IC-NRLF B 3 7E7 NICHOLAS FEJERVARY, IN MEMORIAM. A TRIBUTE OF AFFECTION AND RESPECT FROM OCTAVE THANET. BUDAPEST. 1898. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF Printing-office of the Franklin Society. For many years the people of Davenport had among them a quiet gentleman whose youth had known far different scenes and life. He had been one of the actors in a great game which had for its stake a nation's life. He was a pa triot who was not a fanatic, a strong, calm, clear- eyed man whose whole strength had been thrown in with the struggle for national freedom, yet against unruly visionaries and a doomed revolt ; who loved his country and resented her oppres sion as ardently as any of the hot headed rebels whose rash devotion only brought disaster. This man had the respect of the whole city and the warm love of the few that knew him best. He was born under other skies; but no American was a truer lover of this country or a better citizen. 4 Before he died he expressed his good will and gratitude to the country that received him, by a noble charity. It is only fitting that his fellow citizens and especially those of them who shall have the evening of their lives sheltered and free from care through his generous thought, should have some memorial of what manner of man he was. Nicholas Fejervary was born in Pest in Hun gary May syth. 1811. During the last five years there has been a wide spread interest in the most picturesque of modern nations; but until recently, brobably, there was no civilized country of which educa ted people in America, knew less - - and this in spite of the spasm of sympathy in 1848 49 when the golden tongued Hungarian pled for aid for his people and made an almost regal progress through the United States. The vast basin of the Danube, walled in by the mysterious Carpathian mountain ranges, the Hungarian Ore mountains, the Leitha, the woo ded Bakony and the offshoots of the Alps, with its wonderful fertility, its puzzling mixture of 5 races and its picturesque history, still is an unknown land to most Americans. Therefore, the writer does not ask excuse for what may to some seem superfluous explanation. Mr. Fejervary belonged to an ancient family of the Magyar nobility. The Magyars were the original conquerors of Hungary, a warlike pe ople of Turanian race, who crossed the Car pathians, about 887. By degrees they extended their conquests until they were masters of all Hungary. They were christianized under their king S. Stephen, in (997 1038). Their connec tion with the house of Hapsburg began with the marriage to a princess of that house, of the weak young Louis, son of Vladislas who was fortunate enough to be killed in his flight from the fatal battle which saw the destruction of the Hungarian army by Solyman the Magni ficent. His wife appealed to her brother who assumed the crown which has descended to his line ever since. Hungary, however, remained a separate country with a constitution of its own, and more than once did the valiant Hungar- inians save the Austrian kings. Their loyalty to Maria Theresa and its result everyone knows ; but less familiar is the devotion of Zrinyi who saved Maximilian in 1566 by holding the for tress of Sziget and in his last heroic sally (for which every man paid the price of his own life) destroying part of Solyman's army and killing the emperor himself. An incident characteristic of the indomitable Magyar pride, is told of his battle. Before the sally was made the warriors dressed themselves in their best and decked their persons with all their jewele -- that ((those who should kill them in fair fight might have the reward of their valor ! Nevertheless the history of Hungary is the story of one long, infinitely varied wrangle be tween the Magyars and their Austrian kings. And at the time when Nicholas Fejervary was born the feeling had become one of extraordi nary bitterness. The young Nicholas was so unfortunate as to lose his mother when he was only four weeks old. During her illness, her friend the Countess Teleki (who had a child a few months old) cared for the little one and nursed him at her 7 own breast. His foster brother was the unhappy Ladislaus Teleki who shot himself 12 years after the failure of the revolution, in despair of see ing better days for his country. He says the daughter of Mr. Fejervary in the notes from which the material of this brief tribute is ex tracted, he was my father's dearest friend, during his own brief lifetime; their very dis similar characteristics serving to cement the bond between them. Ladislaus was fiery, impe tuous, extreme in his endeavor for reform, a leader of the youth of the day whose ardor my father's soberer counsels, even at that early age, served to moderate. He always refused to be lieve that the death of his friend was caused by his own hands and I have in his writing a long argument based on the autopsy to prove that the bullet could not have been fired by himself. My father combined the traits of his parents, having at times the grave, almost som ber temperament of his father, at other times, the playful humor and graceful address which made his mother so universally loved and ad mired, but which, in his case, owing to shyness 8 and an almost feminine modesty, displayed itself only to those nearest to him. There was never a manlier man than Nicholas Fejervary; nevertheless he was in the main educated by women. His aunt Celestine Dvor- nikovich who was as a mother to him all her life, was his first teacher and taught him to read in Latin, at that date the legal language of his country. The writer has seen some of his compositions of this period written in a large, round childish hand, a curious reminder of that formal