous works of the ensuing 
 years, and their high literary quality are indicative of the author s 
 zeal and unabating fertility of mind. 26 In 1864 appeared Das Mor- 
 
 24 "Ein Reihe von Schilderungen die einem grosseren Ganzen angehoren 
 und das Leben in Californiens Golddistricten und die Natur daselbst mit 
 lebendigen Farben aus selbstgewonnene r Anschauung schildern. Die Spiel- 
 holle in Sacramento, die Goldminen, Beschreibung eines Engpasses und aus 
 der tiefsten Wildniss waren die Uberschriften eben so vieler pikant beleuch- 
 teter Bilder, die vorzugsweise der Nachtseite des dortigen Treibens ent- 
 nommen sind und zum Theil den Zusammenstoss der goldgierigen Europaer 
 mit den nicht weniger verderbten Ureinwohnern des Landes anziehend dar- 
 stellen." (Quoted from Vossische Zeitung, 14. Marz, 1861). 
 
 25 Cf. Letter No. 26. 
 
 39 A consideration of all the novelist s works follows in the next chap 
 ter. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 59 
 
 monenmddchen. Eine Erzahlung aus der Zeit des Kricgszuges der 
 Vereinigten Staaten gegen die "Heiligen der letzten Tage" im Jahre 
 1857-1858, (6 Bde.), which has remained one of the most popu 
 lar of the novelist s many works. The following year appeared 
 Reliqnien. Erzalungen und Schilderungen aus dem ivestlichen 
 Nordamerika (3 Bde.). Many of these sketches had been suggested 
 to him by the souvenirs of his travels in America, now adorning 
 the walls of his study. In this year, too, was published Die Man- 
 danenwaise. Erzahlung aus den Rheinlanden und dent Stromgebict 
 des Missouri (4 Bde.). In 1867 came the first of his sea-novels, 
 Der Meerkonig (6 Bde.). In this species of fiction Mollhausen, 
 like Cooper, won for himself an enviable place in literature. In the 
 same year appeared Nord und Sud (2 Bde.). Der Hochlandpfeifer 
 (6 Bde.) was published in 1868. During these first years of his 
 literary activity, the novelist found an able assistant in his wife, a 
 woman of fine intellectual attainments and literary discernment. 27 
 The novelist s productivity during these years is indeed astonishing. 
 In 1870 appeared Das Hundertguldenblatt, (6 Bde.) as well as Der 
 Piratenlieutenant (4 Bde.). In the following year was published 
 Der Kesselflickcr (5 Bde.). For most of the material employed in 
 these works Mollhausen needed only to allow his memory and 
 imagination to return to the scenes and experiences of his various 
 journeys in America. Occasionally, it appears, when more accurate 
 historical or scientific data was needed, the novelist would refer to 
 the Annual Reports of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 
 Institution which Mollhausen received for a number of years after 
 his connection with that institution. 
 
 Between the years 1871 and 1879 there had appeared Das 
 Finkenhaus (4 Bde.), Westliche Fdhrten (2 Bde.), Die Einsied- 
 lerinnen (4 Bde.), Das Monogramm (4 Bde.), Die Hydnen des 
 Capitals (4 Bde.), Die Kinder des Straf lings (4 Bde.), and Der 
 Reiher (3 Bde.), as well as new editions of some of his earlier 
 works. Many of these novels had first appeared as serials in the 
 Buck fur Alle and in the Kolnische Zeitung, and many were again 
 published in various papers and periodicals after they had appeared 
 in book form. Taking into consideration the great mass of 
 
 17 In the course of a conversation with Frau Mollhausen, she remarked to 
 th> writer: "In den friiheren Werken habe ich die Handschriften oftmals 
 ausgebessert, besonders im Dialog, der oft zu sehr an den Urwald erinnerte ! 
 An seinen Schilderungen, aber, blieb nichts zu verbessern. Die waren 
 untastbar." 
 
60 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 "America" fiction which had appeared before Mollhausen s, and 
 continued to appear from the pens of contemporaries of Moll 
 hausen, one wonders that there should have been such a demand 
 for his novels. Yet Mollhausen could say with pride that none of 
 his many novels and stories ever went begging for a publisher. The 
 upright character of the novelist, the optimism and love for hu 
 manity emanating from his works, and the high moral tone of the 
 same endeared him to the hearts of the German people. He was 
 read by young and old, by all classes. It is safe to say that in the 
 sixties and seventies there was no more popular, no more widely 
 read, no more beloved German novelist than Balduin Mollhausen. 
 During the latter years of the seventies the novelist entered on 
 terms of intimate friendship with Friedrich Karl. In view of the 
 fact that the novelist s relations to this famous Hohenzollern Prince 
 were of some significance in his later literary productions, it may not 
 be out of place to dwell upon them at some length. Friedrich 
 Karl, 28 "der rote Prinz" as he was commonly called by the people, 
 had been Prussian fieldmarshal-general in the wars of 1864-66 and 
 1870-71. His austere habits as a soldier, his serious, reserved 
 manner, and his secluded life prevented the people from ever learn 
 ing the real nature of the hero of Metz, and already in his lifetime 
 he came to be looked upon as an heroic, semi-legendary figure. 
 After his return from the wars the Prince held aloof from the 
 activities of the court, and even from the members of his family. 
 He preferred to live a secluded life, retiring now to Castle Glie- 
 nicke, now to his Norwegian log house on the island of Riigen, and 
 then again to his hunting-lodge Dreilinden near Potsdam. Drei- 
 linden was his favorite seat, however, a simple hunting-lodge, 
 shaded by three great lindens. Here, each year during the last 
 twenty years of his life, he came to spend several months. It was 
 his custom frequently to invite men from Potsdam and Berlin to 
 dine and spend the evening with him. The guests at these convivial 
 evenings included men from all professions, the Prince associating 
 with them in a simple, informal manner. Such evenings took place 
 several times a week. The number of men invited at one time was 
 
 8 Friedrich Karl Nikolaus, Prince of Prussia, was born March 20, 
 1828, in the castle in Berlin. He was the son of Prince Karl of Prussia, the 
 third son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. As fieldmarshal-general of the 
 Prussian army, he distinguished himself for bravery and scorn of death in 
 many a battle and won the admiration of the German people for his heroic 
 successes at the battle of Metz in 1870. He died June 15, 1884. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 61 
 
 ten, making a party of twelve with the Prince and his adjutant. 
 After a time these groups of the Prince s friends came to be called 
 "Die Tafelrunde von Dreilinden." To be considered bona fide mem 
 bers of the round table, however, the guests had to be men who, by 
 means of some acoomplisliment. could contribute to the entertain 
 ment of the evening. Mollhausen s jovial nature and great talent 
 as a raconteur made him one of the most conspicuous members at 
 the round table, as well as one of those whom the Prince most 
 frequently invited. If a momentary pause had come upon the com 
 pany the Prince would turn to Mollhausen good-naturedly with such 
 words as these: "Nun, mein Teuerster, was haben Sie heute? Ich 
 habe einen neuen Cast und wenn Sie nichts da in der Rocktasche 
 tragen, dann erzahlen Sie dem Major von Ihrer Zeit als Trapper 
 und vor Allem von den Omaha- und Otoe-Indianern." And if 
 Mollhausen had no new tale to relate, one of the old ones sufficed 
 with the Prince s consoling words "Die alten Freunde, die ich schon 
 kenne sind mir die liebsten, also !" 2e 
 
 It was in this cheerful circle of friends that Mollhausen first 
 began to court the gentler muse of poetry. His activity as a poet 
 during the years in which he enjoyed the friendship of the Prince 
 had its beginnings on the occasion of the celebration of the birthday 
 of the Prince on March 20, 1879, when he greeted his host with the 
 following poem, "Der Klausner von Dreilinden" : 
 
 Wenn bleiches Haar und weisser Bart 
 Der Jahre Zahl verkiinden, 
 Dann trag noch immer Jugendkraft 
 Den Prinzen von Dreilinden. 
 
 Und neuer Lorbeer mag noch oft 
 Den alten Kranz durchwinden, 
 Ein muthig Ross, ein scharfes Schwert 
 Dem Feldherrn von Dreilinden ! 
 
 Und wechselt frohlich jagdbar Wild 
 
 In seiner Forsten Griinden 
 
 Dann Waidmanns Heil und Waidmanns Durst 
 
 Dem Jagdherrn von Dreilinden. 
 
 * A charming picture of an evening with the Prince at Dreilinden is 
 given by Baron von Dincklage in his Erinnerungen. See Appendix. 
 
62 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Wenn Manner treu um seinen Tisch 
 Sich f roh zusammen finden : 
 Dann alter Wein und junger Witz 
 Dem Gastfreund von Dreilinden. 
 
 Um heit ren Gruss mit ernstem Sinn 
 Waidmannisch zu verbinden : 
 Ein kurz Halali dermaleinst 
 Dem Klausner von Dreilinden ! 
 
 Encouraged by the appreciative manner with which this poetic 
 attempt was received, Mollhausen now frequently entertained his 
 host and guests with the reading of further poems. There 
 came, in the course of the years, a variety of verse from his pen : 
 drinking songs, poems to the praise of the illustrious Prince, hunt 
 ing songs, and poetic narratives of western America. Thus came 
 into being the "Blaubuch von Dreilinden," named for its blue 
 covering. Into this book Mollhausen wrote from time to time the 
 poems with which he entertained the round table on various occa 
 sions, and from this book the collection known as the Dreilinden 
 Leider was later published. These poems, many of them of un 
 common interest, won for him the name of the "Sanger von 
 Dreilinden". 
 
 In the summer of 1879 Mollhausen enjoyed the honor of accom 
 panying the Prince upon an extended Scandinavian cruise, upon 
 which the novelist had ample opportunity to study the romantic 
 beauty of northern scenery. A series of splendid aquarelles from the 
 author s brush bear witness to his keen enjoyment of the beauties 
 of the fjords and other aspects of Scandinavian landscape. Also 
 this voyage was reflected in some of his later novels, notably in the 
 novel Der Fanatiker, in the novelette Engelid, and in the poem 
 Nordlandsklange in the Dreilinden Lieder. In the course of these 
 travels with the Prince it was Mollhausen s pleasure to learn to 
 know King Oscar of Sweden, who, in recognition of his merits as 
 a literary man, conferred upon him the Order of the Swedish 
 Northstar. 30 
 
 The only dark cloud that came to mar the brightness of the 
 novelist s life at this time was the loss of his second son Richard, a 
 bright and promising lad who, planning to enter upon the career of 
 
 Cf. Letter No. 30. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 63 
 
 a seaman, set out on a voyage and was never seen again. The 
 vessel had disappeared forever. The gloom which this loss cast 
 upon the novelist and his good wife was never quite dispelled, in 
 spite of the brightness of their later lives. 
 
 During the year following upon his travels with Prince Fried- 
 rich Karl, namely 1880, there appeared from Mollhausen s pen 
 Vier Fragmentc (4 Bde.), Der Schatz von Quivira (3 Bde.), and 
 Die Tochter des Consuls (3 Bde.). 
 
 In the Gartenlaube for 1882 was published Engelid, one of the 
 author s most charming novelettes. It called forth the admiration 
 of that master of the German Novelle, Paul Heyse, who requested 
 permission from Mollhausen to use the same as a number in the 
 Neuer Deutscher Novellenschatz which Paul Heyse and Ludwig 
 Lai.stner were at this time editing as a continuation of Kurz 
 Novellenschatz. :n Paul Heyse had also asked permission to print 
 the story Die beiden Fahren 32 in the same series. However, for 
 some reason unknown to the writer, neither of the two ever 
 appeared in the Novellenschatz. 
 
 In 1883 were published Der Fanatiker (3 Bde.) and Der Leucht- 
 turm am Michigan und andere Erzahlungen, the latter with an 
 introduction by the eminent German novelist, Theodor Fontane. 
 Der Haushofmeister (3 Bde.) and Die leaders (3 Bde.) appeared 
 in 1884. In June of this year occurred the death of his friend. 
 Prince Friedrich Karl, whereupon those who had spent so many 
 happy hours as guests of the Prince at Dreilinden there were 
 more than a hundred organized the "Prinz Friedrich Karl Vereini- 
 gung which met yearly in the Kaiserhof at Berlin on October 27 
 to celebrate the victory of Metz and to do honor to the memory of 
 its hero. At these meetings, presided over by the young Emperor 
 himself, Mollhausen continued his role of the "Sanger von Drei 
 linden." 3 * Of these later gatherings of the round table after the 
 decease of the Prince he writes at the close of his introduction to the 
 Dreilinden Lieder: "Da die Tafelrunde durch Versetzungen und Ab- 
 kommandirungen im Laufe der Jahre sich immer wieder erneuerte, 
 so konnte nicht ausbleiben, dass die Zahl der Mitglieder allmahlich 
 weit iiber hundert hinaus wuchs. Und noch jetzt, da der Tod 
 
 Cf. Letters Nos. 31 and 32. 
 
 The writer has had no access to Die beiden Fahren. 
 
 Cf. Letter No. 34. 
 
64 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 bereits unter ihnen lichtete und viele nach den entferntesten Pro- 
 vinzen verschlagen warden, treten am 27. Oktober, dem Ehrentage 
 von Metz, alljahrlich bis zu achtzig Herren als Prinz Friedrich 
 Karl-Vereinigung in Berlin im Kaiserhof zum gemeinsamen 
 Mahle zusammen. Die Bedeutung des Festes erhoht, dass Seine 
 Majestat der Kaiser in treuer Pietat sich jedesmal betheiligt, in 
 ergreifender Weise des toten Feldmarshalls, des Bezwingers der 
 Feste Metz, gedenkt und seine Worte durch ein stilles Glas be- 
 kraftigt. Was aber der unvergessliche Prinz und Klausner durch 
 seine von warmem Empfinden getragene Leutseligkeit unter den 
 Mitgliedern anbahnte, durch die gleichsam riihrende Art, in welcher 
 er Gastfreundschaft iibte und die kleinste ihm erwiesene Aufmerk- 
 samkeit lohnte, jenes eigenthiimliche Gefiihl der Zusammengehorig- 
 keit: das wird unentwegt fortbestehen, bis die letzten beiden Uber- 
 lebenden dereinst an einem 27. Oktober ihm zum letzten Mai ein 
 stilles Glas weihen." 
 
 In 1886 Mollbausen changed his place of residence from Pots 
 dam where he had dwelt for more than a quarter of a century, for a 
 suburban residence in west Berlin. His son Alexander had taken 
 up a military career and also resided in Berlin. Here the novelist 
 spent the remaining years of his life, and here his surviving widow 
 lives today. In spite of his sixty-one years his literary labors by 
 no means ceased, as his many novels published since then testify. 
 Each morning the author was at his desk and wrote until noon. 
 However, the afternoons and evenings were usually given to recrea 
 tion. The tall, straight man, with the vigor of a youth, but whose 
 white hair and great patriarchal beard gave him a venerable aspect, 
 was a familiar figure on the streets of west Berlin of an afternoon, 
 and old and young knew him as "der alte Trapper." Many were 
 the friends, too, who found their way to his hospitable home. There, 
 in his study, when the spirit seized him, he would put on his old 
 leather Indian coat, and, surrounded on all sides by the trophies of 
 his American travels, he would regale his guests with the memories 
 of forty years ago. For those who sat and listened to the graphic 
 narrative and plastic descriptions of this rare story-teller these 
 were unforgetable hours. 
 
 In 1886 appeared Wildes Blut (3 Bde.), and in the following 
 year two of his sea tales, Das Geheimnis des Hulks (i Bd.) and 
 Das Loggbuch des Kapitains Eisenfinger (3 Bde.). There followed 
 Die Familie Melville (3 Bde. 1889), Der Fahrmann am Kanadian 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 65 
 
 (3 Bde. 1890), Hans Montague (3 Hde. 1891), Die beiden Yachten 
 (3 Bde. 1891) and Die Soldlinge (3 Bde. 1892). Another popular 
 novel of the sea, Kaftein Meerrose und ihre Kinder (3 Bde.) was 
 published in 1893. In that year too appeared Der Spion (3 Bde.). 
 In 1894 appeared Der Talisman (2 Bde.). The fact that these 
 products of the aged author s pen continued to enjoy a ready sale 
 points to the fascination he exerted upon his readers. During these 
 years the novelist had won and retained for himself a vast numbei 
 of admiring readers. He had further, by means of his zealous pen, 
 amassed a considerable fortune. 
 
 In remarkable physical vigor, with a mental alertness and a joy 
 of life that put to shame many a man younger by twenty years, 
 Mollhausen, on January 27, 1895, celebrated the anniversary of his 
 seventieth birthday amid the numerous congratulations of his many 
 friends and admiring readers. On this occasion representatives of 
 the press and military men tendered him a banquet at which there 
 was abundant flow of wine, wit and humor. At this time many 
 papers and periodicals extended their hearty congratulations and 
 paid glowing tributes to his high character as a man and his merits 
 as a novelist. 84 
 
 ** Among such I mention here the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 
 (Feuilleton, 27. Jan., 1895) with an article on Balduin Mollhausen, signed 
 Dr. P. As I recall, this article is from the pen of Professor Paszkowski, of 
 the University of Berlin, who was a personal friend of Mollhausen in 
 his latter years, and through whom the writer was introduced to the sur 
 viving members of the novelist s family. Dr. P. writes in part: "Wer ihn 
 (Mollhausen) von seinen Abenteuern im wilden Westen erzahlen hort, wer 
 ihn, als Trapper verkleidet, in eine lustige Gesellschaft kommen sieht, wer 
 Zetige der Begeisterung gewesen, mit der er beim Glase trefflichen Rauen- 
 thalers aus dem noch nicht veroffentlichten Blaubuch von Dreilinden 
 humorvolle Leider zum Lobe des Prinzen Friederich Karl vortragt, der 
 glaubt wahrlich einen Jiingling vor sich zu haben, der in jugendfrischer 
 Lebendigkeit Vergangenes als Gegenwartiges zu empfinden und noch ein- 
 mal zu durchleben weiss. Mollhausen hat ein reich bewegtes Leben hinter 
 sich. Him brachte es Miihe und Arbeit, aber auch kostlichen Lohn : ihm 
 wie wenigen Schriftstellern ist es gelungen, sich mit Kopf und Feder ein 
 betrachtliches Vermogen zusammenzuschreiben, dessen Genuss ihm die Gunst 
 des Schicksals noch lange gonne!" 
 
 In the Unterhaltungs-Bcilage of the Tdgliche Rundschau (26. Jan., 1895), 
 Freiherr von Dincklage writes: "Wer den Mann mit langem weissem Voll- 
 barte in straffer gerader Haltung dahinschreiten sieht, wer den Vorzug hat, 
 den alten Herrn noch heute mit wahrhaft jugendlichem Feuer von seinen 
 Erlebnissen im fernen Wildwesten des neuen Kontinents erzahlen zu hciren, 
 der kann nur erstaunen dariiber, dass das derselbe Mollhausen ist, dessen 
 Indianer-Romane schon vor vierzig Jahren Jung und Alt begeisterten, der 
 selbe, der in seinen neuesten Werken nach ebenso langer Zeit noch immer 
 neuen Stoff mit immer gleicher Geisteskraft behandelt. Unergriindlich scheint 
 der Born der Erlebnisse, aus dem er schopft. Freilich, ein Moderner im 
 
66 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 In this year a popular novel from the pen of Mollhausen, Welche 
 von Beiden? made its appearance as a serial in the Bibliothek der 
 Unterhaltung und des Wissens. In 1897 ^ was published in book 
 form in two volumes. That the novelist had also gained for himself 
 admiring friends in the western world in which he had laid the 
 scenes of so many of his novels, goes forth from the following 
 incident. The novel Welche von Beiden? was running as a serial 
 in the above periodical at the time Mollhausen celebrated his seven 
 tieth birthday. Shortly thereafter the aged novelist was the re 
 cipient of a gift which was the source of much pleasure to him. 
 There came one day a large chest, which upon being opened, was 
 found to contain a bronze statue of Feu follet, the heroine of his 
 latest novel, and a card with the words : "Deutsch-Amerika. Im 
 Auftrage. Welche von Beiden?" 35 
 
 The poems which Mollhausen had upon various occasions pro 
 duced for the entertainment of Prince Friederich Karl and his 
 round table, had in the course of time accumulated to quite a volume. 
 The possibility of their publication at some future time had been 
 broached by Mollhausen on one of his visits to the Prince in 
 Castle Glienicke. The Prince was not averse to their publication, 
 but only on condition that it be done after his death. In 1895 
 the twenty-fifth anniversary of the victory of Metz was celebrated 
 and the erection of a monument to its hero, Prince Friederich Karl, 
 undertaken. It was on this occasion that Mollhausen arranged 
 the poems which he had earlier copied into the "Blaubuch von 
 Dreilinden," and had them published with a long introduction from 
 his pen, and with illustrations, as Die Dreilinden-Lieder (1896). 
 The proceeds from the sale of this work the author contributed to 
 the fund for the monument to be erected to his former friend. 
 Ernst S. Mittler und Sohn of Berlin very generously published the 
 
 Sinne des Fin de Siecle ist Mollhausen niemals gewesen und niemals 
 geworden. Eine Sittenreinheit, eine edle und veredelnde Anschauung geben 
 auch seinen Werken trotz aller Spannung und bei belehrender Anregung 
 denjenigen Charakter, den er selbst durch alle Wechsel seines an grossen 
 Erfahrungen reichen Lebens unbefleckt zu bewahren wusste." 
 
 85 Concerning this gift the author relates: "Sorgfaltig auspackend, ent- 
 deckten wir eine Bronzestatue, eine Fischerin darstellend, mit dem Vorder- 
 theil eines Bootes als Postament. Beim Anblick des Kunstwerkes rief meine 
 Frau f reudig erstaunt : Feu follet ! Und ich musste es bestatigen gerade 
 so hatte ich mir das Madchen bei dem Leuchtthurme gedacht, das ich einst 
 am Strande des Eriesees kennen lernte und vor Augen hatte, als ich Welche 
 von Beiden schrieb." (See Bibliothek der Unterhaltung und des Wissens. 
 Jahrgang, 1895, 10. Bd.) 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 67 
 
 volume of poems in artistic form at their expense. Their warm 
 reception may perhaps have been due in part to the favorable cir 
 cumstances of their publication, but certainly also to their inherent 
 beauty and interest. 
 
 At a time when most men have long since withdrawn from 
 active life to enjoy the fruits of their labors, there still sprang 
 from Mollhausen s virile imagination novel after novel. These 
 works have, it seems, lost none of the charm which marked the 
 author s first novels forty years earlier. On the contrary, it may 
 be said they have gained in a certain conciseness of form which 
 is often noticeably lacking in his more extensive novels. In the 
 ensuing years appeared Der alte Korpsbnrche (1898), Das Fegefeuer 
 in Frappe s Wigwam (1900), Der Postreiter (1903), and the two 
 tales Die Vcrlorene and Die Bdrenhaut, both in 1904. 
 
 The wishes expressed by the novelist s friends on his seventieth 
 birthday that it might be granted them also to extend him similar 
 congratulations ten years hence were to be realized. On Janu 
 ary 27, 1905, it was Mollhausen s privilege to celebrate the eightieth 
 anniversary of his birth in remarkable freshness of body and spirit. 36 
 Press and public alike united in their heartiest good wishes for the 
 novelist and his faithful wife, and many were received in person 
 by the aged couple in their hospitable home at Augsburgerstrasse 22. 
 Numerous periodicals at this time published sketches of the author s 
 life and the writers of them were unanimous in their praises of 
 him. Johannes Trojan, 37 the novelist s friend and admirer, dedi 
 cated to him the following congratulatory poem, "Zum achtzigsten 
 Geburtstag" : 
 
 Gruss und Gliickwunsch Dir, dem Alten, 
 Sei von Herzen heut gesandt. 
 Wie Du dich bisher gehalten, 
 Halt auch kiinftig wacker Hand ! 
 
 * Paul Block in his article Ein deutscher Erzdhler. Zum So. Geburts- 
 tage Balduin Molllwusen writes: "Nun, Amerika und die Literatur sind 
 dem Alten gleich gut bekommen. Seine hohe Gestalt ist noch ungebeugt, der 
 rote Fez steht gut zu dem kiihn geschnittenen Gesicht mit dem langen 
 weissen Bart, und wenn sich bei einem Achtziger der Magen nur in der Weise 
 in Erinnerung bringt, dass er nach zwei Flaschen guten Mosels durch ein 
 gelindes Sodbrennen respektvoll revoltiert, so ist es mit der inneren Gesund- 
 heit auch noch nicht iibel gestellt." 
 
 "Johannes Trojan, the poet and political satirist, was born in Danzig, 
 1837. He is the author of much light verse, and from 1886 to 1909 was 
 Editor-in-chief of the popular humorous paper Kladdcradatsch. 
 
68 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Immer Jung und frisch zu bleiben, 
 Nimm auch ferner Dir zum Ziel ! 
 Sind doch auch fur alte Eiben 
 Achtzig Jahr noch gar nicht viel. 
 
 Blumen mogen freundlich schmiicken 
 Deinen Pfad noch manches Jahr, 
 Oft noch laben und erquicken 
 Dich ein Trunk, der rein und klar. 
 
 Wie zum Muster langst genommen 
 Hab ich Dich, Du wackrer Mann, 
 Und ich denk Dir nachzukommen, 
 Wenn ich es nur irgend kann. 
 
 The German emperor, Wilhelm II, whose birthday is also cele 
 brated on January 27, expressed his good wishes and regard for 
 the novelist by conferring upon him the Order of the Crown, third 
 class. 
 
 As a response to the many manifestations of good will and ad 
 miration on the part of friends and the public, Mollhausen issued 
 the following expressive poem: 
 
 DANKSAGUNG 
 
 zum 27. Januar 1905 
 
 Das lezte Lied eines Achtzigjahrigen 
 
 Der Abend sinkt, der Tag hat sich geneiget, 
 Ein Tag, der voile achtzig Jahre zahlt. 
 Wie kosend der Erinnerung entsteiget 
 Ein Bild, das heiter farbenreich gewahlt. 
 
 Tief ernst zugleich, wo in demselben Rahmen 
 Nach Friedhofsart Denkstein an Stein sich reiht, 
 Und deren jeder tragend einen Namen, 
 Der so gelaufig einst in goldner Zeit. 
 
 Es tauchen auf bef reundete Gestalten ; 
 In Wort und Blick gibt Ubermut sich kund ; 
 Wen storte damals des Geschickes Walten, 
 So lang das Herz noch jugendlich gesund. 
 
Balduin AfollhauscH, The German Cooper 69 
 
 Dahin, dahin! Wo blieben die Gespielen? 
 Wo Freunde, engverbunden, bis der Drang 
 Vermessnen Strebens nach den hochsten Zielen 
 Zum Scheiden von der siissen Heimat zwang? 
 
 Was ward aus kampfbereiten Kameraden 
 In Tagen, sturmbewegt durch Pobelwahn, 
 Und andren, die auf unwegsamen Pfaden 
 In ferner Wildniss brachen trotzig Bahn? 
 
 Dahin, dahin die lebensfrohen Zeugen 
 Verrauschter Lust, ob friiher oder spat; 
 Der Schiedsspruch fiel, sie alle mussten beugen 
 Sich vor des Todes rinst rer Majestat. 
 
 Nur einer ragt noch, wie die morsche Weide, 
 Die einsam traumt auf feuchtem Uf errand 
 Des Baches, der entstromt der grimen Heide 
 Und sie als zarten Schossiing schon gekannt. 
 
 Der Schatten weicht. Trostlich erwachet Helle. 
 Was Wehmut schuf, tritt nebelhaft zuriick. 
 
 U ic iiuiaer Z,auuer wirkt an dessen btelie 
 Die Mahnung an ein letztes reines Gliick. 
 
 Ein Gliick, das giplelt in den heben Grussen, 
 Dir teilnahmvoil entsanclt von nah und tern, 
 Und wie es froh und dankbar zu geniessen, 
 Nur wenigen vergonnt ein guter Stern. 
 
 Drum alien Dank, die gleichsam Blumen sireuten 
 In Fiille auf mein Restchen Lebenspfad, 
 Und iiberreich ein altes Herz erfreuten, 
 Das Zukunftstraumen liingst entsaget hat. 
 
 Blieb auch Erfolg im stiirmischen Erjagen 
 Weit hinter dem zuriick, das ich erstrebt, 
 So darf am Schluss vielleicht ich nunmehr sagen : 
 Ich habe doch nicht ganz umsonst gelebt. 
 
 In answer to the above pathetic lyric, one of the novelist s readers 
 and admirers, Georg Gerves, wrote the following verses, which 
 were published in the Deutsche Warie : 
 
70 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 AN BALDUIN MOLLHAUSEN 
 
 Ich las Dein Lied, Dein letztes wie Du sagtest, 
 Doch, wackerer Greis, das glaubst Du selber nicht; 
 Dein Geist, er bleibt, Millionen iiberragend, 
 Ein Eels, an den des Alters Woge bricht. 
 
 Dein Genius, der zur Jugend sich gesellte, 
 Blieb treu dem Mann und treu bleibt er dem Greis. 
 Der Lorbeer grunt, in Silberlocken flechtend 
 Zum alten Kranz das junge, frische Reis. 
 
 Du klagst der Freunde, trauerst um Gespielen, 
 Die zweigten schon vom Lebenspfade ab, 
 Sie leben ja, Unsterblichkeit erzielend, 
 Als sie Dein Genius dem Leben wiedergab. 
 
 Ich kenne sie und liebe die Gestalten, 
 
 Wie sie Dein Geist, Dein gold nes Herz uns gab, 
 
 Ich kenne sie und hass die Kreaturen, 
 
 Die uns Dein Zorn, uns die Entriistung gab. 
 
 Ich folgte Dir durch feme, schone Lander, 
 Die Du zum Wohle anderer bereist, 
 Ich lauschte gern, wenn heiter er erzahlend, 
 Gefallig gab sich uns Dein reger Geist. 
 
 1st Dir s nun wohl in Deinen alten Tagen, 
 Weil Du geschafft, gerungen und gestrebt, 
 So its s nicht recht, bescheiden, nur zu sagen : 
 "Ich habe doch nicht ganz umsonst gelebt." 
 
 In achtzig Jahren hast Du Dir erschaffen, 
 Ein Denkmal, gross und trotzend ew ger Zeit 
 Als edler Mensch, als Heros deutschen Geistes 
 Hast Du errungen Dir Unsterblichkeit ! 
 
 To the astonishment of his friends and readers there appeared 
 in 1905 from the pen of Mollhausen Sankt Elmsfeuer und andere 
 Novellen, Bilder aus dem Reiche der Natur, and Der Vaquero, cer 
 tainly no mean output for one year, in consideration of the author s 
 advanced age. Bilder aus dem Reiche der Natur, a series of twenty- 
 one essays on various phenomena of nature, especially received 
 warm commendations from the critics for its poetic presentation. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 71 
 
 On February 6, 1905, it was granted the aged author to cele 
 brate the golden anniversary of his wedding by the side of his re 
 markable wife, his devoted companion during fifty years, surrounded 
 by the members of his family and numerous guests. Before a beau 
 tifully decorated altar reared in the home of the Mollhaftsens, the 
 Reverend Dr. Rogge, preacher at the court, pronounced a bene 
 diction upon the aged couple and presented them a jubilee medal, 
 the gift from the emperor. Upon this the relatives and intimate 
 friends and their hosts sat down to a banquet. Upon this occasion 
 there was circulated among the guests an interesting pamphlet dedi 
 cated to the wedding pair. It was entitled Balduin Mollhausen 
 nnd der "Rote Prins". Erinnerungen by Freiherr von Dincklage, 
 in which he relates of his first meeting with Mollhausen, 38 his re 
 lations to the Prince, and of the habits of the latter. 
 
 Balduin Mollhausen s long and prosperous life was drawing to 
 a close. Forty-five large works in one hundred and fifty-seven 
 volumes, eighty novelettes in twenty-one volumes, and nearly three 
 hundred water colors bear witness to his indefatigable zeal and the 
 fertility of his mind. The aged novelist could look upon his work 
 in the joyful realization that he, like but few German novelists, had 
 for nearly half a century entertained a public with fiction in which 
 he had not hesitated to present the realities of life, but always 
 maintained lofty ideals and thus afforded sources of pure enjoy 
 ment for thousands upon thousands. 
 
 On May 28, 1905, on a bright and sunny morning Balduin Moll 
 hausen peacefully passed away. Of his death his friend Karl Voll- 
 rath wrote upon the following day : 39 "Nun hat ihn der Tod iiber- 
 wunden, gegen den sich Mollhausen s kernige Natur noch bis in die 
 letzten Tage hinein wehrte. Nicht leicht wurde dem Allbezwinger 
 der Sieg. Aber am Sonntag Yormittag, als die strahlende Maisonne 
 in des tapferen Mannes Schlafzimmer hereinschien, als wollte 
 sie ihm zum letzen Male ihre ganze Pracht und Herrlichkeit zeigen, 
 da brach der Tod das Herz des nimmermuden Mannes. Da 
 durfte ihm der alte Wunsch langer Jahre erfiillt werclen, dass man 
 ihm einst umlegen mochte den alten Trapperrock von weichem 
 Biiffelleder, den er vor mehr als fiinf Jahrzehnten im fernen Westen 
 Amerikas in dem gluhenden Sonnenbrande der Prairie wie in der 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
 " See Berliner Volkszeitung. Chef redakteur, Karl Vollrath. No. 250, 
 Montag, 29. Mai, 1905. 
 
72 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 eisumstarrten Wildheit der Rocky Mountains unter Hunderten von 
 Gefahren jahrelang getragen hatte. Friedlich hat er nun auf seinem 
 Sterbelager die Hande gefaltet. Und wie ein Schlummernder, der 
 in seinen Traumen an die gliickseligen Jagdgefilde der Rothaute 
 denkt, deren Leben und Treiben er dereinst mit Liebe umfasste 
 und mit unnachahmlicher Plastik schilderte, so ruht er aus von 
 seiner Arbeit." 
 
 He lies buried in the beautiful garrison graveyard near the 
 Hasenheide, on the outskirts of the Prussian capital. His grave 
 is marked by a stone with the simple inscription : 
 
 Hier ruhet in Gott 
 
 Balduin 
 Mollhausen 
 
 geb. zu Bonn 27. Januar 1825 
 gest. zu Berlin 28. Mai 1905 
 
 Mein Leben war kostlich 
 Denn es war Miihe und Arbeit 
 
MOLLHAUSEN IN HlS STUDY 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE WORKS OF MOLLHAUSEN 
 
 When Mollhausen s first novel Der Halbindianer appeared in 
 1861 the transatlantic, or exotic "America" novel was already 
 well established in Germany. Sealsfield, recognized as its founder, 
 had already ceased in his literary activities ; Gerstiicker, his well 
 known successor, had been a favorite of the German reading public 
 for fifteen years ; and Strubberg had begun his long series of exotic 
 novels in 1858. Nevertheless, Mollhausen won for himself a large 
 reading public, and remained a favorite for nearly fifty years. He 
 lacked the originality of Sealsfield, nor did he write with the latter s 
 brilliant pen ; he did not paint western scenery with the lurid splen 
 dor of Strubberg; he possessed little of Gerstacker s facile humor; 
 in point of form, however, Mollhausen is the master of all these. 
 Sealsfield, Gerstacker, and Strubberg presented in their works a 
 great mass of cultural and ethnographic detail, only too frequently 
 sacrificing form. Mollhausen knew how to subordinate such ma 
 terial, and at the same time was more skillful in constructing and 
 unravelling a well-motivated plot. He wrote for the Germans, so 
 to speak, the great chansons de geste of the western world. There 
 on the frontier, on the prairies, in the mountain fastnesses, men in 
 elemental vigor were enacting the deeds that would furnish material 
 for future epics. Mollhausen, peculiarly fitted by virtue of his 
 several expeditions to the Far West in its pioneer days, seized upon 
 this material, and presented to his countrymen in artistic form the 
 mournful fate of the American Indian, the struggles of the Euro 
 peans with special reference to those of his own race in winning 
 for themselves a place in the new world, and the gradual fusing 
 of these varied elements into a great nation at its most formative 
 period. It was no easy task. The reader may ask himself whether 
 there has been any American novelist who has, in so many interesting 
 works, pictured for posterity, the westward course of our own 
 nation in the nineteenth century, in such a comprehensive manner. 
 
 Mollhausen s many novels may be roughly divided into two 
 groups : first, those earlier ones whose action takes place wholly 
 on American soil, such as Der Halbindianer and its sequels, and 
 
74 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Das Mormonenmddchen; secondly, those later ones, by far the more 
 numerous, which have for their scenes of action both the old and 
 the new world, but whose threads are finally united. In view of 
 the consequent complexity of these later novels, their action is 
 perhaps sometimes not so logical as that of the earlier novels, yet 
 Mollhausen has shown himself exceedingly skillful in the manage 
 ment of such complicated plots. One critic, Dr. Hermann Ethe, in 
 an essay Der trans atlantisch-exotische Roman und seine Hauptver- 
 treter in der modernen deutschen Literatur 1 points out that the results 
 of Mollhausen s efforts to unite the threads of a story with so greatly 
 separated fields of action as Europe and America must frequently 
 impress the reader as rather fantastic and fictitious. Mollhausen, 
 having himself felt this, he goes on, endeavored to justify this weak 
 ness with these words in his introduction to the Meerkonig: "Durch 
 das Wachsthum der Verkehrsmittel horen aber die Entfernungen 
 auf, und in Zwischenraumen von vielenhundert Meilen finden Ereig- 
 nisse statt, welche durch die an denselben betheiligten Personen in 
 naher Beziehung zu einander stethen." In this connection it is 
 interesting to note that Mollhausen here expresses an idea which 
 only many years later received support at the hands of a master 
 of the German novel, Friederich Spielhagen, in his very suggestive 
 essay Die epische Dichtung imter dem wechselnden Zeichen des 
 Verkehrs (Die Zukunft, 17, 1896). He writes in part: "Und 
 ganz gewiss ist es doch eine unabweisliche Konsequenz des Ver- 
 kehres von heute, dass seine Mittel : der Dampf und die Elektri- 
 zitat, in den Romanen wie Essen und Trinken frei verwandt werden 
 und ihren Verfassern eine Welt friiher nicht gekannter Anregungen 
 
 bieten, Kombinationen ermoglichen Die odysseeische 
 
 Kentniss fremder Lander, Stadte und Sitten, die im vorigen Jahr- 
 hundert noch als Privileg verhaltnissmassig Weniger, besonders 
 Wohlsituirter war, verschaffen sich heute Tausende und Tausende 
 mit dem Auf wand oft recht bescheidener Mittel; der Handwerker 
 von heute weiss, wenn nicht durch Autopsie, vermittelt durch so- 
 zialdemokratische und andere Kongresse, so durch die Lecture der 
 Zeitungen mehr von den okonomischen und sittlichen Zustanden der 
 anderen Nationen als vormals so mancher Gelehrte. Kann es uns 
 da Wunder nehmen, wenn der Roman, das Spiegelbild des Lebens, 
 eine Internationale Physiognomic gewinnt?" 
 
 *Cf. Essays und Studien. Berlin. 1872. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 75 
 
 Mollhausen together with the other writers of exotic fiction, left 
 to German literature a rich legacy of healthy realism. But more 
 than any of these writers he saw the romance and poetry that lay 
 on the frontier and in the wilderness of western America. He was 
 at heart a romanticist. In this respect he resembled Cooper. In 
 fact there is none who could be more fittingly termed "The German 
 Cooper." It was Cooper s novels which had, directly or indirectly, 
 stimulated the great mass of German Indian fiction which had fol 
 lowed upon their appearance. Mollhausen s own delight in Cooper 
 goes forth from a passage in his Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mis 
 sissippi nach der Sudsee in which he speaks of his travels with the 
 Ottoe Indians during his first stay in America. Fie writes : "I 
 learned to look with pride on my ragged mocassins and scarred feet, 
 and to laugh at the icy north wind blowing on my naked breast. . 
 . . . I felt in the most joyous spirits, and seemed to be realizing 
 the dreams of my youth (dreams conjured up certainly by Cooper 
 and Washington Irving), when I sent a bullet through the skull of 
 a bear, or gave some mighty stag the coup de grace." 
 
 Mollhausen was far from being an imitator of Cooper, yet there 
 are evidences in his works to testify to the stimulating force of 
 Cooper s novels. Of these the following may possess some interest. 
 It may be said that of all Cooper s novels, The Last of the Mohicans 
 lias probably left most abundant traces in the works of his followers. 
 So in Mollhausen s Wildes Blut we note the following echoes. The 
 medicine man says of himself : "Towaka Koti lebt noch. Nie freite 
 er urn ein Kaskaskia-Madchen. Paart der Fuchs sich mit dem 
 Eichhorn? Nein. Towaka Koti ist der letzte seiner Familie." 
 Later the old Indian woman says : "Die Haniks sind verschwunden. 
 Ich bin die letzte Hanick Wisah; denn mein Sohn Wiskun wird 
 vor mir sterben." In Die Soldlinge the fate of the aged Zuni Indian 
 Ahuitzotl, the last king of Anahuac, the last of the Aztecs, in his 
 grotto in the Casas Grandes, also harks back to The Last of the 
 Mohicans. 
 
 Many of Mollhausen s prominent characters are purely romantic 
 in nature, and frequently suggest the Cooperian character. Such 
 are the half-breed Indian maid Coralle, the foster-daughter of Miss 
 Lonesome, the proprietress of a frontier store in Missouri in the 
 novel Die Einsiedlerinnen; Lilac, the Indian girl who dies of unre 
 quited love in Die Tochter des Konsuls; the white child Charitas in 
 Der Leuchtturm am Michigan; Feu follet in Welche von Beiden; 
 
76 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 and Taito, the stolen white child adopted by the Kioways in Die 
 Traders. Some of these characters also bear strong traces of Rous- 
 seauism. 
 
 In the story Der Hornfrosch in his Reliquien Mollhausen seems 
 to aim at a realistic effect by contrasting a Cooperian Indian. In 
 this story is Oglala, an Indian warrior, who "durch seine aussere 
 Erscheinung nicht wenig an die romantischen Gestalten Coopers er- 
 mnerte." 
 
 Cooper s Natty Bumpo, one of the most original creations in 
 American fiction, is a character which few writers of Indian tales 
 have been able to resist. The trapper or guide of western America 
 is a favorite character with Mollhausen, and appears again and again 
 in his works. In Der Halbindianer is the fine old trapper and guide 
 Lefevre; one of the best characters in Der Majordomo is the old 
 backwoodsman and trapper Gale, who lives in the Tulare Valley; 
 in Der Talisman we meet the old guide Vilanderie, called "Fallen- 
 steller und Fahrtensucher" ; in the same novel is introduced the 
 Canadian trapper Laboux. In all these characters it is not difficult 
 for the reader to recognize certain traits of their famous literary 
 prototype, old Leatherstocking. 
 
 Like Cooper Mollhausen deplored the passing of the redman, 
 and with him the passing of a poetry "die nicht durch Eisenbahn, 
 nicht durch Brennereien und Fabriken, nicht durch eine gewissen- 
 lose innere Politik, noch durch salbungsvolle Lehren fanatischer 
 Priester ersetzt werden kann." Mollhausen, however, did not wish 
 to present an idealized picture of the Indian. He was himself too 
 well acquainted with the shiftless redskin of the fifties, who, unlike 
 the Indian of Cooper s novels, had suffered long years of shame 
 and dishonor at the hands of his white conquerors. Strubberg liked 
 to deal with masses of Indians. We follow entire tribes on their 
 hunts, war-paths and migrations. We witness great tribal struggles 
 and are not spared atrocious massacres of the whites. But Moll 
 hausen liked to portray the isolated types he found along the borders 
 of civilization : the lazy redskin loitering about the frontier store 
 or trading-post, the solitary trapper or fisherman who chooses to 
 remain among the whites rather than follow the sad remnant of 
 his tribe to the farther West, the Indian converted by the proselyt 
 ing Mormon, or the government charge on the reservation. 
 
 Mollhausen further resembles Cooper in that he also won high 
 recognition as a writer of sea-novels, a species of fiction which is 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 77 
 
 rather rare in German literature. The sea-novels Die beiden Yach- 
 ten. Kaptein Meerrose und ihre Kinder, and Das Loggbuch des 
 Kapitains Eisenfinger, are among the most readable of Mollhausen s 
 many novels. 
 
 Mollhausen deserves special praise for the manner in which 
 lie has treated German emigration in his novels, a phase of his 
 activities which cannot help but be of significance to the student 
 of our cultural history. Sealsfield had shown but little admiration 
 for the struggling German in the new world, Gerstacker and Strub- 
 berg were both rather kindly disposed, and Ruppius was prone to 
 idealize the German over against his fellow pioneers. With the 
 humaneness, optimism, and sympathy with human frailty which 
 pervades all his works, Mollhausen has, in his long list of novels 
 portrayed a vast gallery of all sorts and conditions of his country 
 men in the new world, their struggles in gaining a foothold among 
 the seething racial elements, their sufferings, their yearning for 
 the land that gave them birth, their achievements, and their con 
 tributions to the development of a great nation. 
 
 The following general criticism of Mollhausen s works is not 
 only interesting but of considerable significance, coming as it does 
 from the pen of a writer who has had a marked influence upon the 
 modern German novel. In an introduction to Mollhausen s Leucht- 
 turm am Michigan und andere Erzahlnngen (1883), Theodor 
 Fontane writes: 
 
 "Von niemand Geringerem als Lord Byron riihrt der Ausspruch 
 her, dass er dem Ehrgeiz und dem Reisen die Hauptanregung zu 
 dichterischer Produktion verdanke. Der moderne Mensch wird 
 ihm nach eigener Erfahrung zustimmen, und zwar je moderner 
 desto mehr. Denn auch auf diesen Punkt hin angesehen, unter- 
 scheiden sich die Zeiten, und wenn das ritterlich und religios emp- 
 findende Mittelalter in einem dieser Empfindung entsprechendem 
 Geiste dichtete, so die Gegenwart nicht mehr oder doch nur in sehr 
 vereinzelten Ausnahmefallen. Auch mit der Minne geht es berg- 
 ab; was sich dafiir ausgibt, bedeutet nicht viel. In der That, im 
 Wettstreit mit dem noch vor wenig Jahrzehnten fast alleinher- 
 schenden Liebesgott ist der Gott mit dem gefliigelten Fuss immer 
 machtiger geworden, und wenn zu Lord Byron s Zeiten das Reisen 
 oft nur Anstoss und Anregung zu dichterischer Produktion gab, 
 so gibt es jetzt vielfach auch den Stoff. Ein glanzendes Beispiel 
 dafiir ist Balduin Mollhausen Alles was B. Mollhausen 
 
78 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 produziert, hat eine starke Familienahnlichkeit ; es sind Friichte 
 vom selben Baum. Aber diese Familienahnlichkeit entstammt nur 
 einer verwandten Art und Weise die Stoffe zu behandeln ; die Stoffe 
 selbst sind sehr verschieden. Aesthetisch und kritisch angesehen. 
 gehoren seine Bucher ein und derselben Richtung an, im Hinblick 
 auf Unterhaltungs- und Belehrungsfahigkeit aber bietet sie stets 
 etwas Neues. Seine Stoffe sind sehr verschieden, sagt ich, und nur 
 in einer Beziehung ergibt sich auch hier eine Verwandtschaf t : sie 
 sind alle gleich sicher und gleich geschickt gewahlt. Er hat eine 
 gliickliche Hand und weiss im voraus dass sie gefallen werden. 
 Das Wort Platens: Handlung ist der Welt allmachtiger Puls 
 konnte Mollhausens Devise sein. Er hat eine Vorliebe fur einfache 
 Naturen, die mehr handeln als sprechen. In Allem, was er schreibt, 
 geschieht Etwas, und die Dinge, die, so lang es Menschen gibt, die 
 Menschen immer am meisten interessiert haben und immer wieder 
 am meisten interessieren werden, diese Dinge fiihrt er uns vor. 
 Er ist der Schriftsteller einer frischen lebendigen Handlung; das 
 ist das erste. Was aber diesem ersten auf dem Fusse f olgt, das ist : 
 er ist auch der Mann der Schilderung. Vor Allem seine Natur- 
 schilderungen sind von bemerkenswerter Schonheit und fesseln auch 
 da noch wo sie mehr Raum einnehmen, als sie nach dem Gesetze 
 
 des Romans vielleicht einnehmen sollten In einem ge- 
 
 wissen Zusammenhange mit dem hier Gesagten ist es, dass die 
 Charaktere, die seine Phantasie schafft, weder von einer beson- 
 deren Mannigfaltigkeit, noch von einer besonderen Tiefe sind. Aber 
 dies bedeutet innerhalb gewisser Grenzen eher ein Lob als einen 
 Tadel, und kann fast als Kennzeichen des eigentlichen Erzahlers 
 gelten. Der eigentliche Erzahler ist in den seltensten Fallen ein 
 hervorragender Charakteristiker, er gibt das Ereigniss als solches 
 und halt sich mit einer intimen innerlichen Stellung seiner Figuren 
 zu dem, was geschieht, nicht sonderlich auf. Alle seine Figuren 
 sind ihm vielmehr nur Trager seiner Geschichte ; er braucht sie zur 
 Aushilfe, wahrend sie dem Dramatiker alles oder doch fast alles 
 
 bedeuten Mollhausen ist Erzahler pur sang, und weil 
 
 er es ist, ist er in einem seltenen Grade popular. Er unterhalt, er 
 spannt, er befriedigt. Dabei nichts von Frivolitat; seine Schriften 
 durchweht vielmehr ein sittlicher Hauch, der wohltuend beriihrt, 
 erhebt und lautert." 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 79 
 
 The writer has attempted in the following pages the rather labori 
 ous task of giving, even if only briefly, the contents of Mollhausen s 
 many works in the order of their appearance. 
 
 Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Kiisten der 
 Siidsee. Eingefiihrt von Alex. v. Humboldt. Mit 13 Illustrat. in 
 Oelfarben u. Tondr., 10 Holzschn. u. i (lith.) Karte. Leipzig. 1858. 
 
 This is the title of the work with which Mollhausen began his 
 long literary career. At the middle of the nineteenth century there 
 were very few German books dealing with the Far West of North 
 America which measured up to the above for wealth and accuracy 
 of scientific material. Certainly none had appeared under more 
 propitious circumstances. This work, though only published in 1858, 
 seems already to have been begun during those first early days of 
 leisure which followed upon his return from America in the autumn 
 of 1854, he having been appointed by the King of Prussia as cus 
 todian of the royal libraries in Potsdam. Alexander von Humboldt 
 had already observed a natural talent for writing in the reports of 
 travel which Mollhausen had prepared for the Berlin Geographic 
 Society, while still on the expedition to the Pacific. As early as 
 1855, Humboldt had, it appears, 2 read at least a part of the manu 
 script of the above work, and expressed his pleasure in the rich 
 material offered in it, as well as in the form and animated style of 
 his narrative. He thought it would not be difficult to find a pub 
 lisher. Upon the completion of the work Humboldt was even 
 pleased to write an introduction to it, a remarkable token ot his 
 regard for Mollhausen when we recall that the great naturalist had,, 
 in his long life only written prefaces for four different works. "In 
 the present instance," he writes in this preface, "I have voluntarily 
 undertaken the task, from the esteem for the untiring energy and 
 activity manifested by the author in an important undertaking, as 
 well as for the modest integrity of his vigorous and honorable char 
 acter, and the remarkable artistic talent which he has developed, 
 almost wholly by the study of Nature." In conclusion he adds: 
 "His fresh and animated descriptions of wild nature in all the mani 
 fold variety of her forms, of the uncivilized state of the native 
 tribes, and of the habits of various species of animals, evince a 
 keen sensibility that naturally finds adequate expression in language. 
 What Balduin Mollhausen has learned of Nature through so many 
 
 See Letter No. 14 in the Appendix 
 
8o Balduin Mdllhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 vicissitudes and privations, though with many compensatory pleas 
 ures, has not been lost to his intellectual culture; as Schiller says, 
 with beautiful simplicity, Man himself grows with his aims ." 
 
 The book sets forth, in the easy, rambling fashion of a diary, 
 the experiences and observations of Mollhausen while topographer 
 and draughtsman to the expedition sent out in 1853 by the U. S. 
 government under Lieutenant Whipple as one of the three expedi 
 tions to determine the most desirable route for a railroad from the 
 Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. It opens with the author s arrival 
 at Fort Napoleon at the mouth of the Arkansas, where Mdllhausen s 
 duties as a member of the expedition were to begin. He relates 
 about camp-life at Fort Smith, the filling out of the expedition at 
 that place, and the catching and training of mules. Also he de 
 scribes flora and fauna, and natural phenomena as well as the vari 
 ous types of Indians and frontiersmen the party meets as it journeys 
 westward along the Canadian river, through Indian lands to the 
 Pueblos of New Mexico. 
 
 The author deserves special commendation for the mass of mate 
 rial he presents about the Mormons and their history, about Saint 
 Domingo and Albuquerque, the Zufii and other town-building In 
 dians, the Cascas Grandes on the Rio Gila and in Chihuahua, the 
 Indian towns of Isleta and Laguna, and the traces of Aztec semi- 
 civilization. 
 
 In spite of the wealth of scientific matter presented, the author 
 has nevertheless created a very readable book by interspersing it all 
 with pleasant narratives of experiences which actually happened to 
 the members of the party (who are portrayed almost as interestingly 
 as the characters in a novel) or of history and traditions that have 
 come to the notice of the author on his journey. Thus, in the 
 first volume he describes ball-playing among the Choctaws, Doctor 
 Bigelow s bear hunt on the Gila, a Fandago in the steppe and 
 relates the story of the kidnapped Inez Gonzales. In Volume II 
 he tells of the lives of the three oldest backwoodsmen, the cele 
 brated guides Leroux, Fitzpatrick, and Kit Carson. He speaks of 
 Carson s relations to Colonel Fremont, and dwells at length upon 
 the latter s varied activities in the opening-up of the Far West. 
 
 The second half of Volume II describes the many physical 
 difficulties -that beset the members of the party as they journeyed 
 across the sand steppes and mountain fastnesses, and their final ar- 
 
Balduin Afollhausen, The German Cooper 81 
 
 rival at Pueblo cle los Angelos, where, having attained its purposes, 
 the party disbanded. 
 
 Of considerable biographical importance is the thread of narra 
 tive concerning the author s previous travels in western America, 
 woven into this work. This narrative is placed in the mouth of 
 the "German naturalist", under which epithet the author has con 
 cealed himself. As one who had travelled in those parts before, 
 the "Dutchman" was often called upon to relate the experiences of 
 his first journey. Of the prairies he says: "Many a hundred mile 
 have I travelled in them. I have seen the plains on the Nebraska 
 under all aspects ; when the spring sun was drawing out millions 
 of buds among the herbs and grass, when the hot summer had un 
 folded them and poured out all sorts of gorgeous colors over them, 
 and when the autumn wind rattled their ripe capsules and bent 
 down their withered stalks; and I have seen them, too, when winter 
 had spread its white shroud over the burnt wilderness, and the snow 
 storm in all its terrors was howling over it." He relates at length 
 the experiences of that awful winter when, by force of circum 
 stances, he was left alone in the wilderness by Duke Paul of Wiir- 
 temberg, and finally picked up by a band of Ottoe Indians and 
 brought to a fur-station on the Missouri. 3 He tells also of his sub 
 sequent stay among the Omahas and at the frontier home of Mr. 
 Sarpy, the chief of a trading-post of the St. Louis Fur Company. 
 
 In the narration of these experiences, in the story of Inez Gon- 
 zales, and in the pretty idyl of "Love in a Log House", Mollhausen 
 already evinces some of the qualities which make him later the 
 popular German novelist. 
 
 Of considerable interest, too, are the beautiful illustrations which 
 adorn this work. They are color reproductions of paintings of 
 western life in America done by Mollhausen himself and betray no 
 mean artistic ability. 
 
 While Mollhausen was preparing the last pages of his manu 
 script for the press, he was requested by the U. S. government to 
 join an expedition which was to start out in September, 1857, for 
 the purpose of exploring and surveying the Colorado river. Before 
 the author s return in the fall of 1858 the work had appeared and 
 was already being translated into Dutch and English. The English 
 translation was done by Mrs. Percy Sinnett, and published in two 
 
 3 For details see Chapter II. 
 
82 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 volumes by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, Lon 
 don 1858. 
 
 The first German edition (a Pracht-Ausgabe) found a ready 
 sale among libraries, institutes, and aristocracy, but the price (18 
 Thaler) prohibited scholars and readers of less means from pur 
 chasing it. The publishers, therefore, issued another but cheaper 
 edition to which was added a lithographed map by Henry Lange, 
 but in which the color reproductions were lacking. This edition 
 appeared in 1860 under the title : Wanderungen durch die Prairien 
 und Wusten des westlichen Nordamerika vom Mississippi nach 
 den Kusten der Sudsee. im Gefolge der von der -Re gierung der Ver- 
 einigten Staaten unter Lieutenant Whipple ausgesandten Expedi 
 tion. Eingefiihrt von Alex. v. Humboldt. 
 
 In Uber Land und Meer for 1863 were published pages from 
 the above work, illustrated by two rather extravagant sketches 
 by the artist G. Dore, entitled "Das Ballspiel der Choctaws-in- 
 dianer" and "Die Prairieindianer auf der Biiffeljagd". 
 
 Sketches. Upon this work followed his first literary efforts, a 
 series of sketches which appeared in the Gartenlaube. The first ,of 
 these, Scenen aus dem Volksleben in Neu-Orleans (Gartenlaube, 
 No. 26, 1860), a thrilling bit of narrative, has for its subject a fight 
 before a large audience between a huge bull named General Kossuth 
 and a ferocious California bear called Jenny Lind ( !). In the 
 second, Die Fata Morgana in der Wiiste (Ibid., No. 30, 1860) he de 
 scribes in a poetic manner, the mirage of the western deserts which 
 leads many an unknowing traveller to destruction. Der Prairie- 
 brand (Ibid., No. 36, 1860) is a thrilling sketch with a subject 
 which was much favored by Strubberg and the other writers of 
 fiction of western life. Das Canalboot (Ibid., No. 43, 1860) gives an 
 interesting picture of life on the canalboats from the Great Lakes 
 to the Illinois river, then the only means of transport by water for 
 passengers on their way from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Reisen in die Felsengebirge Nordamerikas bis sum Hoch- 
 Plateau von Neu-Mexico, unternommen als Mitglied der im Auf- 
 trage der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten ausgesandten Colora 
 do-Expedition. Eingefiihrt durch zwei Brief e Alex. v. Humboldts 
 in Facsim. 2 Bde. Leipzig. 1861. 
 
 In the year 1857 Mollhausen was informed from Washington 
 that he had been appointed topographer to the expedition about 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 83 
 
 to be sent by the U. S. government for the exploration of the valley 
 of the Colorado and to find the extent of its navigability. Moll 
 hausen was to arrive in New York early in September and there 
 to receive further orders from the commander of the expedition, 
 Lieutenant Ives. 
 
 It is the experiences of this expedition, his third journey to Ameri 
 ca, that have furnished Mollhausen with the material for his second 
 work. It is distinctly a book of travel and bears the scientific charac 
 ter of his first work. The author relates in considerable detail his ex 
 periences from the time of his departure from New York for San 
 Francisco in September, 1857, until his return to New York and em 
 barkation for Europe on September i, 1858. This work is conse 
 quently of great biographical value. 4 
 
 In the course of this narrative the author again purposes to 
 give his German readers as much information as possible concerning 
 the regions traversed, their geological structure, their flora and 
 fauna, and the character and distinctions of the Indian tribes. He 
 does not rely solely upon his own experiences and the information 
 obtained from the members of the expedition but also consults 
 U. S. government reports to assure scientific accuracy. With all 
 the wealth of information given, Mollhausen never fails in his en 
 deavors to entertain the reader by introducing interesting bits of 
 narrative, either the experiences of members of the expedition, or 
 of squatters and trappers they have met on the road. Such are 
 the stories of the Texan frontiersman and of the trapper Gale, both 
 in Vol. I. Not uninteresting are the portions from the diary of 
 Leroux, a once celebrated guide from the wildernesses of the West. 
 A considerable amount of early Spanish and American history, and 
 stories of the wanderings of the Indian tribes and their descent 
 have found their way into his work. Everywhere are signs of the 
 author s keen appreciation of the natural beauties of western Ameri 
 ca, later more evidently manifested in his novels. 
 
 The ethnographic element in this work deserves special mention. 
 Mollhausen understood the art of presenting in a plastic manner 
 the motley array of Indians, half-breeds, German immigrants, gold- 
 seeking desperados, nomadic trappers, and lonely squatters against 
 the wild and rugged background of western scenery. 
 
 4 For an outline of this journey see Chapter II. 
 
84 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 In this work Mollhausen, as one of the members of the expedi 
 tion, sometimes entertains his companions by relating to them his 
 experiences on his first journey to America. He tells of his life as 
 hunter in the Kaskaskia region of Illinois, before his meeting with 
 Duke Paul of Wiirtemburg; also of his experiences with the Duke 
 on their return from Fort Laramie, their sufferings in a snow-storm, 
 and their frequent difficulties with the Indians. These experiences 
 afford valuable biographical material and may be considered as 
 complementary to those portions in his Tagebuch einer Reise, etc., 
 in which he also tells of some of his experiences during his first 
 journey to America under the title Ersahlung der Abenteuer am 
 Nebraska. 
 
 The work is dedicated : Seiner Koniglichen Hoheit dem Prinzen 
 von Preussen, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, Regenten, in tiefster 
 Ehrfurcht der Verfasser. 
 
 Der Halbindianer. Ersahlung aits dem westlichen Nordamerika. 
 4 Bde. Jena. 1861. 
 
 This is Mollhausen s first more pretentions literary effort. The 
 time of the story is in the fifties ; the scenes of action are in Missouri, 
 Louisiana and en route through the Sierras to California. The task 
 which the author has set for himself in this novel is the restoration 
 of the half-breed Josef to his rightful place as son and heir of a 
 wealthy planter in Louisiana. Josef is the son of Mr. Newfort by 
 a Pawnee woman whom he had met when a young man on an ex 
 cursion up the Missouri. Newfort is married to a Cuban woman 
 who has borne him no children. He is desirous of finding Josef 
 and claiming him as a son. The relatives of his wife, however, are 
 contriving to acquire Newfort s wealth upon his death, and to that 
 end put forth every effort to prevent a meeting between the half- 
 breed and his father. This situation furnishes the conflict in the 
 novel. Josef has been reared under the ennobling influence of 
 MacNeal, a missionary to the Indians along the upper Missouri. 
 The scene now shifts to St. Louis where we find Josef and his friend 
 the old trapper Lefevre 5 in the employ of the well known St. Louis 
 Fur Company. In the chapter Die Schicksale einer Auswanderer 
 Familie we learn to know the German immigrant Herr Andree, his 
 son Robert, and his daughter Franziska, who were obliged to flee 
 
 6 A character which may reflect the trapper Leroux whom Mollhausen 
 had learned to know on the expedition under Leiut. Whipple in 1853-54. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 85 
 
 from Mannheim for having harbored a young revolutionist of 1848 
 on his flight to America. In St. Louis Andree has fallen a victim 
 to the land-shark Buschmark. The Andree family then decides to 
 try its fortunes beyond the Rockies and is offered the assistance 
 of the half-breed Joe and the trapper Lefevre. By accompanying 
 the Andrees Joe is escaping the Spanish relatives of Mrs. Newfort 
 who have plotted against his life. We follow the party along the 
 much travelled emigrant road to California. Josef first visits his 
 original home near Council Bluffs, where he is joined by Wabash 
 Ginga who is also to accompany the party. Their way leads 
 through the grounds of the Oglala, Sioux, and Blackfoot Indians. 
 Robert Andree had gone earlier and found employment at the 
 frontier smithy of Bigelow, on the emigrant road near the town of 
 Kansas. Upon the arrival of the party, Robert, as well as Sidney 
 Bigelow, the son of the blacksmith, join. This journey of the Ger 
 man family to the Far West forms a significant part of the work. 
 
 After following the half-breed Josef, a modern Odysseus, through 
 four volumes of most varied adventures and many vicissitudes, he 
 at last meets his father, Newfort, and a recognition scene follows. 
 Josef, after a pretty romance with the German girl Franziska, be 
 comes her husband. He and his bride accompany Newfort to the 
 South where they are to reside. Old Lefevre, the devoted friend 
 of Josef, Robert Andree and Sidney Bigelow accompany them to 
 San Francisco where they are to embark for New Orleans. Le 
 fevre and Wabash intend to return to the upper Missouri. Robert 
 and Sidney remain in California to try their fortunes there. 
 
 Though the plot in Mollhausen s first novel reveals but little 
 originality, the same is nevertheless unravelled with considerable 
 success. Also he has shown himself skilled in the portrayal of the 
 various types of characters developed on our western borders. The 
 old trapper Lefevre (a cousin to Cooper s Natty Bumpo and Seals- 
 field s Nathan), the half-breed Josef, the German immigrants, the 
 scoundrel Harrison in preacher s garb, "Die Zwillinge," two in 
 separable gamblers, and the frontiersman Bigelow, are drawn with a 
 certain hand and form a splendid portrait gallery. 
 
 But more important than story and character portrayal for the 
 reader of today is the grand panorama of western life in its vari 
 ous phases which the novel unfolds in its course. The reader 
 accompanies the characters to negro plantations in the South, across 
 the prairies to the Mormons in Salt Lake City, through the dan- 
 
86 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 gerous passes of the Rocky Mountains, to the gold mines in Cali 
 fornia. With the full "epische Breite" of an ancient romancier we 
 learn of the lives of squatters, trappers, fur-traders, Indians, immi 
 grants, horse thieves, and gamblers. Though of poetic temperament 
 and a romanticist in the manipulation of his plot, Mollhausen never 
 hesitates to introduce realistic scenes. Such are the drastic raiding 
 of a house of ill-fame in St. Louis, the lively scene in a gambling 
 den in the young city of Sacramento, and that of the court room 
 among the gold miners of California who have taken the law into 
 their own hands. 6 It is also interesting to note how Mollhausen 
 endeavors to add reality through various footnotes. Of the Indian 
 Petalescharo he says: "Petalescharo s Portrat befindet sich in 
 Washington in dem Museum". He also frequently refers to his 
 previous works on travels in footnotes. In the rendering of Indian 
 speech into German the author has followed an established method, 
 namely, the abundant use of infinitives, as for example : "Ich 
 finden das Herz des Halfbreeds" ; "Spiirhunde gehen weit anderen 
 Weg, niemand kommen dies Wigwam" ; "ich nicht liigen" ; "ich aber 
 hungrig, viel hungrig, kommen weiten Weg, sehen weisse Squaw 
 begraben". Some of the characters in this novel, if we may believe 
 the author, have been drawn directly from life. In the last chapter 
 of this work, in which the author himself enters, we read : "Jetzt, 
 wo ich mit schnellen Schritten dem Schluss meiner Erzahlung 
 nahere und die ganze Arbeit fast vollendet vor mir sehe, empfmde 
 ich ein gewisses Bedauern iiber die Trennung von Leuten, in deren 
 geistigen Umgang ich mich so lange bewegte. Das Bedauern ist 
 lebhafter und gerechtfertiger, weil ich mit vielen der in dem "Halb- 
 indianer" vorkommenden Personen, wie auch mit dem Halfbreed 
 Josef selbst verkehrte, ja, manche derselben bis heute noch nicht 
 aus den Augen verloren habe." 
 
 Mollhausen has neglected no opportunity to display his extensive 
 knowledge of life in the Far West which he had obtained upon his 
 previous journeys. The observing eye of the naturalist is noticeable 
 
 8 Among the motley crowd sworn is a German baron, a type of the 
 more or less "verbummelter" German nobleman in America: "Ferner ist hier 
 Baron Kreuzer ! Fruher deutscher Student, dann Offizier, dann badischer 
 Freischarler, dann Literat, dann Schenkwirt in New York, dann Zeitungen- 
 kolporteur in Cincinnati, dann Farmer in Minnesota, dann Methodistenpredi- 
 ger in Illinois und zuletzt Viehtreiber in Missouri ! Ein Mann von so 
 vielen Erfahrungen und so vielseitiger Erziehung diirfte sich wohl zum 
 Geschworenen eignen !" 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 87 
 
 in his accurate discriptions of geography, and of flora and fauna. 
 The novel itself was to supplement, so to speak, the author s previ 
 ous works on travel as he himself says in his introduction to the 
 Halbindianer. Mollhausen s program, as set forth in that introduc 
 tion, applies to so many of his other works that it deserves to 
 be quoted. He writes in part : "Indem ich den Halbindianer oder 
 Halfbreed schrieb, beabsichtigte ich gewissermassen eine Illustration 
 zu meinen friiher erschienenen Reisewerken zu geben. 
 
 "Wahrend eines langjahrigen Aufenthalts an den Grenzen der 
 Civilisation und in abgelegenen Wildnissen hauft sich namlich der 
 Stoff so seh-r, dass man ihn fiiglich nicht in den Reisewerken ver- 
 wenden kann, ohne deren Charakter wesentlich zu verandern, ja, zu 
 beeintrachtigen. 
 
 "Beim Riickblick aber auf die Zeiten des unsteten, vielbewegten 
 Wanderlebens tauschen in der Erinnerung Scenen und Begeben- 
 heiten auf, die man friiher iibersah, oder fur nicht wichtig hielt. 
 Jeder Tag wird gleichsam immer wieder von neuem erlebt, und 
 scheint es fast, als ob das in der Vergangenheit suchende geistige 
 Auge mitunter scharfer sieht und auffasst, wie einst das Korperliche 
 an Ort und Stelle. 
 
 "Dergleichen auftauchende Bilder in ein Ganzes zusammen- 
 zufiigen, war in den nachfolgenden Blattern meine Aufgabe, und 
 wahlte ich zu diesem Zweck eine Geschichte, in welcher namentlich 
 die Vorurteile der Amerikaner gegen jede dunkler gefarbte Haut 
 und die daraus entspringenden Folgen dargelegt werden. 
 
 "Mit Freuden mischte ich mich im Laufe der Erzahlung in das 
 Volksleben; ich fand reichen Genuss in der Schildenmg der iip- 
 pigen, wie der stiefmiitterlich behandelten Natur, der sie belebenden 
 Geschopfe und deren wunderbaren Treibens ; mit eigener Span- 
 nung folgte ich den wilden Eingeborenen auf dem blutigen Kriegs- 
 pfade bis in die fast undurchdringlichen Wiisten, und suchte mit 
 Vorbedacht die Handlungen jedesmal mit den Sitten der verschie- 
 denen Xationen und der Alles beeinflussenden Naturumgebung in 
 Einklang zu bringen." 
 
 Der Fluchtling. Erzahlung aus Neu-Mexico und dem angren- 
 senden Indianergebiet; im Anschluss an den "Halbindianer". 4 Bde. 
 Jena. 1861. 
 
 In this novel Mollhausen has again drawn upon the material 
 with which he became acquainted in western America. It is a 
 sequel to Der Halbindianer, and, like that novel, is to serve as an 
 
88 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 illustration to his works on travel. The author endeavored, through 
 conscientious and scrupulously truthful description, to furnish the 
 reader more than an entertaining novel. The story, which is simple 
 enough in outline, was to serve only as a means wherewith to pre 
 sent in a more effective manner, the wealth of geographic and 
 ethnographic material which lay at the disposal of the writer. The 
 interesting culture of the civilized Indians of New Mexico forms a 
 considerable part of the background of this work. In the course of 
 this narrative the author has also taken occasion to paint in a vivid 
 fashion the degrading and demoralizing effects of slavery, 7 
 
 The action begins on a rancho located somewhere between the 
 San Bernardino mountain chain and the Pacific coast. Robert 
 Andree, the son of a German immigrant, and Sidney Bigelow, both 
 of whom we have learned to know in Mollhausen s first novel Der 
 Halbindianer, have located here, after having worked in the gold 
 mines of California for two years. Robert is now the overseer of 
 the rancho and is known as the Majordomo. At the beginning of 
 the novel the two are about to set out on a long journey across the 
 Rocky Mountains. There they are to gather twenty thousand sheep 
 and return across the mountains with them in the following spring. 
 The wanderings of Robert and Sidney are recorded at length and 
 form a large part of the narrative. The story itself centers about the 
 young German fugitive Hohendorf, whom we first learn to know 
 under the assumed name of Schmidt. He is serving as a soldier in 
 a United States regiment stationed near the Mexican town of Anton 
 Chico, in the fall of 1857. Schmidt, being a German, suffers very un 
 kind treatment at the hands of his fellows and finally deserts. We 
 follow him on his flight and to his concealment in the Mexican ruins 
 of Grand Quivira. Here Mollhausen tells at some length the story of 
 the hidden treasures, which is based partly on facts and rests on a 
 document found by the United States Major, I. H. Carleton. 
 
 7 Concerning the attitude of certain Germans in America toward slavery 
 he vehemently writes: "Leider gibt es vereinzelte amerikanisierte Deutsche, 
 die, ihr Herkommen und ihre tapfer kampfenden und gesinnungstiichtigen 
 Landsleute verleugnend und verleumdend, sich mit fantischer Wildheit zu 
 Verteidigern der Sklaverei aufwerfen und dabei die weniger lobenswerten 
 Gewohnheiten der wirklichen Amerikaner zur Schau tragen, ohne sich zu- 
 gleich den hoheren Grad ihrer Gesittung angeeignet zu haben. Die von mir 
 in nachfolgenden Blattern gelegentlich ausgesprochenen Urteile entspringen 
 der festen Uberzeugung, dass es die heiligste Pflicht jedes rechtlich denkenden 
 
 Menschen ist, mit aller ihm zu Gebote stehenden Kraft gegen die 
 
 fluchwurdigsten aller weltlichen Einrichtungen zu eifern und zu streiten," 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 89 
 
 Hohendorf is none other than the German student mentioned in 
 Der Halbindianer, who, having taken part in the revolution of 1848, 
 was obliged to flee to America, and who had found refuge for a 
 time in the home of the Andree family in Mannheim, before that 
 family s emigration to America. 8 
 
 In the ruins above mentioned Hohendorf meets a Mexican by 
 the name of Manuel, a Zufii Indian called Pasqual, and an idiotic 
 albino woman, also a Zufii, who are searching here for the tradi 
 tional lost treasure. He accompanies them and enjoys their protec 
 tion until he happens upon Sidney and Robert. Hohendorf is pur 
 sued by dragoons, but escapes them with the assistance of a Mexican 
 lad who is acquainted with the secret passages of the ancient mines. 
 The boy lives in the mines with the miserly Mexican Manuel. This 
 Mexican lad (who later proves to be a girl !) had been abducted by 
 the Indians when still a child, and afterwards given over to Manuel 
 who reared the child after the fashion of a boy. He is one of those 
 romantic figures which Mollhausen was occasionally pleased to place 
 in the midst of realistic surroundings. 
 
 Sidney and Robert, accompanied by Hohendorf, return to Cali 
 fornia, not without bloody encounters with the Indians on the way. 
 Upon arriving in California Hohendorf receives news from Ger 
 many that his sovereign has graciously pardoned the young revo 
 lutionist, and that he is free to return. Robert and Sidney accom 
 pany him to the Colorado and thence he returns to Germany. 
 Hohendorf is the fugitive for whom the novel is named. 
 
 In the shifting scenes of this work we witness life on the Spanish 
 ranches in southern California, in a United States military camp, 
 on negro plantations, and among the nomadic tribes of the West. 
 This novel is rich in ethnographical material. The author has 
 shown himself especially skillful in depicting the passing culture of 
 the once mighty Aztecs as reflected in their degenerate descendants 
 in New Mexico. He has, in the course of his narrative, introduced a 
 
 8 The following reasons are given for Hohendorf s flight: "Ich hatte 
 mich mit jugendlichem Leichtsinn an politischen Umtrieben beteiligt und 
 jenen Agitatoren angeschlossen, die in ihrem blinden Wahnsinn glaubten, 
 hundertjahrige Institutionen durch ihre iiberspannten Ideen iiber den Haufen 
 sturzen zu konnen. Phantast wie ich war, und wie man auf Universitaten 
 zu leicht wird, gehorte nicht viel Uberredung dazu, mich in einen Barri- 
 kadenkampfer umzuwandeln, und ich wurde das Opfer meines eigenen Leicht- 
 sinns und des Widerspruchsgeistes, den ich meinem wohlmeinenden Vater 
 gegeniiber zeigte." 
 
90 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 considerable amount of Spanish-American history, without detract 
 ing to a great degree from its forward action. 
 
 In spite of the many more romantic aspects of western life 
 which may be found in this novel, the work on the whole must 
 impress the reader with its realism. Mollhausen himself seSns to 
 have had the desire that it should be accepted as a novel faithfully 
 depicting life as it was in the middle of the nineteenth century in 
 western America, for he closes the introduction with these words : 
 "Ich schildere, was ich gesehen und beobachtet habe ; und wenn ich 
 auch das, was ich erzahle, nicht immer selbst erlebte, erfahren habe 
 ich es gewiss ; gleichviel, ob von schwellenden Lippen, versunken 
 im Anschauen tropischer liebegliihender Augen, oder von alten 
 Jagdgefahrten, vor dem heimlichen Lagerfeuer in unwirtlicher 
 Wildniss." 
 
 Der Majordomo. Roman aus dem siidlichen Kalifornien und 
 Neu-Mexiko im Anschluss an den "Halbindianer" und "Fliichtling." 
 4 Bde. Jena. 1863. 
 
 This work is a sequel to Der Halbindianer and Der Fliichtling, 
 the three forming, in a sense, a trilogy on western life in America 
 half a century ago. It is divided into two parts. In the first, called 
 "Neu-Mexiko oder siebzehn Jahre friiher," the action takes place 
 in 1841. It is the author s purpose in this part to give the exposi 
 tion of the action which follows in the second. It sets forth the 
 earlier lives of some of the characters. A Spanish frontier family, 
 named Estevan, who is in the possession of valuable old Spanish 
 documents, is robbed by several Mexicans assisted by Indians. The 
 parents are killed and the two children dragged aw r ay. The little 
 daughter is taken by the Mexican Manuel who rears her after the 
 manner of a boy. It is she whom we learned to know as the lad 
 Fernando in Der Fliichtling. The son is kept by the Indians and 
 known later as "dark Juan." 
 
 Part Second, entitled "Kalifornien, oder der Majordomo" opens 
 up in Pueblo de los Angelos, one of the most important of the old 
 California colonies on the seacoast. The time of action is the autumn 
 of 1858. We are again on a rancho with the German, Robert Andree 
 and his friend, Sidney Bigelow, both of whom have been prominent 
 characters in the two preceding novels. The action now turns 
 about Robert who is known as the Majordomo. Fernando, who is 
 now grown up, is employed on the rancho. His affection and ten 
 derness toward Robert are only later understood when it is dis- 
 
Balduin Afollhausen, The German Cooper 91 
 
 covered that he is a maiden. This unique and romantic character 
 is enveloped in mystery to the close of the work and stands out in 
 strong contour against the realistic setting. 
 
 Here we meet again that infamous pair of vagabonds, Toby and 
 Finney, "Die Zvvillinge" who figure so conspicuously in Der Halb- 
 indianer. The two, together with a chinaman, an adventuress, and 
 a monkey, are touring the country as jugglers and dancers. The 
 twins have called the Indians to their assistance in order to rob 
 Robert and Sidney of the money obtained from the sale of the 
 twenty thousand sheep of which we read in the previous novel. 
 Robert and Sidney are rescued from them by the excellent trapper 
 Gale and his sons who have settled in the Tulare Valley. 
 
 On the rancho are the sisters Maria and Inez. Romances have 
 developed between Maria and Sidney, and Inez and Robert. Toby 
 and Finney are still hostile toward Robert and Sidney, and are plot 
 ting to abduct Inez. However, the tender Fernando becomes their 
 victim instead. They abduct the latter from the rancho with the 
 thought that they had taken Inez, due to the fact that the maiden 
 Fernando had laid aside her masculine attire in the privacy of her 
 room. 
 
 At the close of the novel the criminals receive their due reward. 
 Inez and Robert are united, as also Maria and Sidney. We are then 
 once more transported to the South where "Der Halbindianer" 
 and his German wife have settled, and there meet again with the 
 much loved trapper Lefevre and his Indian companion Wabash. 
 Thus the author hastily reviews at the conclusion of this work the 
 interrelations of his first three novels. 
 
 Der Majordomo is in point of story hardly as well constructed 
 as the two previous novels. It contains, however, many splendidly 
 created characters. Such an one is the savage El Muerte who was 
 responsible for the murder of the Estevan family. El Muerte with 
 his troubled conscience furnishes no mean companion to Sealsfield s 
 wonderful creation of a conscience-stricken criminal, namely Bob 
 in Das Cajutenbuch. Another splendid character is the trapper Gale, 
 a backwoodsman who lives in the sequestered Tulare valley with 
 his Indian wife and strong half-breed sons and daughter. He is 
 endowed with a wonderful sense of honesty and justice, although 
 he canot tell a book from a hoe-cake. 
 
 Mollhausen has not failed to display in this novel his wonderful 
 talent for describing the majestic beauty of the scenery of western 
 
92 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 America. Of the cultural elements he has introduced for the pur 
 pose of creating atmosphere must be mentioned life on the 
 ranches, in the new settlement of the Mormons in the San Bernar 
 dino valley, and during the Mormon war with the United States, 
 among the California Indians, among the motley crowds of miners 
 and chinamen, in the San Fernando mission, among the lonely trap 
 pers of the mountains, and on the negro plantations of the South. 
 Palmblatter und Schneeflocken. Erzahlungen aus dem fernen 
 Westen. 2 Bde. Leipzig. 1863. 
 
 However popular Mollhausen s Majordomo may have been 
 among the general reading public, there were critics who thought 
 this novel ought to be classified under the rubric of geography 
 or ethnology rather than fiction. Others who admired his wonderful 
 descriptions of natural scenery and its splendid character portrayal, 
 nevertheless felt it had lost in literary form by being a sequel to 
 the two previous novels. They thought four volumes quite long 
 enough to develop and round out completely a plot without taking 
 its characters over into another novel. 9 
 
 That Mollhausen also possessed the ability to create works which 
 would appeal through perfection of form and artistic entity was 
 shown in the collection of tales which appeared under the title of 
 Palmblatter und Schneeflocken. In these his poetic talent is for the 
 first time unhampered by long, complicated plots. Volume I consists 
 of Die Muschelhdndlerin; Der Steppenbrand; Der Postldufer; Das 
 Canalboot; Scenen aus dem Volksleben; and Der Schneesturm. 
 Of these the sketches Der Steppenbrand, Das Canalboot, and Scenen 
 aus dem Volksleben had previously appeared in Die Gartenlaube. 
 