time; but treasured by his aunt just as women have treasured the little reminders of children's bright parts in*all times. If the little Nicholas had a woman for teacher, to ballance the scale he had in place of a nurse, an old French soldier, part of the flot sam of the Napoleonic invasion. From him the little boy acquired the French tongue which he always spoke fluently. At the same time, ((playing with peasant children in the summer months (which were spent by the family on its estate in the county of Lipto), he learned to speak the Slavic language and even picked up 9 a few scattered words of the Romani or gipsy talk. But the staunch little Hungarian although he was obliged to learn German and spoke it fluently, hated the speech of the oppressor and never learned to write it. All his life, he was interested in the study of languages and had extraordinary aptitude in acquiring them. Wherever he travelled (and during his long life he made journeys in many countries, among many people) he learned the language of the country as much as a matter of course as other travellers learn the geography of their route. And it was an unfailing pleasure to him to track words to their parent roots and to study the kinships of tongues. Without his suspecting it, he was a man of rare learning, who had a store of curious information at his finger tips - - for he always seemed able to turn to any volume containing his authority and unhesita-itatingly find the page. When he was eleven years old, his father married again, the lady's name being Amalia Csorgho, and she seventeen. The elder Fejervary took his son to Pozsony, ((later to Pest, in both IO of which cities he pursued his studies , first in the schools and later in the university, with the aid of a private tutor. He was a good scholar and full of ambition. While he was at the uni versity his first great grief came to him in the sudden death of his father. There is a letter extant written by the man who was afterwards to become his brother-in-law, which simply and affectingly describes the effect of the shock on him, Fejervary's death, he says, moved me deeply, for who would not suffer when the father of his only, dearest, warmest friend dies, leaving him forsaken, helpless, with a grandmother of eighty four! His sorrow was undemonstrative but all the deeper. The poor fellow had just returned, rejoicing over the success of his most difficult examination, and in the gayest mood we went over to hear the band play on the promenade at Buda. There it was the sad tidings reached him. His fixed stare was the only expression of his grief, but this remained unchanged, not a word could I get from him all day with all my persuasion. At nine o'clock I left him. Early the next morning I returned. II I found him almost unrecognizable. He was still as quiet as yesterday, I all the more agi tated. I vainly tried every possible way to rouse him. At last I fortunately thought of something to occupy him, although painfully - - the pre parations for the funeral; this was better than nothing. I drew his mind away so far that when Bela came in he was able to take some part in the conversation, and so he left, a little less overcome, to attend the funeral in accordance with his father's wishes But enough of this sad subject, God grant that Niki find comfort in the country ! This same year (1829) ne was graduated from the university and continued his studies in law with John Uzovitch of the county of Nyitra, accompanying him to the Diet of 1830. At this time the custom obtained to allow a mem ber of the upper house of the Diet to be one, may say, represented by proxy; and young Fejervary became the ((substitute of the Baron E. Zay. This practice gave a young man an opportunity of becoming familiar with affairs without any special risk from his inexperience as such 12 members could neither vote nor take part in debate. It appears to have been a kind of ap prenticeship for future legislators; and one is tempted to wish that the custon might be im ported and tried on our own national legislature. While he was in the Diet he witnessed the coronation of the emperor Francis Ferdinand as King of Hungary. ((Ferdinand,)) says my Hun garian authority, was of feeble mind though very good hearted and his father feared that after his own death his son's claims might be disregarded, hence sought to establish them during his life time. The period of young Fejervary's university career and the ten years succeeding was a time of storm and stress in Hungary. After years of drugged sleep, of sullen acquiesence in the rule of an alien hand, the spirit of the Magyars was awakening. And the measures adopted to repress the smouldering fire only fanned it into a blaze. In vain was the introduction of foreign books made a penal offence, in vain did the censor keep the single Hungarian journal away 13 from political comment and expurgate its news column, in vain did heavy imposts prevent the landowner from exporting his produce and thus keep him poor, and in vain did spies worm their way into all the walks of life so that even by his own fireside with his seeming friends a man darod not take the guard off his lips. The Hungarians resented every now device to crush the national spirit by a new defiance. The ral lying point was the ancient constitution of Hungary, a constitution older than the Magna Charta ; and the object of the stuggle was to have the reigning house recognise this consti tution and the modifications proposed in accord ance with the new demands of modern life, to bring the nation abreast with the tide of civi lizations Young Hungary was afire. Beneath the flame of its high hearted enthusiasm, the ordinary frivolities of youth, its personal