 Die Muschelhandlerin is a novelette in which the romantic and 
 the realistic charmingly commingle. Ethnographic observations and 
 realistic descriptions of scenery are here subordinated to the roman- 
 
 9 Vber Land und Meer. 1864. p. 439 : "Was Erfindung, Okonomie, 
 u. s. w. der gewahlten Kunstform anbetrifft, ist von untergeordnetem Werth, 
 wahrend der Schwerpunkt der uns dargebotenen vier Bande in der Schilde- 
 rung namentlich von dem siidlichen Kalifornien und Neu-Mexiko liegt, die 
 besonders in ethnographischer Beziehung viel Interessantes darbietet. Das 
 Buch gehort wesentlich unter die Rubrik : Lander- und Volkerkunde ." 
 
 Magasin fur die Literatur des Anslandes. n. Sept., 1864: "Mollhausen 
 liebt es, zu seinen Romanen Fortsetzungen zu geben auf Kosten der kiinstler- 
 
 ischen Einheit des einzelnen Werkes Wir glauben, dass der 
 
 Raum von vier Banden hinreichend sein diirfte, um einen in sich vollkom- 
 men abgerundeten Roman zu umfassen, und lieben durchaus nicht die mach- 
 tigen Trilogien und Tetralogien in dieser Gattung, die wohl selten aus dem 
 kiinstlerischen Gewissen hervorgegangen sind " 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 93 
 
 tic Spanish-American atmosphere. The scene of action is Panama. 
 The pretty vendor of sea-shells. Teresa, a simple child of the tropics, 
 her rustic lover Jacobo, and Sennor Gualterio, the wealthy owner 
 of the cottage in which Teresa dwells, are the principals in this 
 story. Gualterio takes advantage of his fair tenant s debts to him 
 by making unfair proposals to her. Jacobo defends her. He is 
 wrongly imprisoned, but later escapes through the assistance of 
 Teresa. The fine descriptions of the tropical ocean and the vivid 
 narrative of the escape from a shark in the Bay of Acapulco already 
 point to the author s later successes as a writer of sea-tales. 
 
 Der Postldufer von Wisconsin is a delightful tale in which M611- 
 hausen* in describing the severity of a winter in western America, 
 has drawn upon his own adventures. The incident about which 
 the story centers is that of the breaking up of the ice on the Great 
 Lakes with the advent of spring. The action takes place in Wis 
 consin in the forties. The Warners are frontier farmers who have 
 settled near the village of Manitouwauk at a time when Pota- 
 watomi and Chippevva Indians were still occasionally to be met in the 
 regions once their own. Ben White, the only son of a well-to-do 
 farmer who had migrated to the banks of Lake \Vinnebago from the 
 state of Pennsylvania, was in love with Warner s daughter. As 
 postcarrier it is Ben s business to further the mail from one distant 
 settlement to another along the shore of Lake Michigan. Ben, in 
 company with a Chippewa Indian, employs the frozen lake as a 
 more rapid means of intercourse for his sled and dogs. While on 
 the ice, miles from the shore, the ice breaks up with roaring thunder 
 and makes it impossible for them to return to the shore. With 
 great difficulty they reach an island where the thawing ice soon 
 leaves them entirely without intercourse with the mainland. They 
 owe their rescue to the intuition of a faithful Chippewa squaw. 
 
 Der Schneesturm is a picture of the author s memorable march 
 through the snow with the band of Ottoe Indians who picked him 
 up and took him with them to their settlements on the shores of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 Volume II of Palmbldtter und Schnee floe ken consists of Die 
 Tochter des Hauptlings; Die Fata Morgana in der Wuste; Bin 
 Duell in Kalifornien; and Die Gr dber in der Steppe. Of these Die 
 Fata Morgana in der IViiste had previously appeared in Die Gar- 
 tenlaube. 
 
94 Baldwin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 The action of Die Tochter des H duptlings takes place about a 
 day s journey from the west bank of the Mississippi, along Lake 
 Kadikameg. It is the romance of Nagur-Sah (Zwei Sonnen), the 
 daughter of the chief of the Chippewas and Jean Baptista, a Cana 
 dian trapper, a wild tale of love, opposition, revenge and acquisition. 
 
 Ein Duell in Kalifornien presents an episode of the gold days in 
 California which seems to have come to the notice of Mollhausen 
 on his first visit to San Francisco. He apparently used the material 
 with considerable license. 
 
 Die Grdber in der Steppe is a western emigration elegy. It first 
 reveals a pleasant picture of farm life near St. Charles on the Mis 
 souri. Here we witness a genuine American cornhusking party with 
 the old custom that he who finds a red ear may kiss his feminine 
 neighbor. A young German immigrant has arrived at the farm. 
 His manner and integrity please the farmer and he is invited to 
 accompany the family on their migration to the Far West. The 
 daughter of the farmer and the German fall in love with each other, 
 the American suitor in revenge follows the party on its way to Cali 
 fornia, shoots the lovers and himself, and the three find lonely 
 graves on the silent prairie. 
 
 Das Mormonenmddchen. Einc Erzdhlung aus der Zeit des 
 Kriegssuges der Vereinigten Staaten gegen die "Heiligen der letzten 
 Tage" im Jahre 1857-1858. (Appeared as volumes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 
 in the Deutsche Romanbibliothek. Jena. 1864.) 
 
 This has always been one of Mb llhausen s most popular novels, 
 due in part to the interesting story, but probably more to the great 
 mass of material which the novel presented about a sect which had 
 drawn upon itself the attention of Europe 10 as well as America. 
 In his introduction the author gives a short history of the rise and 
 growth of Mormonism, for the material of which he was indebted 
 to the Official Reports (1852) of Howard Stansbury, to the work 
 The Mormons or the Latter-day Saints in the Valley of the Great 
 Salt Lake by Captain J. W. Gunnison (later slain by the Utah In 
 dians), and his own personal experiences with the Mormons on the 
 Colorado expedition under Lieutenant Ives. Concerning the purpose 
 
 10 In Germany the Magazin fur die Literatur des Auslandes had pub 
 lished an article on the Mormons (Dec. 19, 1868) ; also the following works 
 of Hepworth Dixon, treating of Mormonism, had appeared in German : See- 
 lenbrdute (iibersetzt von Julius Frese, Berlin 1868) and Neu-Amerika (nach 
 der 7. Aufl. aus dem Englischen von Richard Oberlander, Jena, 1868). 
 
Balduin Alollhausen, The German Cooper 95 
 
 of the work, he writes : "Mich leitete der Wunsch, das unterhaltende 
 
 Element mit dem belehrenden zu verbinden Wenn 
 
 es auch nicht Schuld der Mormonen ist, die nach dem Ausbruch 
 der Feindseligkeiten die Expedition, zu der ich zahlte, im Tale des 
 Colorado zu vernichten gedachten, dass ich noch unter den Leben- 
 den weile, so bin ich bei nachfolgenden Schilderungen doch keines- 
 wegs von Hass gegen sie beseelt gewesen. Frei von Vorurteilen 
 gegen Sekten und Stande, habe ich meine Personen fast durch- 
 gehends der Wirklichkeit entnommen, was mir nur so leichter wurde, 
 weil ich die meisten derselben personlich kannte." 
 
 Das Aformonenmadchen presents in a most atttractive manner 
 a remarkable chapter in the development of the West. The most 
 prominent of the many diverse characters engaged in the action of 
 this novel are the Swedish emigrants who have come to America 
 as a result of the extensive proselyting done by the Mormons in 
 Sweden. The novel tells us of many illegitimate means employed 
 by the Mormons in getting converts. The story centers about 
 Herta Jansen and her sister Editha, two Swedish girls. The latter 
 had married Holmsten, a convert to Mormonism, and followed him 
 to Utah. The system of polygamy had, however, been kept a secret 
 from Editha. When Holmsten is about to take an additional wife, 
 Editha is so deeply offended morally that she flees into the wildness 
 with her child. Herta, it appears, had, while still in Europe, been 
 converted to Mormonism by her French teacher, Corbillon. The 
 latter, an adventuress in league with the Mormons, has intentionally 
 kept Herta in ignorance of the polygamy practised by the Mormons. 
 Corbillon acompanies the innocent girl to New York where under 
 great secrecy (it is the time of the war between the United States 
 and the Mormons) she is placed in a boat bound for California. 
 From thence she is conveyed to Utah to become the wife of a 
 Mormon. The efforts of these two women to escape from a life of 
 shame and dishonor among the Mormon polygamists, their many 
 trials and hardships, and their final rescue through some Protes 
 tant missionaries and faithful Mohaves, form the substructure of 
 this novel. 
 
 Mollhausen has described well the strange mixture of nation 
 alities gathered together in California in those early days. In ka 
 leidoscopic fashion we witness thrilling scenes of war between the 
 United States and the Mormons, the endeavors of the latter to 
 convert the Mohave and Colorado Indians, the counteracting efforts 
 
96 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 of a Presbyterian missionary, and life as it was then in Salt Lake 
 City. 
 
 An extremely amusing scene is the Mormon baptism of Indians 
 by immersion. 
 
 Fine character portrayals are those of Black Beaver, an histori 
 cal Indian and Raft, an old seaman who constantly speaks in terms 
 of a sailor. Interesting also is the immigrant who, having seen a 
 bit of Indian life, is so charmed with their manner of life that he 
 affects Indian ways and smokes from a stone pipe. Of him it is said : 
 "Der erzahlte Ihnen Jagdgeschichten, wie sie selbst Cooper s Na 
 thaniel Bumpo nicht merkwiirdiger erlebte." 
 
 Reliquien. Ersahlungen und Schilderungen aus dem westlichen 
 Nordamcrika. 3 Bde. Berlin. 1865. 
 
 Upon the above successful novel appeared the author s second 
 collection of short stories and sketches. In this collection Die Reli 
 quien, Die Buffelhaut, Die Messerscheide, Der Tabaksbeutel, Der 
 Lasso, Der Lederrock, Die Mokassins, and Das Schreibzeug are de 
 lightful little still-life pictures called forth by the relics of his wan 
 derings in western America, which now adorned the walls of the 
 author s study in Potsdam. 11 
 
 Der Hornfrosch is the story of the fate of some French emi 
 grants who have started out from Council Bluffs to make their way 
 across the western plains to the California gold fields. They are 
 left deserted on the prairies by Kioway Indians who have robbed 
 them of their horses. Die Meermuschel is a story of planter and 
 slave life in Panama shortly after the first railroad had been built 
 there. Der Eichenzweig sets forth an episode in the life of an artist 
 who finds himself among the Indians along the Mississippi. 
 
 11 Of these relics he writes in his first sketch Die Reliquien (p. 5) : 
 "Sorgfaltig geordnet hangen sie zum Theil vor mir an der Wand; wahrend 
 ich schreibe, fliegen meine Blicke gelegentlich iiber sie hin, wobei ich 
 zuweilen bedaure, dass sie nicht sprechen konnen. Ja, wenn sie nur sprechen 
 konnten, was wurden sie dann wohl erzahlen? Denn sie existirten ja schon 
 lange vorher, ehe sie in meinen Besitz iibergingen. Zum Beispiel der grosse 
 Mohavebogen und der neben demselben befestigte Federschmuck ; die ge- 
 fleckte Haut einer Schlange und die schweren mit klirrenden Zierrathen be- 
 
 hangenen mexikanischen Sporen die Mokassins eines schwarz- 
 
 augigen Dacotahmadchens, der harene Lasso eines Comanches 
 
 Es sind Reliquien, das fiihle vor alien Dingen ich selbst, wenn in stillen_ein- 
 samen Stunden, wahrend meine Blicke auf den lieben Andenken aus meinem 
 zauberisch schonen Wanderleben haften, plotzlich langst vergessene Bilder 
 vor mir auftauchen, und ich mich dann beeile, sie fest zu bannen und auf- 
 zuzeichnen." 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 97 
 
 Whip- poor-Will and Die Castagnetten are more pretentious nar 
 ratives and may be termed novelettes. While reading one day in a 
 worn and travel-stained notebook Mollhausen came upon these lines : 
 
 "Whip-poor-Will oder Ziegenmelker geschossen 
 
 am 18. Mai, 1858, im Lager bei Fort Defiance im Navahoe Terri- 
 torium." This incident furnished the suggestion for Whip-poor- 
 Will, the story of a German student wandering in America. He 
 falls in love with the daughter of a Kansas frontiersman. It is the 
 time shortly before the Civil War. Kansas is about to be admitted to 
 the Union. The frontiersman favors the North. The Southern ele 
 ment is eager to gather sufficient votes to make of it a slave state, and 
 politicians have employed a gang of ruffians to force those with 
 Northern sympathies to vote for the Southern cause. The settle 
 ment of the frontiersman is attacked and the young German who 
 assists him is killed. This is the embryonic plot which is later 
 developed, and forms the chief motive in Mollhausen s last novel 
 Der Vaquero. Die Castagnetten relates a dream which the author 
 supposedly had when lodging in the Spanish mission of San Fer 
 nando in California while on the United States expedition to the 
 Colorado. The author actually introduces characters who were with 
 him on the expedition. It is a wild, fantastic tale, and in imaginative 
 quality surpasses Mollhausen s other works. Its weird and grue 
 some quality point to the Gothic romance. In this collection of 
 stories and sketches the author has asserted his poetic temperament. 
 He has departed from his usual realism and taken on the more ro 
 mantic attitude of Cooper. 
 
 Die Mandanenweise. Erzdhhing aus den Rheinlanden und dem 
 Stromgebiet des Missouri. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1865. 
 
 In regard to content this is one of Mollhausen s most interesting 
 novels. In the first pages of the novel the author himsdf enters 
 and recounts some of his earlier experiences while with Duke Paul 
 of Wiirtemberg, his being left on a snow-swept prairie, and his final 
 rescue by a band of Ottoe Indians. While with the Indians he 
 succeeds by strategy in getting at the mysterious powwowing chest 
 of the medicine-man, and finds at the bottom a manuscript. Moll 
 hausen then withdraws as an active character, and gives, without 
 essential alterations, as he says, the contents of the manuscript. It 
 is the autobiography of a German in which he tells of his boyhood 
 days on the Rhine, his school days, university career, revolutionary 
 
98 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 days, final flight to America, and his life among the Indians there. 
 All is told with simplicity, grace, and apparent verity. 
 
 In describing the hero s boyhood, the author has probably intro 
 duced recollections of his own early days along the Rhine. Gustav 
 Wandel was reared in a severe Prussian atmosphere, under the 
 guardianship of an old forester who recognized only two colors, 
 namely the Prussian black and white; who knew only two songs, 
 "Heil Dir im Siegerkranz" and "So leben wir"; only one ideal state, 
 Prussia; and only one king, Frederick William the Third. The 
 boy was prepared for the University, and entered Bonn when the 
 first mutteririgs of the revolution of 1832 were heard along the Prus 
 sian horizon. Here Gustav Wandel falls in with a group ,of youth 
 ful enthusiasts who combine, defy the law, and proclaim revolu 
 tion. Student life in the revolutionary German "Burschenschaften" 
 the author treats in a fascinating manner. One of these enthusiastic 
 "Burschen" says : "Doch soviel kann ich Ihnen mitteilen, es handelt 
 sich darum, ein freies, einiges Deutschland herzustellen, ein 
 Deutschland, wie es unsern Sangern vorschwebt, wenn sie in heiliger 
 Begeisterung ihren Gedanken Wort verleihen ; ein Deutschland, 
 wie es jeder Burger mit stolz sein Vaterland nennen wiirde, anstatt 
 dass es jetzt dem Spotte fremder Nationen preisgegeben ist." We 
 follow the band of students to Frankfort. We witness their revo 
 lutionary outbreak, and we see the futility of their actions. They 
 are scattered. Some escape, others are imprisoned. Among the 
 latter is Gustav Wandel, who, with the assistance of friends, man 
 ages to escape and flee to America. A tragic love episode is inter 
 woven. Johanna, seeing her lover disgraced, robbed of the possi 
 bilities of a career, an exile, in her bitter disappointment, finally 
 dies of a broken heart. 
 
 In the second half of this novel we are transferred with our hero 
 to the regions of the Missouri. Here Gustav leads a lonely life as a 
 trapper. One day, in his wanderings, he comes upon the remains 
 of an Indian village, totally wiped out by an epidemic of smallpox. 
 Sitting among the dead, and singing a lament, is a slender maid of 
 the Mandane tribe, little more than a child. It is Schanhatta who 
 becomes his devoted companion on his lonely wanderings until she 
 grows to womanhood. She becomes educated and the trapper finally 
 takes her as his wife. This character, though somewhat idealized, 
 is a charming creation and gives the novel its name. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 99 
 
 Gustav VVandel had come to America in the fall of 1833. The 
 manuscript, which the author informs the reader he had found only 
 goes to 1839, and leaves Wandel among the Indians without further 
 knowledge of his fate. In 1852, Mollhausen, returning from his 
 wanderings along the upper Missouri, meets in the vicinity of 
 St. Louis, a gardner with a long pipe in his mouth. He is a German 
 spending his old age in the cultivation of vineyards. It proves to be 
 Gustav Wandel, who after his many wanderings, is spending his 
 last years in peaceful retirement by the side of his faithful Indian 
 wife, Schanhatta. 
 
 Der Meerkonig. Eine Ersiihlung. 6 Bde. Jena. 1867. This novel 
 points to the author s later sea-novels. It can, however, hardly be 
 termed such itself as it only depicts life on the sea in the last 
 three volumes. It is on the whole a rather disappointing novel. 
 The reader wearies through three volumes of plot development, in 
 which the author introduces a number of characters, entangles the 
 story into a thousand knots, and then sets out to disentangle them 
 in the following three volumes. The Meerkonig himself is intro 
 duced only in the fourth volume. There is excellent character de 
 lineation ; the plot itself has little to commend it. 
 
 The rather democratic Graf Storberg, no longer young, marries 
 a young woman of inferior station, who bears him two children, 
 Paul and Elisabeth. The children of his first wife, Hannibal and 
 Clotilda, who are much older, are generally nonplussed by the arrival 
 of these two inferior relatives. They see in them only a difficulty 
 in dividing the estate and take it upon themselves to dispose of the 
 two children. Elisabeth is by an unknown hand placed in an orphan 
 asylum, and Paul is placed in the hands of a bribed captain whose 
 vessel is bound for America. Paul is to be left in Texas. With 
 that ease in transferring his readers from one clime to another which 
 characterizes the exotic novelist, we now find ourselves, in the fourth 
 volume, in the Bahamas. The remarkable seaman known as "Der 
 Meerkonig" is in charge of a cutter plying along the Bahama Islands. 
 He is in the employment of Stephens, keeper of the lightboat "Car 
 dinal". Stephens is in reality a coast-robber, who, in the guise 
 of a lightboat keeper, has for years been wrecking and robbing 
 vessels. These last three volumes introducing sea life along the 
 Bahamas, negro life on the islands, and the exciting adventures of 
 pirates, constitute the most fascinating part of the novel. "Der 
 Seekonig" is none other than Paul, who was the sole survivor 
 
ioo Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 of the ship on which he was to be conveyed to Texas. A mere boy 
 of eight, he was picked up by the coast-robber, Stephens, through 
 whom the vessel had been wrecked. The restoration of Paul to 
 his rights as the son of Graf Storberg, the recovery of his sister, 
 and the final reconciliation of the various members of the family, 
 furnish the material for the last volume. 
 
 Nord und Siid. Erz dhlungen und Schilderungen aus dem west- 
 lichen N ordamerika. 2 Bde. Jena. 1867. 
 
 The first volume consists of the tale Alice Ludlow and the narra 
 tive Der erste Baum zur Blockhiitte. The former is a tale of the 
 Civil War. Alice Ludlow s mother, a southern woman, had married 
 a Northerner and left her family. Alice Trenton, on growing to 
 womanhood, meets young George Ludlow, a Southerner who is 
 studying in the North. She accompanies him to his plantation as 
 his wife shortly before the Civil War. George Ludlow enlists in the 
 cause of the Secessionists, Alice remaining on the plantation with 
 her infant and several female relatives. Family differences caused 
 by her being a Northerner have brought much suffering upon Alice. 
 George is taken prisoner by the Northerners and brought to Camp 
 Douglas in Wisconsin. Alice, with the help of several faithful 
 slaves, escapes from the plantation where she has been so ill-treated 
 and journeys north to join her husband in prison. On arriving 
 she is told he is dead and is taken to his grave. In reality George 
 Ludlow, through the aid of a friendly sergeant, takes the clothing 
 of a dead prisoner and escapes. The dead man found in Ludlow s 
 clothes is buried as the latter. Later Alice and George Ludlow 
 again find each other. The story has the atmosphere of the Civil 
 War. Southern plantations with their slaves are described, and 
 mention of John Brown s death and Sherman s march to the sea, 
 as well as a eulogy on Lincoln go to make the historic background. 
 
 Der erste Baum zur Blockhutte is a well drawn picture of early 
 pioneer days in the state of Illinois. Harper and his family have 
 migrated to the West and with the aid of well-meaning neighbors, 
 who have come from all sides, a log cabin is erected. The cere 
 mony of cutting the first tree for the new home is described in a 
 charming manner. 
 
 Der Feldmesser and Prairiebilder make up the second volume. 
 The former is a tale of early pioneer days along the Great Lakes, 
 full of splendid descriptions of natural scenery. It is the love story 
 of a young surveyor and the daughter of the pioneer Jenison. The 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 101 
 
 latter has a fine settlement at Cuyahoga Falls. Jenkins, a neighbor, 
 insists that boundaries have not been drawn rightly. He endeavors 
 to show that Jenison s house and a great part of his cleared fields 
 are on his property. Jenkins is in love with Jenison s daughter, and 
 thinks that Jenison will grant him his daughter in marriage, in the 
 idea of thus canceling the apparent debt. However, the young gov 
 ernment surveyor, Gerald, arrives upon the scene at the right mo 
 ment, surveys the property, finds the boundaries correct, and him 
 self marries the daughter. 
 
 Prairiebilder may be counted among Mollenhausen s choicest 
 bits of prose. The poetry of the prairies, the grandeur of a rising 
 storm and sweeping prairie fire are here sketched with a hand that 
 speaks for the author s keen love for nature and his impressionable 
 artistic temperament. 
 
 Der Hochlandpfcifer. Erzahlung. 6 Bde. Jena. 1868. The 
 scenes of action of this complicated novel are Scotland, Germany, 
 and America. There is comparatively little of that American ma 
 terial in this work which we have come to expect in a novel by 
 Mollhausen. The novel opens in the Grampian hills of Scotland. 
 Rob MacLeary, looked upon as the last of the clan of the Mac- 
 Learys, was reared by his great grandmother. On her deathbed 
 she reveals to him that he is not a MacLeary, but the son of Lord 
 Maclvor, the last member of an ancient race to whom the Mac- 
 Learys are subservient. At the same time she gives him a fragment 
 of a letter long in her possession. The Maclvors had, through law 
 suits, been deprived of their lands, become destitute, and finally 
 emigrated to America "wo die Arbeit nicht schandet". In vie\v of 
 the trying ocean voyages of those days the Maclvors decided to 
 leave their recent infant in charge of the MacLearys hoping to re 
 claim it at a later time. The MacLearys, however, desirious of 
 placing their own child before the eyes of the world as that of the 
 proud race of the Maclvors, expose the infant entrusted to them. It 
 is found by wandering gypsies who for a sum of money give it 
 over to a German travelling in England, and whose wife has born 
 him no son. He brings the child to North Germany where the scene 
 of the novel now shifts, and there it grows up as Fo-rtis, the son of 
 Major von Hainfeld. The life of the young man on the estate and 
 German village life are told by the author at a rather disproportion 
 ate length. Young Fortis, on becoming an adult, discovers that 
 he is not the rightful son of the Major. The latter tells him as 
 
IO2 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 much of his origin as he knows, gives him a fragment of a letter 
 which had been found upon the body of the exposed babe by the 
 gypsies, and allows him, with this clue, to go to America in search 
 of his parents. The Maclvors have settled in Michigan and estab 
 lished a mill near Mackinaw Island. Accompanying them to their 
 home in the new world was one who had long been a devoted mem 
 ber of the family of the Lords Maclvor. It is the Scotch highland 
 piper, now more than a hundred years old, "Der Hochlandpfeifer , 
 for whom the novel is named. He is a strange and picturesque 
 character, with a mysterious power of second sight and prophecy. 
 He predicts that the son of Maclvor will yet come to his own and 
 the glory of the ancient family be restored. Rob MacLeary, who, 
 we remember, had been informed that he is the rightful son of Lord 
 Maclvor and who is in possession of the other part of the letter 
 (through which all is to be made clear!) also comes to America in 
 search of his parents. He has already found his way to the Mac- 
 Ivors in Michigan and been accepted as their son, when Fortis von 
 Hainfeld arrives upon the scene with his claims. The unravelling of 
 this situation and the restoration of the rightful son of the Maclvors 
 is the task the author undertakes to do. The descriptions of early 
 pioneer life along Lakes Huron and Michigan are perhaps the most 
 refreshing parts of this lengthy novel. 
 
 Das Hundertguldenblatt. Ers dhlung. 6 Bde. Berlin. 1870. 
 Mollhausen has chosen an interesting background for the first part 
 of this story. It is the time of the Civil War. Fierce Confederate 
 guerrillas are sweeping the country, marauding and devastating the 
 property of isolated farmers siding with the North. Among the 
 states which were especially exposed to these undisciplined bands 
 was Texas, and among those to suffer most were the German 
 farmers occupying isolated farms, and the population of the frontier 
 towns of Neu-Braunfels, Austin, and Georgetown with their large 
 German element. Near the above towns, along Sandy Creek, among 
 the rolling forehills of the Llano Estacado dwell the German Frank 
 Willmot and his widowed mother. The latter is a woman of sensi 
 tive temperament and little in place among these rude pioneer sur 
 roundings. She longs to return to Germany. In her possession is 
 a very valuable copper engraving by Rembrandt. It is the "Hun 
 dertguldenblatt". However, in the first three volumes this en 
 graving and its accompanying mystery have no part. 
 
Balduin Mollhansen, The German Cooper 103 
 
 Frank Willmot is a staunch supporter of the North. The story 
 of his struggles and those of his neighbors against the Southern 
 marauders and the final flight of the farmers to an old military 
 station for refuge supplies much of the material for the first part of 
 this work. Frank Willmot loves the proud and beautiful Flora 
 Bailie, the daughter of a rich Texan slave owner. However, her 
 strong love for the South and its institutions is a hindrance to their 
 union. A strongly delineated character is old Japhet, once one of 
 the famous Texan rangers who assists Frank in his struggles against 
 the Southern ruffians. 
 
 Under the title "Das Fest der Neger" in Volume II, the author 
 has described in a thrilling manner the orgies of some negro slaves 
 who have risen against their master and made him prisoner. 
 
 In Volume III Bailie s slaves kill their master, devastate the 
 farm, and then make their escape. Flora, a typical daughter of the 
 South, ablaze with hatred against the North, leaves the country too 
 proud to speak a word to Frank Willmot. Frank, downcast, agrees 
 finally to return with his mother to Germany for a time. 
 
 The action of the last three volumes of this novel takes place 
 wholly on German soil and has little inner connection with the 
 wealth of material presented in the first part. There is practically 
 no local color. It is the story itself which holds the reader. Most 
 of the characters are introduced for the first time. The reader 
 finds himself in an art atmosphere, and follows connoisseurs in their 
 search for valuable engravings. Among the great collectors is Herr 
 Horst who is the possessor of a very extensive collection, but lacks 
 the celebrated "Hundertguldenblatt" of Rembrandt, an engraving 
 setting forth the healing of the sick. This engraving he had given 
 to his betrothed a quarter of a century ago, to be kept by her until 
 their marriage. He grew faithless to the young woman who mi 
 grated to America with her child and the engraving. There she 
 married the kind-hearted, prosperous American, Willmot, who 
 reared her son Frank as his own. Through all the years she had 
 cherished tender memories, and. upon the husband s death, returns 
 to Germany to seek her old lover. Herr Horst, an invalid for 
 twenty-five years as the result of youthful errors, has withdrawn 
 from society and led a secluded and penitent life. The novel ends 
 with the return of the "Hundertguldenblatt" to its original owner, 
 the union of Mrs. Willmot with her early lover, Herr Horst, and his 
 recognition of Frank as his own son. While the story is sufficiently 
 
IO4 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 interesting, the reader will yet agree that it could have been told 
 in less than six volumes. 
 
 Der Piratenlieutenant. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1870. Of 
 the two German brothers Braun, the one has taken up the simple 
 occupation of his father and become a drayman; the other, having 
 had an unfortunate love affair with a woman already betrothed to 
 another, emigrated to America where he has amassed great wealth. 
 He had been the owner of a plantation with several hundred slaves 
 in Georgia. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he had given his 
 slaves letters of freedom, and moved to St. Louis where he spent 
 his last years. In spite of great losses he still remained a wealthy 
 man. In later years the wealthy Braun hears that the woman he 
 loved and her husband have both died leaving an orphan child. In 
 memory of his old love, he generously concludes to adopt this child, 
 Anna Werth, as his own. She prepares to journey to America, but 
 encounters great difficulties. The German advocate Alven, knowing 
 that Anna Werth will be one of Braun s heirs, tries to marry her. 
 Eberhard Braun, the son of his poor brother in Germany is also to 
 be an heir. In the meanwhile young Eberhard has gone to America 
 where he is trying to make a living under an assumed name. 
 Probably of greater interest to the reader than the mere plot is 
 the cultural background against which it is enacted. It is the 
 time of the Civil War. The reader follows along the devastating 
 paths of rebels who have recaptured fugitive slaves, or kidnapped 
 free slaves, and led them back to the South. These slave-drivers 
 are in turn pursued by men of the North who have called some 
 Indians to their aid. The wealthy Braun is much concerned about 
 the recovery of two free colored women whom he had taken into 
 his protection. They have been kidnapped and taken to the South 
 where they are to be held as slaves. 
 
 The author then gives an account of the awful conditions which 
 prevailed along the seacoast of the Southern States in the time of 
 the Civil War. Numerous boats in the employ of the South were 
 plying along the coast, attacking and robbing merchant boats. One 
 of these piratic boats, the "Revenger" is under the command of 
 Lieutenant Arthur. It has held up the German vessel the "Was- 
 sernix" on which Anna Werth is a passenger to America. The 
 "Revenger" passes over a mine in Savannah harbor and is blown up. 
 Lieutenant Arthur and Anna Werth have both escaped. The former 
 is none other than Eberhard Braun, who, after much adversity in 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 105 
 
 the new world, lias taken a position on this southern vessel. The 
 rich uncle, Eberhard, and Anna, after many devious wanderings, 
 come together; the three return to Germany; a reconciliation takes 
 place between the long estranged brothers, and Eberhard Braun and 
 Anna Werth are united in marriage. 
 
 Der Kessel flicker. Erziihlung. 5 Bde. Berlin. 1871. The 
 reader is introduced to the aristocratic von Seedorf family in Ger 
 many. The family has been reduced to poverty through the pro 
 fligacy of the son, an officer, who has been led to a wild life by 
 Albert von Felgen. The latter has betrayed his comrade s sister 
 Helene von Seedorf. A duel follows between young von Seedorf 
 and Albert von Felgen, after which both disappear, von Seedorf 
 emigrating to New Mexico where we meet him years later as the 
 much liked mail-coach driver, Boulder. In the free life of the West 
 with its healthful atmosphere von Seedorf has lived a life of 
 repentance. He has married a Mexican woman, by whom he has 
 a daughter. His wife dying early, and being passionately devoted 
 to his daughter, he has had her put on masculine attire and given 
 her masculine training in order that she might accompany him on 
 his mail-routes from the Missouri across the plains to Santa Fe. 
 The name of the daughter is Manuela, but she is known far and 
 wide as the "Postreiter" Manuel. 
 
 At the opening of the work the blind Baron von Seedorf and 
 his daughter Helene are found in great poverty. The estate, heavy 
 with debts, has fallen into the hands of the Jewish usurer Lam- 
 berger. Helene has for years been mourning the loss of her son 
 who, as she thinks, was kidnapped by her brother, and taken to 
 America, where all traces of him have been lost. In reality, how 
 ever, the son was taken by the former school teacher of the village, 
 who had been grossly maltreated by the Baron, and seeks revenge 
 by taking Helene s son, an heir to the Baron s estates, and raising 
 him as his own. 
 
 Since then years have passed. Helene s nephew, Werner von 
 Radlow, driven by misfortune to seek a livelihood in America, a 
 land where "die Arbeit nicht herabwiirdigt", takes it upon himself 
 to find out Helene s long lost brother. 
 
 At last the author is again in his favorite domain. The poetry 
 of the prairies, stage-coach life from the Missouri to Santa Fe, 
 New Mexican life, the Canons and the Indian ruins of Pecos are 
 introduced and treated in the author s usual felicitous manner. In- 
 
io6 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 toxicated with his memories of the prairies, he writes in poetic 
 prose: "O, die liebe Erinnerung an jene Zeiten, in welchen man 
 keinen anderen Herrn iiber sich anerkannte, als denjenigen, welcher 
 die Prairie mit Allem, was sie belebte, schuf und schmiickte ! Das 
 Herz, wie schlagt es schneller bei solchen Erinnerungen, und wie 
 erweitert sich die Brust ! Man mochte sich hinaufwiinschen bis 
 in die Wolken, und hoher noch, weit hdher, um die alten, 
 vertrauten Jagdgriinde, vom beeisten Norden bis hinunter zum 
 blauen Golf von Mexico, von dem tragen, einherrollenden .Mis 
 sissippi bis an die iange Kette der Rocky Mountains mit einem ein- 
 
 zigen Blicke zu umfassen Man mochte zuriick- 
 
 scheuchen die unaufhaltsam vordringende Woge der Civilisation, 
 hinter welcher spurlos verschwinden der zottige Bison und der 
 braune Jager, welche man kiihn die Poesie des fernen Westens 
 nennen mochte !" 
 
 The discovery of Boulder as the long gone von Seedorf, his 
 return to Europe and reconciliation with his father, the Baron, 
 Helene s union with Albert von Felgen, the restoration of the friend 
 ship between von Seedorf and von Felgen, and the final disclosure of 
 Weber, the earlier schoolmaster who has wandered throughout the 
 country for years as Karpet, the "Kesselflicker", that his son 
 Stephan is in reality Helene s child : such in brief is the material for 
 this rambling novel. The plot lacks unity. It introduces many 
 episodes not sufficiently motivated and with no other apparent pur 
 pose than to draw out the story. 
 
 Das Finkenhaus. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1872. In a fanciful 
 introduction we find the author seated upon the sands of a seashore 
 and listening to the waves which have begun to speak to him. He 
 visits them day after day and has finally learned from them the 
 story which he has to tell us in the following pages. In Chapter II 
 we are on an ocean vessel in the steerage of which are many emi 
 grants. In a graphic manner Mollhausen leaves us to see both the 
 joys and sorrows of these simple beings with their great yearnings 
 for a better life in the new world. We make the acquaintance of 
 the magnanimous old Jew, Ruben, who is crossing the ocean to join 
 his son in Missouri ; of the athletic giantess, Frau Giirgens, who 
 with her husband is about to tour the United States with an acrobatic 
 troop ; of the poor young German philologist Giinther who is soon 
 told that "mit Ihren philologischen Kentnissen sind Sie nicht im 
 Stande in der grossen Republik einen Hund vom Of en zu locken", 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 107 
 
 and who is later obliged to accept the humiliating position of a 
 musician in Frau Gurgens acrobatic troop ; also of the poor unfor 
 tunate woman whose name is not known and who upon giving birth 
 to a daughter is buried at sea. The name of the vessel being "Die 
 Maiblume", the captain baptizes the infant Therese Mayflower. It 
 is the fortunes of this child until it is rightfully restored to its 
 relatives, which form the material for this novel. The lost or strayed 
 child motive is conventional enough, but one which the author em 
 ploys in a new manner again and again. 
 
 In Chapter V we find Frau Gurgens and her husband Giinther, 
 and the dancer Sybilla in a variety theatre in New Orleans. For 
 three years the Civil War has been raging and that city is in the 
 hands of the Unionists. In New Orleans stands the old delapidated 
 Finkenhaus, where the two brothers Fink lived. The one, "Gold- 
 fink", had early come to America, become a slave owner, and grown 
 rich ; the other, "Kaferfink", a learned zoologist, had, on account 
 of family troubles, also gone to America, but being too unpractical 
 for the new world, had eked out a wretched existence as a collector 
 of insects and reptiles. The "Kaferfink" is in league with the 
 young Unionist Gideon who is working hard to combat the hostile 
 Clu Clux Clan which was then proving so disastrous for the 
 Unionists. In this fashion Mollhausen weaves into an interesting 
 story valuable historical matter for his German readers. A part 
 of the action takes place in Missouri where the "Kaferfink" has 
 gone. There he is greeted by a German farmer in a manner which 
 humorously characterizes the speech of the German-American. 
 "W ell Fremder, ich calculate, Ihr findet in meinem Hause ein Ob- 
 dach, much better, als Ihr es vielleicht expected zumal supper 
 gleich ready ist anyhow." 
 
 In Volume III the scene of action is transferred to Germany, 
 where the relatives of Therese Mayflower are found. Her origin 
 is made certain and she is found to be the granddaughter of the 
 "Kaferfink". There is a joyous reunion in America. Das Finken 
 haus, while somewhat diffuse in plot, is especially rich in finely de 
 lineated characters. 
 
 Westliche Fdhrten. Erzahlungen und Schilderungen. 2 Bde. 
 Berlin. 1873. 
 
 The writer regrets that this work is inaccessible to him. 
 
 Die Einsiedlerinnen. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1873. The first 
 volume of this novel appeals little to the reader. Its action takes 
 
io8 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 place on German soil somewhere along the North Sea, but is rather 
 indefinite and lacks color. We meet here Abel Hardy, a young sea 
 man, and Thomas Ghost. The latter, an elderly man with a mys 
 terious past, finds while landing his boat, an old sealed bottle which 
 had been carried thither by the Gulf Stream. He finds in it an old 
 document placed there twenty-eight years ago by a certain Hage- 
 mann who was shipwrecked returning from America. The document 
 tells of great possessions of land on the Missouri. Ghost, who was 
 formerly a slave pirate, plying between the U. S. and the coast of 
 Brazil now takes it upon himself to play the role of the dead 
 Hagemann, go to America, and claim the dead man s land. We 
 meet further a certain eccentric German countess, an "Einsiedlerin", 
 who long ago has taken it upon herself to rear the two descendants 
 of the dead Hagemann. 
 
 In Volume II the action of the story has been transferred to the 
 banks of the Missouri, where the work immediately begins to take 
 on a more interesting color. Here we meet Miss Lonesome, an 
 elderly eccentric woman, also an "Einsiedlerin". It is for the two 
 old persons, the Countess and Miss Lonesome, that the novel is 
 named. Miss Lonesome was the betrothed of a certain Coldbrook 
 who was murdered years ago by the said Hagemann and robbed 
 of his possessions. She makes it her life-work to avenge her lover s 
 death, and has waited all these years for the return of Hagemann. 
 Mollhausen has here invented an interesting situation. Coldbrook 
 had bought some land directly from the government. Hagemann 
 had taken the title to this land and slain Coldbrook, but later never 
 appeared to lay claim to the land. After a time a few squatters 
 arrived, a settlement grew up about them, which finally came to be 
 the flourishing town of Squatterfield. Ghost, by means of his docu 
 ments readily proves himself to be Hagemann and claims the land 
 as well as the property upon it. He is naturally at once accused 
 of the murder of Coldbrook by Miss Lonesome, and only with great 
 difficulty proves that he is not really Hagemann, whereupon his 
 claims to the land also naturally cease. Miss Lonesome, a woman 
 with a keen sense of justice, then journeys to Germany and offers 
 the estate to the proper heirs of Hagemann, who have been reared 
 by the old Countess. 
 
 The plot to be sure is somewhat bizarre, and the novel lacks in 
 atmosphere until its action is removed to America. Here on the 
 borders of civilization (it is the time of the Civil War) we have 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 109 
 
 occasion to meet the interesting types of trappers and half-breeds 
 who come to the store of Miss Lonesome to sell or trade their 
 wares. Miss Lonesome has a foster-daughter, the half-breed Indian 
 maid Coralle. She is kidnapped by guerrillas ; we follow their 
 pursuit to the frontier farm of the German Wender family. 
 
 In Volume III the author, speaking of the Indian of that period, 
 has occasion to say of Longfellow: "Auch der Hiawatha-Gesang 
 klingt lieblich, bezaubernd ; begegnet man indessen einem Trupp 
 planlos umherstreifender Eingeborenen und entsetzlich bemalter 
 Hauptlinge und Krieger, dann mochte man f ragen woher Longfellow 
 seine Bilder nahm, als er den Hiawatha dichtete; aus der Wirklich- 
 keit schwerlich." 
 
 Das Monogramm. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1874. In this 
 work Mollhausen again unfortunately steps out of the sphere in 
 which he is most successful. As a piece of novelistic art it is of 
 little credit to its author. It reflects the "Kulturkampfe", the 
 struggles against the ascendency of the Church in the State. On 
 account of its anti- Jesuitic tendencies it brought considerable atten 
 tion upon itself. It is an invective against the system of Jesuitic 
 education. The church was much displeased and had the novel 
 placed among its Index librorum prohibitorum. In Miinster it was 
 burned upon the street. 
 
 The orphaned child Baldrian Indigo is placed in a Jesuitic semi 
 nary where he is being prepared to become a novice under the 
 severe but narrow training of the Jesuitic patres. After the child 
 becomes an adult the novel changes to an "I-Novel", Baldrian being 
 left to tell his own story in autobiographic form. The scene of 
 the first two volumes is in Germany, and, as is usual with those 
 parts of the author s novels not taking place on American soil, rather 
 colorless. Mollhausen has taken for his theme the well-known : 
 Quum finis est licttis, etiam media sunt licita, the words of the 
 learned Jesuit Busenbaum in his Medulla theologiae moralis. Over 
 against the narrow mental training given by the Jesuits the author 
 now places that of his own patron, Alex, von Humboldt. The teach 
 ings of this great scientist have reached the ears of the young stu 
 dent in the seminary. Humboldt is called by the Jesuits in this 
 novel: "Der Seelenmorder". It is science and Jesuitism which are 
 at war in the soul of our hero. Baldrian escapes from the theologi 
 cal seminary at a time when he is about to receive lashes for his 
 liberal tendencies. We follow him to America where he hopes to 
 
no Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 try his fortunes. But the long arm of the Jesuits has followed him 
 and he is seized. He wakens to find himself locked in a madhouse, 
 from which he manages finally to escape. At the conclusion of 
 this novel the author offers a word of explanation : "Dankbar 
 erkenne ich an, einen wesentlichen Theil meiner Informationen iiber 
 die Jesuitenerziehung einem Werkchen : Der Jesuitismus, treu nach 
 der Natur gezeichnet von einem bekehrten Jesuiten (Lpz. 1872) 
 entnommen zu haben. Einer gewaltigen, alle Schichten der Bevol- 
 kerung unwiderstehlich durchdringenden Stromung folgend, bin ich 
 in meinen Schilderungen mit riicksichtsloser Offenheit zu Werke 
 gegangen. Ich scheute nicht die Missbilligung Derjenigen, welche 
 wirklich gegeisselt wurden, nicht den Tadel Anderer, welche sich 
 vielleicht gegeisselt wahnen." 
 
 Die Hy dnen des Capitals. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1876. In the 
 first two volumes, which take place wholly on German soil, the 
 reader is informed of the activities of the "Allgemeine Centrifugal- 
 bank fiir transatlantische Colonisation", an incorporated company of 
 apparently large dimensions. This company is in league with men 
 in America for the purpose of transporting Germans to Southern 
 planters under the pretense that favorable opportunities await them 
 there. The company pays the passage to America, and gives the 
 immigrants opportunity to pay off their debt as redemptioners in the 
 new world. In reality these German immigrants are little better 
 off than slaves. These speculators with human beings are the 
 "Hyanen des Capitals". 
 
 The time of the novel is shortly after the Civil War, after the 
 negroes had been freed, and the planters saw no way of making 
 their lands productive without the necessary laborers. It was then 
 that the "Centrifugalbank" prospered by putting itself in league 
 with the Southern planters and providing them with Germans. 
 Several German colonies were established in Louisiana. A great 
 many small capitalists in Germany, reading the glowing accounts 
 sent in letters by the German colonists in America (which letters 
 had been shamelessly forged), were led to invest in this "Centrifu 
 galbank" for colonization. Also, through this organization, many 
 poor, unknowing "Europamiiden" were tempted to try their for 
 tunes across the Atlantic. In the first two volumes we follow the 
 rise and fall of the stocks in this company and are witnesses to 
 the awful human traffic. The bank fails at the close of the second 
 volume. In the third volume we are transferred to America, and 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper in 
 
 the author is again in his proper sphere. He operates here with the 
 whole machinery of Southern life, planters, negroes, and an occa 
 sional Indian. He paints for us the wretched conditions of the 
 German colonies and the misery of their members. Before the 
 war the planters had strong, healthy slaves, to make the morasses 
 and unhealthful regions money-producing. In order to recover again 
 from the great losses which came with the Civil War, they are em 
 ploying the German immigrants, who, unused to such work and to 
 such a climate, soon fall victims to fevers and influenza. The hope 
 ful German, having been given cheap passage, and promised a few 
 acres of land, is here pitifully deluded and falls a victim to the 
 "Hyanen des Capitals". An episode, which the author has also in 
 troduced in several other novels, is that of the Clu Clux Clan with 
 its mysterious and murderous operations. The theme employed 
 in this work is not an uninteresting one, but the author has hardly 
 used it to his best advantage. 
 
 Die Kinder dcs Stra flings. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1876. 
 The work partakes of the nature of the criminal novel. With little 
 interest we follow through two volumes the career of the murderer 
 Brandbach who killed the suitor of his wife in a fit of jealous 
 rage. After twenty years of imprisonment he is released and goes 
 forth, a broken man, to begin life anew in the new world. We also 
 follow the careers of several aristocratic young army officers who, 
 living beyond their means, have fallen victims to the merciless usurer 
 Leisegang. His adopted daughter is Dora. The latter is in reality 
 the daughter of the criminal Brandbach, who, on being imprisoned, 
 had left a wife and two sons. His wife a short time later gave 
 birth to a daughter. It is this child who was reared by the usurer 
 Leisegang, in whose house she has lived through a wretched girl 
 hood. Brandbach s two sons had been adopted by old Herr von 
 Pfleger and are known as Lothar and Erich Kramer. Erich, being 
 in heavy debts had, much to the chagrin of his foster-father, fled to 
 America where he enlisted in the Southern army. Brandbach, alias 
 Rivulet, was leading a lonely life in America as a lackey in a 
 circus. 
 
 In the third volume we see Erich Kramer in the difficult role 
 of a Southern spy. General Hood desired to attack General Sher 
 man but feared the united forces of the Union generals, Thomas and 
 Smith. If Hood succeeded in taking Nashville first, Tennessee and 
 Kentucky would be easy for him and Sherman s operations in 
 
H2 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Georgia would be paralyzed. This plan was made by President 
 Davis himself. To this difficult task Erich had offered himself. 
 With him is his love, Judith, the celebrated circus rider. 
 
 Dora, the adopted daughter of the usurer Leisegang, her hus 
 band, Martin, and his sister, the widow Dornbusch, had also come 
 to America They have leased a farm in Missouri from a 
 Southerner, and are prospering. Their domestic peace is, however, 
 disturbed by guerrillas under the notorious Colonel Bryan, who are 
 overrunning the borderlands, robbing the lonely settlers, and out 
 raging their wives. 
 
 There is also a slave element. A few negroes have joined 
 forces with some Indians and mestizes and are fleeing to escape 
 persecution, but enter into combat with Colonel Bryan and his 
 lawless band. Erich and Judith, out of humaneness, are assisting 
 the slaves, and therefore held as Northerners by the guerrillas. In 
 the struggle that follows Judith is killed and Erich is heavily 
 wounded. The latter is carried to the Martin farm where Rivulet 
 has also chanced to come. Thus Dora, and Erich, and Brandbach 
 meet. Family revelations follow. Dora and Erich are children of 
 Brandbach. Thus the old man at last finds redress in his restored 
 children. Lothar, the other brother, has also been found, but 
 Dora and Erich, out of love to him, never inform him that he is 
 the son of the former criminal. He is left to return to Germany to 
 be the comfort ,of his foster-father s old age. 
 
 Der Reiher. Roman. 3 Bde. Berlin. 1878. This novel is 
 divided into four books: i. Die Moquis; 2. Die Schmuggler; 
 3. Der Fabrikherr; 4. Die Millionare. On a rough coast of Scot 
 land there was found one day an unconscious sailor with a child in 
 his arms, the only surviving persons of a ship wrecked near that 
 place. Near them was found a large chest, and upon it a coat of 
 arms with the device of a heron. The sailor knew that the child 
 belonged to the family who owned the chest, a wealthy, aristocratic 
 family. He had named the child Billy Heron, and tattooed upon 
 his upper right arm a heron like the one he had seen on the chest, 
 and like that upon the ring which he had stripped from the finger 
 of the child s dead father. All this had taken place years before the 
 beginning of the story. In the meantime Billy Heron had grown to 
 manhood, married and become a smuggler. He leaves three sons 
 who are scattered about the world, one in western America, where 
 he married and lives among the Moqui Indians in New Mexico, 
 
Balduin Mollhauscn, The German Cooler 113 
 
 another remains in Scotland, and the third becomes a manufacturer 
 in Germany. Each had been tattooed with the sign of the heron, 
 and all had been early instructed with the importance of tattooing 
 their children with the same sign. This is the complicated and yet 
 somewhat conventional machinery- which the novelist employs in this 
 work. Once we are among the Indians in New Mexico, now 
 among the smugglers on the coast of Scotland, and then again in 
 Germany, until through many intricacies the paths of the herons 
 finally come together to one nest. 
 
 In the first book by far the most interesting for color and rich 
 ness of ethnographic material, we meet the German scientist Hilger, 
 who has spent years studying the habits and dialects of the North 
 American Indian. Among the Moquis, the city-dwellers of New 
 Mexico, Hilger finds several Indians with blond hair and light eyes, 
 who bear the tattoo of the heron. He discovers that their father 
 was a white man, who had left a testament written on leather. He 
 had been a trapper and had fallen a victim to a Hualpi Indian. It was 
 Rob Heron, the long lost son of Billy Heron. He had gone west, 
 lived among the Moqui Indians and married a woman of that tribe. 
 Through the leathern document, Hilger is led to trace the other 
 members of the Heron family. His search leads him to Argyle, 
 Scotland. The second book takes the reader among the smugglers 
 on the coast of Scotland ; the third to Germany, to the manufacturer 
 Wilhelm Heron; in the fourth, the scene is in New York, where 
 the various Herons are finally joined. 
 
 Vier Fragmente. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. 1880. It is the story 
 of the four idealistic young Germans, Hagen, Buchhain, Berndt, and 
 Hellwig. They have come to America as exiles, filled with those 
 enthusiastic ideas of freedom that characterize "Jung Deutschland". 
 One of the four says of themselves : "Verschiedenen Wissenschaften 
 ergeben, huldigten wir doch denselben iiberspannten Freiheitstraii- 
 men, denen wir denn auch zugleich unsere Landesverweisung um 
 mich milde auszudriicken verdankten. Vor vielen anderen 
 Fliichtlingen erfreuten wir uns des Vorzuges, dass wir iiber einige 
 Geldmittel geboten. In oft und feurig beschworener Freundschaft 
 zusammenhaltend, waren wir daher nur wenig jenem niederdriick- 
 enden Gefiihl der Vereinsamung unterworfen, das manchen anderen 
 den Aufenthalt in einem fremden Lande verleidet. Wie in der 
 Heimat von denselben Ideen erfitllt, einigten wir uns auch auf dem 
 neuen Kontinent in unseren Planen". The hopeful young men came 
 
H4 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 to Wisconsin where they bought a large tract of land, covered with 
 splendid timber. They dreamed of a care-free and prosperous 
 future. After some time pioneer life in a primitive log hut, to 
 gether with the lack of intellectual stimulus, grew wearisome to the 
 young enthusiasts. They therefore concluded to sell their lands. 
 They soon discovered, however, that this could only be done at 
 a great loss and consequently resolved to retain the land. On the 
 last night before their departure, effervescent with youth and wine, 
 they cut the land-title into four equal parts, divided them, and re 
 solved that each follow his own star for fifteen years. Land taxes 
 had been paid in advance for that length of time. After fifteen 
 years they are to reappear, and he who is not there on that day will 
 be considered as dead. The author tells at some length the various 
 fortunes that befell these four comrades during that time. Hagen 
 seeks his fortune among the gold mines of California, thus giving 
 the author an opportunity of depicting life among the miners and 
 in the gambling dens. Hagen returns after fifteen years, possessing 
 little money, but having lost little of his old idealism and faith 
 fulness. He is sad and broken in spirit, his wife is dead, and his 
 only companion is a step-daughter. Buchhain, the dreamer, too 
 tender for wild life in western America, has returned to Germany, 
 for which he had developed an incurable homesickness. Hellwig, 
 the only one of the four whom fortune had favored, had become a 
 wealthy southern tobacco merchant. Berndt had remained in Wis 
 consin, and in a moment of weakness had sold all the lands which 
 he and his comrades had bought to a keen speculator, who, only 
 a short time later, sold them to a colony of settlers at a great 
 profit, Berndt himself receiving very little. After fifteen years 
 Hagen and Hellwig return, but Berndt, stricken with remorse lacks 
 the courage to appear and soon after commits suicide. Buchhain, 
 dying in Germany, had left his fourth of the title to his son. A 
 designing brother of Buchhain steals this paper and comes to 
 America in the hopes of claiming a large fortune, but is disappointed. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 115 
 
 Der Schatz von Quivira. Roman. 3Bde. Berlin. 1880. 
 
 The action of the first half of this novel takes place along the 
 Rhine where we are introduced to the inhabitants of the Karmeliter- 
 hof, once in the possession of the scholar Herr Rothweil, who many 
 years before emigrated to Mexico and never returned again. Upon 
 his death Rothweil s nephew Matthias, called Perennis Rothweil, is to 
 come to Santa Fe as heir to his uncle s possessions. The uncle had 
 been a passionate student of Mexican antiquities and had made a 
 great collection of them. His home was a store house of precious 
 pottery, idols, and so forth. His last great endeavors to recover the 
 treasures of Quivira had been unsuccessful, and he therefore made it 
 a condition of his testament that his heir Perennis Rothweil continue 
 the search. It is the travels of Perennis and his investigations among 
 the Indians of New Mexico, of the terrace cities Manzana and 
 Quivira, and of the inscription rocks that form the chief material for 
 this work. Mollhausen has gone back to his own experience among 
 the Zuni Indians, and also woven into his story a good bit of 
 Mexican history. The central motive of the novel is based on the 
 historical fact of the burial of the church treasures of the Spanish 
 monks at the time of the Indian uprisings against the Spaniards in 
 1680. The Spanish document, telling of the burial of the treasures 
 and giving the key to their recovery, was published in the Report of 
 the Smithsonian Institute for 1854 which the author gives in the 
 novel as follows : "Auf dem Friedhofe der grossen Parochie-Kirche 
 im Mittelpunkte der rechten Seite nach Massgabe der Figur No. i 
 befindet sich eine Vertiefung. Wenn man daselbst grant, stosst man 
 auf zwei Glocken. Zieht man eine Linie iiber die Offnungen, die 
 die zwei Glocken zuriick lassen, so erblickt man ostlich der Strasse 
 zwischen der Kirche und der Stadt entlang in der Entfernung von 
 etwa 300 Ellen einen Hiigel, der mit den beiden Glocken eine genaue 
 Linie bildet. Am Fusse dieses Hiigels befindet sich ein Keller von 
 zehn Ellen oder mehr Umfang und bedeckt mit Steinen, der den 
 grossen Schatz birgt. Ernannt durch Karl den Ftinften von Gran 
 Quivira." 
 
 Die Tochter des Consuls. Roman. 3 Bde. Berlin. 1880. 
 
 In this work more than in most others Mollhausen seems to have 
 given the story first consideration. Unlike so many of the ethno- 
 
n6 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 graphic novels in which the story serves simply as a framework 
 whereupon to hang scenery, customs and manners in America, this 
 novel exists for the story itself, and other elements occupy a subor 
 dinate position. The scene opens in Fort Roupideau near the Scott 
 Bluffs. Fort Roupideau is named for the French fur-trader Roupi 
 deau, who himself plays a conspicuous role in the first part of the 
 novel. The Fort lies near the great emigrant route to the California 
 gold fields. Here we learn to know members of the Sioux and Daco- 
 tah tribes, among whom are the interesting old prophetess Rattel and 
 the Indian maid Lilac, the latter one of the author s most charming 
 Indian characters. Here too is the young German Wenzel who came 
 to America in his youth and served in the United States navy during 
 the Civil War. He was dismissed in San Francisco at the close of 
 the war, and is now crossing the continent of the United States. At 
 Fort Roupideau a violent snow-storm is depicted. From it are res 
 cued the German Consul Eichwerder, his two daughters Agathe and 
 Stephanie and their cousin Ranndal. We follow them to Europe, 
 whither Wenzel also later returns. The action continues on North 
 German soil. Wenzel is none other than the son of the aged Herr 
 von Schroda, whose only son, when a child of three, had disappeared, 
 and was thought to have been drowned. In reality it had been ab 
 ducted by an old lover of Frau von Schroda, and brought to America 
 out of revenge. The restoration of Wenzel as the long lost child of 
 Herr von Schroda and his love for Agathe, the consul s daughter, 
 rorm the chief material for the further action of the novel. At the 
 close we are once more taken to Fort Roupideau and witness the 
 death of Lilac, the beautiful child of nature, whose yearning love for 
 the handsome German Wenzel brings her to the grave. 
 
 Der Fanatiker. Roman. 3 Bde. Berlin. 1883. 
 
 This novel is dedicated to Friedrich Karl of Prussia. Upon 
 his gracious invitation Mollhausen had accompanied the Prince upon 
 his northern cruise in 1879. It is this journey which stimulated 
 Mollhausen in this novel. In his dedication he writes : "Angesichts 
 der wunderbaren, gleichsam beangstigenden Natur schdnheiten 
 verfluchtigte sich meine urspriingliche Absicht, die zaubrische Nord- 
 landsfahrt in Form von Reiseberichten der Offentlichkeit zu iiber- 
 geben. Es keimte dagegen der Plan, die iiberwaltigenden Eindriicke, 
 nach Art meiner iiberseeischen Erzahlungen, die von meinen Reise- 
 
Balduin Afollhausen, The German Cooper 117 
 
 werken streng geschieden, in eine umfangreichere Arbeit xu vcr- 
 flechten." 
 
 Mollhausen has taken for his theme the activities of the Mor 
 mons in gaining proselytes among the inhabitants of Scandinavia. 
 He brings into sharp contrast the rugged seacoast and verdant 
 mountains of Norway with the arid wastes of Utah. The scene 
 opens in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The author with admir 
 able skill conveys to his readers the awful grandeur of the desert. 
 The story turns about Brandvold, a Norwegian, whose fanatic ardor 
 to further the cause of Mormonism leads him to extravagant and 
 criminal deeds. He journeys to Norway and after a period of suc 
 cessful proselyting along its rocky fjords, returns again to America 
 with a ship load of converts. Brandvold s daughter Helga is in 
 love with Olaf Ornesen, a young Norwegian, who has sought in vain 
 to attain a fortune in Western America. Brandvold, however, has 
 designed that she shall become one of the many wives of a Mormon 
 apostle. Karen, the sister of Helga s dead mother, is a better oppon 
 ent of Mormonism, and through the aid of the old trapper whose 
 life Karen had saved from some Mormons who had planned to kill 
 him, manages to escape to the eastern states and later returns to 
 Norway. The franatic Brandvold entertains similar ideas to those 
 set forth in Das Mono gram m, namely, that the end justifies the 
 means. Mollhausen gives considerable attention to the critical rela 
 tions which had existed between the Mormons and the U. S. govern 
 ment, thus giving the novel a slightly historical background. The 
 author is unusually successful with the handling of the Scandinavian 
 atmosphere. Thorbjorn, the old pilot and Barbro, the aged Norwe 
 gian woman who harbors Olaf and sings old bardic lays to a North 
 ern instrument are finely delineated characters. 
 
 Der Leuchtturm am Michigan nnd andere F.rziihlungen. Stutt 
 gart. 1883. 
 
 This little volume consists of three tales presenting interesting 
 phases of American life namely: Der Leuchtturm am Michigan; 
 Die Auswanderin; and Das Squattermadchen. 
 
 Der Leuchtturm am Michigan, one of the author s most popular 
 short narratives, is full of the charm of the forest when civilization 
 had as yet hardly broken in upon its quiet grandeur. The keeper of 
 the lighthouse, Cartridge, an old sergeant in the uniform of a 
 United States infantry, his niece Charitas, a genuine child of nature, 
 
n8 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 her lover Frank, a young seaman on the old steamer "Konigin des 
 Westens" plying on Lake Michigan, and the pedlar Parker, also 
 suing for the hand of Charitas, a few redskins of the Chippewa tribe, 
 are the figures that pass before us. 
 
 In Die Auswanderin the reader is made to see the wretched 
 conditions prevailing among the steerage passengers of an emigrant 
 vessel. The time of the story is shortly after the Civil War. It re 
 lates the adventures of a young German immigrant girl. Her father 
 had died upon the voyage, and she had fallen into the hands of a 
 white slave agent. She was drugged in New Orleans and about 
 to be sent to Havana, when rescued by her early German lover 
 Rschwetler. 
 
 "Das Squattennadchen" is Jesse, the Amazon-like daughter of the 
 squatter Wendworth. Abraham Wendworth had settled in Missouri 
 at a time when land was still free. A certain Blair had purchased 
 land from the United States government, and surveyors have come 
 to measure off this purchase. It is found that the farm of Wend 
 worth, and those of a number of other squatters are on the land 
 purchased by Blair. They are about to be driven from their homes. 
 This is a motive the author has employed several times. 
 
 Der Haitshofmeister. Roman. 3 Bde. Jena. 1884. 
 
 One critic, in writing of Mollhausen, has said : On revient tou- 
 jours a ses premiers amours. In Der Haushofmeister the novelist 
 resorts 10 a machinery he frequently employs. The novel opens 
 with a death and the reading of the will of the deceased. In this 
 will certain conditions are set which can only be fulfilled years 
 later. Mollhausen immediately takes advantage of this interim in 
 order to take his principal characters to distant climes, thus affording 
 him an opportunity to weave into his story the exotic material of 
 the western world with which he is so well acquainted. This mode 
 of procedure may, from an esthetic standpoint, be looked upon as 
 a weakness, and yet it must be acknowledged that this technic 
 permits the unrolling of a larger cultural panorama (and it is the 
 cultural trait that largely distinguishes the exotic novel), than one 
 which regards more severely the unity of time. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 119 
 
 Die Traders. Roman. 3 Bde. Berlin. 1884. 
 
 Here the novelist again operates with American material which 
 lay beyond his own personal experience. The novel opens with the 
 battle of Richmond (June 26 to July 2, 1862). On the battle field, 
 among the many dead, lies a young German mortally wounded and 
 suffering untold pain. He begs a young Union officer riding by to 
 relieve him from his sufferings by shooting him, after which he is 
 to go along the banks of the James where he will meet his young 
 wife and child and bring them his greetings and blessings. The 
 officer is at first unwilling but upon the pitiful entreaties of the 
 suffering soldier he can no longer withstand, takes his revolver and 
 puts an end to the German s life. Through the kindness of the 
 Methodist Queer, a finely drawn character, the young wife had been 
 cared for, and means provided for her and her child to return to 
 Germany, before the officer succeeded in finding her. Fifteen years 
 pass. We find ourselves upon an emigrant ship bound for America. 
 Among the passengers are the members of Sebastian Winsel s or 
 chestra. Among them is a young lady violinist called Roswitha 
 Winsel. The description of steerage quarters and the emigrants is 
 good. Winsel and his orchestra join a circus and we meet them later 
 in a town on the banks of the Mississippi. Colonel Kirkwall, the 
 Union officer, has been seized with relentless remorse for killing the 
 German soldier. He makes it his aim in life to find the wife and 
 child of the soldier, and spares neither patience nor money to find 
 them. We follow Winsel and his orchestra on their routes. Winsel 
 is in league with a certain white slave dealer, and is trying to sell 
 him the innocent Roswitha. With the aid of two fellow musicians 
 she escapes and after many hardships arrives in New Mexico where 
 she finds refuge in a hazienda, the home of an old Spanish family. 
 We now move in a Spanish element and meet the characters who 
 carry on intercourse between North and South as traders. It is to 
 them, though not the most conspicuous characters, that the novel 
 owes its name. Roswitha Winsel has now taken on her genuine 
 name, Charlotte Hagenberg. She is none other than the daughter of 
 the German soldier who had been a carpenter before the war. 
 Through the traders the colonel finds out the whereabouts of Char 
 lotte, and takes her as his foster-daughter. 
 
 A subsidiary story is that of the daughter of Senora Herera, 
 the mistress of the hazienda where Charlotte had found refuge. The 
 
I2O Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 daughter had many years ago been stolen by Kioway Indians. The 
 Kioways are later overcome and Tai-oto is taken from them. On 
 being called "Helena" by her mother a touching recognition scene 
 takes place. 
 
 Interesting elements in this novel are trading between northern 
 and southern states, Spanish life at the hazienda, fandangos, horse 
 thieving, white slave traffic, and Indian attacks. 
 
 Wildes Bint. Erzahlung. 3 Bde. Jena. 1886. 
 
 In this novel the story is everything, and the descriptive and 
 ethnographic take a subsidiary place. A considerable part of the 
 action takes place in North Germany among the coast smugglers, 
 who, however, have very little to do with the later development of 
 the story. Here we learn to know Florence Blenfeld, "Junker Flor- 
 entin" as she is called, on account of her rather robust manners. 
 It is she around whom the interest of the novel centres. Blenfeld, 
 a German, had emigrated to America, and married there a half-breed 
 Indian maid, the daughter of a certain Barnard and a Kaskaskia 
 woman. Blenfeld s daughter Florence was reared in Germany. Up 
 on the death of Barnard s Indian wife he married a Southern woman, 
 who now contests the estate of her husband in the interests of her 
 granddaughter Grace, against Florence Blenfeld. Grace Barnard s 
 mother had been a Northerner, who, dying, expressed a wish that 
 her daughter might grow up in the north. The child was consigned 
 to the faithful negro slave Tiptoe who manages to escape to the 
 North. Grace and Tipoe suggest Eva and Uncle Tom. On the way 
 they are joined by a German named Walkort, who had fought in the 
 ranks of the North. His escape and flight from the southern prison 
 at Andersonville are vividly described. The trio finally reached the 
 estate of Lady Liberty Barnard, the great grandmother of Grace 
 Barnard and Florence Blenfeld. She lives in western Missouri, and 
 is one of the pioneers in that still sparsely settled region. In Lady 
 Liberty, with her sturdy character and almost austere habits, Moll 
 hausen has portrayed a distinct product of early pioneer days in the 
 West She knows no race distinctions. In her estimation her great 
 granddaughters, Florence Blenfeld and Grace Barnard, are equally 
 entitled to the contested fortune, even though the former, "Das Wil 
 de Blut," is of Indian origin. The Indian element in this novel is 
 rather slight, and introduced solely to prove that Florence Blenfeld s 
 Indian grandmother was legally married. A document to that effect 
 is found in the bag of the great medicine-man Towaka Koti. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 121 
 
 Das Loggbuch dcs Kafiitains Eisenfinger. Roman in 3 Bdn. 
 Stuttgart. 1887. 
 
 This novel received the commendation of critics for the splen 
 did bits of sea-life which it contains. The descriptions in this work 
 were pronounced as "gewaltige, grossartige, zum Teil hinreissend 
 schon geschriebene Schilderungen." The story revolves about the 
 grumpy old bachelor Barnabas Rostig, known as Kapitain Eisen 
 finger, with an iron hook for a left hand. Though now living a 
 secluded life his variegated past continues to make him the central 
 figure of the story. He says little but confides his most secret 
 thoughts to a diary, which as an old seaman he calls his log-book. 
 While in California long years ago, he had, upon the death of a 
 friend, become heir to a great treasure of gold, to which he only had 
 partial access, the rest remaining securely hidden. One part of that 
 legacy he had in hand was devoted to the building of a small home 
 for seamen and to the assistance of such unfortunate seamen as 
 had fallen into the hands of sharpers and unscrupulous agents on 
 the wharves ; another part to the discovery of the two children of 
 a faithful shipmate Andreas Kramer, who dying, had begged him 
 to care for his offspring. Eisenfinger succeeds in finding Kramer s 
 two daughters. Juliane, the older, had through poverty and distress, 
 already entered upon a life of shame among the seamen, and came 
 to an early grave. The faithful friendship of the sailor Martin for 
 this unfortunate girl is a beautiful episode. The younger daughter 
 Priscilla is brought up in the parsonage of Eisenfinger s brother 
 Nathanael. Her future is also endangered by the love of young 
 Demetrius von Kohlgart, the son of a wealthy merchant. Kapitain 
 Eisenfinger therefore takes her into his own home, for he knows 
 that the parents of Demetrius will never grant a union with this hum 
 ble girl. Demetrius flees the restraints of the parental roof and 
 goes to sea. His father is stricken with heart disease and at the 
 same time is in great danger of bankruptcy. Eisenfinger now be 
 comes the decisive actor. He finds Demetrius a young man of wor 
 thy and noble character and engages his aid in gaining possession of 
 his hidden treasure in California. Their experiences in the Far West 
 among mountains and in the deserts, together with descriptions of 
 natural scenery there, form very attractive reading. Through the 
 captain s assistance, Priscilla and Demetrius are finally happily 
 
122 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 united. Into this story are woven a great many episodes out of Eis- 
 enfinger s life which appear in the "Loggbuch", his diary into which 
 he had minutely written the adventures and experiences of his inter 
 esting past. 
 
 Die Familie Melville. Roman aus der Zeit des nordamerikan- 
 ischen Biirgerkrieges. 3 Bde. Leipzig. 1889. 
 
 This novel, unlike most of Mollhausen s later works, takes place 
 wholly on American soil. The scene opens at the Dardanelle Rocks, 
 one hundred and fifty miles above the mouth of the Arkansas. It 
 is late in the summer of 1861. In this work we witness the mis 
 fortunes of a Southern family and its disintegration through war 
 and internal strife. Old Colonel Melville of the Southern Army and 
 his daughter Marianne have sought a meeting with the latter s hus 
 band, Captain Charles Stockton, who is in the army of the North. 
 Marianne, a loyal daughter of the South, chooses to take her chil 
 dren and stay with her father. At this meeting they attempt once 
 more to persuade Captain Stockton to the cause of the South, but 
 in vain. Colonel Melville s son Gilbert is in the Southern army, 
 and at that time cruising along the coast. His wife Edith, of German 
 descent, is accused of having divulged secrets of the Southern Army 
 to a Unionist woman. She was in consequence banished from the 
 family and left to wander with her infant. Gregor Melville, a boy 
 of seventeen, and nephew of the Colonel, had espoused the cause of 
 the North and run away. He later meets Edith and nobly takes 
 care of her. While on their way across the plains to the Far West 
 Edith dies and leaves Gregor alone with her small daughter Thus- 
 nelda. He continues on his way to California. On the way he meets 
 an unfortunate Chinaman who had been mercilessly robbed of his 
 money and left on the plains. Tsung-Tsang accompanies Gregor 
 and later in California becomes a devoted member of his household. 
 
 In Chapter VI is reflected the attack of Vicksburg under Gen 
 eral Grant in July, 1863. Colonel Melville is heavily wounded 
 and dies. Also Mollhausen depicts in vivid fashion, full of the 
 atmosphere of the sea, a stirring naval battle off the coast of Florida 
 between the "Sea-urchin" under the command of Gilbert Melville 
 and several Union vessels. 
 
 Gregor, with the child Thusnelda, and Tsung-Tsang have settled 
 on a ranch between the Sierra Nevadas and the California coast- 
 
Balduin Mb llhausen, The German Cooper 123 
 
 hills. Descriptions of the ranch and the taming of broncos add 
 local color. 
 
 Eighteen years have elapsed. We return to the Melville planta 
 tion in the South, all is in sad decay. The author, in elegiac vein, 
 reflects the glory of the days before the war. Aunt Sarah Melville 
 a sister of the Colonel, an embittered old spinster who continues to 
 be an ardent Secessionist, still dwells here; also Pompejus and 
 Dina, two old negroes, formerly slaves, hang about the plantation 
 for want of something better to do. During the war Stockton has 
 lost all traces of his wife Marianne and children. To bring these 
 various members of this so disunited Southern family together again, 
 to restore to them the old mansion and bring prosperity upon them 
 once more is the task the novelist has set for himself. 
 
 Das Geheimnis des Hulks. Roman. Stuttgart. 1889. 
 
 This short novel is rather baroque in character and weak in plot. 
 It is, however, full of good pictures of life as it was in the early days 
 of California, and exhibits the author s intimate knowledge of sea- 
 life. The principal characters are Peter Strapp, an old crippled 
 seaman who has settled in San Francisco and is known there as 
 "Dutch Devil"; Lehnhard, a young German sailor, who is for the 
 time tarrying in the town ; Lin, a little Chinaman, suffering the dis 
 dain of his white fellows; and the girl known as "Schwarze Mar 
 garita" and her mother who live in the hulk of a partly sunken ship 
 in the bay. The mother never leaves the hulk, and the daughter only 
 to get provisions or to visit Strapp, an old friend, who stood by 
 them when the father Lorenzo, a great gambler in San Francisco, 
 was shot for cheating. Lorenzo had been carried out of the den 
 as dead, having a bullet in his head. Unknown to any but his 
 gambling pals, he recovered in the mountains, but was ever after 
 wards insane. The gang, tiring of having him on their hands, 
 returned him to his wife and daughter, who then occupy the hulk of 
 the ship in order to keep secret the fact that Lorenzo is still alive. 
 Young Lehnhard, who is suing for Margarita s hand, is through 
 Blane, a rival, lured into one of the gambling dens, where he is 
 drugged with the intention of having him placed upon a United 
 States navy vessel lying in the Bay. At that time seamen were being 
 impressed for the navy. Through the intervention of Lin, the China 
 man, Lehnhard escapes and hides with the Lorenzo family in the 
 hulk. Here he rescues the women from a midnight attack by the 
 
124 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 gambler Blane, and later wins the hand of Margarita. "Dutch 
 Devil," an attractive character, always speaks in terms of the sea, no 
 matter what the subject. Of Margarita he says : "1st sie doch be- 
 baut wie eine Lustyacht, aufgetakelt so stolz wie eine Fregatte, und 
 flink und beweglich wie ein amerikanischer Klipper." 
 
 Der Fdhrmann am Kanadian. Roman in 3 Bdn. Stuttgart. 1890. 
 
 This is the story of Baron von Scherben, who, after a life of dis 
 sipation, has lost his money and ruined his family. He is imprisoned, 
 but in cooperation with a friendly doctor, feigns sickness and final 
 death. On the assertion of the doctor to the authorities that the 
 disease is very contagious, the doctor removes him, apparently for 
 burial, but in reality to get him out of prison and secure freedom for 
 him. The Baron escapes to America where he settles about twenty 
 miles above the mouth of the Canadian river and there operates a 
 ferry. He is henceforth known as "Charon" or "Der Fahrmann am 
 Kanadian". That part of the novel which interests us most is that 
 whose action is on American soil. Here we meet a number of Ger 
 mans who are seeking their fortunes in America after financial or 
 moral failure in Germany. Here in the freedom of Western Amer 
 ica, surrounded by wholesome, primitive nature, some, through per 
 severance and courage, again attain moral strength ; others only 
 develop in that villainy which was hampered by the rigid laws at 
 home. Among the latter is the German Galle, an old enemy of Baron 
 von Scherben. He tracks the Baron (now Charon) and tries to 
 destroy his honest efforts by threatening to reveal his degenerate 
 past. In spite of these hostilities Charon lives a long and honest 
 life as ferryman on the Canadian and is at the end restored to his 
 brother and to his daughter now grown to womanhood. 
 
 Haus Montague. Roman. 3 Bde. Jena. 1891. 
 
 The hero of this novel is a scion of the old commercial family 
 Montague. For some family crime, not very definitely explained 
 in the exposition, the child, soon after its birth, was robbed of its 
 rights and sent to New York to be reared there by an Irish drunkard 
 O Neil. The first is the best part of this novel. The little hero, nick 
 named "Kohlmeise", the Irish rascal O Neil, and the old taxider 
 mist, who gives little "Kohlmeise" employment, are portrayed in 
 the novelist s animated and characteristic fashion. In plot the 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 125 
 
 author is unfortunate. The boy s abduction to a lonely point on the 
 Norwegian coast, where he grows to an adult, seems to have taken 
 place for no other reason than to give the author an opportunity to 
 describe those scenes with which he had become acquainted on his 
 travels to Scandinavia with Prince Friedrich Karl. Once the reader 
 finds himself in New York, now in Norway, and then in tropical 
 Mexico, with no sufficient inner motivation for such great geogra 
 phical leaps. The bizarre and diffuse nature of the plot is partly 
 concealed by the novelist s splendid descriptions of nature and fine 
 character portrayals. 
 
 Die bciden Yachten. Roman in 3 Bdn. Stuttgart. 1891. 
 
 This is one of Mollhausen s masterful sea-tales. The plot itself 
 is somewhat fanciful. The rich Countess Marley of Marleyhouse, 
 an eccentric individual, possesses a yacht upon which she dwells 
 and sails from one part of the globe to another. The Countess had 
 once been the plain daughter of an English pastor. She had been the 
 friend and companion of old Count Marley and upon his death be 
 came heir to his wealth and title. A relative of the Count, who was 
 thus deprived of a fortune, now sets out to prove that the eccentric 
 Countess is insane, and to that end pursues her on another yacht, 
 accompanied by doctor and lawyer. Her apparent eccentricities are 
 explained when we learn that the fiance of her youth, an English 
 captain from Hull, fell a victim to mutineers, and was buried on the 
 lonely Aurora islands, south of Patagonia. The Countess sense of 
 justice and the desire that the evil-doers shall be punished, lead her 
 to follow out the paths of the mutineers, and to bring them before 
 justice. Thus the author has built his plot for the introduction of 
 the exotic element. Once we find ourselves on lonely islands in the 
 South Atlantic ; then among the low saloons in New York, where we 
 get a glimpse of the lowest strata of American life; and then again 
 we are taken to the fjords of Norway, among the fishermen there. 
 Here the novelist has probably spent his most artistic efforts. It is 
 along Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana that the Countess at last 
 avenges the death of her youthful lover and that justice is meted out. 
 This is one of the author s few works in which he does not operate 
 with any German characters. 
 
126 Baldwin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Die Soldlinge. Roman in 3 Bdn. Stuttgart. 1892. 
 
 A part of the action of this novel takes place in Germany, but 
 the larger part in America. Erasmus Flieder, a modeler in wax. 
 has for years travelled about the country exhibiting a museum of 
 wax figures. Many years ago his wife had borne him a son. At 
 the same time the daughter of an aristocratic family had given birth 
 to a son out of marriage. To rescue her good name this child was 
 secretly placed under the care of Frau Flieder. The two children 
 were known to the world at large as the twin sons of the Flieders. 
 Later Baron von Rottheim endeavored to reclaim the son of noble 
 birth. The relatives of the Baron, not eager to have another heir up 
 on the scene, plotted with Frau Flieder to return to the Baron the son 
 of the Flieders instead. However, at the last moment the motherly 
 instincts of Frau Flieder prevail, and she secretly gives the right child 
 leaving the relatives to believe that the Baron was rearing her own 
 child. The problem given is the restoration of these children to their 
 lawful parents before the eyes of the world. The novel opens when 
 both sons have grown to manhood. The interest in the plot is en 
 hanced by the attractive American element woven into it. Herr 
 Riidiger von Rottheim and Roland Flieder have both separately gone 
 to the United States. Roland, having been given an excellent edu 
 cation, has grown proud and disdains his humble parentage ; Riidiger, 
 on the other hand, a true nobleman, having heard that he is not 
 really the grandchild of the Baron, is too proud longer to receive 
 support from him. By chance, both young men, unknown to each 
 other, serve as volunteers in the same company of the United States 
 Army. The company is on an expedition to the still little explored 
 region between the Colorado and the so-called "Little Colorado" 
 in New Mexico. An old trapper is leading the expedition. This 
 company consisted of all sorts and conditions of men, of which a 
 great number were Irish and German. Among the latter is the stu 
 dent Roger, the son of a country parson, who after six semesters 
 at a German University, became entangled in the revolutionary up 
 risings, was imprisoned, but escapes through the aid of a friend, 
 and flees to America. Another is Gottfried Hauer, a young North 
 German, who, being accused of smuggling, and who having severely 
 wounded a rival suitor for the hand of a maiden, also flees to Amer 
 ica. One night several mules belonging to the company had been 
 lost, and the proud American lieutenant, having little affection for 
 the "Dutchman", selected the above four to retrace their steps alone 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 127 
 
 through the wilderness filled with hostile Indians in search for the 
 mules. These four Germans, so different in character, on their way 
 unanimously agree to desert. We now follow these four deserters 
 in their adventures. The novelist does not fail to grasp the oppor 
 tunity of presenting to the readers splendid descriptions of the re 
 gions which he knows so well, for it is to a great extent these 
 descriptions which have won and fascinated his readers for so many 
 years. We follow the four deserters through Western Mountains, 
 among the city-building Indians of New Mexico, and to Spanish 
 haziendas. On the way they fall in with the retinue of Don Enrique 
 de Guapamente, the famous bull-fighter from the state, of Chihua 
 hua, and they are asked to strengthen his body-guard against robbers 
 and Indians. A romance develops between Roger and Isabel, the 
 daughter of Don Enrique, which ends in marriage. Mollhausen has 
 introduced considerable material concerning the relations of the 
 Zuni Indians with the Azteks and Tolteks. He writes at length 
 about Ahuitzotl, the aged Zuni, king of Anahuac, the last of the 
 Azteks, who dwells in his grotto in the Casas Grandes in New 
 Mexico, and guards there the grotesque war-god, a monster made 
 of precious stones. The novelist traces out the life-thread of the 
 above four young Germans, and after their many adventures, restores 
 them again to their families in Germany. 
 