ambi tions, its gaieties, even its lighter vices shrivel led away like chaff; the young nobles were possessed by an imperious dream of patriotism. They beheld before them a great nation worthy of its ancient lineage and of the untold lives 14 laid down for it by gallant souls in the past; and they believed themselves the makers of this nation. Thirty seven years ago, such a dream sent thousands of our own youth North and South into battle, singing, It is good for our country to die! And Lowell voiced the thought of the Hungarian patriot in his own. () Beautiful! My Country! Ours once more! What words divine of lover or of poet Could tell our love and make thee know it, Among the nations bright beyond compare? What were cur lives without thee? What all our lives to save thee? We reck not what we gave thee ; We will not dare to doubt thee, But ask whatever else and we will dareb The leader of the young patriots was Count Stephen Szechenyi. He led the nationalist diet of 1825 which inaugurated a long series of re forms. Some of them, for which the nationalists contended were the rights of the non-noble citizens, peasantry and Jews, the equality of 15 the Christian confessions, the official use of the Hungarian language)) and extension of the free dom of speech.)) It is to be remmbered that the men who contended with tongue and sword for these reforms were nobles, themselves. They fought to abolish their own privileges. Szechenyi had travelled in England and studied her industries; he had an immense enthusiasm for modern methods. He had, also, the happy oblivion of his age to the depth of the roots which old customs strike in national life. Mr. lejervary who loved and valued Szechenyi and believed in modern methods but had, perhaps, a better appreciation of the difficulties before the reformer, used to tell a story of his harangu ing the elders of a village on the English manufactures, describing with all his eloquence the busy hum of industry in an English village and pausing to give them a chance to express their admiration, whereupon one of the coun cilors, evidently wishing to be polite, and say something appropriate, sighed, Poor fellows! what a hard time they do have! Naturally, at this time, the young Hungarians i6 were eager to travel. Mr. Fejervary went to France, where Louis Phillippe was reigning more or less to the satisfaction of his people, but gathering about him a court as distinguis hed in manners as blameless in morals)). From France and its pleasant days and acquaintances young Fejervary journeyed to Belgium and Holland and returned through Germany. It is a comment on the travel of those days that this journey was made almost entirely by dillig- ence. There was only one small piece of rai lway, just completed, in France. After this tour, the next ten years were spent on his estate in the county of Hont. This, writes his daughter, ((may be called the most active and fruitful period of his life. He worked indefatigably for better methode of tilling the soil, for better agricultural implements, for im provements in raising stock, and new breeds of cattle and horses; he tried to introduce the smaller industries of horticulture and silk rais ing and the culture of bees. About this time, he had an attack of typhoid fever and was succesfully treated by a direct I? disciple of Hannenian. Day nurseries interested him; and he used his influence in favor of the establishment of homeopathic pharmacies. But he was interested in every project for alle viating pain or helping the condition of his countrymen. A History of the County of Hont (published in 1874 long after he had left his own country) has this portrait of him in his youth ; Fejervary was of tall stature, with heavy hair, beard and eyebrows ; handsome, amiable and of particularly obliging manners. He had read much, was well informed, but not gifted with the talent of the orator, in fact, was a trifle heavy in expressing himself, sometimes even hesitating. Therefore he spoke brieflly, but gave his opinion on every important subject. Few men enjoy such popularity, respect and effection as fell to the share of Fejervary who even in his youth was one of the most distinguished men of Hont. This was due to his firm and stainless character, his mature judgement, his kindness of heart and the ripe culture of his mind. Fejervary never was willing to accept office; he was, at first, i8 honorary secretary ; and as he was used to say in jest, wished to remain such in perpetuity. This, his disinclination to accept office, furth ered his popularity, although any office was within his reach ; for it is the nature of the public to look up to those who are not bound by any political obligation or made dependant by their duties. Later, however, Fejervary whose merits were great, also, in furthering the social developement of the country, became envoy to the Diet. In this provincial history with its pomp of stj r le and old fashioned love of antithesis (that might belong to the very edge of the cen tury) there seems to step out of the formal sen tences, a very living man. There is a little note appended to the portrait tailing an anecdote which illustrates at once the man and the now almost obsolete system of county government then considered by the Hungarians the bul wark of the constition*. The counties had an independant government analogous to our state governments, each county having the direction of its own internal affairs, the election of offi- 19 cers except the Governor or ((Supreme Count (who was appointed by the king) and the collecting and disbursing of its taxes. There were county meetings held four times a year (oftener if called ) to instruct the envoys to the Diet. At these meetings