 Kaptein Meerrose mid ihre Kinder. Erzahlung in 3 Bdn. Ber 
 lin. 1893. 
 
 This breezy sea-tale received warm praises from the critics and 
 went toward placing Mollhausen among the very few good novelists 
 of the sea, and a worthy successor of the once popular Heinrich 
 Smidt. The novelist shows himself thoroughly acquainted with life 
 at sea. With his ability to interpret nature poetically he has painted 
 the sea with much beauty and filled this tale with a genuine salt-sea 
 atmosphere. The novel opens with an exciting attack of pirates 
 upon the "Kormoran" in the China Sea. The "Kormoran" is under 
 the command of Captain Frank ; with him is his wife, known among 
 seamen as "Die Meerrose". Captain Frank has through tribulations 
 failed in health and become weakminded. His wife therefore took 
 command of the ship and for years has plied the seas successfully. 
 She is everywhere hailed and honored as "Kaptein Meerrose". She 
 is the central figure of the novel, one of those strong Amazon-like 
 types of woman that Mollhausen likes to delineate, always leaving 
 
128 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 them enough femininity to make them lovable. We follow her over 
 the seas to Panama and along the Eastern coast of the United States 
 searching for her son Harald in the dangerous times of the Civil 
 War. A graphic bit of narrative is Harald s escape from a blockade 
 breaker, aiding the Southern cause off the coast of North Carolina, 
 and fleeing through the swamps with two fugitive slaves. The tak 
 ing of Fort Fischer is described at length. The action is told with 
 the novelist s usual "Epische Breite". Many episodes might have 
 been left out without injuring the main action of the story. 
 
 Der Spion. Roman in 3 Bdn. Stuttgart. 1893. 
 
 The first pages consist of the description ,of a graveyard in the 
 province of New Mexico at the close of the fifties. Upon one grave 
 is the inscription "Conde Pablo del Armigo. Verungliickt am 22. 
 Mai 1845. Friede seiner Asche." Near it is that of the wife of the 
 deceased. The scene is now shifted to the state of Missouri in the 
 late summer of 1864. The country, so rich in pasturage, was pros 
 pering when the Civil War came with its hemming effects. Guer 
 rillas raced over the country, robbing, burning and murdering under 
 pretence of being defenders of secessionistic principles, and of pre 
 paring the way for the victorious Southern army to advance. In a 
 small northern camp we are made acquainted with the Mexican 
 frontiersman Nicodemo ; a slender young German, named Durlach 
 in the uniform of a captain of the Union army; a uniformed Irish 
 man ; and a young Indian of the Otoes. Colonel Rutherfield of the 
 Northern army is advancing toward Kansas City, and left Lydia 
 behind. The settlement where Lydia is staying is about to be sacked 
 by guerrillas, and the above small party has gone to Lydia s rescue. 
 
 We are then introduced to the eccentric but whole-hearted Martin 
 Findegern, a maker of coffins, who emigrated from Germany in his 
 youth, because he was too proud to withstand the disdain his brother- 
 in-law, a "Geheimer Rat" had for the poor apprentice boy. Martin 
 Findegern came to St. Louis and there became a prosperous man. 
 Years passed, St. Louis grew, and Martin found himself enclosed by 
 the city. His property had grown very valuable, great sums were 
 offered for it, but he refused to sell. One day he was visited by two 
 young men and a young lady, and found in them none else but his 
 sister s children. His proud brother-in-law had given his children 
 a good education, but left them with no out-look for the future, and 
 so they had come to America. The one young man was "Regierungs- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 129 
 
 assessor", and the other "Forstkandidat". "Beautiful titles" 
 thought Martin, "but of no value in this country." These two Ger 
 mans, at first somewhat shocked by American democracy, however, 
 soon show themselves good characters. Maurus Durlach becomes 
 an esteemed captain in the Northern army ; Markolf Durlach, a 
 prosperous trapper at Council Bluffs. Maurus marries Lydia Ruth- 
 erfield; Markolf falls in love with Daisy, the flower of Council 
 Bluffs, a young Indian maiden who has been educated in the Presby 
 terian mission there. She later dies at the hands of the guerrilla 
 chief Quinch. 
 
 Upon the secession of the Southern States St. Louis became a 
 center from which Southern planters living there sent support to the 
 guerrillas acting in their interests. Active both among the Northern 
 er? and the planters and guerrillas of the South is Oliva. a young 
 Mexican woman, and the principal character in the novel. She is the 
 daughter of that Conde Pablo del Armigo whose grave was described 
 at the opening of the novel. She was bred on a ranch, and knows 
 well how to ride the wildest mustang, throw the lasso, and shoot. 
 Now we find her as a cowboy among the guerrillas, and now as a 
 young lady among the Southern planters, apparently espousing their 
 cause. She is in reality playing into the hands of the Northerners, 
 and is none other than the much talked of spy known as Campbell, 
 whom no one has yet seen. Her motives in spying are personal rather 
 than patriotic ; she desires to bring about the fall of Quinch, the 
 guerrilla chief, who is really Sullivan, the second husband of her 
 mother. He had brought her to an untimely end and robbed Oliva 
 of her estate. The main problem then of this story is to gain the 
 mastery of Quinch, who, besides laying waste the country, is also 
 endeavoring to kidnap Lydia Rutherfield, the daughter of the weal 
 thy Northern Colonel, and hold her for ransom. The protagonists 
 are Captain Durlach, his brother Markolf, Oliva, and Nicodemo. It 
 is due to the latter s efforts that Lydia is safely brought to the mission 
 at Council Bluffs. 
 
 Mollhausen gives the reader a good description of life in St. 
 Louis in the Sixties, and describes its various elements : soldiers 
 in uniform, workers along the wharves, stokers from the river 
 steamers, weathered trappers in leathern coats from the North, Mexi 
 can cowboys from across the prairies, half-breeds, negroes, and 
 mulattoes. We make the acquaintance of the famous trapper Kit 
 
130 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Andrieux, and attend the secret and ghastly meetings of members of 
 the Clu Clux Clan. 
 
 Dcr Talisman. Roman. 2 Bde. Jena. 1894. 
 
 This is another of Mollhausen s novels whose scenes are laid in 
 both Germany and America. The American element however pre 
 dominates. In the German element the author is as usual less 
 successful. The scene opens on the German seacoast, where a ship 
 wrecked man is washed ashore, with only faint life still remaining. 
 It is Jonas Werbeland, the son of an East Prussian. The latter had 
 been attracted by the alluring descriptions of rich lands in Oregon 
 and had migrated thither with his family. Jonas grew to manhood 
 there and fell in love with the daughter of a Spaniard named Salazar. 
 Jonas was an unacceptable suitor to the father, and Salazar conse 
 quently married his daughter Beatrix off to another. The jealous 
 husband of Beatrix plots against Jonas, accuses him of a murder of 
 which he is innocent but unable to acquit himself, and thus Jonas 
 is obliged to flee. Before his departure Beatrix had given him an 
 ancient gold medal which had been presented to one of her ances 
 tors by Pope Urban VII in 1590 and had since that time been in the 
 possession of the family. 
 
 On returning to Germany under the above unfortunate circum 
 stances Jonas is taken in and kindly cared for by Lionel von Radel- 
 hain, the son of a noble family gone bankrupt. Lionel therefore 
 concludes to try his fortunes in the new world. Jonas gives him the 
 Talisman (the gold medal given him by Beatrix) by means of which 
 Lionel is always to identify himself among the former friends and 
 acquaintances of Jonas. Through him Jonas is again justified in 
 the eyes of the world. 
 
 The story to be sure is rather bizarre. Not satisfied with a single 
 thread, the author introduces many minor ones, but as usual disen 
 tangles them all successfully, and brings the whole to a happy 
 conclusion. There are many episodes which appear unnecessary, 
 and some of the characters are not well motivated. The author 
 relates with an epic breadth which recognizes no economy of materi 
 al. The atmosphere of Western America again affords a happy back 
 ground. We meet Lionel von Radelhain first in the geyser region 
 of Yellowstone Park in company with the old guide Vilanderie, 
 "Fallensteller und Fahrtensucher", one of those shaggy nature men 
 whom Mollhausen loved to delineate and who so readily reminds 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 131 
 
 us of Cooper s immortal Natty Bumpo. Here too we meet the 
 expedition of the naturalist Bloomficld accompanied by his daughter 
 Jurassic, a lusty, Amazon-like maid who is later kidnapped by some 
 frontier ruffians and Indians and held for ransom. 
 
 As the action of the novel covers a great area, it affords the 
 author ample opportunity to weave in the cultural element of western 
 life. Once we are at the trapper station at Council Bluffs where 
 we learn to know the Canadian trapper and guide Laboux, another 
 Cooperian type 12 . Then we follow the great western emigrant route 
 to California. There we learn to know the town of San Francisco 
 shortly after the discovery of gold. Now we find ourselves in the 
 timber-lands of Oregon. Uncouth miners, rowdies in low barrooms, 
 fighting Sioux and Dacotahs, the men at the fur stations, and the 
 drivers of the United States mail-coaches are portrayed with an 
 appealing, healthy realism. It is indeed a motley picture, but done 
 with a certain hand by one who paints both good and bad with a 
 sympathetic, human heart. 
 
 Um Millionen. Roman. 1896. 
 
 The scene of this novel is laid in about the same territory as that 
 of Der Fdhrmann am Kanadian, in the early pioneer days. Sidney 
 Tracy and his brother Franklin have found rich silver mines near 
 Taos, New Mexico, and are making preparations to stake a claim. 
 Their secret is supposed by the rascally John Kelly who foully mur 
 ders both the brothers. They had previously drawn up charts 
 carefully describing the place of the mines. These charts had been 
 conveyed to distant relatives and to faithful Indian friends. They 
 did this because they feared being waylaid. Sidney Tracy, while 
 studying engineering in Germany, had married a German w r oman. 
 She and her little daughter, hearing of Sidney s murder, journey 
 westward to meet the brother Franklin as heirs to a share in the 
 mines. On the way she falls a victim to John Kelly. The colored 
 nurse escapes with the little daughter Rosa. The story then con- 
 
 12 He is described as follows : "Er war ein langer, hagerer Mann, von dem 
 man hatte behaupten mogen, dass die von der Prarie hereinwehende Luft 
 eine ahnliche Wirkung auf ihn ausiibte, wie auf einen gefallenen Biiffel, der 
 von den Wolfen verschont geblieben, allmahlich zu einer Mumie ausdorrt. 
 Mit seinem listigen Waschbarengesicht, auf dem nur wenige diirftige Bart- 
 proben sichtbar waren, stand im Einklang eine eigentiimliche Wortkargheit, 
 ohne dass ihm deshalb Menschenfeindlichkeit odcr Manpel an Gastfreund- 
 schaft hatte zum Vorwurf gemacht werden diirfen." (p. 140). 
 
132 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 sists in the endeavors of the German relatives to gain knowledge of 
 the mines and to lay claims to them, and in the opposition of John 
 Kelly and his fellow crooks. The time of the story is shortly after 
 the discovery of gold in California. Finally John Kelly comes to an 
 unhappy end, being hanged on a tree, and the rightful heirs come 
 to their possessions. 
 
 Welche von Beiden? Roman in 2 Bdn. Stuttgart. 1897. 
 
 The novel opens upon a plantation in the Cumberland valley 
 about six years before the Civil War. William Griffith, a loose 
 liver, is divorced from his wife Bianka. She remains upon the plan 
 tation with her little daughter, who is soon thereafter kidnapped 
 at the instigation of Griffith himself. Griffith had also been married 
 to the celebrated dancer Lazarina, by whom he had also had a 
 daughter of about the same age as that of Bianka. Both daughters 
 bear the name of Harriet and both resemble the father. In the 
 meanwhile the war has begun, many of the plantations are devas 
 tated, the slaves flee, and Bianka has gone elsewhere. Bianka is 
 very wealthy and shares no efforts or expense to find her daughter. 
 Griffith knows this and now employs the existence of these two 
 daughters as a foil for Bianka and a means of extorting money from 
 her. In the third chapter we are transferred to the scenes of the 
 Civil War and witness the naval movements on the Missouri, Missis 
 sippi, and Red Rivers. Captain Evandale, a Union man, together 
 with a Choctaw Indian, is on the path of Griffith. One daughter 
 is being reared by a farmer s family near Lake Michigan, where 
 she is known as Feu Follet (the Will of the Wisp). She is one of 
 the novelist s most charming creations. The other daughter was 
 adopted by a Dr. Tenbrock and has enjoyed refined surroundings. 
 Bianka follows the trail of Feu Follet in the wilds of Northern 
 Michigan, and then, foiled through Griffith and his accomplices, 
 we find her unknowingly seeking out the whereabouts of Ringlet 
 and Dr. Tenbrock who have gone among the Spaniards of California. 
 Also we follow Captain Evandale in his endeavors to aid Bianka, 
 and he finally discovers both girls. Not knowing which is which, 
 both are brought to Bianka. She is unable to identify her daughter, 
 and after having both in her home for some time concludes that both 
 Feu Follet and Ringlet are indispensable, and returns to her South 
 ern plantation with them. The plot is typical of Mollhausen and of 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 133 
 
 a nature that permits him to weave in a vast mass of cultural and 
 geographic material of the most varied kinds. 
 
 Der alte Korpsbursche. Roman. Berlin. 1898. 
 
 In the little settlement of Hopetown on the western frontier 
 hangs the sign "Oskar Zobel and Co., Trinkhalle und Fancy-Store." 
 It is the establishment of Oskar Zobel, a former German Corps stu 
 dent, an old bachelor, whose mild and philosophic temperament is 
 placed in strong contrast with the brusque manners of the American 
 frontiersman. Here, with his mug of beer, his clay pipe, and his 
 beloved Tacitus, he whiles away the uneventful years. He is a sort 
 of Silas Marner of the West. One day a girl of twelve years arrives 
 with these words sewed upon her apron : "Lieschen Kunze. An 
 Oskar Zobel in Hopetown, Nordamerika." It is the child of his dead 
 sister, which has been handed over into his care. In the care and 
 love for this child the old "Corpsbursche" is brought back to a wider 
 and more useful life again. 
 
 Das Fegefeuer in Frappes Wigwam. Roman. Berlin. 1900. 
 
 This novelette is one of Mollhausen s most successful shorter 
 pieces of fiction. It is full of the wild poetry of the prairie, and 
 relates the story of an Indian s revenge. On the banks of the Ne 
 braska, near the great emigrant road to California, Frappe has built 
 a simple hut where he trades with the passing emigrants. Other 
 inmates of this hut are the old Indian squaw Nekoma and her three 
 sons, the French guide Vilandrie, and Kitty, known as "Fegefeuer". 
 The latter, an unspoilt child of the plains, had years before been 
 found deserted on the emigrant road by the side of her dead mother. 
 Also there is tarrying in the hut Thomas Mark, "ein fahrender Kiins- 
 tler und Maler". Later also the party of the geologist Dr. Kennedy 
 stops here. They are obliged to halt because his daughter Arte 
 misia who has accompanied him upon this expedition, has sprained 
 her foot. In the retinue of the Doctor is the rogue Bill Blunt, who 
 years ago, for no special reason, had slain the Indian husband of 
 Nekoma. She has waited all these years in the firm belief that fate 
 would bring the slayer in her path, and she at last avenges her hus 
 band with the death of Blunt. This deed, the romance of Mark and 
 Artemisia, and the death of Kitty, the wild maid of the prairie, are 
 the episodes in this work. The novelist has successfully fused the 
 
134 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 poetry of western life with the wild realism of the days that followed 
 upon the discovery of gold in California. 
 
 Der Postreiter. Erzahlung. Berlin. 1903. 
 
 This is a breezy bit of narrative about early stage-coach days. 
 The action takes place partly on the old Santa Fe road, and partly 
 in the city itself. Old Kennet, the mail coach-driver, one of those 
 sturdy characters of the West, whom Mollhausen delineates so suc 
 cessfully, is a German who had found his way to the far West and 
 there married a Spanish woman. She died early leaving him a 
 daughter, whom he loves dearly and from whom he cannot bear to 
 be separated. The out rider Juan, who accompanies Kennet every 
 where, and who is known far and wide for his beauty, his courage, 
 and his daring feats as a horseman, is none other than Rennet s 
 daughter Juanita, who has grown up in male attire in order to make 
 it easier for her to accompany her father. Other interesting char 
 acters are the Alkalde of Sante Fe, the Indian Gobernador of 
 Pueblo de Santo Domingo, the young American Reginald, and the 
 wealthy American girl Gabriele Kearney. The latter two lovers 
 elope in order to escape the designs of Gabriele s guardian to marry 
 her off to his own son. We follow the wild pursuit of the elopers 
 across the prairies to Sante Fe where they have been brought in 
 the mail-coach by Kennet and Juan who secure for them a notary 
 and they are hastily married in the old walls of the Indian town. 
 
 Die V erlorene. Die Barcnhaiit. Zwei Erzahlungen. Berlin. 1904. 
 
 Die V erlorene is an effective tale of emigrant life. The German 
 optician Waldbek, with wife and four children has crossed the Isth 
 mus of Panama and is waiting for a steamer bound for California 
 in the time of the gold fever. In the mad rush they are separated 
 from their little daughter Lottchen. In spite of their earnest 
 entreaties the Captain does not permit of delay. Lottchen is 
 picked up by a well meaning Chinaman who adopts the child. Under 
 his fatherly protection they travel to the Eastern States where 
 Lottchen studies the ballet for ten years and then conquers the pub 
 lic as the celebrated danseuse Lucile. Her manager takes her to 
 the young mining city of San Francisco. Here Mollhausen gives 
 his readers a splendid picture of life in the early gold days, of the 
 gambling dens, and of the great enthusiasm of the miners for Lucile. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 135 
 
 She is finally joined to her parents in San Francisco, when the 
 father had established himself as an optician and prospered. 
 
 Die Barenhaut is a story of love and revenge in the mountains 
 of Norway. Bjorge and Erich Sven are both suing for the hand of 
 Gerda Klaus, whose father wants to marry her to the latter. Bjorge 
 however receives the promise that if he returns after a year or 
 longer with three thousand kronen the girl shall be his. Bjorge 
 leaves for Western America. After some time the father spread 
 the report that the vessel with Bjorge was lost at sea. Erich 
 and Gerda are thereupon married. Later Bjorge returns with his 
 hard earned money only to find that the father of Gerda has de 
 ceived him. Bjorge is broken in spirit and gradually degenerates. 
 He seeks revenge. While upon a bear-hunt with Erich Sven he 
 urges the latter to make an attack at an inopportune moment, and 
 Erich, the husband of Gerda, finds his death in the embraces of the 
 bear. 
 
 Bildcr aits dcm Reiche der Natur. Berlin. 1904. 
 
 It will be difficult to find in German literature a series of prose 
 nature studies which will surpass in elegance of style and sustained 
 beauty those offered in the above volume. It was a "Festausgabe" 
 which the aged novelist, after nearly fifty years of literary activity, 
 presented to the publishers, taking no remuneration for the same. 
 The volume consists of twenty short sketches, in which the 
 author revels in the beauties and wonders of nature. Mollhausen s 
 was a romantic temperament, and he saw with the eye of an 
 artist. However, he does not write of nature as a poetic phil 
 osopher would. There breathe from these studies, in spite of 
 the author s advanced age, a healthy, Greek-like joy and love of 
 nature for its sheer self. They are, nearly all of them, echoes of 
 the days which Mollhausen spent wandering on the Western con 
 tinent. He has dipped his pen into the memories of half a century 
 ago. Over these memories as set forth in the sketches of this 
 volume there has spread a mellowness like that which lingers over 
 the realism of an old Dutch or Flemish painting. Of the western 
 prairie he writes : "Die Prairie. Ein eigentumlicher, geheimnis- 
 
 voller Zauber umwebte von jeher diese Bezeichnung Es 
 
 sind dies Erinnerungen die sogar dem auf der aussersten Grenze 
 stehenden Greise noch das Blut der Begeisterung schneller durch 
 die Adern jagen, ihn geistig zuriick versetzen in jene Tage, in denen 
 
136 I Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 er keinen andern Herrn iiber sich anerkannte, als denjenigen, der 
 die Prarie mit allem, was sie belebt, schuf und schmiickte; Tage, 
 in denen er leichtfertig mit demselben Trotz dem erstarrenden 
 Schneesturm begegnete, wie dem mit Windeseile einherrasenden 
 Flammenmeer, dem listigen rothautigen Feinde, wie dem m die 
 Ebene hinabgestiegenen Gebirgsbaren. In deren Vergegenwarti- 
 gung mochte man sich hinaufwiinschen bis in die Wolken und hoher, 
 weit hoher noch, urn die alten vertrauten Jagdgriinde vom beeisten 
 Norden bis hinunter zum blauen Golf von Mexiko, von dem trage 
 einherrollenden Mississippi bis zu der langen Kette der Rocky Moun 
 tains mit einem einzigen Blick zu umfassen. Man mochte zuriick 
 scheuchen die unaufhaltsam vordringende Kultur, hinter der spur- 
 los verschwanden der zottige Bison und der braune Jager, und mit 
 ihnen die letzte Poesie des Fernen Westens. " In the essay "Ein- 
 fluss der Natur auf die Sagenbildung" he speaks of the Indian maid 
 Owa-issa, and at the same time laments the onslaughts of civiliza 
 tion upon the romantic west : " wo das geheimnisvolle Gurgeln 
 
 des rastlos die nachgiebigen Uf er unterspiilenden Stromes dein stilles 
 Lachen begleitete, wo die noch selbstbewussten Omahas ihre wilden 
 Tanze auffuhrten, Trommelschlag und gellendes Heulen das Echo 
 zwischen den zerklufteten Abhangen weckten, kreischt zur Zeit miss- 
 tonend die Dampfpfeife zu dem durchdringenden Schnarren der 
 Sage ; wo vor dem verschwenderisch genahrten Feuer die aben- 
 teuerlichsten Erzahlungen ergrauter Fahrtensucher und Fallensteller 
 umliefen, da steht heut vielleicht ein Bethaus nachbarlich mit einer 
 Branntweinschanke oder der Office eines gaunerischen Advokaten 
 und Landspekulanten. Alles dahin !" 
 
 Bilder aus dem Reiche der Natur consists of the following short 
 sketches: Die Prairie; Das Meerleuchten ; Eichen und Kakteen ; 
 Die Springflut ; Die Heimat der Sumpfzypresse ; Aus dem Scharen- 
 und Gletscherreich ; Ein Kaferidyll; Die Terrassenstadt ; Der Eis- 
 bruch auf dem Huron-Sie ; Der zimmernde Specht ; Das Hoch- 
 plateau von Neu Mexiko ; Der Urwald ; Das Schwarze Canon ; Der 
 Prariehund; Ein indianisches Arkadien; Die kalifornische Sand- 
 Wuste; Vom Jotungebirge bis zum Naro-Fjord hinab; Ueber den 
 Isthmus on Panama; Einfluss der Natur auf die Sagenbildung; 
 Nachtliche Naturbeleuchtung. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 137 
 
 Sankt Elnisfeuer und andere Novtllen. Berlin. 1905. 
 
 Sankt Elmsfcuer is a sea-tale based on the sailor s superstition 
 about the natural phenomenon called St. Elm s fire very rarely seen, 
 flaring like a Jack o Lantern on the top of the mast. Two German 
 sailors, old Hachel, and young Hermann Stuhr, are on an American 
 bark heading for the Gulf of Mexico. Old Hachel, who is super 
 stitious, relates how years ago he was returning to his wife and 
 children, and on the voyage saw St. Elm s fire, signifying that he 
 would find misfortune at home. On approaching his cottage, he 
 hears within, a man speaking to his wife, counting money into her 
 hand and then kissing her good-bye. Hachel incited by the thought 
 of St. Elm s fire attacks the man and stabs him. The man was only 
 a brother of his wife. Thinking he had killed the brother, he fled 
 to sea and continues to remain there suffering awful remorse. Old 
 Hachel tells the tale to Hermann Stuhr, and entrusts his savings to 
 him with the request that he convey them to his wife and children. 
 Sometime thereafter he is washed overboard in an awful storm. 
 Hermann later discovers that the penitent Hachel was in reality his 
 long lost father. 
 
 Der Ritt urns Leben. The wife of a pioneer in the state of 
 Kansas, left alone in her isolated cabin, is surprised by an old re 
 vengeful lover. \Yhile he is molesting her with his passionate appeals, 
 her little child, left to itself, has swallowed some grains of corn 
 which have lodged in its windpipe and are choking it. The lover, 
 who has a reputation as a desperate thief, takes the pioneers horse 
 and rides madly to the next town for a doctor. There, being seen 
 on the horse of the pioneer, he is shot as a thief. He succeeds, 
 however, in telling his mission to the doctor and then dies. The 
 child is saved and thus the thief atones for his rascally life. This 
 story, with possibly a few slight changes, appeared in Fiirs Deutsche 
 Haus in 1896. 
 
 Die Tierbandigerin is an exciting little narrative of circus life. 
 It pictures in a most realistic manner the dangers Lucie undergoes 
 in training for public performance a wild and treacherous tiger. 
 
 Der Vaquero. Roman. Stuttgart. 1905. 
 
 The scene of this novel is laid in Kansas. It depicts the condi 
 tions that prevailed in the border states and territories just before 
 the civil war. Kansas had early been a favorite territory for squat 
 ters, who appropriated stretches of land and cultivated them, assert- 
 
138 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 ing the right of first purchase as soon as the government advanced 
 to sell the said land to individuals. However, since land speculators 
 often bought many square miles directly from the government and 
 then tried by trickery to cheat the squatters out of the property 
 upon which they had spent years of hard labor, it is little wonder 
 that many difficulties arose. These difficulties only increased when 
 rich planters of the South acted contrary to the law that no slavery 
 was to exist North of 36 N. Lat. Knowing that Kansas would 
 soon be admitted as a state they hired swarms of freebooters and 
 adventurers to settle temporarily in the territory and thereby win 
 a slave state. 
 
 The story sets forth the struggles of the squatter Daniel Howitt, 
 who is living on the borders of the vast prairie, where he and his 
 family have labored hard for eighteen years and cultivated a pros 
 perous farm. Two land sharks and a gang of hired ruffians are 
 trying to cheat him out of his hard-earned farm and make him take 
 up the cause of the South. Another story in this novel, running 
 parallel to that of the squatter Howitt, is the one of Felix von 
 Pardelstein, a German nobleman, who on account of an unhappy 
 domestic life, leaves for America with his four year old son, and 
 lives many years in a western frontier town as locksmith. His 
 little son had died at sea, but he adopts an orphaned boy and rears 
 him as his own. Many years later Wolfrade Ecke, an old love of 
 Pardelstein, who has remained unmarried and possesses great wealth 
 is filled with thewish to bestow her wealth upon her old lover s 
 son, and to that end comes to America. Pardelstein and the adopted 
 child are known in America as Thomas and Robert King. 
 Robert has grown to be a man of great strength, and is known among 
 the cowboys as King Bob. For him the book is named Der Vaquero 
 (the cowboy). Through him and Bell Howitt, the Amazon daughter 
 of Daniel Howitt, who love each other, the two stories are united. 
 Der Vaquero is the last of Mollhausen s long series of novels. He 
 introduces the novel with lines taken from the introduction to his first 
 novel Der Halbindianer, nearly half a century earlier, and then 
 continues : "Welcher Unterschied in der Anwendung. Beseelten 
 mich damals schiichterne Hoffnungen, so ist es heute an mir, wie 
 nach redlich vollbrachtem Tagewerk mit dem Feierabend mich zu 
 befreunden. Was sich aber zwischen diesen beiden Endstationen 
 entwickelte, sind die Frtichte ununterbrochener Muhe und Arbeit, 
 ohne dass ich jemals Ursache gefunden hatte, mit dem wetterwend- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 139 
 
 ischen Geschick ernstlich zu hadern. Und Leid? Welcher Sterb- 
 liche konnte sich riihmen, dass es ihn ganzlich verschonte? Uner- 
 schiitterlich treu blieb mir dagegen iiber alle Wechselfalle hinweg die 
 Liebe zur Xatur und allem, das sie belebt. Aus ihr schopfte ich die 
 Begeisterung, die rnich in meinem anspruchslosen dichterischen und 
 kiinstlerischen Schaffen beherrschte und ermutigte. Denn stockte 
 wirklich der Gedankenflug oder drohte wohl gar Erschopfung, dann 
 brauchte ich nur die Blicke iiber eine weite Vergangenheit hinweg zu 
 senden, geistig zu weilen inmitten hehrer Schopfungswerke vor den 
 unscheinbarsten sowohl wie vor den erhabensten, um wie aus zau- 
 berischen Traumen ervvachend, mich aufs neue gekraftigt in die Ar 
 beit zu vertiefen. So erklart sich die iibergrosse, vielleicht zu grosse 
 Zahl von Werken und Banden, die unter meiner Hand hervorgin- 
 gen." 
 
 There follow here brief remarks about a number of short stories 
 and novelettes from the pen of Mollhausen which have appeared in 
 various periodicals. They were given me by Frau Mollhausen, 
 many of them cut from the periodicals in which they had appeared, 
 so that in many instances it was impossible for me to ascertain when 
 and where they had been published. 
 
 Die Tochter dcs Squatters ( 1881 ) presents a breezy story of early 
 days in Kansas the fifties, when the territory was seeking admit 
 tance to the Union. The Southerners, eager that it should become a 
 slave state for the furtherance of their cause, resorted to unlawful 
 means. They sent out bands of marauders and thieves to settle tem 
 porarily in Kansas in order to add to the number of votes, or by 
 threats to force the squatters to vote for slavery. In 1855, how 
 ever, numbers of armed Northerners came to the assistance of the 
 original settlers, and the territory was admitted as a free state. The 
 novelist has enlarged upon the same motive in his last novel Der 
 Vaquero. 
 
 Engelid (Novelle) appeared in the Gartenlaube in 1882. It is 
 a story with a poetic Scandinavian background, suggested by the 
 author s northern cruis with Prince Friedrich Karl. It was ad 
 mired by Paul Heyse. 
 
 Die Tochter des Lumpensammlers (1882) contains no American 
 element. The story centers about a hardhearted usurer and his 
 daughter. The author it seems, took the theme from an earlier 
 work Die Kinder des Stra flings (1876). 
 
140 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Der Schatz vom Satansmoor appeared in the Illustriertes Sonn- 
 tagsblatt in 1886. Two farmers from Illinois have taken a herd of 
 oxen to the great emigrant road where they sell them to emigrants 
 who pass by. They are returning to their homes with their money 
 in silver, when they are overtaken by severe snowstorms and are 
 from physical weakness obliged to bury their money. Only many 
 years later do the descendants of the two farmers find the money. 
 
 Die Tochter des Pioniers, a novelette, appeared in Gute Geister 
 in 1890. It gives a picture of early pioneer days in Kansas and 
 presents an interesting murder trial in which the pioneers have taken 
 it upon themselves to sit in judgement upon the prisoner. 
 
 Flamingo is a novel which appeared in the Feuilleton-Corres- 
 pondenz in 1895. In it the author has handled the white slave 
 question. The scene is laid in New York where Eva Riidiger, a 
 pretty German girl, gained a livelihood for herself and her invalid 
 father by playing on the harp. She falls a victim to a white slave 
 agent and is brought to a house of ill repute. Flamingo is the nick 
 name for Christoph Brausig, a member of the emigration committee, 
 through whose influence the girl is rescued from a life of ignominy. 
 A thrilling bit of narrative is the raiding of the house by newsboys 
 who snow-ball the mistress and her aristocratic male guests until 
 she gives forth the girl. 
 
 Uber den Isthmus, a novelette, appeared in the Illustrierte 
 Chronik der Zeit, 1898. The scene is laid in Panama before the 
 building of the railroad and is full of tropical color. The pearl- 
 fisher Gil, who possesses a wonderful voice, and his sweetheart 
 Furioso are both simple Mexicans. Through one of Barnum s 
 agents Gil is enticed to come to New York. Furioso, wild with 
 love and grief, follows him two years later, and finds him the star 
 of the operatic stage. Through a fire in the opera-house he is sev 
 erely injured. He is nursed by Furioso and the two are finally 
 united. 
 
 Das Haus in der Schlucht takes place wholly on German soil. 
 The exposition, however, occurs in California during the gold 
 days. Three Germans are engaged in digging gold together. One 
 of them, Hager, had been married, but his wife had died shortly 
 after the birth of a daughter. In a quarrel Selling kills Hager, 
 though in self-defense. Seiling in remorse then takes the orphaned 
 daughter- Kordel, returns to Germany, and makes it the duty of his 
 life to rear Kordel. 
 
Balduht Mollhausen, The German Cooper 141 
 
 Dcr Eulenkneisel is a German Silas Marner. It is the tale of an 
 old German miser who had settled on the banks of the upper Mis 
 souri. Through the loving care and cheerful temperament of an 
 orphaned niece who conies from Germany to find him, he is again 
 brought to a normal attitude toward life. It appeared in the 
 Feuilleton-Correspondenz in 1901. 
 
 Ben Brook, Eine Indianergeschichte, appeared in Der Wochen- 
 bote. Ben Brook, a volunteer in the service of a Major Culvert, 
 follows the Major to his new station on the frontier of Arkansas, 
 where the Major is to maintain safety against the Waekow and 
 Kaddow Indians. The abduction of the Major s daughter Eleanor 
 and her rescue by Ben Brook form the theme of the story. 
 
 Die Grabeiche is a splendid tale of the trappers in the days of 
 the St. Louis trading company. Josias, the trapper, tells the story 
 to the author while the latter is lingering, sketch-book in hand, near 
 Fort Tejon. Josias tells of the Indian maid Hummingbird whose 
 three suitors, Josias, Peter Lebeck, and a Mexican, Antonio, en 
 tered a contest in the throwing of the lasso and in shooting for the 
 possession of the maiden. Peter Lebeck wins, but later Antonio, 
 while the three are lassoing a great grizzly bear, and Peter has gone 
 forward to thrust a knife into him, out of envy cuts his own lasso, 
 thus giving the bear freedom, and Peter is killed. Old Josias again 
 suggests Cooper s Natty Bumpo. 
 
 Mein gutmiithiger Freund appeared in the Illustrierte Deutsche 
 Monatshefte. It is a story of slavery and tells of the flight of the 
 quadroon Mayflower, her pursuit by bloodhounds, and her arrival 
 at the Indian reserves in Arkansas. It is told by Bill Spaniard, a 
 mixed breed, who aided Mollhausen in gathering specimens while 
 on his journey to the Pacific in 1853. 
 
 Der Flachbootmann presents a scene on the Missouri where a 
 young farmer is on his way down stream on a huge flatboat loaded 
 with hides, corn, and maple sugar, his sole possession. A rich rival 
 for the hand of Eva Silkhair follows him, and while the farmer has 
 left his boat on the banks to journey to an inland farm, bores a hole 
 into the boat, and looses it, in order to sink it. The rival falls under 
 a barrel of sugar and thus becomes a victim to his own plot. The 
 young farmer generously saves his life and is rewarded by hid 
 rival s father. 
 
 Die alte Lady is the story of a Miss Blair, a unique old character 
 who enjoyed the distinction of being one of the first settlers in 
 
142 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Keansville on the Arkansas. There is a certain similarity between 
 Miss Blair and the heroine of the author s novel Die Einsiedlerinnen. 
 
 Unter den Clansgenossen is a tale of the gruesome deeds of the 
 Clu Clux Clan against a Northerner, Captain Bright, shortly after 
 the Civil War. The place of action is near the confluence of the 
 Arkansas and Mississippi at Fort Napoleon. 
 
 Die drei Freier is the story of a Kentuckian farmer and his 
 family while on the great emigrant road to the gold mines of 
 California. 
 
 Das Grab in der Steppe is a bit of narrative which the author 
 states he heard related on his return across the prairies from his 
 Colorado expedition. Jarvis has been appointed to convey a large 
 sum of government money from Missouri to Sante Fe. A number 
 of traders and adventurers join him and his retinue, thus adding 
 to their own safety. On the way, some members of the party, 
 allured by the money, plot against him. He is shot and finds a 
 lonely grave on the prairie. 
 
 Verkauft is a novelette, the scene of which opens on an emigrant 
 ship on which is a refined young woman, Isabella Blenker, who was 
 left an orphan. She has fallen a victim to ruthless white slave 
 agents who, under the guise of friends, have provided her with 
 ocean passage, leaving her to believe that she is to have a position 
 as governess in the family of a rich planter in Louisiana. However, 
 she is being sold for illicit purposes, though finally rescued through 
 a young German who suspects that she has been deceived. 
 
 Der Chef des Vigilance-Komitees is a tale of early days in San 
 Francisco and of the activities ,of the Vigilance Committee, a private 
 organization, which has taken it upon itself to secure public order 
 and rid the town and surroundings of the molesting rowdies and 
 criminals who had come to California after the discovery of gold 
 there. 
 
 Senor Demonio is a pleasing novelette whose scene of action is 
 the Mexican Valley of Cuesta. It is the occasion of a church festi 
 val. In the midst of the merry-making Apaches make an attack 
 and abduct the pretty Spanish maiden Juanita. Whiling among 
 the Indians is Senor Demonio, whose peculiar actions and strange 
 instruments for measuring the stars make him powerful among 
 them as a sorcerer and who is able to bring about the release of 
 Juanita. It is never discovered that Senor Demonio was none other 
 than Professor Recado who was director of the observatory in the 
 
Balduin Mollhausen t The German Cooper 143 
 
 City of Mexico. This novelette appeared in Illustrierte Deutsche 
 Monatshefte. 
 
 Der Fallensteller, Erzahlung aus dem nordamcrikanischen Grenz- 
 leben, ran as a serial in the Hausfreund for 1868. The scene is laid 
 in the Neoscho Valley, a tributary of the Kansas, about 1854. We 
 find an old trapper visiting a grave at the foot of a great old oak. He 
 relates here the story of his love for Margarethe Urbano who came 
 to an early death in 1808. 
 
 POEMS 
 
 Mollhausen was preeminently a novelist, yet a consideration of 
 his works would not be complete without also giving attention to 
 his poems. The novelist s poetic temperament manifests itself con 
 stantly in the course of his many narratives, but he had never sought 
 verse as a vehicle for artistic expression further than to write occa 
 sional poems for the entertainment of his friends. Most of these 
 occasional poems had been inspired by his revered friend Prince 
 Friedrich Karl, the honored hero of Metz, and read before the 
 "Tafelrunde", the circle of friends which the Prince frequently 
 gathered about him in his hunting-lodge "Dreilinden", a short dis 
 tance away from Berlin. These poems had accumulated in the 
 course of the years, and were, after the death of the Prince, collected 
 and published as Die Dreilinden Lieder in 1896. The proceeds from 
 the sale of this volume were to be contributed to the fund for the 
 erection of a monument to the Prince in Metz. In the introduction 
 to this collection of poems Mollhausen has explained the origin of 
 these poems. He writes in part : "Ihr erstes Entstehen verdankten 
 sie einem grossen Zufall : schon seit Jahren hatte ich, und wohl nur 
 auf Grund der in dem damals noch jungfraulichen Theil der nord- 
 amerikanischen Wildniss gesammelten Erfahrungen, das Gluck 
 genossen, dem Prinzen nahe sein zu diirfen, als ich seinen Geburtstag 
 durch einen poetischen Gruss: ,,Der Klausner von Dreilinden," 
 feierte. Die ganze Art der Aufnahme der ungekiinstelten Worte 
 regte mich zu neuem Schaffen an, und so traten zunachst der "Feld- 
 marschallstrich," der ,,Elfenbeinhumpen" und die ,,Griindung von 
 Dreilinden" ins Leben. Den nachsichtig gespendeten Eeifall glaubte 
 ich nur dadurch dankbar anerkennen zu diirfen, dass ich auf dem 
 einmal betretenen Wege weiter schritt. Und so folgten Trinklieder 
 auf ernste Schilderungen, Kellerlchren auf heitere Weisheitsspriiche, 
 
144 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 je nachdem oft nur ein hingeworfenes loses Scherzwort die Anre- 
 gung dazu gab und wie sie in einen Kreis von Kriegern und Waid- 
 mannern hinein gehorten, bis sie allmahlich zu einem Bandchen 
 
 angewachsen waren " 
 
 The novelist makes no pretentions in these poems. There are 
 reflected in them, however, so many moods and emotions, so much 
 manly vigor and at the same time tenderness, such variety and ex 
 cellence of form that the reader can only wish Mollhausen had more 
 frequently expressed himself in verse. An almost plaintive, elegiac 
 note is heard in the aged writer s following "Zueignung" to this 
 collection of poems, dedicated to the surviving members of the 
 "Vereinigung Prinz Friedrich Karl." 
 
 Die Aehre reift ; vom Herbst des heit ren Griin beraubt, 
 
 Nicht lust gen Faltern mehr sie dient zur Augenweide. 
 
 Hat reicher Schnee sich ernst gesenkt auf Bart und Haupt, 
 
 Erhohter Ernst sich einet mit des Lebens Freude. 
 
 Wohl find in fremdem losem Sang ich noch Genuss, 
 
 Doch sind verklungen meine eig nen Schelmenlieder, 
 
 Die in sich bargen manchen treuen Festesgruss ; 
 
 Des Lebens Mai, er kehret nimmer, nimmer wieder. 
 
 Beleb ich aber, was einst Uebermuth gedichtet, 
 
 Gilt s nicht als Sporn zu Lust und Funken spriih ndem Wort ; 
 
 Vielmehr als Denkstein, der, in Pietat errichtet, 
 
 Wehmuth erzeugt, wie an geweihtem Ort. 
 
 Was Frohsinn schuf in jenen gold nen Tagen, 
 
 Durchzittern heute tief empfund ne Herzensklagen. 
 
 Whether the subject of his songs be the beauties of Scandinavia, 
 as in "Nordlandsklange," a rather long poem in the meter of the 
 Finnish Kalevale. or distant western America, as in "Verschollene 
 Bilder" and "Westliche Bilder," or whether it be a jovial drinking- 
 song as in "Wirkung des Durstes" or in "Kellerlehren," there breath 
 forth from these poems Mollhausen s own genial personality, his 
 optimism, and his love of life and his fellowman. His character 
 istic courage and virility are perhaps best expressed in his "Bekennt- 
 niss eines Wiistenjagers." 
 
 Und fehlt der rothe Kragen mir, 
 Am Stief el mir der Sporn, 
 So hindert s nicht, dass trotzig schier 
 Die Stirn ich trage vorn. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 145 
 
 Dass mil dem Eisen ich vertraut, 
 Dass Ross mir unterthan, 
 Ich frei ins Auge hab geschaut 
 Dem bleichen Sensenmann. 
 
 Und dass mein Wort, \venn ich es geb , 
 1st fest wie echter Stahl, 
 Drum froh bevvcgt empor ich heb 
 Den funkelnden Pokal. 
 
 Und trinkend blick ich himmelwarts 
 Und ruf in wilder Lust ; 
 "Es lebe hoch ein treues Herz 
 In jedes Mannes Brust !" 
 
 An affective poem, the last of the Dreilinden Lieder, is "Drei 
 Freunde," reminiscent of his early days in western America, which 
 were a source of inspiration to him during all his later life. 
 
 Eintrachtig sie hielten zusammen, 
 Bekampften nach westlichem Brauch 
 Der Prarie wild lodernde Flammen, 
 Des Schneesturms erstickenden Hauch. 
 
 Xiemals an die Zeit sie sich banden, 
 Der Zufall bestimmte ihr Ziel ; 
 Ob Stunden, ob Monate schwanden, 
 Sie weilten, wo s ihnen gefiel. 
 
 Erschopft nach des Tages Beschwerde 
 Gemeinsam sie pflegten der Ruh , 
 Zum Lager sie wahlten die Erde, 
 Das Sternenzelt deckte sie zu. 
 
 Drei Freunde auf Tod und Leben : 
 Mein Ross, meine Buchse und ich, 
 Einander in Treue ergeben, 
 Die niemalen wankte noch wich. 
 
 Wie ist s so viel anders doch heute; 
 Gesprengt der Gefahrten Verein: 
 Das Ross fiel den Wolfen zur Beute, 
 Zu Staub ward sein bleichend Gebein. 
 
 - -.;v?^"-j 
 
 Die Buchse, die tausendfach weckte 
 Das Echo im urwilden Land, 
 
144 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 je nachdem oft nur ein hingeworfenes loses Scherzwort die Anre- 
 gung dazu gab und wie sie in einen Kreis von Kriegern und Waid- 
 mannern hinein gehorten, bis sie allmahlich zu einem Bandchen 
 
 angewachsen waren " 
 
 The novelist makes no pretentions in these poems. There are 
 reflected in them, however, so many moods and emotions, so much 
 manly vigor and at the same time tenderness, such variety and ex 
 cellence of form that the reader can only wish Mollhausen had more 
 frequently expressed himself in verse. An almost plaintive, elegiac 
 note is heard in the aged writer s following "Zueignung" to this 
 collection of poems, dedicated to the surviving members of the 
 "Vereinigung Prinz Friedrich Karl." 
 
 Die Aehre reif t ; vom Herbst des heit ren Grim beraubt, 
 
 Nicht lust gen Faltern mehr sie dient zur Augenweide. 
 
 Hat reicher Schnee sich ernst gesenkt auf Bart und Haupt, 
 
 Erhohter Ernst sich einet mit des Lebens Freude. 
 
 Wohl find in f remdem losem Sang ich noch Genuss, 
 
 Doch sind verklungen meine eig nen Schelmenlieder, 
 
 Die in sich bargen manchen treuen Festesgruss ; 
 
 Des Lebens Mai, er kehret nimmer, nimmer wieder. 
 
 Beleb ich aber, was einst Uebermuth gedichtet, 
 
 Gilt s nicht als Sporn zu Lust und Funken spruh ndem Wort ; 
 
 Vielmehr als Denkstein, der, in Pietat errichtet, 
 
 Wehmuth erzeugt, wie an geweihtem Ort. 
 
 Was Frohsinn schuf in jenen gold nen Tagen, 
 
 Durchzittern heute tief empfund ne Herzensklagen. 
 
 Whether the subject of his songs be the beauties of Scandinavia, 
 as in "Nordlandsklange," a rather long poem in the meter of the 
 Finnish Kalevale. or distant western America, as in "Verschollene 
 Bilder" and "Westliche Bilder," or whether it be a jovial drinking- 
 song as in "Wirkung des Durstes" or in "Kellerlehren," there breath 
 forth from these poems Mollhausen s own genial personality, his 
 optimism, and his love of life and his fellowman. His character 
 istic courage and virility are perhaps best expressed in his "Bekennt- 
 niss eines Wiistenjagers." 
 
 Und fehlt der rothe Kragen mir, 
 Am Stiefel mir der Sporn, 
 So hindert s nicht, dass trotzig schier 
 Die Stirn ich trage vorn. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 145 
 
 Dass mit dem Eisen ich vertraut, 
 Dass Ross mir unterthan, 
 Ich frei ins Auge hab geschaut 
 Dem bleichen Sensenmann. 
 
 Und dass mein Wort, wenn ich es geb , 
 1st fest wie echter Stahl, 
 Drum froh bevvegt empor ich heb 
 Den funkelnden Pokal. 
 
 Und trinkend blick ich himmelwarts 
 Und ruf in wilder Lust; 
 "Es lebe hoch ein treues Herz 
 In jedes Mannes Brust!" 
 
 An affective poem, the last of the Dreilinden Lieder, is "Drei 
 Freunde," reminiscent of his early days in western America, which 
 were a source of inspiration to him during all his later life. 
 
 Eintrachtig sie hielten zusammen, 
 Bekampften nach westlichem Brauch 
 Der Prarie wild lodernde Flammen, 
 Des Schneesturms erstickenden Hauch. 
 
 Xiemals an die Zeit sie sich banden, 
 Der Zufall bestimmte ihr Ziel; 
 Ob Stunden, ob Monate schwanden, 
 Sie weilten, wo s ihnen gefiel. 
 
 Erschopft nach des Tages Beschwerde 
 Gemeinsam sie pflegten der Ruh , 
 Zum Lager sie wahlten die Erde, 
 Das Sternenzelt deckte sie zu. 
 
 Drei Freunde auf Tod und Leben : 
 Mein Ross, meine Biichse und ich, 
 Einander in Treue ergeben, 
 Die niemalen wankte noch wich. 
 
 Wie ist s so viel anders doch heute; 
 Gesprengt der Gefahrten Verein : 
 Das Ross fiel den Wolfen zur Beute, 
 Zu Staub ward sein bleichend Gebein. 
 
 Die Biichse, die tausendfach weckte 
 Das Echo im urwilden Land, 
 
146 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Das scheue Getier jahlings schrekte, 
 Triibselig jetzt hangt an der Wand. 
 
 Betracht ich in miissiger Stunde 
 Sie still und von Wehmut bewegt, 
 Dann mem ich, dass riihmliche Kunde 
 Sie traumerisch heget und pflegt. 
 
 Und was sie erzahlt, klingt wie Lieder 
 Aus ferner verschollener Zeit, 
 Gewissenhaft schreib ich es nieder, 
 Sei s jauchzende Lust oder Leid. 
 
 Und ist erst das Trachten und Dichten 
 Des Alten endgiiltig verweht, 
 So wird sie zwar weiter berichten, 
 Doch Keiner da, der sie versteht. 
 
 Ein Weilchen gedenkt man des greisen 
 Erzahlers vielleicht noch in Treu , 
 Die Biichse wird rostiges Eisen, 
 Und damit ist alles vorbei ! 
 
 On the occasion of the great festival of German rifle-corps held 
 in 1890, Mollhausen wrote a long poem addressed to the German 
 riflemen who had come as representatives from America. The poem 
 was printed in the Illustrierte Festzeltung fur das 10. Deutsche 
 Bundesschiessen, Berlin, 4. Juli, 1890. The poem was later some 
 what changed by the author. It is here printed in its altered form, 
 according to the manuscript in the possession of Frau Mollhausen. 
 The poem was originally printed under the title: "Festgruss an die 
 deutsch-amerikanischen Schiitzen." The manuscript from which the 
 following is printed bears the headlines : "Als Vermachtniss des 
 bald Achtzigjahrigen den Deutsch-Amerikanern zur weiteren Ver- 
 breitung zugeeignet." 
 
 Wie das Lied von Hiawatha, 
 Jenes Schippewa-Propheten, 
 Wie der Sang von Minne-haha, 
 Jener holden "Lachend Wasser," 
 Kosend lebt in meinen Ohren, 
 Also mochte ich begriissen 
 Euch, ihr freien deutschen Schiitzen, 
 Die gekommen aus dem Westen 
 Ubers Meer aus weiter Feme, 
 
Balduin Alollhauseti, The German Cooper 147 
 
 Aus dem Lande Hiawatha s 
 
 Aus der Heimat Minne-haha s. 
 
 Doch zum Dichten, herzergreifend, 
 
 Fehlet mir die Zaubergabe, 
 
 Und zum Sang, den Ohren schmeichelnd, 
 
 Mir der Drossel siisse Kehle. 
 
 Will daher als Weidmann reden 
 
 Zu Euch, freie deutsche Schutzen; 
 
 Selbst ein alter deutscher Schiitze, 
 
 Dessen gute Biichse knallte 
 
 Frohlich schon vor funf Jahrzehnten 
 
 Fernab in den Rocky-Mountains, 
 
 Auf der unbegrenzten Prairie, 
 
 In den Colorado-Schluchten, 
 
 In des Goldlands diirren Wiisten, 
 
 Fern in jungfraulichen Waldern, 
 
 Fern in nie gestorter Wildnis. 
 
 Und so hort denn, deutsche Manner, 
 Deren Faust die Wehr befreundet, 
 Deren Brust ist voller Lieder, 
 Schoner, echter deutscher Lieder 
 Wehmutsvoll und wieder jubelnd : 
 
 In dem Lande der Dakotahs 
 Wo der Nordarm des Nebraska 
 Still umschleicht die macht gen Scott-Bluffs, 
 Damals noch des zott gen Bisons 
 Ungezahlte schvvarze Herden 
 Trage schritten zu den Tranken, 
 Urn im Flussschlamm sich zu \viilzen ; 
 Wo der Ziegenmelker klagend, 
 "Whipp-poor-Will" rief durch die Kliifte 
 Und der graue Bar sich nahrte 
 Von der siissen Frucht der Ceder : 
 Dort im Lande der Dakotahs 
 Stand ich hoch auf gelber Klippe. 
 
 Unten glanzten Sioux-Zelte 
 In dem Abendschein der Sonne. 
 Um die Feuer emsig regten 
 Braune Weiber sich und Kinder. 
 Manner lagerten im Kreise 
 Und den Kalumet man reichte 
 Drinnen glimmten Sumachblatter 
 Feierlich von Hand zu Handen. 
 Abseits weideten die Pferde, 
 Manche rasteten gesattigt. 
 
 Friede herrschte aller Enden, 
 Holder Friede auf der Prairie, 
 Unabsehbar grim und duftig. 
 
148 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Frieden lachelte der Himmel, 
 Zart geschmuckt mit Abendpurpur. 
 Frieden hauchte selbst die Brise, 
 Die mir fachelte die Schlafen. 
 
 Und ich atmete mit Wollust 
 Jene reine Luft der Berge. 
 Weiter dehnte sich die Brust mir 
 Und das Blut, es wallte heisser 
 Durch die jugendfrischen Adern, 
 Als ich spahte traumverloren 
 Bis zur Grenze, wo die Prairie 
 Mit dem Himmelsdom sich einte. 
 Was ich aber dachte, fiihlte, 
 Was den Pulsschlag trieb zur Eile : 
 Alles ward zu Jubelgriissen, 
 Die begeistert ich entsandte 
 Hin, soweit das Auge reichte. 
 
 So ward ewig unvergessen 
 Jener milde Zauberabend. 
 Jahre sind seitdem entschwunden, 
 Mehr als fiinfzig lange Jahre. 
 Was einst Poesie der Wildnis : 
 Bisonherden, braune Jager, 
 Lust ger Ritt auf Tod und Leben, 
 1st verwandelt und zerstoben 
 Vor dem Hauch des Eisenrosses, 
 "Feuerfressend," "Funken schnaubend." 
 
 Auch die Menschen jener Zeiten, 
 Menschen, die sie uberlebten, 
 Schnee mit jedem Jahr sich senkte 
 In den Bart und auf das Haupthaar. 
 Trager wallet in den Adern 
 Jetzt das Blut, das abgekuhlte ; 
 Ernste Ruhe trat anstelle 
 Einst gen wilden Vorwartssturmens. 
 Wehmutvoll die Blicke schweifen 
 Uber langst vergang ne Tage. 
 Auch nach vorne, wo verlockend 
 Nach des Lebens Miih und Arbeit, 
 Eines Lebens lang und kostlich, 
 Griisset jene siisse Ruhe 
 Der gliickselige Jagdgefilde. 
 
 Doch noch einmal es sich regte 
 In den altersrost gen Gliedern 
 Mit erwachter Jugendfrische, 
 Wie vor Zeiten, gliihend wallte 
 Auf das Blut in meinen Adern. 
 
 Es geschah auf jene Kunde, 
 
Balduin Mollhaitsen, The German Cooper 149 
 
 Dasz ihr, freie deutsche Schiitzen, 
 Angespornt durch heil ge Sehnsucht 
 Nach den Stiitten eurer Kindheit, 
 Nach der Heimat eurer Vater, 
 Eiltet, um auf Muttererde 
 Euch im frohen Kampf zu messen 
 Mit den Mannern, die verbriidert 
 Mit euch durch das Band der Sprache, 
 Durch die Sitten vvie durch Liebe 
 Zu dem macht gen Vaterlande, 
 Zu dem "Deutschland iiber Alles." 
 
 Und so griiss ich euch begeistert, 
 \\ ie einst von der Scott-Bluffs Hohe 
 Die Natur in ihrem Festkleid, 
 Ich begriisse euch als Manner 
 Deutscher Ehre, deutschen Mutes 
 Deren Wehr, wie zu dem Wettstreit, 
 Auch bereit zu blut gem Ringen, 
 Wenn Gefahr der Freiheit drohet, 
 Feinde tiickisch Hader schiiren. 
 Stets bereit zu blut gem Ringen, 
 Wie vvir s lernten von den Vatern, 
 Deren hehrer Ruhm durchwebet 
 Glanzvoll mehrals ein Jahrtausend. 
 
 Auch begriiss ich euch begeistert, 
 Als die Glieder einer Kette, 
 Starker noch als Stahl und Eisen 
 Die, geschmiedet in dem Feuer 
 Deutscher Sitte, deutscher Treue, 
 Fest vereinigt Ost und Westen. 
 
 Endlich gruss ich Euch als Briider 
 Die nach tausendjahr gem Vorbild, 
 Mit dem Humpen sich befreunden, 
 Die aus goldnem Quell des Rheinweins 
 Trinken \Yeisheit, Lust an Liedern, 
 An den trauten Heimat sweisen, 
 Wie s geziemet starken Mannern, 
 Wenn nach Tagesarbeit rastend. 
 
 Diese Griisse, die geboren 
 Auf der teuren Muttererde, 
 Die ein Echo von Millionen : 
 Wenn die Feste hier verklungen, 
 Tragt sie hin zur neuen Heimat ! 
 Wiederholt sie euren Frauen 
 Wort fur Wort, den liebenswerten ! 
 Wiederholt sie euren Kindern, 
 Die verheissend euch umringen ! 
 
150 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Praget ein den jungen Herzen, 
 
 Dass gewissenhaft sie pflegen 
 
 Jenes Erbe, das geheiligt 
 
 Durch der Jahre mehr als tausend. 
 
 Jenes Erbe, welches wurzelt 
 
 In der "Alten Deutschen" Urwald, 
 
 In der nebelhaften Steinzeit; 
 
 Jenes Erbe das vereinigt, 
 
 Was getrennt durch weite Raume; 
 
 Jenes Erbe hold und kostlich : 
 
 Edle reine deutsche Sitte 
 
 Und die siisse Mutter spr ache I 
 
 Not without interest are Mollhausen s translations of negro songs 
 which are scattered throughout his novels. These he had probably 
 himself heard or gathered indirectly during his travels in America. 
 He has preserved in his German rendering to a remarkable degree 
 the characteristic negro spirit of the southern plantation. Some of 
 these songs are familiar enough to us; others are strangers, and 
 may be local songs which came to the notice of the author while in 
 America. In Der Halbindianer occur the following: 
 
 "Und das kleine Hiittchen unter Ranken 
 Ich immer vor mir seh , 
 Gern weil ich bei ihm in Gedanken, 
 Wo ich auch geh und steh ." 
 
 "Der ganzen Welt bin ich so miide, 
 Schweif ich auch weit hinaus, 
 Auf der Plantage nur wohnt der Friede 
 Und bei den Alten zu Haus." 
 
 In Der Majordomo we hear the happy negroes sing stanzas from 
 "Lucy Neal." 
 
 Weit, weit in Alabama, 
 
 Mein guter Herr hiess Diel 
 
 Besass ne schone, gelbe Maid, 
 
 Man nannt sie Lucy Niel. 
 
 Oh, Lucy Lucy Niel, 
 
 Oh, arme Lucy Niel, 
 
 Wenn du jetzt lagst an meiner Brust, 
 
 Welch himmlisches Gefuhl! 
 
 Miss Lucy brach im Baumwollfeld 
 Die Samen von dem Stiel; 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 151 
 
 Und grade da verliebt ich mich 
 In meine Lucy Niel. 
 
 Ich wurd verkauft, dieweil es hiess, 
 Ich hatt gestohlen viel, 
 Das war die Ursach , dass ich schied 
 Von meiner Lucy Niel. 
 
 In Dig Griiber in der Steppe, a novelette in Palmblatter und 
 Schneeflocken, is this German version of a once common negro plan 
 tation song. 
 
 War einst ein alter Neger, Onkel Ned wurd er genannt, 
 
 That vor Jahren schon zum Negerhimmel geh n. 
 
 Und sein Schadel war noch kahler als der Riicken seiner Hand, 
 
 Keine Wolle auf demselben mehr zu seh n ! 
 
 Leg die Schaufel und die Hacke immerhin bei Seit , 
 Und dann hang die Fiedel und den Bogen fort, 
 S giebt keine schwere Arbeit mehr fur Onkels Thatigkeit, 
 Er ging an der guten Neger letzten Ort ! 
 
 Seine Finger waren durrer als das Rohr dort in dem Bruch, 
 
 Konnt auf beiden Augen endlich nichts mehr seh n, 
 
 Hatt zum Beissen von dem Maisbrod auch der Zahne nicht 
 
 [genug, 
 Darum Hess er auch das Maisbrod immer stehn. 
 
 Als der arme Ned starb, weinte Thranen viel sein Herr, 
 Wie ein Regen stromten sie zur Erd hinab. 
 Und die Herrin, ach, die weinte und die klagte noch viel mehr, 
 Weil der Onkel Ned nun lag in seinem Grab. 
 
 In Das Hundertguldenblatt the following bits are found. 
 
 Ich komm von Altvirginien, 
 P>in alles, nur nicht dumm, 
 Besuchte nie die Armenschul , 
 Xoch sonst n Colleg um! 
 
 Doch ein Ding ich erklare Euch, 
 L T nd das ist wahr genug 
 S ist, wie Gott hat die Welt gemacht 
 In einem Athemzug! 
 
 1m Anfang schuf er Berg und Thai, 
 Den Himmel malt er d rauf, 
 Und hing ihn iiber seinem Kopf. 
 Alsbald zum Trocknen auf. 
 
152 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Das Meer war jetzt sein nachstes Werk 
 Den Wallfisch schuf er dann, 
 Und dann den Waschbar, dem er hing 
 Ein Ringelschwanzchen an ! 
 
 These stanzas were followed with this refrain : 
 Kommt herein, kommt herein, kommt herein, ich sage, 
 Kommt herein und sehet zu, wie ich das Bango schlage, 
 Kommt herein und horet zu, wie hell das Bango klingt, 
 Und seht, wie auf dem Saitenspiel des Niggers Finger springt ! 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 153 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 I. A LIST OF THE EDITIONS OF MOLLHAUSEN S WORKS. 
 
 1858. Tagebuch einer Reise z om Mississippi nacli den Kiisten der 
 Sitdsee. Eingefiihrt von Alex v. Humboldt. Mit 13 Ilkistrat. 
 in Oelfarben u. Tondr., 10 Holzschn. u. i (lith.) Karte (in Fol.). 
 Leipzig. Mendelssohn, gr. 4. (XV, 494 s. mit Holzschn, im 
 Text.) 
 
 2. Aufl. mit verandertem Titel : Wanderungen durch die 
 Prairien und IViisten des westliclten Nordamerika i om 
 Mississippi nach den Kiisten der Siidsee im Gefolge 
 der von der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten under 
 Lieutenant \V hip pie ansgcsandten Expedition. Ein- 
 gefuhrt von Alex. v. Humboldt. Mit i lith. Karte 
 (in Fol.), entworfen von Henry Lange. Leipzig 
 i860. Mendelssohn, gr. 8. (XVI, 492 S.) 
 
 1860. Sketches: Scenen aus dem Volksleben in New-Orleans 
 (Gartenlaube, Nr. 26, 1860) ; Die Fata-Morgana in der IVtiste 
 (Ibid., Nr. 30, 1860) ; Der Prairiebrand (Ibid., Nr. 36, 1860) ; 
 Das Canalboot (Ibid., Nr. 43, 1860). 
 
 1861. Reisen in die Felsengebirge Nord-Amerikas bis zum Hoch- 
 Plateau von Neu-Mexiko, unternommen als Mitglied der im 
 Anftrage der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten ausgesandten 
 Colorado-Expedition. Mit 12 vom Verfasser nach der Natur 
 aufgenommenen Landschaften und Abbildungen von Indianer- 
 Stammen, Thier-u. Pflanzenbildern in Farbendruck, nebst 
 Karte. Eingefiirt durch zwei Briefe Alex. v. Humboldts in 
 (lith.) Facsim. 2 Bde. Mendelssohn. Leipzig. Lex. 8. 
 XXVI 861 s. m. 12 Holzschntaf. u. i Karte in Holzszhn. 
 
 Der Halbindianer. Erzahlung aus dem westlichen Nord- 
 Amerika. 4 Bde. Jena. Costenoble. 8. (1118 S.) 
 Der Ftiichting. Erzahlung aus Neu-Mexico und dem 
 angrenzenden Indianergebiet ; im Anschluss an den 
 "Halbindianer". 4 Bde. Jena. Costenoble. 8. (1115 S.) 
 1863. Der Major dome, Erzahlung ans dem sitdlichen Kalifornien 
 und Neu-Mexico; im Anschluss an den "Halbindianer" und 
 "Flitchtling". 4 Bde. Jena. Costenoble. 8. (10048.) 
 Palmblatter und Schneeflocken. Erzahlungen aus dem fernen 
 Westen. 2 Bde. Jena. Constenoble. 8. (X, 461 S.) 
 1864. Das JMormonenmadchen. Eine Erzahlung aus der Zeit 
 des Kriegszuges der Vereinigten Staaten gegen die "Heiligen 
 der letzten Tage" im Jahre 1857-1858. 6 Bde. 
 
 This novel appeared as Vols. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in the 
 
 Deutsche Romanbibliothek. Jena. Costenoble. 16. (893 S.) 
 
 2. (Titel-) Aufl. 6 Bde. Ebend. 1868. gr. 16. (893 S.) 
 
154 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 3. Aufl. Erschien in Unterhaltungsbibliothek fur Reise 
 und Haus. 8. Jena. Costenoble.. (Zwischen 1871-76.) 
 3 Theile in i Bd. (893 S.) 
 
 1865. Reliquien. Erz dhlungen und Schilderungen aus dem west- 
 lichen Nordamerika. 3 Bde. Berlin. Janke. 8. (688 S.). 
 Die Mandanenweise. Erzahlung aus den Rheinlanden u. dem 
 Stromgebiet des Missouri. 2 Abthlgn. in 4 Bdn. Berlin. 
 Janke(?). 8. (1048 S.) 
 
 1867. Der Meerkonig. .Eine Erzahlung in 3 Abthlgn. 6 Bde. 
 Jena. Costenoble. 8. (XV, 1394 S.) 
 
 Nord und Sud. Erz dhlungen und Schilderungen aus dem 
 westl. Nordamerika. 2 Bde. Ebend. 8. (419 S.) 
 1868. Der Hochlandpfeifer. Erzahlung. 6 Bde. Jena. Costenoble. 
 8. (VI, 1229 S.) 
 
 2. Aufl. 6 Bde. 8. (222, 235, 221, 182, 186 u. 183 S.) 
 
 Ebend. 1877. 
 
 1870. Das Hundertguldenblatt. Erzahlung. 2 Abthlgn. a 3 Bde. 
 Berlin. Janke. 8. (213, 240, 258, 261, 249 und 240 S.) 
 Der Piratenlieutenant. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. Janke. 8. 
 (Ill, 304; III, 292; III, 312 u. Ill, 292 S.) 
 
 2. Aufl. (568 S.) Bde. 16-25 in der Haus-Bibliothek. 16. 
 
 Ebend. 1877-80. 
 
 3. Aufl. 8. (VI, 530 S.) Berlin. O. Janke. 1902. 
 
 1871. Der Kesselflicker. Erzahlung in 3 Abthlgn. 5 Bde. gr. 8. 
 
 Berlin. (Ill, 263; III, 245; III, 246; III, 228 u. Ill, 207 S.) 
 1872. Das Finkenhaus. Roman. 4 Bde. Berlin. Janke. (308, 
 
 300, 291 u. 340 S.) 
 1873. Westliche Fdhrten. Erz dhlungen u. Schilderungen. 2 Bde. 
 
 8. Ill, 312 u. Ill, 254 S.) Berlin. Janke. 
 
 Die Einsiedlerinnen. Roman. 4 Bde. 8. (256, 252, 259 u. 
 
 240 S.) Berlin. Janke. 
 1874. Das Monogramm. Roman. 4 Bde. 8. (264, 282, 268 u. 
 
 283 S.) Ebend. 
 1876. Die Hy dnen des Capitals. Roman. 4 Bde. 8. (319, 288, 
 
 277 u. 2648.) Berlin. Janke. 
 
 Die Kinder des Str dflings. Roman. 4 Bde. 8. (276, 235, 
 
 249 u. 231 S.) Ebend. 
 
 1878. Der Reiher. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (320, 323 u. 820 S.) Ber 
 lin. Janke. 
 1880. Vier Fragmente. Roman. 4 Bde. 8. (243, 240, 244 u. 
 
 182 S.) Ebend. 
 
 2. Aufl. 8. (492 S.) Ebend. 1880. 
 
 Der S chats von Quivira. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (347, 332, u. 
 
 338 S.) Ebend. 
 
 Die Tochter des Consuls. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (276, 282, u. 
 
 236 S.) Berlin. Janke. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 155 
 
 2. Aufl. 3 Theile in i Bd. 8. (146, 157 u. 1138.) Ebend. 
 
 1881. 
 
 1883. Der Fanatiker. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (XI, 238, 276 u. 250 S.) 
 Berlin. Janke. 
 
 Der Leuchtturm am Michigan und andere Erzdhlungen. 
 Mit einer Einleitg. von Th. Fontane. (212 S.) 
 Als 35. Bd. in Collection Spemann. Deutsche Hand- 
 und Haus-Bibliothek. Stuttgart. Spemann. 
 
 1884. Der Haushofmeister. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (279, 279 u. 
 264 S.) Jena. Costenoble. 
 
 Die Traders. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (341, 295 u. 322 S.) 
 
 Berlin. Janke. 
 1886. Wildes Bint. Erzahlnng. 3 Bde. 8. (311, 303 u. 300 S.) 
 
 Jena. Costenoble. 
 
 1887. Das Loggbuch des Kapitains Eisenfinger. Roman in 3 Bdn. 
 8. (311, 320 u. 344 S.) Stuttgart. Union. 
 
 Dasselbe. [Neue Ausgabe] 3 Bde. 8. (311, 320 u. 344 S.) 
 
 Leipzig. 1888. Keils Nachf. 
 
 1889. Die Familie Melville. Roman aus der Zeit des nordameri- 
 kanischen Biirgerkrieges. 3 Bde. 8. (310, 314 u. 348 S.) 
 Leipzig. Keils Nachf. 
 1889. Das Geheimnis des Hulks. Roman. 214 S. 
 
 Als Bd. 309 in Collection Spemann. Deutsche Hand- u. 
 
 Hausbibliothek. Stuttgart 1889. Union. 
 Neue Ausg. (214 S.) 1900. Nr. 4 in Moderne Romane 
 
 alter Nationen. 8. Stuttgart. Union. 
 1890. Der Fdhrmann am h anadian. Roman in 3 Bdn. 8. (256, 
 
 275 u. 2445.) Stuttgart, Union. 
 
 1891. Haus Montague. Roman. 3 Bde. 8. (270, 242 u. 264 S.) 
 Jena. Costenoble. 
 
 Die beiden Yachten. Roman in 3 Bdn. 8. (239, 224 u. 218 S.) 
 Stuttgart. Union. 
 1892. Die Soldlinge. Roman in 3 Bdn. 8. (246, 250 u. 247 S.) 
 
 Stuttgart. Union. 
 
 1893. Kaptein Meerrose und ihre Kinder. Erzahlung in 3 Bdn. 8. 
 (312, 288 u. 260 S.) Berlin. F. Fontane & Co. 
 
 2. Aufl. 2 Bdn. (295 u. 301 S.). Leipzig. Bibliograph. 
 
 Anstalt. A. Schumann. 1906. 
 Der Spion. Roman in 3 Bdn. 8. (251, 248 u. 232 S.) 
 
 Stuttgart. Union. 
 1894. Der Talisman. Roman. 2 Bde. 8. (386 u. 366 S.) Jena. 
 
 H. Costenoble. 
 
 1896. Die Dreilinden-Lieder. Mit einem Bildnis des Prinzen 
 Friedrich Karl, d. Bildnisse d. Tafelrunde u. zahlr. Orig.- 
 Zeichngn. 8. (XIX, 90 S.) Berlin. E. S. Mittler u. Sohn. 
 Um Millionen. Roman. ? 
 
156 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 1897. IVelche von Beidenf Roman in 2 Bdn. 8. (26811.2568.) 
 Stuttgart. Union. 
 
 (This novel had first appeared as a serial in the Bibliothek 
 der Unterhaltung und des Wissens. Jahrgang 1895. 
 4. 10. B.) 
 1898. Der alte Korpsbursche. Roman. Mit Illustr. v. R. A. Jau- 
 
 mann. 128 S. 
 
 Nr. 77 in Kiirschner s Biicherschats. Bibliothek fiirs Hans. 
 
 12. Berlin. H. Hilger. 
 1900. Das Fegefeuer in Frappe s Wigwam. Roman. Mit Illustr. 
 
 v. W. Roegge. 127 S.) 
 
 Nr. 222 in Kiirschner s Biicherschats. Berlin. H. Hillger. 
 1903. Der Postreiter. Erzahlung. Mit Illustr. v. Arth. Lewin. 
 
 (124 S.). Nr. 346 in Kiirschner s Bucherschatz. 
 1904. Die Verlorene. Die Bdrenhaut. 2 Erzahlungen. Mit Illustr. 
 
 v. W. Roegge. (no S.) Nr. 389 in Kiirschner s Biicherschats. 
 
 Bilder aits dem Reiche der Natur. (VII, 175 S. m. i Abbildg. 
 
 u. Bildnis.) gr. 8. Berlin. D. Reimer. 
 1905. Sankt Elmsfeuer und andere Novellen. Mit Illustr. v. A. 
 
 Lewin. (112 S.) Nr. 459 in Kiirschner s Bucherschatz. 
 
 Der Vaquero. Roman. 343 S. m. Bildnis.) 8. Stuttgart. 
 
 Union. 
 1906. Balduin Mollhausens Illustrierte Romane, Reisen und 
 
 Abenteuer. Hrsg. v. Dietrich Theden. 8. Leipzig. Paul List. 
 This large edition of Mollhausen s works, three series of 
 
 ten volumes each, began to appear in the year after the novelist s 
 
 death, and in the following order : 
 
 First Series: I. Der Fdhrmann am Kanadian. (1906); 
 
 II. Die bciden Yachten. (1906); III. Urn Millionen. 
 
 (1907) ; IV. Haus Montague. (1907) ; V. Der Piratenleut- 
 
 nant. (1907); VI. Der Hochlandpfeifer. (1907); VII. 
 
 Die Tochter des Konsuls. (1907); VIII. Das Loggbuch des 
 
 Kapitdns Eisenfinger (1908); IX. Vier Fragment e (1908); 
 
 X.Die Familie Melville (1908). 
 
 Second Series : I. Die Soldlinge (1909) ; II. Der Halb- 
 
 indianer (1909); III. Der Fliichtling (1909); IV. Der 
 
 Majordomo (1909) ; V. Der Spion (1909) ; VI. Die Traders 
 
 (1911); VII. Das Mormononmadchen (1911); VIII. Die 
 
 Mandanenwaise (1911); IX. Der Talisman (1911); X. Die 
 
 Kinder des Straflings (1911). 
 
 Third Series: I. Wildes Blut (1912); II. Der Schatz 
 
 1-on Quivira (1912); III. Die Reiher (1912); IV. Die 
 
 Hyanen des Kapitals (1912); V. Der Fanatiker (1912); 
 
 VI. Der Haushofmeister (1912) ; VII. Das Hundertgulden- 
 
 blatt (1913); VIII. Das Finkenhaus (1913); IX. Die Ein- 
 
 siedlerinnen (1913) ; X. Das Monogramm (1913). 
 
Baldwin Mollhausen , The German Cooper 157 
 
 1910. The following tales from the pen of Mollhausen (some at 
 least had appeared earlier in periodicals) were published in the 
 l- olksbibliothek des Lahrer Hinkcnden Boten. Lahr. M. 
 Schauenburg. 
 
 Nr. 1564-1573. I. Bdchn. Die Ansiedler. Die Ba ren- 
 haut. Die alte Harfenistin. 
 
 Nr. 1574-1583. II. Bdchn. Verkauft.Der Finkenkrug. 
 Im letsten Augenblick. 
 
 Nr. 1584-1593. III. Bdchn. Die Hochzeit in der Pr drie. 
 Das Testament des Lumpensammlers. Der Eulen- 
 
 kneisel 
 
 During the course of the years Mollhausen had written 
 numbers of tales and novelettes for various periodicals. The 
 following were given the writer by Frau Mollhausen, but in 
 most instances without any means of fixing the time or place 
 of their publication : 
 
 Die Tochter des Squatters (1881) ; Etigelid (in the Gar- 
 tenlaube, (1882); Die Tochter des Lumpensammlers (1882); 
 Der S chats vom Satansmoor (in the Illustriertes Sonntagsblatt, 
 1886) ; Die Tochter des Pioniers (in Cute Geister, 1890) ; 
 Flamingo (in the Feuilleton-Correspondenz, 1895) ; Der Ritt 
 urns Leben (in Furs Deutsche Haus, 1896) ; Ueber den Isthmus 
 (in the Illustrierte Chronik der Zeit, 1898) ; Das Haus in der 
 Schlucht; Ben Brook. Eine Indianergeschichte (in Der Wo- 
 chenbote); Die Grabeiche; Mein giitmiitliiger Freund (in the 
 Illustrierte Deutsche Monatshefte) ; Der Flachbootmann; Die 
 alte Lady; Unter den Clansgenossen; Die drei Freier; Das 
 Grab in der Steppe; Der Chef des Vigilance-Komitees; Senor 
 Demonio (in the Illustrierte Deutsche Monatshefte); Ein Tag 
 auf dem Ufer des Colorado; Die Hya nen des Schlachtfeldes; 
 Die Mission San Luis Obispo; Die S clover ei in Amerika; 
 Die Erlenschmiede (in the Mohrunger Kreis-Zeitung, 1902) ; 
 Das Gold des Graf en Rousset de Boulbon (1887) ; Der Komo- 
 diant; Der Hansel Kommt (Essener Volks-Zeitung, 1903-04) ; 
 Seemannsblut. Aus Briefen und miindlichen Mitthcilungen 
 eines fun gen Seemanns; Die Torfhexe (1873) ; Das Couplet; 
 and Der Fallensteller (Der Hausfreund, 1868.) 
 
158 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 II. LETTERS. 
 
 [These letters, the originals of which are in the possession of 
 Frau Mollhausen, afford a running- commentary on certain periods 
 of the novelist s life. The hitherto unpublished letters of Alexander 
 von Humboldt and Duke Paul Wilhelm of Wurtemberg are of 
 special interest.] 
 
 i. 
 
 [From Mollhausen s guardian, Count Krassow to Mollhausen, 
 after the latter J s departure for America for the first time.] 
 
 Es thut mir ausserordentlich leid, mein lieber Hr. Mollhausen, 
 dass ich Sie nicht mehr gesprochen habe ; dies wurde mir zur gross- 
 ten Freude gereicht haben ; empfangen Sie nun schriftlich noch- 
 mals meinen herzlichsten Gliick-und Segenswunsch auf den neuen 
 Lebens-Pfad, den Sie betreten. Wegen des Auswandrungs-Kon- 
 senses werde ich noch heute an den Reg.-Prasidenten von Wedell 
 in Stralsund schreiben, und ihn dringend um moglichste Be- 
 schleunigung der Sache bitten. 
 
 Gott sei mit Ihnen, und geleite Sie ! Mit herzlicher Theilnahme 
 werde ich Ihrem Schicksal folgen und Ihnen stets bleiben, 
 
 Ihr ergebener 
 
 GRAF KRASSOW. 
 
 Diritz, d. 8. Marz 1850. 
 
 [From the Duke of Wurtemberg to Mollhausen.] 
 
 New Orleans, den icten. Maerz 1852. 
 Mein lieber Herr Moellhausen ! 
 
 Mit innigster Freude las ich Ihr Schreiben von Bethlehem und in 
 demselben Ihre gliickliche Rettung. An mir lag es bestimmt nicht 
 dass die von mir in Bewegung gesetzte Hiilfe nicht an Sie gelangte, 
 aber der entsetzliche Winter dessen Strenge bis hier in den Siiden sich 
 drangte, machte wahrscheinlich alle Versuche misslingen und Buis- 
 bora von Putowatomi County konnte das mir zugesicherte Wort 
 Wohl nicht erfiillen? Als ich Ihren Bericht las schauderte es mich, 
 doch hob sich die Seelenangst in der ich seither lebte und welche 
 sich von Tag zu Tag mehr steigerte, als ich zu den Fleischtagen 
 Egyptens, nach miihevoller Reise gelangt, nichts mehr von Ihnen 
 hb rte und Sie verloren wahnte. Nun sehen Sie Gott hat Sie auch 
 gerettet und wird an Ihnen einen Glaubigen mehr zahlen ! ? Herr 
 Consul Angelrodt schreibt mir Ihretwegen auf das Theilnahmvollste 
 und dieser mein wiirdiger Freund wird meine Bitte erfiillen fiir 
 Ihre schnelle Riickkehr nach St. Louis baldigst zu sorgen und Ihnen 
 das nothige Geld anzuweisen. Ich glaube selbst dass Sie Wagen 
 und Pferdegeschirre verkaufen sollten. Die Otoes (Orac-toc-ta- 
 ta) die ich genau kenne haben auch mir gute Dienste friiher geleis- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 159 
 
 tet, es sind keine solche Bestien (Schun Kape fruherer Chef cier 
 Otoes war mein Freund) wie Lipon und Kayouas, die inzwischen 
 tuchtig Amerikaner tod schlugen. In alien Blattern war mein Tod 
 angezeigt und in Deutchland wusste man es nicht anders. Vors 
 Erste weiss ich keinen anderen Platz, als bei mir, der ich Sie mit 
 herzlicher Sehnsucht ervvarte, nachdem ich mein Versprechen treu- 
 lich erfiillt habe, dass es Ihnen recht miserabel gehen vvurde und 
 Sie nicht als Griiner zuriickkehren wiirden. Jetzt werden Sie des 
 Robinsons Abentheuer mit Andacht lesen konnen. Es ist mir sehr 
 lieb dass Sie die Arsenik gerettet haben und wunsche mir dass Sie 
 solche in Ausbalgen leeren mochten. Ich freue mich sehr Sie in 
 den Illinois ( ?) wohin ich in 8-10 Tagen iiber St. Louis heimkehre 
 wieder zu sehen und ervvarte mit Spannung Ihre Ankunft durch 
 den nachsten Missouri Steamer. 
 