every noble lan downer had the right to vote and take part in debate. In the county of Hont these privileges were extended to such as were not landowners and even the qualification of birth -- usually most jealously regarded in Hungary - - was at times disregarded. The officers of the county were Supreme Count, two Viscounts, Chief Clerk or secretary and two assistants, Treasurer and Prosecuting attorney. Honorary Secretary)) ap pears to have been a rather more facetious office than brevet general with us, having no pay and no title, the Honorary Secretary, in fact being an adviser who did the work for nothing save good will. It was not one may infer in demand. There was a meeting of the county at an election, so the story goes, the Governor pre siding ; and one after another the candidates 20 for office appeared to propose their names. After them all, Ifejervary stepped out and asked to be allowed to retain his position as honorary secretary.)) Hungarian society at this time, had something pastoral and patriarchal about it which makes it in vivid contrast to the civilization outside so engerly envied and copied by the younger generation. The landowners lived on their esta tes, with great revenues of the fruits of the earth and great possessions of land and herds and houses, often, but even those accounted wealthy with little money. Take the salaries of the county officials, for instance ; the Governor had 4000 florin (a florin is worth about forty cents) the first Viscount 700 fl., the second Viscount 350 fl., the chief secretary 500, the Treasurer 400 and the proscecuting attorney 300. And these were the high officials, nobles with a line age reaching back to the dark ages and lists of names and titles longer than their arms. ((Money,)) says my Hungarian authority, ((was a rare commodity in those days; but wants, also, were few and easily supplied by the pro- ducts of the soil. Wool and flax were spun and woven; wine and grain was plentiful, poultry was the care of every good housewife who prided herself, also, on her wealth of pantry stores, preserves, dried fruits, candies, essences and the like. Furniture and the more costly kind of clothing lasted not only for a life - time but for generations while silverware des cended from father to son and mother to daugh ter for centuries. Provisions being so plentiful good cheer was common. Not only birth and saint days or weddings and marriage feasts served for pretext to make merry, festivities without any especial excuse were so numerous as to call forth a special letter from Vienna in the year 1825, inquiring into a secret society reported to have held periodical meetings. In fact two such social clubs did exist but without political, aim, one among the ladies to further sociability, one perhaps less innocent among the gentlemen of which the avowed object was to drown grief for the existing distempered state of the country.)) Early in the century while there were fine 22 libraries among the Hungarians, these ((consis ted mostly of Latin and French works; now, (after 1835) Hungarian writers were coming to the front whose works were read with un bounded enthusiasm.)) Indeed, the period from 1820 to 1848 49 is called ))the golden age of Hungarian literature" Kazinczy, the great refor mer of the language after Revay, the poets Csokonai, Dayka, Verseghy and Virag, and the novelist Dugonics were the pioneers of a great national movement in literature. Kisfaludy with his famous lyrical aLoves of Himfy, Berzsenyi with his glowing odes, Kis, Horvath, Dobrentei, Paul Szcmcre, Fay, Czuczor, and the most fa mous of the poets of that day Vorosmarty came later, later still, the three young popular poets Arany, Tompa and Petofi and the nove lists Josika, Vayda, Eotvos, Kuthy and Nagy. The extraordinary fertility of the age only faintly appears in these leaders, everywhere books, songs, pamphlets, romances were pouring from the press, everywhere the popular songs brea thing love of county, hope and daring were sung ; everywhere Hungarians talked of the fu- 23 ture of their country and eloquently discussed plans for its national resurection. The younger generation had the Constitution and laws of England, the United States and Prance at its finger tips ; and every one learned that of Hun gary anew. It was an intoxicating time, the air was charged with the electric forces of boundless hope, devotion, national pride. And to unite the currents and force the spark came the Polish struggle for liberty. Hungary sym pathised with the defeated Poles and the Hun garian homes were open to the refugees. Mr. Fejervary used to tell of one of the refugees, a handsome young Pole, travelling disguised as a Turk, with a Turkish passport, who never could resist the temptation of dancing the ma zurka at private parties, even at the risk of his life. In 1831 the Asiatic cholera pushed ((even the exuberance of national life in to the back ground, with its grim presence. It was its first, unhappily not its last appearance in Hungary. It came ((after a year of famine through fai lure of the crops.)) 24 And nobly the landowners met it. They fed not only their own dependants and tenants but any one who chose to cross their threshold, twice a day. Nevertheless the ignorant Slavs in the Nort (from whom are recruited the Huns who work in our mines) started a report that the disease was caused by the land owners who poisoned the wells in order to rid them selves of the superfluous population.)) Maddened by this wild tale, the Slavs began to roam about the country, pillaging and murdering. Mr. Fejervary (who was at this time inspector of the line of quarantine) overheard his guards discussing the story, before it had reached the authorities by the mails ; they, however, took a reasonable view and swore roundly at the Slavs. The season was rainy; and the inspector of quarantine had a harder job than any of his guards. He was in the saddle from morning until night, and generally returned, drenched to the skin. The writer has heard him describe these rides, often made by night. It would be dark, said he, but there were ditches on either side of the road and I could see the shining of the water and steer bet ween. The mortality was awful ; in some places ten to twelve percent of the population died, even among the better lodged and fed and educated classes six to eight per cent perished. All letters and papers passing trough the quarantine lines were pinned by sharp prongs and well smoked at a safe distance from the operator, and some public documents of Hungary may be seen at this day which bear the holes made by the prongs. With the passing of the cholera the nation turned to its national aspiration and its thirst for progress with renewed zest and vigor. Soci eties of all kinds, flourished. Mr. Fejervary be longed to an archeological society which busied itself in collecting not only antiquities of the Turkish and medieval times butpre-historic relics. They accumulated a very rich collection. This was only one outlet of the national ardor, akin to the patriotic societies so popular with us oi late, the Sons of the Revolution and the Co- lonnial Wars. A Society of a lighter turn of which Mr. Fejervary was the soul, was occupied 26 in the collection of ridiculous letters and public documents of bad style and unintentional humor. This collection in a way, preceded the comic papers.)) But during these years the serious occupation of Mr. Fejervary as of other Hun garian nobles was agriculture and politics. He threw his whole energies and power of mind into the improvement of the agriculture of his dis trict and at the same time, he was keenly, painfully interested in everything concerning the growth of the national spirit. In the year 1839, says my Hungarian authority, the Supreme Count Maylath, wishing to influence the coming elec tion to the Diet and direct the choice of envoys, requested the appointment of the most conser vative men of the county to serve as leaders at the election. The liberal majority, out of re spect to the Governor, accepted this list, only asking that my father's name be added to it as clerk - feeling that thereb y succes was secured.)) Which, indeed, was the case. In 1843 Mr. Fejervary was elected to the Diet without a dissenting vote. And he justified the confi dence reposed in him. 27 The heads of his instructions are interesting in view of the tumultuos days that followed. They were: i. - To work for relief from all ancient grie vances. n. - - for Substitution of Hungarian for Latin for the official language, in. for Freedom of the press, iv. for annexation of Transylvania to Hungary . v. - - for the abolition of entails, vi. -- for extension of civil rights to nonnobles. vii. for equalization of taxation, vm. for the education of the people, ix. for a National Bank. x. - - for the abolition of guilds etc, etc. Mr. Fejervary took an active part in the fight (in the main victorious) in the Diet, for these and kindred reforms. He was essentially a mo derate man; and while some of his friends were among the hot heads whose swords were itching to jump out of their scabbards, he from the first advocated a strictly constitutional war- 28 fare. In 1845, he retired to private life. It was in this year that his marriage accurred. He married Caroline Karasz. She was the sister of his closest friend, now dead. The parents of both, says his daughter)), had been friends in youth, my mother's eldest brother had been my father's friend ; and the same bond of af fection existed between my father's aunt and foster mother Celestine Dvornikovich and my mother's aunt who had in all social affairs ac ted in the place of her invalid mother. The following is the letter of my great aunt Celes tine to my mother, announcing, according to the custom of the times, my father's intentions. My dear Lotti: Probably my letter will be very unexspected to you; but I hope from my heart that neither it nor its contents may surprise you disagreably. My nephew Fejervary whom I could better call my son, not only because I have filled a mother's place in his regard, but because he rewards my care with the love and confidence of a son, wishes to speak to you alone on a matter of great importance to him to dis- 29 close te you his inmost heart. This favour then I ask for him and hope that you will not only receive my request indulgently but will also believe that I must love you very dearly in order to make it so openly and confidently. Have the goodness to set him the time and hour and to listen patiently to what he has to communicate. His praise would sound ill, co ming from my lips ; but let me say that he who has never associated with women, outside of our family, may lack confidence and a ready adress ; but perhaps may amply compensate for the lack of these qualities by his sincerity, di rectness and rectitude. Acquainted as you are with the relation between us, I can only add that any kindness shown to him will be the sweetest flattery to me; and close, recommen ding him to your good-will, with the assurance of my sincere affection and respect. Although the young envoy's affection was re turned, the woman he loved hesitated. Her mother was an invalid, she was the virtual head of the household; and her young brother was a child who needed her care. Any one who 30 knew Mrs. Fejervary will understand that the one person whose happiness she would not con sider was Caroline Karasz. When she did con