 Herzlichst der Ihrige 
 Paul Wilhelm 
 
 Herzog von Wiirttemberg. 
 Heir ist voller Sommer. 
 Addressed : Balduin Mollhausen, 
 Bethlehem, 
 
 Ufer Missouri. 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Alles ist nun fiir Sie gegliickt, theurer Mollhausen, ganz wie ich 
 so herzlich gewunscht und wie Sie es so sehr verdienen. Der 
 
 Konig hat sich etwas aus dem Ende meiner Vorrede (Ihr Lob) 
 
 vorlesen lassen ; hat 3 Kupfertafeln, die ich gezeigt bewundert; 
 und den Orden 4ter Classe jetzt gleich fiir Sie fest bewilligt. Er 
 hofft bestimmt Sie am Donnerstag friih nach 9 Uhr (zwischen 9 
 und 9^2) zu empfangen; auch hat Er das Versprechen eines Ge- 
 schenkes von 50 bis 60 Friedr. d or (ausserordentliches Reisegeld) 
 wiederholt bewilligt. Ich habe alle Hoffnung dass Sie der K6nig r 
 der allerdings etwas unzulassiger in Audienzen vvegen seiner Krank- 
 lichkeit geworden ist, Donnerstag vor oder nach dem Friihstuck 
 oder zu einer anderen Zeit des Tages z. B. nach Tische sehen wird, 
 doch bitte ich Sie sich ja darauf einzurichten, dass Sie die Nacht 
 bleiben, damit der Konig Sie allenfalls Freitag friih sehen kann. Das 
 erst Sonnabend fertig werden der Kupfertafeln fiir den abwesenden 
 Graf Keller ist ziemlich gleichgiiltig. Sie haben genugsam fur den 
 Konig, alles andere sind Hoflichkeiten. Sie konnen die Exemplare, 
 ohne selbst wieder hieher zu kommen, schicken. Das Wichtige ist 
 schon erreicht und Sie miissen bis Dienstag, d. n. Aug.(?) Ihre 
 Zeit beisammen halten. Ich habe den personlichen Abschied, was 
 vielleicht dem Konig angenehm gewesen ware, nicht bis Sonntag 
 
 nach der Kirche aufschieben mogen Sie miissen, wenn Sie 
 
 das Kleinod (den Orden) haben. verabredeter Massen zu Hof- 
 
160 Baldum Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 rath Peisker auf die Ordenscommission vor Sonntag mit einem 
 Briefe von mir bewaffnet gehen. 
 
 Da der Neid in Berlin unter Kiinstlern und bei am Hofe Ange- 
 stellten floriert, so sprechen Sie von dem Orden und Geldgeschenken 
 mit Niemand als Ihrer Gattin, Schwiegereltern und Familie aber 
 von meiner Vorrede und dem Lobe das ich so gerne Ihnen zolle 
 sprechen Sie iiberall. Das Andere mag man erfahren wenn Sie 
 weg sind. 
 
 Ihre liebenswiirdige Gattin wird Ihre Freude theilen wie die 
 meinige. 
 
 A. Humboldt. 
 4- 
 
 [A letter of recommendation which Mollhausen received from 
 Humboldt on the former s second journey to America.] 
 
 I beg everyone in America, and most particularly everyone in 
 the beautiful and fertile regions of the United States, who may have 
 preserved some recollections of my name and labors, to receive, with 
 kindness, the bearer of these lines, my countryman Mr. Balduin 
 Mollhausen, in whose fate I take a lively and warm interest. After 
 having served in the army with great distinction and to the entire 
 satisfaction of his superiors, he undertakes a second voyage in the 
 Northwestern States and their adjoining territories which he has 
 already traversed with laborious care. Instructed by the intimate 
 relations which he enjoys with the learned naturalists of my country, 
 acquainted with the deficiencies of the Museums, by his intelligent 
 zeal and his courageous and enduring activity, he will be very useful 
 as a Collector for the natural history of savage animals and the 
 study of minerals and rocks. A very remarkable talent for drawing, 
 as applied to picturesque sites and scenes of Indian life, will add 
 to the fruits of his distant voyages. 
 
 Mr. Mollhausen, belonging to an honorable family of Pomerania, 
 is of a moral character worthy of entire confidence. By his conduct 
 and modest simplicity, he has won here, in a short time, the affection 
 of my friends. 
 
 Bn. Alexander v. Humboldt. 
 
 Berlin, i6th of April, 1853. 
 5- 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Ich hatte heute Morgen in einem kleinen heiteren Briefe, den ich 
 dem Konige, beim Aufstehen, durch den Kammerdiener Thisch (?) 
 geben Hess, an Ihre 50 Stuck Friedrichs d or erinnert. Das erste 
 Wort, was er mir heute Mittag vor der Tafel sagte, war : Ihre Geld- 
 sache fiir Mollhausen ist ganz nach Ihrem Wunsche abgemacht. 
 Da nun der Kammerer Sonnabend Potsdam verlasst, so glaube ich 
 dass Sie denselben bloss morgen schon fragen sollten "ob Ihre 
 Zeichnungen bei ihm liegen ; der Konig habe mir erlaubt, dieselben 
 nach Berlin mit zu nehmen, um sie der geogr. Gesellschaft zu 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 161 
 
 zeigen !" Das Geld wircl er Ihnen schon von selbst zuschicken, denke 
 ich. Viele herzliche Griisse Ihrer liebenswurdigen hoffnungsvollen 
 Gattin. 
 
 A. Humboldt. 
 Mittwoch Abend. 
 
 6. 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Ich glaube, mein lieber M , dass es Sie erfreuen muss, dass 
 der Konig, seitdem er nicht bloss durch mich Ihre so naturgetreu 
 aufgefassten Zeichnungcn of Indian, life, sondern auch Sie selbst 
 hier im Schlosse gesehen hat, mir mehrmals freundlichst von Ihnen 
 gesprochen hat; sich Hires Oheims, eines wiirdigen Geistlichen in 
 Pommern lebhaft erinnert, und viel Antheil an dem, fur die 
 Naturgeschichte und die Sammlungen gewiss niitzlichen Erfolg 
 Ihrer Reise nimmt. Meinem vortrefflichen Freunde, dem Geh. Rath 
 und Professor Lichtenstein, der sich Ihrer so edel angenommen 
 und dem ich Ihre Bekanntschaft verdanke, miissen Sie diese Zeilen 
 ^eign. Gott segne Ihr neues Unternehmen. 
 
 Alexander v. Humboldt. 
 Berlin, den 13. April 1853. 
 
 Addressed : Dem preuss. Unteroffizier, 
 Herrn Mollhausen, 
 
 Berlin, Klosterstr. 83. 
 
 7- 
 [From the Prussian Ambassador, Leo Gerolt, to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Washington, den I5ten Mai 1853. 
 Euer Excellenz 
 
 Hochverehrte Schreiben vom 8. Marz und 16. April d. J. habe 
 ich erhalten, letzteren durch Herrn Mollhausen welcher vor einigen 
 Tagen hier eingetroffen ist ; es bedarf keiner Versicherung meiner 
 Seits welche Freude mir Ihre giitigen Mittheilungen gemacht haben 
 und wie dankbar ich Ew. Excellenz fur Ihr stetes Wohlwollen gegen 
 mich verpflichtet bin. Der Empfehlung Sr. Majestat Unseres 
 Konigs und dem Zauber Ihrer Schriftziige zu Gunsten des Herrn 
 Mollhausen hat derselbe es zu verdanken dass ihm hier sogleich 
 vortheilhafte Anerbietungen gemacht worden sind welche seine 
 Reisezwecke in jeder Hinsicht fordern miissen. Nachdem ich ihn 
 mit den Personen welche ihm niitzlich sein konnten, bekannt ge 
 macht hatte, empfehle ich ihn fur eine der wissenschaftlichen Ex- 
 peditionen welche im Begriff stehen in verschiedenen Richtungen 
 die nordamerikanischen Continente zu untersuchen um die giinstig- 
 sten Verhaltnisse zu einer Eisenbahn nach dem stillen Ocean auszu- 
 finden, wie Ew. Excellenz aus dem hier beigefiigten Zeitungsartikel 
 ersehen werden. Bey der Expedition des Lieutenant Whipple, eines 
 ausgezeichneten Offiziers, welcher seinen Weg iiber Memphis, Fort 
 Smith, Arkansas, Albuquerque und New Mexico nach Californien 
 
162 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 nimmt, war noch eine Stelle als Zeichner und Naturalien-Sammler 
 frey welche ihm gegen freyen Unterhalt und Reisekosten und 100 
 Dollars Gehalt monatlich, angeboten ward. Die Expedition wird 
 wohl ein paar Jahre dauern und er kann sich dabei den grossten 
 Theil seines Gehalts ersparen; er wird noch 3 bis 4 Wochen hier 
 bleiben und diese Zeit zu Vorbereitungen und Studien verwenden 
 da das Smithsonian Institute ihm verschiedene Auftrage zu physi- 
 kalischen Beobachtungen giebt ; ich fiige hier ein Schreiben von ihm 
 an Ew. Excellenz bey ; ..... x 
 
 Meine Frau welche mit den Kindern sich wohl befindet, dankt 
 Ew. Excellenz fur Ihre giitigen Griisse und wir vereinigen unsere 
 Wiinsche und Gebete fur Ihr ungetriibtes Wohlseyn und stete Zu- 
 friedenheit. 
 
 In der Hoffnung Sie meinen hochverehrten Conner, bald wieder- 
 zusehen verharre ich mit treuer Anhanglichkeit und in dankbarer 
 Hochverehrung, Ihr 
 
 gehorsamster 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 8. 
 
 [Leo Gerolt, Prussian ambassador to the United States to Hum- 
 boldt] 
 
 Baltimore, den 28. November 1853. 
 Mein hochverehrter theuerster Conner ! 
 
 Kurz vor Abgang der heutigen Post iiber England, erhalte ich 
 die lang erwarteten Nachrichten von Mollhausen aus Albuquerque 
 in Neu Mexico und ich freue mich herzlich die Anlagen fiir Ew. 
 Excellenz und fiir Fraulein Seif ert hier beyzuschliessen ; er schickt 
 mir zugleich eine Anweisung von 400 Dollars die er von seinem 
 Gehalte bereits erspart hat und bittet mich zu Gunsten des Fraulein 
 Seifert dariiber nach bestem Gutdiinken zu verfiigen. 
 
 Das Zweckmassigste scheint mir, dass Frl. S. nach dem Rathe 
 ihres Vaters und Ew. Excellenz, dort uber das Geld verfiige ob- 
 gleich hier allerdings hohere Interessen davon zu ziehen waren. So- 
 bald ich das Geld in Washington bezogen haben werde, werde ich 
 den Betrag davon durch die Konigliche Legations Kasse an die Or 
 der von Frl. Seifert auszahlen lassen. 
 
 Bey meiner letzten Anwesenheit in Washington sah ich die scho- 
 nen Zeichnungen welche Mollhausen an das Smithsonian Institut 
 gesandt hatte und wovon er die Originale bey sich f iihrt ; seine nach- 
 sten Nachrichten aus Californien werden wohl lange auf sich warten 
 lassen und ich bitte Ew. Excellenz das Frl. S. dariiber zu beruhigen. 
 Bevor die Expedition nach Californien gelangt, wird es schwer 
 seyn Brief e hierher zu senden. 
 
 Gestatten Euer Excellenz dass ich im Geiste und im Gebete 
 mich den frommen Wiinschen und Huldigungen anschliesse welche 
 
 1 More than half of this letter, having no further references to Moll 
 hausen, has been omitted. 
 
Ralduin Mollhausen , The German Cooper 163 
 
 der reine und kraftige Jiingling Ihnen zum neuen Jahro darbringt. 
 Mein Freund Lt. Maury sandte mir ein versiegeltes Schrciben 
 an Ew. Excellenz, worin das Profil der Meeres Tiefen im atlan- 
 tischen Ocean sich befindet. Ich habe das Schreiben mit andern 
 Drucksachen fiir das K. Ministerium mit dem Bremer DampfschifT 
 "Hansa" nach Berlin befordert. 
 
 Die Kiirze der Zeit erlaubt mir heute, nur noch einige Curiosa 
 aus hiesigen Zeitungen hier beyzuschlicssen und mich dem ferncren 
 \\ ohlwollen Ew. Excellenz zu empfehlen indem ich mit unwandel- 
 barer Hochverehrung und Freundshaft verharrc. 
 Ew. Excellenz 
 
 treu ergebenster 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 
 9- 
 
 [Addressed to Alex, von Humbolt.] 
 
 Baltimore, den 28. Dezember 1853. 
 Ew. Excellenz 
 
 Hatte ich die Ehre unterm 28. November, und 2. d. M. zu schrei- 
 ben und die Reiseberichte nebst verschiedenen Schreiben von Herrn 
 Mollhausen beyzufiigen. 
 
 In der Anlage erlaube ich mir ein Schreiben von Herrn Kas- 
 tellan Seifert beyzufiigen worin sich eine Anweisung von Rthr. 
 550 10 Sgr. 4 pf. zahlbar bey F. M. von Magnus an die Order von 
 Fraukin Caroline Seifert befindet. Dieses Geld ist der Betrag von 
 400 Dollars welche Herr Mollhausen an mich mit dem Ersuchen 
 remittirt hat dieselben zur Verfiigung des Frl. Seifert zu stellen. 
 
 Indem ich mich auf meine vorerwahnten Schreiben zu beziehen 
 mir erlaube, habe ich die Ehre Euer Excellenz die Versicherungen 
 meiner unbegrenzten Hochachtung und Verehrung zu erneuern. 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 
 10. 
 
 [From the Prussian ambassador to the United States to Herr 
 Seifert] 
 
 Baltimore, den 28. Dezember 1853. 
 
 An den Koniglichen Castellan, 
 
 Herrn Seifert \Yohlgeboren zu Berlin. 
 
 Durch seine Excellenz Herrn Baron von Humboldt werden Sie 
 bereits erfahren haben dass Herr H. B. Mnllhausen mich bcauf- 
 tragt hat 400 Dollars zur Verfiigung Ihrer Fraulein Tochter Caroline 
 zu stellen und da der Cours fiir Rimessen nach Europa sehr un- 
 giinstig ist so habe ich vorgezogen das Geld auf mein Zuguthaben 
 dort bey F. M. von Magnus anzuweisen wobey die iiblichen Com- 
 missionen fiir Wechsel Courtage p. p. erspart werden ; ich iiber- 
 sende Ihnen hierbey den Betrag von 399 Dollars welche ich von 
 Washington bezogen habe in einer Tratte von Herrn Magnus an die 
 Order Ihrer Fraulein Tochter zum Betrage von Rthr. 550 10 Sgr. 
 
164 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 4 pf. und ich bitte Sie mir den Empfangschein dafiir zukommen zu 
 lassen. 
 
 Von Herrn Mollhausen werden wir nun sobald keine Nachricht 
 erhalten da er nicht eher schreiben kann als bis er in San Diego in 
 Californien angekommen sein wird. 
 
 Im nachsten Friihjahr wird er wohl hierher zuriick komnien. 
 Wie er mir zuletzt schrieb, gefiel es ihm sehr gut bey der Expedition 
 des Lt. Whipple und ich glaube dass der Weg, den er gemacht, die 
 Richtung der grossen Eisenbahn werden wird welche den atlan- 
 tischen Ocean mit dem stillen Ocean verbinden soil, Sr. Excellenz 
 Herr v. Humboldt wird Ihnen den Weg auf seinen Charten zeigen. 
 
 Mit dem Wunsche dass Sie und die Ihrigen sich wohl befmden 
 und ein vergniigtes neues Jahr haben mogen, verharre ich 
 Ihr ergebenster 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 
 P. S. Zum nachsten Sommer hoffe ich nach Berlin zu kommen. 
 
 [Leo Gerolt, Prussian ambassador to the United States to Hum 
 boldt.] 
 Ew. Excellenz 
 
 Hochverehrte Zeilen vom 20. d. M. erhalte ich so eben vor Ab- 
 gang der heutigen Post. Indem ich die Beantwortung derselben mir 
 vorbehalte, erlaube ich mir heute nur die beiden Drucksachen bey- 
 zuschliessen und Ew. Excellenz fur die wiederholten Beweise 
 Ihrer steten Wohlgewogenheit herzlich zu danken. 
 
 Vor einigen Tagen erhielt ich ein Schreiben an Mollhausen aus 
 Berlin was ich gleich nach Californien befordert habe wo M. jetzt 
 hoffentlich gliicklich angekommen ist. 
 
 Entschuldigen Ew. Excellenz meine Eile und genehmigen die 
 Gefuhle meiner unbegrenzten Hochverehrung und treuer Freund- 
 schaft Ihres dankbar ergebensten 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 Baltimore d. 13. Marz 1854. 
 
 12. 
 
 [From Lieut. Whipple to Humboldt.] 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 August 8, 1854. 
 To His Excellency 
 
 Baron Alexander von Humboldt. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 As you have been kind enough to express an interest regarding 
 the results obtained upon our last trip across the continent, I hope 
 you will do me the favor to accept the accompanying living speci 
 mens of cactaceae. They were collected by Dr. Bigelow, the inde 
 fatigable botanist of the party. My friend, Mr. Mollhausen, has 
 
Ralduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 165 
 
 kindly volunteered to present them into your hands. He feels in them 
 an interest probably inferior to none, for in making his capital draw 
 ings he has attentively studied them. They consist of the fol 
 lowing 
 
 Similar species have been collected by yourself upon the plains 
 of Mexico and these may serve to recall pleasant associations of 
 earlier days. 
 
 With sentiments of the highest respect and esteem, I am truly 
 Your Obedient Servant, 
 
 A. W. Whipple. 
 13- 
 
 [The following was written by Humboldt as a communication to 
 some newspaper.] 
 
 In einer Privatmitteilung aus Potsdam vom 31. Marz (Nr. 79 
 dieser Zeitung) ist, wahrscheinlich durch Missverstandniss veran- 
 lasst, gesagt worden, dass ein Inspector der Konig. Menagerie auf 
 der Pfaueninsel angestellt worden sei, der auch die Oberaufsicht 
 iiber die Kunstwerke in Potsdam und Sanssouci mit Umgebungen, 
 Fiihrer werde. Herr Mollhausen, dessen wissenschaftlichen sehr 
 interessanten Vortrage iiber die von ihm durchreisten Lander im 
 Westen von Missouri in der geographischen Gesellschaft in diesen 
 Blattern mehrmals gedacht wurde, ist von Sr. Maj. dem Konige zum 
 Gustos der in den Schlossern in und um Potsdam aufgewahrten 
 Bibliotheken ernannt und ihm zugleich die Oberaufsicht iiber die 
 Behandlung der Tiere auf der Pfaueninsel anbefohlen worden. 
 
 Alexander Humboldt. 
 14. 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 In parts utterly illegible. 
 
 Ich eile, mein theurer Mollhausen, Ihnen fur die freundliche 
 Mittheilung Hires Manuscriptes innigst zu danken. Es hat mir den 
 angenehmsten Eindruck gemacht und ist schon genug davon gelesen, 
 um Ihnen zu sagen dass es sich sehr zum Drucke eignet, in einer 
 sehr gebildeten Sprache geschrieben und voll Leben, Natur und 
 Sittenverhaltnisse der wilden und (was seltener ist) halbwilden 
 
 Stamme schildert Dieses Lob kann ich jetzt in weit hoherem 
 
 Maasse wiederholen. Eine gewisse Massigung, Vermeidung red- 
 
 seliger Breite, Natiirlichkeit zeichnen Ihre sehr lobenswerthe 
 
 Arbeit aus Ich habe keinen Zweifel dass wir ein Buchhandler 
 
 finden werden 
 
 Alex. v. Humboldt. 
 
 Berlin, 28. November 1855. 
 
 15- 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 "Allerdings wunsche ich Mollhausen und seine Zeichnungen end- 
 lich zu sehen. Da er nahe wohnt, so sagen Sie ihm, dass er mehrere 
 
1 66 Balduin Mollhausen , The German Cooper 
 
 Morgan vorkommt und sich melde, zuerst aber morgen Montag 
 friih zum Friihstuck, wenn ich ihn dann nicht empfangen kann, 
 einen anderen Morgen." 
 
 So, lieber Mollhausen, war heute Abend die Antwort. Ich lege 
 Ihnen zur Legitimation einige ostensible Zeilen fiir den Fliigelad- 
 jutanten zum Melden bei. Ich gehe morgen Sonntag um 8 Uhr nach 
 Berlin. 
 
 Viele Griisse Hirer liebenswiirdigen Gattin. 
 
 Freundschaftlichst Ihr 
 
 A. Humboldt. 
 Sonnabend Nacht. 
 
 16. 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Erne angenehme Nachricht kann man nicht friih genug geben. 
 Der Konig, hochbefriedigt von Ihren schonen und interessanten 
 Reisebildern, hat mir mit grosser Freundlichkeit versprochen, 
 dass er gern Ihre ..... Bilder(?) wird zahlen lassen. Ich werde 
 ihn schriftlich daran erinnern damit er es den Geh. Kammerern 
 anzeige. Er hat dabei nicht genug die Lebhaftigkeit Ihrer Unter- 
 haltung preisen konnen. Auch habe ich den Nachmittag in der 
 Gegenwart der Konigin und der Grossherzogin von Mecklenburg 
 Mutter Ihre Bilder zeigen miissen. Mogen Sie und Ihre Gattin von 
 aller Sorge befreit sein. 
 
 Freundschaftlichst Ihr 
 
 A. v. Humboldt. 
 Montags. 
 Addressed: Sr. Wohlgeb. Herrn Mollhausen, 
 
 Gustos der Bibliotheken in den Schlossern zu Potsdam. 
 Berlin, Ritterstrasse 39. 
 
 New Orleans, La., den 6ten Mai 1856. 
 Mein lieber Mollhausen ! 
 
 Mit innigstem Vergniigen durchlas ich Ihr liebevolles Schreiben, 
 welches ich durch die Vermittlung unseres Freundes des Herrn 
 Consul Angelrodt gestern hier erhielt. Mein Erstes ist Ihnen meine 
 innige Theilnahme zu Ihrem hauslichen Gliick auszusprechen und 
 zu der Vaterfreude zu gratuliren. Sie sehen das die Menschen 
 denken und der gute alte Gott es zu ihrem Besten lenkt. Derselbe 
 grosse Vater alles Erschaffenen, der uns auf so wundervolle Weise 
 aus der drohendsten Todesnoth und vielfachen beynahe iiber- 
 menschlichen Beschwerden und Gefahren errettete, erhorte mein 
 Gebet an jenem verhangnisvollen Abend in unserem Indianerzelt und 
 fiihrte Sie und Mich auf den Weg des Heiles weiter. Ich gratulire 
 Ihnen ebenfalls lieber Mollhausen, dass es Ihnen gelungen ist das 
 Wohlwollen eines so grossen Mannes wie das unseres unver- 
 gleichlichen Alexander von Humboldt zu gewinnen. Dies ge- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 167 
 
 reicht Ihnen zur grossten Ehre, denn Hr. von Humboldt hat 
 nicht als irdischer Herrscher oder Eroberer sich viele Blat 
 ter in der Geschichte dedicirt, das unvergangliche Reich des 
 Wissens um Jahrhunderte aber befordert und wird gleich einem 
 Aristoteles oder Herodotos unter den Vatern der Wissenschaft den 
 ersten Platz einnehmen. Nur mit Ehrfurcht nenne ich den Namen 
 des grossen gelehrten Mannes und rechne es mir zu der unbeding- 
 testen Ehre und zu den gliicklichsten Riickerinnerungen von Sr. 
 Excellenz personlich gekannt zu sein. Ich bitte Hr. von Humboldt 
 mich achtungsvollst zu empfehlen. 
 
 Durch Ihre letzte Expedition nach der Westkiiste, mitten durch 
 die Steppenwiisten \velche den oberen Rio Grande von dem Rio 
 Gilo und dem Westlichen Colorado trennen, bewohnt von wilden 
 Horden, unter denen die Apaches die bedeutendsten sind, haben Sie 
 sich einen Namen gemacht der sehr ehrenwerth ist. Umsomehr 
 als Sie sich nicht durch die arge Noth abschrecken liessen, welche 
 Sie mit mir bestanden haben, eine neue gefahrvolle Reise zu unter- 
 nehmen. Auch ich habe seit den letzten vier Jahren lange Reisen 
 zu Ende gebracht. Im Winter 52-53 von New York nach Australien 
 in See gegangen musste (in grosster Detress) mein Schiff aus den 
 Gewassern des Vorgebirges d. G. H. nach der Siidamerikanischen 
 Kiiste zuriicksegeln. Nachdem ich einen grossen Theil Brasiliens be- 
 reist hatte, ging ich in die Laplata Lander iiber, besuchte den weniger 
 erforschten Uruguay bis zu den Crahdeischen Missionen, dann 
 Entre Rios und die Pampas von Buenos Ayres. Das Gliick war 
 mir giinstig. Ein Kaiserlich franzosischer Schraubendampfer, der 
 "Duroe" nahm mich auf. Seinen Zweck ganz Magellanien und 
 Feuerland, die siidlichen und N. Westlichen Canale bis zum Cap 
 Ares los montes mit inbegriffen zu besuchen, gluckte vollstandig 
 und viele wohl \vie in einer Reihe zusammengefiigte Landschaften 
 sah ich in einem ganzen Bilde vereinigt. Ein langerer und ein 
 Kiirzerer Aufenthalt in Chile und Peru vermehrten die interesse- 
 vollen Erinnerungen. Sehr umfangreiche Sammlungen waren 
 die Friichte nicht unbedeutender Anstrengungen. Die zwei 
 letzten Jahre bearbeitete ich Canada, die siidlichen atlantischen 
 Staaten und beinahe ganz Texas. Ein Versuch durch die Siony 
 Lander nach Oregon vorzudringen misslang vollstandig an den 
 feindseligen Gesinnungen unserer alten Bekannten der Ogelalas und 
 Titon Siony. Sie errinnern mich an die riesigen Formen einzelner 
 Indianer dieser Stamme. Die grossten menschlichen Gestalten der 
 rothen Race im nordl. Continent fand ich unter den Ohagen Matas 
 und den Ogelala. In der siidlichen Hemisphere sind es wohl die 
 
 Patagonien welche nachhaltig sieben Fuss engl. Maas erreichen 
 
 und deren Oberkorper namentlich im Gegensatz der Beine auffallend 
 ausgebildet ist, so dass ich sie sitzend noch grosser als stehend 
 \\ahnte. . 
 
168 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Ich griisse Sie herzlichst, gehe im Juni nach Europa zuriick und 
 sende eben meine Leute und Sachen ab. Zu dieser letzten Expedi 
 tion hatte ich sorgfaltige Vorbereitungen, gute Wagen, Leute und 
 Pferde gekauft und musste alles vereitelt sehen. Nun mit Gott der 
 Ihrige als Ihr treuer alter Freund 
 
 Paul von Wiirttemberg. 
 
 Vergeben Sie die grosse Eile mit der ich diese Zeilen hinkritzle. 
 Ich empfehle mich Ihrer Gattin unbekannter Weise. 
 
 18. 
 
 [Addressed to Alexander von Humboldt] 
 Euer Excellenz ! 
 
 Haben durch Dero gtitiges Schreiben mich ungemein erfreut 
 und beehrt. Die giitige Nachsicht mit welcher Dieselben meine 
 Anstrengungen im Fache des geographischen und naturhistorischen 
 Wissens aufnehmen, kann nur den Drang vermehren durch rastloses 
 Fortschreiten in dieser Bahn, mich des Anerkenntnisses eines 
 Mannes wiirdig zu zeigen, den das Jahrhundert bewundert und 
 mit vollem Rechte in Hochderenselben als den grossten Gelehrten 
 verehrt. Wie oft schweiften meine Gedanken in jenen entfernten 
 Landern zu dem beriihmten Verfasser des Cosmos, zu dem Manne 
 hin, der zuerst helles Licht leuchten Hess in jene damals unerforsch- 
 ten Landerstrecken der Amerikanischen Tropenzone, dessen Name 
 noch heute, nach mehr denn 50 Jahren, die Bewunderung aller 
 Reisenden erregt, welche Mexico, die Orenoco Gestade, oder die 
 siidliche Westkiiste bearbeiten. In der Hauptstadt des Azteken 
 Reiches, so wie an den Ufern des Rimai(?) wurde ich lebhaft und 
 im warmsten Interesse fiir die Wissenschaft nach dem Befinden 
 Euer Excellenz befragt und in den entferntesten Regionen Slid- und 
 Nordamerikas, gilt Dero Ausspruch als entscheidend. 
 
 Ich habe in den letzten 7 Jahren sehr viele Gegenden der west- 
 lichen Welt beruhrt und durchkreuzt, welche Stoff liefern fiir eine 
 langere Arbeit. Von hohem Interesse war es fur mich gleich im er- 
 sten Jahr der letzten Reise (1849) das westliche Texas, den siid- 
 lichen Rio Grande zu bearbeiten, ich verwendete hierzu 5 Monate 
 und hatte viel von den rauberischen Comanches und Lepans zu 
 leiden. Eine fiir den naturhistorischen Geographen wichtige Strecke, 
 von Monterey bis Durango, Chihuahua, und der Westkiiste von Cina- 
 boa und Sonora eroffnete sich mir auf den vulcanischen Hoch- 
 ebenen zwischen der Sierra Madre und dem Hochzug der westlichen 
 Cordilleren, als Fortsatz der S. Nevada und der grossen Sierra 
 welche sich in Neu Mexico nach Westen abdacht. 
 
 Euer Excellenz haben so grundlich dieses Gebiet studirt dass ich na- 
 turlich nichts sagen kann, was nicht Dieselben langst wissen, nur 
 bemerken will ich, wie das Studieren Ihrer Schriften meine Auf- 
 merksamkeit vermehrte und ich mich am Anblick des Cerro de Mer- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 169 
 
 cado im Norden von der schonen Stadt Durango nicht satt sehen 
 konnte. Eine wundervolle Scenerie bilden die Gebirge im Westen 
 Durangos, wo der Tural Fluss zuerst seine schaumenden Wasser 
 gegen den pacifischen Ocean wendet, bis Echevaria anmitten einer 
 Region geselliger Coniferen und welch ein Anblick von der Hohe 
 
 des Vatel hinab in das Kiistengebiet des Meeres von Cortey 
 
 Von meinen kreuz und quer Ziigen in Nord- und Siid-Californien 
 werde ich mir spater erlauben Euer Excellenz zu referiren. Die 
 Jahre 1851-52 benuzte ich, nachdem ich iiber den Isthmus von Pana 
 ma (damals freilich noch iiber Cruzes und Gorgona auf dem 
 Riicken von Thieren bey grundlosen Wegen, oder in einem Kahn 
 auf dem Chagres Fluss) nach New Orleans zuriickgekehrt war, 
 den Norden und Westen wieder in Angriff zu nehmen. Hier be- 
 gleitete mich der treue, biedere Mollhausen den Euer Excellenz 
 so giitig in Schutz nahmen und wofiir ich stets Deroselben hochlichst 
 verpflichtet sein werde. \\ ie viele Drangsale und Gefahren wir be- 
 standen haben, wird Hochderenselben bekannt sein und die Ge- 
 schichte vom Schluss dieser westlichen Expedition klingt so fabel- 
 haft, dass ich es fur gerathener halte so wenig wie moglich daruber 
 verlauten zu lassen. Von dem merkwiirdigen Chemirey(P) Rock 
 habe ich gute Croquis angefertigt und Mollhausen wird Euer Ex 
 cellenz alles mitgetheilt haben. Im Jahre 1853 schiffte ich mich zu 
 New York ein um nach Austral ien zu gehen. Mangel aller Art und 
 Avarien nothigten das Schiff von der S. Kiiste Africas nach Brasi- 
 lien zuriickzukehren. Ich bearbeitete die Gegenden um Bohio und 
 Rio, fuhr nach Montevideo und ging den Uruguay bis nordlich der 
 Saltos, und besuchte Buenos Ayres und die Pampas. Auf dem 
 K. franz. Schraubenschiff "Duroe", commandant Vcte. de la Seis- 
 sieres, einem trefflichen Xautiker bereisten wir die Kiisten Patago- 
 niens und fuhren am Cap der Jungfrauen in die Meerenge von 
 Magellanien ein. Da die Bestimmung des Schiffes die nordlichen 
 Canale zu untersuchen vollstandig gelungen ist und wir ofters laude- 
 ten, so hatte ich die Gelegenheit diese entfernten, wenig erforschten 
 Kiisten bis Chiloe wie das siidliche Alpenland von S. W. Chile und 
 Heuerlancl, und deren wilden Urbewohnern kennen zu lernen. Uber 
 Chile und Peru kehrte ich zuriick, konnte aber leider von Guajaquil 
 nicht bis zum Chimboraso gelangen und musste mich mit der Fern- 
 sicht begniigen. In Chile war ich glucklicher und konnte mehr in 
 der Nahe die nachtige Andeskette und die riesigen Spitzen des Acon 
 cagua und Tumpungato besichtigen. 
 
 Die hochste Gnade Seiner Koniglichen Majestat erfreute mich 
 sehr und ich werde spater meine respectvollste Aufwartung machen. 
 
170 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Genehmigen Dieselben die Wiederholung meiner aufrichtigen 
 Hochschatzung und die Gefiihle der ehrfurchtsvollen Freundschaft 
 mit denen ich mich nenne. 
 
 Euer Excellenz 
 
 ganz ergebenster Diener 
 Paul Wilhelm, 
 
 Herzog von Wiirttemberg. 
 Carlsruhe in Schlesien, 
 den 28. August 1856. 
 
 19. 
 
 Carlsruhe in Schlesien, den 8. September 1856. 
 Mein lieber Herr Mollhausen ! 
 
 Vergeben Sie dass ich Ihnen erst heute fruh schreibe, aber die 
 wichtigsten Geschafte und Schreibereyen nahmen selbst meine 
 Nachte in Anspruch. Herzlich danke ich fiir den Brief Seiner Hoch- 
 ehrwiirdigen Excellenz. Dieses Schreiben des grosstlebenden Ge- 
 lehrten und dem Nestor der Reisenden riihrte mich tief. Ich ant- 
 wortete sogleich und habe auch dem Hr. Baron Ihrer Treue erwahnt 
 und der fabelhaften Leiden denen Sie mit mir in jenem ungliick- 
 seligen Riickzug ausgesetzt waren. Auch ich trug lange einen Denk- 
 zettel von den ausgestandenen Strapatzen in den Winterfrosten da- 
 von. 
 
 Bis nachsten Mittwoch den loten, also iibermorgen, werde ich 
 um 7 Uhr Morgens von Breslau abgehen und daher gegen 5 Uhr 
 Abends in Berlin eintreffen. Leider kann ich, da ich sehr beeilt bin, 
 noch nicht sagen ob ich ubernacht bleiben kann. Jedenfalls wiirde 
 es mir Umstande machen in Potsdam zu bleiben. 
 
 Da ich den Winter auf mehrere Tage nach Berlin gehen werde, 
 konnen wir uns ja auch nachher in Potsdam sehen wo ich Sie dann 
 bitten werde mich Ihrer Gemahlin vorzustellen. 
 
 Herzlichst nenne ich mich Ihr ergebener Freund, 
 Paul Wilhelm, 
 
 Herzog von Wiirttemberg. 
 Addressed : 
 
 Seiner Hochwohlgeboren 
 Herrn Balduin Mollhausen, 
 
 Gustos der Konigl. Bibliothek, Potsdam. 
 
 20. 
 
 [From Humboldt to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Ich freue mich theurer Mollhausen, Ihnen heute schon die Nach- 
 richt mittheilen zu konnen, dass der Konig, als ein besonderes 
 Zeichen Seiner Zuf riedenheit Ihnen den Rothen Adler Orden, vierter 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 171 
 
 Klasse, gegeben hat. Das Kreuz, das Sie morgen tragen sollen, ist 
 schon in meinen Handen. 
 
 Freundschaftlichst Ihr 
 
 A. v. Humboldt. 
 Potsdam, den 5. August 1857. 
 An Herrn Balduin Mollhausen, 
 Ritter des Rothen Adler Ordens, 
 vierter Klasse, Gustos der Bibliotheken 
 der Schlosser Sr. Majestat des Konigs, 
 in und bei Potsdam in Berlin. 
 
 21. 
 
 [From the Prussian ambassador, Leo Gerolt, to Alexander von 
 Humboldt.] 
 
 Washington, den 12. Juli 1858. 
 Mein hoch- und innigstverehrter Conner ! 
 
 Seit meinem letzten Schreiben an Euer Excellenz vom 5. d. M. 
 habe ich eine Unterhaltung mit dem Kriegsminister Floyd gehabt 
 und ihm den Wunsch der Madame Mollhausen vorgetragen "dass 
 ihr Mann die Arbeiten seiner Expedition in Berlin beendigen moge 
 anstatt hier in Washington." Ich sagte Hr. Floyd dass es Ew. Ex 
 cellenz auch sehr wiinschten worauf er mir erwiderte dass er es gern 
 gewahren wolle if Baren Humboldt desires it. Man kann nun doch 
 nicht ganz sicher darauf rechnen da von Seiten der Subalternen und 
 der hiesigen Gelehrten allerlei Eifersucht und Intriguen zu befiirch- 
 ten seyen. Hr. Mollhausen wird wohl vor September nicht zuruck- 
 kommen. 
 
 Auf seiner Expedition wird er nun den Mormonen begegnen wel- 
 che nach dem Siiden und Salt-lake auszuwandern begonnen haben 
 und ihre Weiber vorausschicken um sie in Sicherheit zu bringen. 
 Frau Mollhausen wird hoffentlich nicht erschrecken wenn sie erfahrt 
 dass ihr Mann unter soviel Weiber gerathen diirfte. 
 
 Von Hr. Ex-President Tillmore habe ich einen freundlichen 
 Brief erhalten wovon ich Euer Excellenz eine Abschrift hierbeifiige. 
 
 Herr Corcoran lasst sich Ew. Excellenz auch freundlichst emp- 
 fehlen ebenso wie Lt. Gillis dessen 3ter Theil seines Werkes ich Ew. 
 Excellenz mitbringen werde ; er steht im Begriff nach Peru zu reisen 
 um Beobachtungen fur die Paralaxe der Sonne zu machen. 
 
 Mayor Emory welcher sich in seinem report iiber die Mexican 
 Boundary Expedition, so ungebiihrlich iiber Ew. Excellenz aus- 
 gesprochen hatte, ist dafur in einem Artikel, von kundiger Hand, 
 im New York Herold scharf mitgenommen worden und ich erlaube 
 mir einen Abdruck davon hier beyzuschliessen. 
 
 Die Hitze dauert fort und kein Regentropfen ist seit 4 Wochen 
 gefallen. Das Wasser fangt an zu mangeln und viele Menschen 
 sterben am Sonnenstiche ; ich muss noch 8 Tage aushalten um reise- 
 fertig zu sein und werde gegen Ende dieses Monats mich in New 
 
172 Balduin Mollhausen , The German Cooper 
 
 York einschiffen. Moge die giitige Vorsehung mir vergonnen Euer 
 Excellenz bald im erwiinschten Wohlsein wieder zu sehen um Ihnen 
 auch miindlich meine Dankbarkeit auszudriicken. 
 
 Geruhen Ew. Excellenz unterdessen die Gefiihle meiner unwan- 
 delbaren Hochverehrung und Freundschaft zu genehmigen womit 
 ich die Ehre habe zu zeichnen 
 
 Ew. Excellenz 
 
 gehorsamster Diener 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 Bitte an Seifert s meine freundlichen Griisse zu machen. 
 
 22. 
 
 [From the Prussian ambassador, Leo Gerolt, to Alexander von 
 Humboldt.] 
 
 Washington, den 20. Juli 1858. 
 Euer Excellenz 
 
 Habe ich die Ehre, mit Bezugnahme auf mein letztes Schreiben 
 vom 12. d. Mts. die Anlage yon dem Kriegsminister Floyd zu iiber- 
 reichen welcher mir auch sein Bild fur Ew. Excellenz gegeben hat 
 was ich mit mir bringeii werde so wie die Fortsetzung der Pacific 
 R. Road Reports bis incl. VII welche Herr Floyd fur Ew. Excellenz 
 bestimmt hat; derselbe ist auf einige Zeit nach den Virginischen 
 Badern verreist. 
 
 Gestern wurde ich durch die Nachricht aus St. Louis uberrascht 
 dass unser Mollhausen auf der Riickreise hierher begriffen sei und 
 dass er in 3 bis 4 Wochen hier einzutreffen gedachte. Der Armste 
 hat seit Novbr. v. J. keine Nachricht von Berlin erhalten und es 
 scheint dass alle Briefe die ich von Ew. Excellenz fur ihn erhalten 
 und regelmassig durch das Kriegsministerium befordert habe, die 
 Expedition nicht erreicht hatten. Ich schrieb gleich zuriick nach 
 St. Louis dass seine Familie und Ew. Excellenz nach den letzten 
 Nachrichten alle wohl waren. 
 