sent - - one has a notion that the shrewd and kind old aunt knew how to smooth away dif ficulties - - she stipulated that she ((should re main with her mother so long as she lived and care for her brother until he grew to manhood . The condition was faithfully observed. In con sequence, the first years of married life were rather unsettled, spent partly in Pesth and partly on the country seat of her family in the county of Bekes. After the death of his mo ther-in-law, in the fateful year 1847, the young couple removed to the town of Vac on the Da nube, where Fejervary's aunt lived with her widowed sister. Here from the peaceful quiet of the happiest domestic life he saw the storm clouds of the revolution rising on the horison. With a heavy heart he looked on at. the swift marshal ling disaster that he could not avert. Twice the town of Vac was the scene of battle. The Fejervary' s from their own home could see the bombardement of Pesth. ((The horrors of war 31 were closely followed by those of pestilence)). Early in the year 1849 the Asiatic cholera en tered Hungary again. Ith brought such sorrow to Mr. Fejervary that he could not endure to remain in the scene of his bereavement, In May of that year seven persons died in the household of his aunt Celestine, among them a young kinswoman who had cared for her like a daughter, and, at last, she herself, was stri ken)). He brought her to his own home, but was not only unable to save her but had to see his own son and daughter succumb to the contagion)). The barbarous medical methods used even by the greatest medical skill of the day, added a poignent torture to the sad memories of that time; for the doctors forbade water to the sick, declaring it would be a draught of death to them. The poor little girl, only eigh teen months old, begged incessantly for water, putting up her baby hands and piteously im ploring, Bitte! bitte! (Please! please!))); and the distracted parents dared not give it to her. She died; and so long as he lived that heart breaking picture remained in her father's me- 32 mory. They gave the boy water in defiance oi the doctors. He recovered. These private griefs were added to hopeless depression in regard to his country. Some of his friends died on the scaffold, some were in exile, their lands confiscated, some were in pri son ; the country was under martial law ; heavy taxes, military levies and loans cynically ter med ((voluntary)) wrenched the little that war had spared from the miserable Hungariens. In despair he turned to seek in another land, a happier future for his children. Early in May, 1852, he crossed the Atlantic (after a year spent in Brussels,) landing in New- York. The question before him was which part of the country he should choose for his home. The same cool and long sighted judgement which had kept him out of a doomed rebellion at home, warned him of the complications and dangers inherent in the system of slavery and led him to reject any idea of going to that sec tion. The Atlantic seaboard was not a farming country ; and he, like all his nation, was a far mer. There remained the middle West, with its 33 vast acres to be bought for a nominal price. Therefore he chose the West. At first he hesi tated to expose his delicately nurtured wife to the rigor of an unaccustomed climate, harsh in either extream of heat or cold (for we must own that we are very hot in summer and very cold in winter in Scott county) and to the har dships of a pioneer life. He travelled West (in the snail like fashion of the travel of that day) he looked at the rich Western fields and the lovely hillsides ; he saw the fortune waiting for a shrewd man with a small fortune to in vest; but when he thought of his wife in the little frontier town his courage failed him. He returned to New- York and did the wisest thing possible; he told his wife all about the place, the people, the muddy roads, the hot sun, the deep snows, the meagre shops, the chance that he might not always be able to hire even the unskiful and reluctant service of the country to help her. And he left the decision with her. His wife was a gentle and delicate gentlewoman but she was not only a heroic soul and the most unselfish of wives ; she was a wise woman ; 34 she saw clearly that his interests would be ser ved in what must have seemed to her a savage country; and she decided to go. Afterwards, laughing with friends over those first years, she said that really the thing that gave her the most daily inconvenience was not having a maid to do her hair. When she had learned to ar range her own hair, the offices of nurse or cook did not frighten her at all. Nor were the pri vations so great as she had dreaded. Mr. Fejervary built a spacious and most comfortable house, staunch and complete, like all his undertakings, and surrounded by twenty one acres of land which smiled with vineyards and gardens and was cool with stately trees. Many of the trees he planted, but many were growing when Black- hawk hunted over the Iowa hills. The house was finished in October, 1853 ; and became from that time until his death the happy home of his family. There, there came to him the two crushing blows of his life; but there, also he spent happy and honored days : and there rich in years and the praise and love of good men 35 and the gratitude of the poor, he found his peaceful death. For years the house was a refuge for wande ring Hungarians. Some of them became mem bers of the household, as coachmen, gardners and the like, although often bred to very dif ferent occupations. Some of the refugees the writer suspects were arrant rogues who im posed upon the patriotism of their hosts in the manner of their kind. But many of them were gallant gentlemen to whom this house of refuge, the sweet faced hostess and courtly host, the welcome, the comfort, the unexpected luxuries, the dear sound of their own tongue, remained a lovely memory, their lives long. It was not only their countrymen who pro fited by their open hand ; no poor man or wo man in Davenport but knew that if there was anyone more generous than Mr. Fejervary it was Mrs. Fejervary. And Mr. Fejervary being a man of keen eyes and cool head as well as warm heart was not so approachable as his gentle wife, who nevertheless learned to see through a plausible story very quickly ; but to the end, 36 with a half humorous compassion she forgave the shabby sinner, if possible. No one who was made welcome to the home among the hills, will ever forget its charm, the quaint half foreign air that hung about the sa lon with its portraits of Hungarian gentlefolk of the last century, the men martial in mus- tachios and the fur trimmed Hungarian court dress, the women with their handsome, faces shaded by large, flat curls and their shapely white shoulders, rising unshaded by anything, out of their short waisted gowns; the ample hall; the pleasant, simply furnished library where in later years a picture of the owner's latest hero, Grover Cleveland, hung above the crowded shelves ; and, quaintest, most charming of all, the dining room, its walls paneled in wood, each panel decked with colored prints of the early part of the century when Victoria was slim and rode a prancing black steed, with Prince Albert (who wore an imperial under his chin and a most amiable and conjugal smile) held her rein; and the royal children gambol led in Scotch tartan; its windows opening on 37 the wide terraces that sloped down into hill sides, and tree tops and, at last, the shining haze of the great river. And no one who knew it can forget the wel come, the genial courtesy, the constant thought for a guest's comfort, the pleasant witty talk that made the moments too short, and - - not the least, surely - - the invariable good cheer which adopted the best American dishes for its own, without losing toothsome Hungarian viands which one found nowhere else. When the family first came to Davenport, there were few schools and these at too great a distance to be considered for the two child ren, Nicholas and Celestine. So, for several years the father and mother taught them. Mrs. Fejervary had herself been educated by a pupil of Pesta- lozzi; we may say that she opened the first kindergarten in Davenport. To be sure there were but two pupils, but it is safe to conclude that the teacher did not cut the course because the school was so small. As the scholars advan ced they passed under the care of a tutor, their father. And when Nicholas was fifteen he en- 38 tered Griswold college which was then in its few palmy days. He was a lad of great pro mise, beautiful both in person and character. His father's hopes were centered on him; the ambitions (never selfish) which had been so cruelly thwarted in his own land, ran out hope fully to Nicholas' future, the passionate tender ness of a heart so sensitive that it hid behind a outward rigidity of politeness and silence where it felt the most, was lavished on its very own, his wife and his children, and it clung to his only son. In 1863, after a brief illness, Nicholas died. His father bore the blow with outward stoicism; but he was never the same man again. For his wife's and his daughter's sake he repressed his grief, he continued the careful manager of his property, he tried to be cheerful; but those who were closest of his friends, said that there was a change in him, indefinable but plain; he was never quite the same man again that he had been, something had gone out of his life never to return. It was a crushing blow to my father)), says his daughter, from which he never quite recovered 39 until the serenity of age which brings the sense of true proportion of all earthly things and their deathless part, encompassed him and left him to enjoy the evening of his life. After coming to Davenport and building his home, Mr. Fejervary only left it, twice, for any length of time. He made an extended tour through the South and so far as Cuba, in 1870, Mrs. Fejervary's health demanding a change of cli mate. And again in 1872, with his family he spent nearly two years in Europe, the most of the time being given to Italy. On these trips he entered into new scenes with the true tou rist spirit, laying up a rich store of experience and information; and always learning the lan guage of a country where he was to make a long stay. During the war, Mr. Fejervary was a strong supporter of the government ; and after the war he was for many years one of the members of the Scott County Monument committe. To him more than to any other citizen do we owe the stately column that tells the world the grati tude of Scott county to its citizen soldiery. He 40 not only gave largely in money, he gave his time and his influence. After the war, he voted for Greely, and for Grover Cleveland. He was never a hero wor shiper; but the fearless devotion to duty as he saw duty, the sturdy, cool common sense and the strength of Cleveland's character were traits so akin to his own as to make it natural for him to admire and trust the man. As he lay in his coffin, in his Hungarian dress, a stately, peace ful old man, I looked from his calm face to the stern and tired face of the president whose bitterest foes were in his own party and who then, was, fighting grimly and hopelessly aga inst the element that conquered at Chicago; and I thought how these two strong souls would have helped each other had fate brought them together. Mr. Fejervary took no active part in public