 Auf dem Kriegsministerium erfuhr ich dass die Expedition, 
 nachdem sie ihren Hauptzweck erfiillt, und hundert Meilen ostlich 
 von Colorado zu Fort Defiance wegen Mangel an Lebensmittel 
 sich haben trennen miissen. Lt. Ives schreibt dass Mollhausen mit 
 7 andern Offizieren der Expedition direckt iiber Fort Union und 
 Fort Leavenworth nach St. Louis gereist seien. Der Brief von 
 Mollhausen an den Preussischen Consul zu St. Louis ist am 18. Juni 
 von Fort Union geschrieben. Lt. Ives schreibt, dass Mollhausen 
 reiche Sammlungen von Ansichten und naturhistorischen Gegen- 
 standen mitbrachte. Ob er die Sachen in Berlin bearbeiten konnen 
 wird, wie mich Herr Floyd hoffen liess, scheint mir doch etwas 
 zweifelhaft nach den Ausserungen der unteren Beamten weil man 
 fiirchtet dass Missbrauch davon gemacht werde. Lt. Ives Ansicht 
 dariiber wird den Kriegsminister wahrscheinlich bestimmen und eine 
 Zeile von Ew. Excellenz an den letztern wiirde wohl den Ausschlag 
 geben. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 173 
 
 Ich gedenke am i. August mich in New York einzuschiffen, be- 
 flugelt von sussen Hoffnungen und mit dem innigsten Wunsche Ew. 
 F.xcellenz in bestem \Yohlsein wiederzusehen und zu umarmen. 
 
 In treuer Fretindschaft und Dankbarkeit verharrend Ew. Ex- 
 cellenz 
 
 gehorsamster 
 
 Leo Gerolt. 
 
 23- 
 
 [From Mollhausen to Frau Mollhausen.] 
 
 Washington, den 20. August 1858. 
 
 Tlieuerste innig geliebte Frau, meine einzige siisse, siisse Lina! 
 Nachrichten von Dir ! ganz neue ! Dein lieber, lieber Brief vom 28. 
 Juni ist in meinen Handen. Siehst Du, meine Herzenslina, mein 
 gutes, gutes Engelsmiidel, ich bin ja nun so uberglucklich, ich weiss 
 ja dass Du und unser Kind lebt und gesund seid. Aber wie ein 
 Stein fallt mir nun wieder die Erinnerung an meine letzten Briefe 
 auf s Herz die Dir, meiner sussen Lina, gewiss Thranen entlockt 
 haben; aber verzeihe mir gute, gute Lina, sieh mal seit 10 Monaten 
 wusste ich nichts von Dir oder unserem Kinde, und das machte 
 mich so schrecklich verzweiflungsvoll. Gewiss, meine Engelslina, 
 Du wiirdest mir gleich vergeben, wenn Du mich manchmal fur Stun- 
 den und Stunden so ungliicklich auf einer Stelle sitzen oder auf 
 meinem Bett hattest liegen sehen. Du wiirdest mir vergeben wenn 
 Du mich gesehen hattest wie ich das ganze Ministerium in Aufruhr 
 brachte, so dass sie die Telegraphen sogar spielen liessen, und wenn 
 Du gesehen hattest wie mir beim Finden und Offnen Deines sussen 
 Schreibens, und beim Lesen der Worte "ich und das Kind sind wohl" 
 
 cin paar \Yassertropfen der Freude in den Bart krochen ! 
 
 Meine stete Sorge ist zum i. September genommen, ich gehe mit 
 dem sichern und prachtvollen Dampfboot "Saxonia" und werde also 
 zwischen dem 14. und 18. September in Hamburg ankommen und 
 Dir gleich per Telegraph Nachricht zukommen lassen. Am 13. 
 September also, mein Engelsmadel, schreibe mir ein paar Worte, 
 nur wie Du und das Kind sich befinden und schicke den Brief Ham 
 burg post restante damit ich gleich bei meiner Ankunft erfahre wie 
 es steht. Dein Brief an Miss Corcoran hat Effekt behabt, ich sehe 
 heute den Kriegssekretar und wenn nicht Neider entgegenarbeiten 
 so werde ich gemass des Versprechens des Hr. Floyd die Arbeiten in 
 Berlin beendigen, im entgegengesetzten Falle aber so abweisen. Ives 
 ist noch nicht gekommen und werde ich mir durch Corcoran Geld 
 verschaffen und brieflich mit Ives abschliessen. Ich muss, ich muss, 
 ich muss am iten September reisen. Du sagst der letzte Brief von 
 mir sei in trauriger Stimmung geschrieben, Du hast recht, mein 
 Engelchen, ich glaubte aber auch das wiirde mein letzter sein, denn 
 wir waren nur unsere 55 Mann, wir lagerten in einem Geholz am 
 Ufer des Colorado und waren von 2000-3000 Mohaves umringt, die 
 von den Mormonen aufgewiegelt waren, und die durch ihre fiirch- 
 
176 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 schen dieselbe. Also noch einmal aufrichtigen Dank und auf bal- 
 diges, frohes Wiedersehen. 
 
 Ihr sehr ergebener Diener, 
 
 Friedrich Karl von Preussen, 
 
 Generalfeldmarschall. 
 28. 
 
 [From Mr. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Provincetown, Mass. 
 Aug. 8, 1879. 
 My Dear Mr. Mollhausen: 
 
 Your friendly letter of the 2ist of July has just come to my 
 hands, forwarded from Washington. I heartily reciprocate all your 
 kind expression in regard to myself and family. I often think of the 
 time when you were in Washington, and of the interest with which 
 I followed your adventures in the Far West. 
 
 You ask for many of your old friends and acquaintances. Un 
 fortunately a large number of these have passed away from this 
 world. Prof. Henry died in May, 1878, and I have succeeded him 
 in charge of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Kennerly(?) died 
 in 1861, having just returned from Washington Territory. Ives 
 is dead, as also Whipple. Dr. Newberry is at present a Professor 
 in Columbia College, New York. 
 
 Mrs. and Miss Baird are well, and send their kindest remem 
 brances. 
 
 Thanks for your autograph of Humboldt. His letters are eagerly 
 sought for. 
 
 I wrote what you say in regard to seeds of American forest 
 trees, and think I can make arrangements to obtain what you want. 
 The expense will probably not be very great. As soon as I have any 
 thing definite to communicate, I will write you. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Henry (?) W. Baird. 
 H. B. Mollhausen, 
 Potsdam, Prussia. 
 
 29. 
 
 [From Maria Anna, Princess of Prussia, to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Berlin, 22. Marz 1879. 
 
 Von ganzem Herzen sage ich Ihnen Dank fur Ihr so liebens- 
 wiirdiges Gedenken und die guten Wiinsche zum Jahreswechsel. 
 Sie haben mich durch Ihre Zeilen sehr erf reut ! Mochte Gott Ihnen 
 und Ihrigen ein gesegnetes, gutes Jahr geben und Sie bewahren vor 
 Sorge und Krankheit ! Mochten Sie endlich horen und zwar nur 
 Erfreuendes von Ihrem entfernten Sohn. Ich denke noch oft an 
 die, mit Ihnen, so angenehm verlebten Abende zuruck, sie sind mir 
 eine liebe Erinnerung! Ware ich nicht durch mein schlechtes 
 Gehor ein "Storenfried" am Theetisch, da ich stets durch Zwischen- 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 177 
 
 fragen, den Gang einer Unterhaltung unterbrechen muss. Die 
 Taubheit machte einen ganz andern Menschen aus mir, friiher war 
 ich lebendig und theilnehmend und nun erscheine ich stumpf und 
 theilnahmlos. Tausend Dank dass Sie immer so bemiiht waren 
 laut fiir mich zu sprechen. Nochmals spreche ich Ihnen meinen 
 warmsten Dank aus, dass Sie meiner gedacht und zeichne mich als 
 
 Ihre ergebene 
 Maria Anna, 
 
 Prinzessin von Preussen, 
 
 Herzogin zu Anhalt. 
 30. 
 [From the King of Sweden to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Stockholm, 20. Febr. 1880. 
 Bester Herr Mollhausen: 
 
 Mit wahrer Freude habe ich die mir zugestellten interessanten 
 Werke iiber die grossartige Natur der Felsengegende Neu-Mexikos 
 und Nordamerikas empfangen, und ist es mir sehr angenehm ge- 
 wesen die letztverflossenen Sommer in Fagerlund gestiftete per- 
 sonliche Bekanntschaft des Verfassers durch seine Werke fortsetzen 
 und befestigen zu konnen. 
 
 Zum Beweis meiner Hochschatzung Ihrer literarischen Erzeug- 
 nisse und als Zeichen meiner aufrichtigen Dankbarkeit habe ich Sie 
 zum Ritter des Schwedischen Nordsternordens ernannt. 
 
 Ihr wohlbewogener 
 
 Oskar. 
 31- 
 
 [From Paul Heyse to Mollhausen.] 
 Geehrtester Herr ! 
 
 Erlauben Sie mir die Anfrage, ob Sie geneigt waren, fiir einen 
 Neuen Deutschen Novellenschatz, den ich in Gemeinschaft mit Lud- 
 wig Laistner herauszugeben gedenke, uns Ihre treffliche Erzahlung 
 "Die beiden Fahren" event, ohne Honorar zu iiberlassen und auch 
 die Einwilligung Ihres Herrn Verlegers zu erwirken. Der Verleger 
 unseres Sammelwerkes, der den vor sieben Jahren durch den Tod 
 von Hr. Kurz unterbrochenen deutschen Novellenschatz vervoll- 
 standigen soil, glaubt das Unternehmen nur durchfiihren zu konnen, 
 wenn er in den Stand gesetzt wird, das gebundene Bandchen zu 
 i Mark zu verkaufen. Unter diesen Umstanden miissen wir auf 
 das liberale Entgegenkommen der Dichter und ihrer Verleger rech- 
 nen, dessen wir uns auch bei der ersten Serie zu ruhmen hatten. 
 
 Ich darf wohl hoffen, dass Sie bald durch eine hoffentlich giin- 
 stige Erwiderung erfreuen 
 
 Ihren aufrichtig ergebener 
 
 Paul Heyse. 
 Alexanderbad 
 b. Wunsiedel, 
 23. Aug. 1883. 
 
i/8 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 32. 
 
 [From Paul Heyse to Mollhausen.] 
 Wertester Herr! 
 
 Ich habe Ihren "Engelid" noch nicht zuriickgesandt, well ich im 
 Einverstandniss mit meinem Freunde und Herausgeber Ludwig 
 Laistner, Sie bitten wollte, tins geracle diese Novelle fiir unsere 
 Sammlung zu iiberlassen. Sie sehen heraus, wie wenig Gewicht 
 wir beide auf den merkwiirdigen Umstand unseres Zusammentref- 
 fens in dem Grundmotiv legen. Gerade dieser in der Geschichte der 
 Erfindung so haufig beobachtete Zufall, zu allem Ubrigen, was Ihre 
 Geschichte an farbiger Scenerie und feinen Herzenstonen enthalt, 
 legt es den Wunsch nahe, sie aufzunehmen. Mit Herrn Janke konn- 
 ten wir uns freilichdurch ein Honorar, das wir ihm schon in anderen 
 Fallen geboten, abfinden. Auch ist es durchaus nicht diese Riick- 
 sicht, die uns "Engelid" vorziehen lasst. Und so hoffen wir auf 
 Ihre freundliche Zustimmung, ohne deswegen die Moglichkeit aus- 
 zuschliessen, dass unter den anderen uns noch unbekannten Novellen, 
 die Sie uns mitteilen wollen, eine oder die andere uns noch werth- 
 voller erscheinen mochte, als die vorlaufig erkorene. 
 
 Die Saclie hat iibrigens keine Eile. Vor Ende des Jahres werden 
 wir schwerlich die letzte Entscheidung zu treffen haben. 
 
 Das entsetzliche Geschick, das Sie betroffen, beschaftigt mich, 
 seit ich davon erfuhr, unaufhorlich. Ich habe, wie Sie wissen, viel 
 vom Hartesten erlebt, was einem Sterblichen verhangt werden kann. 
 Dies aber wie alles Ziellose und Unergriindliche muss mit wahr- 
 haft seelenzerriittendem Grauen auf Ihnen lasten. Ich bin zu Nichts 
 unfahiger, als Trostspriiche zu stammeln, an die ich selbst nicht 
 glaube. Dass ich in Berlin nur zu dem einen Zweck verweilte, ist 
 Ihnen wohl bekannt. Ich war so von Theaterpflichten erfiillt, dass 
 ich meinen altesten und liebsten Freunden fern bleiben musste. 
 So konnte ich auch nicht daran denken, neue Bekanntschaften zu 
 machen. Doch werde ich die Strasse nach Berlin ja nun ofter zu 
 wandeln habe, seit sich mein Verhaltniss zur Biihne wieder befestigt 
 hat. Dann hoff ich auch das gegen Sie Versaumte nachzuholen. 
 
 Mit herzlichem Gruss Ihr 
 
 Paul Heyse. 
 
 Miinchen, 13. Febr. 1884. 
 
 33- 
 
 [From Maria Anna, Princess of Prussia, to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Neapel, Hotel Mobile, 
 
 den 28. Februar 1886. 
 Geehrter Herr ! 
 
 Was miissen Sie denken, dass ich Ihnen noch nicht schrieb, noch 
 nicht dankte, fiir einen Brief der mir das ganze Herz bewegte, durch 
 den Ton der daraus zu mir, in weiter Feme, klang, wie der Glock- 
 enklang aus dem Heimathsort! Ihre lieben, warmen Zeilen haben 
 mir unendlich wohlgethan, und die Stimmung in der Sie sie nieder- 
 
Baldwin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 179 
 
 schrieben, beseelte mich auch als ich sie las. Mir wurde so friedlich 
 zu Muthe und icli fiihlte den ganzen Zauber des Wortes "Hcimath" ! 
 Nehmen Sie meinen innigsten Dank, fur diesen Gruss aus der Hei- 
 math, Sie ahnen nicht wie sehr Sie mich dadurch erfreut ! Ihre 
 Schilderung konnte ich so mitempfinden, war es doch auch das erste 
 Weihnachtsfest das ich in der Fremde verlebte, fern von so vielen 
 Lieben! Gott vergelte Ihnen Ilir liebes (iedenken, tausend, tau- 
 send Dank ! 
 
 Hoffentlich geht es Ihnen und den Ihrigen gut und leidet Ihre 
 arme Frau nicht zu sehr, unter der ewigen Sorge und Angst ! Meine 
 armen Dessauer Geschwister verloren auch den hoffnungsvollen, 
 heissgeliebten, altesten Sohn ! Und ich hatte die Sorge meinen ge- 
 liebten Sohn krank zu wissen, ich wollte schon zu ihm reisen, aber, 
 Gott sei Dank, kamen so gute Nachrichten, dass man mir abrieth. 
 
 In Rom lebte ich nur der Kunst und war fortgesetzt auf den 
 Beinen, so dass ich denn, war ich einmal zu Hause, todtmiide war 
 und unfahig zum Schreiben. Ich besuchte auch die zwei tausend 
 Jahr alte Stadt Corveto, unweit Rom, nahe von Civita Vecchia und 
 sah die etruscischen Graber, wohnte auch Ausgrabungen bei. In 
 Tivoli war es himmlisch schon, der Siiden hat doch einen eigenen 
 Reiz und Zauber, und dort ist der so ganz ausgepragt. Jetzt bin ich 
 in Neapel und es regnet in Stromen ; ich will, wenn es das Wetter 
 erlaubt, dieselbe Tour, wie vor Rom, machen und wieder nach 
 Sorrent und Capri gehen und auch noch Amalfi besuchen. Diese 
 Orte werden mich hoffentlich mit dem Pinsel in der Hand sehen. 
 Dort ist es einsamer, besonders in Capri kann man ungestort von 
 Fremden malen. Wenn ich zu meinem Fenster heraus blicke, sehe 
 ich jetzt weder die Berge von Sorrent, noch den Vesuv, noch Capri, 
 noch das Meer, denn alles ist in Nebel gehiillt und derRegenklatscht 
 an die Scheiben ! Vor mir brennt das Feuer im Kamin und doch 
 friert man ! Solche Launen kann der Siiden haben. Nun bitte halten 
 Sie mich nicht fiir undankbar, sondern rechnen Sie mein Schweigen 
 nur den vielen Sehenswiirdigkeiten Roms zu ! Ich bin Ihnen, von 
 ganzem Herzen, innigst dankbar fiir den lieben Weihnachtsgruss ! 
 Gedenken Sie, auch fernerhin bitte 
 
 Ihrer 
 
 Ihnen sehr dankbaren 
 Maria Anna, 
 
 Prinzessin von Preussen, 
 Herzogin zu Anhalt. 
 
 34- 
 [From Prinz Hohenlohe to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Berlin, 2Oten August 1889. 
 Yerehrter Herr! 
 
 Leider fand ich Sie hier nicht anwesend, wie Ihnen Ihre Frau 
 Schwiegertochter mittheilen wird. Ich muss daher schriftlich Sie 
 
i8o Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 bitten, mir nach Kroschentin in Ober-Schlesien die beiden Gedichte 
 von Ihnen, welche Sie am 27ten Oct. 1887 in der "Vereinigung 
 Prinz Friedrich Karl" im Kaiserhof vorgetragen, zu senden, damit 
 ich in der Lage bin, Sie drucken und bei der bevorstehenden Ver 
 einigung am 27. Okt. dieses Jahres an die Mitglieder vertheilen zu 
 lassen. Selbstverstandlich wird darauf gedruckt werden, dass der 
 Nachdruck verboten wird, jedoch bitte ich mir mittheilen zu wollen, 
 ob Sie wunschen, dass Ihr Name als Verfasser hierbei genannt wird. 
 Mit vorziiglichster Hochachtung 
 
 Ihr ergebener 
 
 Prinz Hohenlohe. 
 
 35- 
 
 [From Prinz Hohenlohe to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Kroschentin, den 2Oten Sept. (1889?) 
 Euer Wohlgeboren 
 
 Beehre ich mich fiir die Zusendung der Gedichte, welche ich in 
 der Anlage zuriick sende, meinen ganz ergebensten Dank auszu- 
 sprechen. Ich habe dieselben mit Ausnahme des letzten Gedichtes 
 (Husaren-Spriichlein) der Hof-Verlagsbuchhandlung von Mittler 
 Sohn, Kochstr. 78-80 iibersandt mit dem Auftrag einen Probebogen 
 Ihnen nach Ihrer Wohnung zu iibermitteln, ehe dieselben gedruckt 
 werden. In der Hoffnung, dass so Ihren Wunschen Rechnung 
 getragen ist, verbleibe ich, Ihnen nochmals meinen besten Dank da- 
 fur auszusprechen 
 
 Ihr sehr ergebener 
 
 Prinz Hohenlohe. 
 
 36. 
 
 [From Ober-Hofmarschall Eulenburg to Mollhausen.] 
 
 Berlin, den 27. Januar 1905. 
 Ober-Hofmarschallamt 
 
 Seiner Majestat 
 
 des Kaisers und Konigs. 
 
 B. 72. 
 
 Seine Majestat der Kaiser und Konig haben Allergnadigst ge- 
 ruht, anlasslich Allerhochst Ihres Geburtstages Euer Hochwohlge- 
 boren den Koniglichen Kronen Orden III. Klasse zu verleihen. 
 
 Indem ich Euer Hochwohlgeboren diese Ordensdekoration hier- 
 neben zugehen lasse, spreche ich Ihnen zu diesem Allerhochsten 
 Gnadenbeweise meinen besten Gliickwunsch aus. 
 
 Gleichzeitig benutze ich die Gelegenheit, Euer Hochwohlgeboren 
 meinen aufrichtigsten Dank fiir die Uberreichung Ihres Buches 
 "Bilder aus dem Reiche der Natur", dessen Lektiire mir reichen 
 Genuss gewahrt hat, auszusprechen. Ebenso drangt es mich Ihnen 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 181 
 
 meine aufrichtigsten und angelegentlichsten Gluckvvunsche zur 
 Feier Ihrer goldenen Hochzeit, welche Sie in zwei Tagen begehen 
 werden, hierdurch zu ubermitteln. 
 
 A. Eulenburg. 
 
 An 
 
 den Kustos der Bibliotheken 
 in den Koniglichen Schlossern 
 in und um Potsdam, 
 Herrn Mollhausen 
 Hochwohlgeboren. 
 
1 82 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 III. 
 
 i. AN INTERVIEW WITH MOLLHAUSEN. 
 
 Mollhausen s relations to Prince Friedrich Karl, and his devotion 
 to the same are well shown in the following interesting narrative 
 from the diary of Frau v. d. R., Prioress of Stift Marienteich : 2 
 
 "Kurfiirstenstrasse 102, nahe der Keithstrasse wohnt Balduin 
 Mollhausen Sprechstunde 12 bis i", stand auf meinem Arbeits- 
 zettel. 
 
 Ich sah auf meine Armbanduhr es war kaum zwolf. "Noch 
 sehr friih," sagte ich, "aber umsehen nach dem Hause kann ich mich 
 immer." 
 
 Richtig, driiben war das gesuchte. Ich iiberschritt die Strasse, 
 ware um ein Haar von einer Droschke iiberfahren worden und 
 stiirzte, noch athemlos vom Schrecken, hinein in die offene Haus- 
 thiir der 102, dem spottischen Lachen uber meine Ungewandtheit 
 entfliehend. 
 
 Aber incidit in Scyllam, qui vult vitare Charybdim ! Die Thiir 
 war namlich nicht eigentlich offen, sondern wurde eben geo frnet, 
 und so kam es, dass ich fliehend dem Spotte, direkt in die Arme eines 
 Herrn flog, der wohl etwas erschrocken, aber doch sehr hoflich zu- 
 riicktrat und seinerseits um Entschuldigung bat. 
 
 "Man muss sich erst an dies rasche Treiben hier in Berlin ge- 
 wohnen," hatte ich nach kurzer Darlegung der Thatsache stiickweise 
 vorgebracht. 
 
 "Diese Kutscher sind aber auch gar zu riicksichtslos. Aber ich 
 sehe, Sie haben sich iiberanstrengt, meine Dame. Soil ich Sie 
 vielleicht die Treppe hinauffiihren ? Zu wem wollen Sie, wenn ich 
 fragen darf?" 
 
 Unwillkiirlich sah ich hinauf zu dem alten Herrn mit weissem 
 Haar und langem weissem Barte, der so unbefangen hoflich zu mir 
 sprach, und begegnete wohlwollend freundlichen Blicken aus blau- 
 grauen klaren Augen. 
 
 "Ich nehme Ihre Giite dankbar an, ich will zu Herrn Balduin 
 Mollhausen." 
 
 Einen kurzen Augenblick las ich etwas wie Erstaunen in seinen 
 fast faltenlosen frischen Ztigen, dann reichte er mir den Arm, fiihrte 
 mich hinauf zum ersten Stocke und sagte, wahrend er mit dem win- 
 zigen Hausschliissel die Entrethiire offnete : "Hier sind Sie schon 
 an Ihrem Ziele und Balduin Mollhausen bittet Sie naher zu treten." 
 
 "Sie? Sie selbst sind? o, dann darf ich wohl " 
 
 2 For this interview of Frau v. d. R. with Mollhausen I am indebted to 
 an article "Balduin Mollhausen" in the Tagliche Rundschau, Jan. 26, 1895, 
 by Baron von Dincklage, at whose disposal Frau v. d. R. had placed her Mss. 
 
Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 183 
 
 Aber er hatte bereits die Thiir des Zimmers geoffnet, ehe ich zu 
 \Yorten kam und dann sass ich in einem bequemen Sessel, bevor ich 
 noch gesagt, vver ich sei. 
 
 "Bitte, erholen Sie sich erst, ich will inzwischen die Jalousien 
 offnen, die Sonne ist jetzt verschvvunden. Gut, dass Sie mir begeg- 
 neten, ich wollte eben eine langere Promenade machen." 
 
 Er war mit raschen elastischen Schritten an die Fenster getreten, 
 nichts liess aus seinen Bewegungen den Mann von 65 Jahren erken- 
 nen, als welchen ihn Kiirschner nachweist. 
 
 Jetzt nahm er einen Sessel, setzte sich mir gegeniiber und den 
 schonen alten Kopf mit dem jugendlich kraftigen Ausdruck etwas 
 vorneigend, sah er mich an. "Nun, meine Gnadige, womit kann ich 
 dienen?" 
 
 Ich nannte ihm meinen Namen, meine Stellung. Mit stummer, 
 artiger Verbeugung horte er meine Personalien an. 
 
 "Ich habe viele von Ihren Werken gelesen," begann ich, "und 
 mochte 
 
 "Den alten Trapper, den Jager aus den Rocky Mountains ken- 
 nen lernen," fiel er lachend ein. 
 
 "Sie scheinen schon Erfahrung im Empfange von Interviewern 
 zu haben," erwiderte ich, den Scherz aufnehmend, "aber diesmal ist 
 es ein ganz besonderes Interesse, das mich herfiihrt." Ich nahm ein 
 zusammengefaltetes Heftchen aus meinem Muff, entfaltete es und 
 begann langsam zu lesen : 
 
 Die Ahre reift ; vom Herbst des heit ren Griin beraubt, 
 
 Nicht lust gen Faltern mehr sie dient zur Augenweide. 
 
 Hat reicher Schnee sich erst gesenkt auf Bart und Haupt, 
 
 Erhohter Ernst sich einet mit des Lebens Freude. 
 
 "Mein Gott. woher haben Sie das, das ist ja 
 
 "Es ist die Einleitung zu den Dreilinden-Liedern, am Gedenk- 
 tage fur den hochseligen Prinzen Friedrich Karl 1889 den Mit- 
 gliedern des Vereins gewidmet, welcher des Prinzen Namen tragt." 
 
 "Und sein Gedachtniss treu und aus tiefstem Herzen ehrt," 
 vervollstandigte Mollhausen. 
 
 "Und seinem begeisterten Sanger," fuhr ich fort, "seinem Dich- 
 ter, gilt mein Besuch ! Ich las die Lieder bei meinem Schwager, 
 dem Oberstlieutenant v. Schwager und 
 
 "Bei mir hatten Sie sich nicht wohlthuender einfiihren konnen, 
 wie durch diese Erinnerung." Er hatte mir die Hand gereicht und 
 in seinen treuen Augen wunde es plotzlich glanzend. Er hinderte 
 cs aber nicht und mit innigem Ausdrucke fuhr er fort : "Ja, ich war 
 sein begeisterter Sanger! Wer, der ihn kannte, ware nicht fur den 
 Fiirsten begeistert gewesen, der ein so echt fiihlendes, warmes 
 Herz tief verborgen in der Brust trug, fur den Mann, dem aller 
 falscher Schein verhasst war, fiir den Feldhcrrn, dessen fester 
 Wille jede Ubermacht vernichtete, fiir den Wohlthatcr im Ver- 
 borgenen. fiir den Menschen, wo es sich um Nachsicht mit Men- 
 
184 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 schenfehlern handelte ! Wo findet man einen Fursten, der wie er 
 die Wahrheit horen wollte und auch zu horen verstand, wo einen 
 Mann, der in sich so viel Kb nnen und so viel Wissen mit so an- 
 spruchsloser Zuriickhaltung vereinte?" 
 
 "Glauben Sie mir, dass ich das Alles, was Sie sagen, Herr Moll 
 hausen, voll nachfiihle?" 
 
 "Weil Sie den Prinzen kennen lernten, wie ihn die grosse Masse 
 nicht kannte, wohl durch Herrn von Schwager. Auch er denkt, 
 wie ich wie wir Alle, die dem Prinzen nahe standen. Mehr und 
 mehr wird seine wahre Gestalt auch der grossen Welt bekannt wer- 
 den, die in ihm nur den strengen Feldherrn, den Soldaten erblickte, 
 und in der Weltgeschichte wird sein Name nicht nur unter den 
 Grossesten, sondern auch unter den Besten genannt werden." 
 
 "Sie sahen den Prinzen oft?" 
 
 "Fast wochentlich befahl er mich hinaus nach seinem Tuskulum 
 seinem Jagdschlosse Dreilinden. Ich wohnte damals in Potsdam. 
 Ich sehe noch seinen aufmerksamen Blick, wenn er der Erzahlung 
 meiner Wanderungen folgte. Und wenn ich neuen Gasten wieder- 
 holt meine Fahrten vortragen musste und denn abzukiirzen suchte, 
 dann mahnte der Prinz : Mein Theuerster, jetzt kommt das und 
 das ! Fine gute Erzahlung ist wie ein lieber Freund, sie kommt 
 nicht zu oft ! Man will aber auch keine Anderung, weder bei dem 
 Einen noch bei den anderen. " 
 
 "Waren Sie auch mit im Keller?" 
 
 "Gewiss, in jenem Keller, in welchem man beim duftenden R6- 
 mer den Erzahlungen bedeutender Manner lauschte, in welchem die 
 wichtigsten Tagesfragen, geistvoll behandelt, zum Austrage kamen 
 und wo auch meine Verse mir so manches Mai des koniglichen 
 Prinzen Lob in Wort und Blick und Handedruck eintrugen." 
 
 "Es soil ein Lied von Ihnen in jenem Keller existiren?" fragte 
 ich. 
 
 "V.on mir, wie von alien denen, die zu des Prinzen Tafelrunde 
 gezogen wurden. Nur nun ja es war so eine kleine Licentia 
 poetica, wahrend die iibrigen alle in Glasbildern die runden Schei- 
 ben der Fenster zieren, findet man mich auf den Boden eines Fasses 
 gemalt, eine Erfindung, die ja schon der selige Rafael machte." 
 
 "Nun, als Madonna della Seggiola werden Sie sich doch nicht 
 haben darstellen lassen?" fragte ich scherzend. 
 
 "Nein, aber als Alter Deutscher auf der Barenhaut. Indessen 
 glaube ich nicht, dass das Alles heute noch existirt. Ja. wenn der 
 Prinz noch lebte, dann ." 
 
 Er schwieg und schaute nachdenkend auf eine grosse Photo 
 graphic des Prinzen-Feldmarschalls, die iiber dem Kamin aufge- 
 stellt war. 
 
 Ich hielt unwillkiirlich Rundschau im Raume. Wande und 
 Ecken waren mit Sammlungen der Erzeugnisse ferner Welttheile 
 geziert. Indianische Waffen, Schmuck und Kleidungsstucke auf 
 
Balduin Mollhauscn, The German Cooper 185 
 
 Panoplien zusammengestellt, sprachen von des Dichters Trapper- 
 zeit. Eine reiche Galerie von Aquarellen zeigte Landschaften von 
 grotesker Wildheit oder Szenen von grosser Lebenstreue, Kampfe 
 und Tanze der Indianer oder deren Lagerstatten und Hiitten dar- 
 stellend. 
 
 "Lassen wir langst vergangene Zeiten," sagte jetzt Herr M611- 
 hausen, als wolle er aller hand Erinnerungen abschiitteln. "Ver- 
 gangenes kehrt nicht wieder vielleicht in den ewigen Jagdgriin- 
 den!" fiigte er fast traurig hinzu. "Sehen Sie meine Zeichnungen," 
 sprach er dann abspringend, "nicht eine ist dabei, die nicht eine 
 Erinnerung brachte !" 
 
 "Auch diese furchtbar bemalte Frau, die am Feuer?" fragte ich 
 neckend. 
 
 "Auch die gute alte Squaw ! Ihrem scharfen Ohre verdanke ich 
 es, wenn ich in einer schlimmen Nacht nicht die Beute jenes Bur- 
 schen wurde, dessen Schadel Sie da iiber meinem Schreibpulte er- 
 blicken !" 
 
 Wahrhaftig da lag ein grosser weisser Todtenkopf ! 
 
 "Auch ein Erinnerungszeichen," sagte Mollhausen, wahrend ich 
 mich erhob. 
 
 Ich wollte mich beim Fortgehen bedanken. 
 
 "Nein, ich habe Ihnen Dank zu sagen. Sie haben mir Gelegen- 
 heit gegeben, von dem Besten zu sprechen, was in meiner langen 
 Erinnerung lebt, von meinem theuren Prinzen, Gott gebe, dass es 
 nur einen Himmel giebt fur Indianer und Christen, wo wir uns Alle 
 wiedersehen werden. 
 
 "Grussen Sie Ihren Schwager und sagen Sie ihm : ich wiirde 
 niemals fehlen bei der Tafelrunde, in der treue Liebe nicht ausster- 
 ben wurde, bis der Letzte begraben sei. Ich will zwar nicht der 
 Letzte, aber auch noch lange nicht der Erste sein !" So sprach er, 
 als ich von ihm Abschied nahm. 
 
 2. AN EVENING WITH MOLLHAUSEN AT DREILINDEN. 
 
 The following excerpts are taken from Balduin Mollhausen und 
 der "Rote Prim" written by Baron von Dincklage upon the occasion 
 of the golden wedding anniversary of the novelist, and published 
 specially by the periodical Die Kundschaft. 
 
 Im Friihling des Jahres 1879 war ich nach Potsdam versetzt 
 und es war das erste Mai an einem Aprilabend zum Prinzen 
 Friedrich Karl von Preussen nach Glienicke in das nahe prinzliche 
 Jagdschloss befohlen. Dort fand ich unter den drei Gasten, die der 
 Feldmarschall allabendlich zu sich, oder auf seine Dampfbarkasse, 
 den "Landler", einzuladen pflegte, auch einen Herrn im burger- 
 lichen Kleide, dessen weisser langer Vollbart einen gewissen Kon- 
 trast zu der straffen, sicheren Haltung und den so klar und freudig 
 dreinschauenden, dunklen Augen bot. 
 
i86 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 "Wer ist das?" fragte ich im Flusterton den Adjutanten, Herrn 
 von Wangenheim. 
 
 "Mollhausen !" antwortete der leise. 
 
 "Balduin Mollhausen?" fragte ich wohl etwas horbarer, wie es 
 die Absicht gewesen, denn lachelnd trat der Weissbartige auf mich 
 zu und reichte mir in unbefangener Weise die Hand. 
 
 "Ja, der bin ich" sagte er, "und freue mich, den Bruder einer 
 verehrten Kollegin, der Emslanddichterin/ begriissen zu konnen." 
 
 "Und auch ich kenne Sie aus so mancher anregenden Stunde, 
 in der Sie mich fur den wilden Westen begeisterten," antwortete 
 
 ich eben, als die Tiir sich offnete und der Prinz hereintrat 
 
 Das sonst einfache Mahl nahte bereits seinem Ende und wir 
 alle hatten wohl an den vielfach anregenden Gesprachen teilgenom- 
 men, aber da es sich um Erlebnisse und Fragen aus dem militarischen 
 Leben handelte, um Aktualitaten, so war gerade Mollhausen, 
 wenn auch immer voll auf bei der Sache, doch noch kaum hervor- 
 getreten. Und doch war ich gespannt, aus dessen eigenem Munde 
 etwas iiber jene Erlebnisse zu horen, die in wohl hundert Romanen 
 ihren Widerhall fanden, in Werken, wie sie noch niemals ein Dich- 
 ter aus gleich eigenartigen Lebenserfahrungen gleichsam heraus- 
 wachsen liess. 
 
 Es war eine momentane Gesprachspause eingetreten und un- 
 willkiirlich richtete ich wohl erwartend den Blick auf den Mann 
 im weissen Barte. 
 
 Das mochte der Prinz bemerkt haben, wie denn seinem schar- 
 fen, hellen Blicke iiberhaupt Nichts entging denn seinen Becher 
 erhebend und Mollhausen zutrinkend, sah er diesen fragend mit 
 freundlichem Lacheln an. 
 
 "Nun, mein Teuerster," sagte er dann, "was haben Sie heute? 
 Ich habe einen neuen Cast und wenn Sie nichts da in der Rock- 
 tasche tragen" er zeigte auf Mollhausen s Brusttasche "dann 
 erzahlen Sie dem Major von Ihrer Zeit als Trapper und vor Allem 
 von den Omaha- und Otoe-Indianern!" 
 
 "Ich fiirchte, dass eine Wiederholung" begann eben Moll 
 hausen, aber der Prinz unterbrach ihn : 
 
 "Die alten Freunde, die ich schon kenne sind mir die liebsten, 
 also ! Aber ich glaube, es ist zuvor dennoch etwas aus der Brust 
 tasche zuholen !" 
 
 Der Prinz hatte des Schriftstellers Handbewegung richtig beur- 
 teilt er kannte ihn eben und langsam entrollte Mollhausen ein 
 in blauen Umschlagen gehaltenes, langliches Heft, dessen letzte Seite 
 er dann bedachtig aufschlug. 
 
 Wir beobachteten ihn natiirlich und ich erkannte, dass die Seiten, 
 in kleiner Schrift, und zwar quer geschrieben, eng bedeckt waren. 
 
 "Wenn Eure Konigliche Hoheit gestatten, beginne ich meine 
 Erzahlung mit einem kurzen Bekenntnis damit doch der Herr 
 
Balduin Afollhausen, The German Cooper 187 
 
 Major gleich weiss, mit wem er es zu tun hat," fugte er lachelnd 
 mit einem Seitenblick auf mich hinzu. 
 
 Eben prasentierte der Haiduck die Importierten, fiillte die Becher 
 und dann begann Mollhausen mit klarer Stimme, ohne alles de- 
 klamatorische Hinzugetue, aus seinem Hefte zu lesen : 
 
 "Bekenntniss eines Wiistenjagers." 
 
 Und fehlt der rote Kragen mir, 
 Am Stiefel mir der Sporn, 
 So hindert s nicht, dass trotzig schier 
 Die Stirn ich trage vorn. 
 
 Dass mit dem Eisen ich vertraut, 
 Das Ross mir untertan, 
 Ich frei ins Aug hab oft geschaut 
 Dem bleichen Sensemann. 
 
 Und dass mein Wort, wenn ich es geb, 
 1st fest, wie echter Stahl 
 Drum froh bewegt empor ich heb 
 Den funkelnden Pokal. 
 
 Und trinkend blick ich himmelwarts 
 Und ruf in wilder Lust : 
 "Es lebe hoch ein trues Herz 
 In jedes Mannes Brust!" 
 
 Natiirlich wurden die Becher auf das Wohl des Dichters geleert. 
 
 "Und nun, wie Sie unter die Omaha kamen," mahnle dann der 
 Prinz. 
 
 Mollhausen erzahlte sachlich und ruhig, ohne alle Ubertreibung, 
 wie er bei einer Expedition des Herzogs Wilhelm von Wiirttemberg 
 im fernen Westen, da wo jetzt die Nordpacific Eisenbahn durch 
 teilweise schon kultivierte Lander fahrt, nahe dem Missouri bei 
 den Council-Bluffs im Schneesturm verirrt, abgeschnitten wurde, 
 durch lange Tage und Nachte in einer Schneehutte vom Ertrage 
 
 seiner Biichse lebte Nur einmal unterbrach ihn der 
 
 Prinz. "Mein Teuerster, Sie haben das vergessen von dem Indianer, 
 den Sie niederschossen !" 
 
 "Und den ich dann an den Bach schleppte und unter das Eis 
 schob ! Es war ein Pawnee ! Ich musste das, musste seine Spur 
 vom Erdboden verschwinden lassen, wenn nicht am nachsten Tage 
 mein Skalp am Giirtel einer Rothaut hangen sollte. Es war mein 
 Gliick, dass iiber Nacht zudem die Fahrten vollig verschneiten." 
 
 Er erzahlte vom weltfernen Leben unter den Rothauten und dass 
 er vollig als einer der ihren gegolten durch Jahre und wie der 
 Hauptling "Yellow smoke" ihn als Familienmitglied aufgenommen. 
 
1 88 Balduin Mollhausen, The German Cooper 
 
 Das war alles so anspruchslos und so anregend vorgetragen, dass 
 wir bedauerten, als es zu Ende war als Mollhausen kurz erzahlte, 
 wie es ihn endlich dennoch nach der Heimat zog und wie er dann 
 entkam und hierher zuriickkehrte, um schon nach Jahresfrist seine 
 dritte Expedition zu beginnen. "Es Hess dem Trapper eben keine 
 Ruhe daheim und mit Freuden denke ich noch heute an mein Jager- 
 leben in der Wildniss zuruck." So schloss die Mitteilung und wenn 
 auch der Rest des Abends durch die Musik in Anspruch genom- 
 men wurde der Prinz liebte den Mannergesang so blieb doch 
 der Eindruck der Erzahlung aus der Wildniss haften. 
 
 Um zehneinhalb Uhr entliess uns der Prinz und wir gingen zu 
 Fuss nach Potsdam zuruck. 
 
 So lernte ich Mollhausen kennen und wie oft betrat ich seitdem 
 sein gastliches Haus, erfreute mich an seinen Erinnerungen aus 
 der Wildniss in Wort und Bild. Ja auch im Bild, denn der alte 
 Trapper, der Dichter, der Phantasiereiche Romanschriftsteller, 1st 
 auch Maler zahlreiche Aquarelle geben auch dem Auge einen 
 Begriff davon, wie es einst im Trapperleben zuging. 
 
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