affairs; this might have been different had his son lived; and assuredly men of his courage, unswerving sense of duty, independance, tem perate judgement, wisdom and patriotism were never more needed. As it happened, also, there probably is no locality that would more readily welcome such a man or be more ready to con- dene his independance than this very orphan second district)) and the state of Scott ; But there is no record of his ever even considering any political action except voting. Nevertheless, he was one of the makers of Davenport. And more and more his fellow citi zens asked his counsel. For many years, ne was a member of the Board of Managers of the Cook Home, a noble charity that provides for the old age of poor women of good charac ter and respectability, commonly called The Old Ladies' Home. He was one of the largest landowners in the county; always a just and merciful landlord. In business, the integrity as natural to him as breath, made, as the saying goes, his name as good as his bond. He demanded the same ho nesty that he showed. His business investments were very profitable, because they were shrewdly made with a judgement of the probable deve- lopement of the country and course of business, almost invariably justified by events. As a large 42 landlord, his attention was early called to the hard fate of the unsuccesful farmer in his old age. Slowly there grew up in his mind a plan to help the man who had failed to lay up eno ugh for comfort in his last days. His own for tune was mostly gained in Scott county. A busi ness man of Davenport said to me, once ; ((There is a general impression that Mr. Fejervary came, here a rich man; but he told me that he bro ught very little. He told me he made the most of his money right here in Scott county. And I guess there's one thing sure, he made it ho nestly)). To express his gratitude to the country that received him, to the county where his fortune was made, and to help a class in which he had been interested all his life, Mr. Fejervary gave sufficient property to build and endow the Fejervary Home for old farmers of Scott county. He had planned every detail of the handsome and curiously comfortable building with his chosen architect, before he announced his inten tion. The home has some unique features. For one thing, being planned by an old man all 43 its details have been studied with refference to the wants of age. I have visited a great many so-called homes. Generally the best of them have cramped quarters for the inmates, and large and airy reception rooms. In the Fejervary Home, the public rooms are neat and tasteful but in no wise, either space or furnishing, bet ter than the large, sunny rooms given to the old men. Some of these rooms are on the gro und floor. Old men don't like to climb stairs*), said Mr. Fejervary. Each man has his own room, with his own little comforts. There are broad acres about the home where the superintendant raises a bountiful supply of vegetables and fruit ; and the old men fare well in their last days. One or two of them has his own private gar den. In the basement there is a little carpen ter shop where one of the inmates makes most ingenious little gifts for his friends and keeps every thing about the house in good order. The inmates being men of character and education, ((whom unmerciful disaster has followed fast and followed faster)) the whole intention of the Home is to give them a safe harbor after their 44 stormy voyages. There is an absense of the nagging rules that make the ordinary inmate of the ordinary institution feel like a child in a very strict school; in the Fejervary Home that warm and gracious hospitality which every guest of the Fejervary 's knew, still lingers and makes these sad and unwilling guests welcome without question or dictation. It is not inten ded to be a large institution (which is one of its greatest virtues to the writer's mind) but to make its inmates comfortable and happy. Therefore little attentions which would be im possible in a very large institution, are conti nually shown to the wants and tastes of the inmates. So long as he lived, Mr. Fejervary used to send, every year, a cask of his home made wine to the Home. This home made wine I can not pass without comment for it so vigo rously illustrates one marked trait in Mr. Fejer- vary's character. It was a point of honor with him to obey the laws of his adopted country, even where they bore hardly on his personal comfort. He made wine from his own vines. When the so called ((Prohibitory law was pas- 45 sed in Iowa it was openly defied in Scott co unty; but Mr. Fejervary cast about in his mind how he should obey it; and from the day of its passage he prepared the unfermented juice of the grape, mixing Salycilic acid with the freshly pressed juice. He served it to his friends in generous goblets. Many and many a goblet have I quaffed; and I must confess that stern as was the intention of the wine grower, to be on the side of the law and keep alcohol away from the grape, there was a period in the life of that wine when it was so very much better than before that one had ones suspicions of the incorruptible virtue of Salycilic acid as a guard. In general the wine was a rather sweet, plea santly biting cider. Often did those who tasted it, try to find its counterpart in the grape juice of commerce, but there was no more resem blance between these cloying mistures and the pure juice from the Fejervary vines than there is between a live horse and a stuffed one! The present Board of Trustees (who hold their office in perpetuity - - as Mr. Fejervary jestingly wished to hold the office of Hono- 4 6 rary Secretary) were selected by the founder of the Home. He chose personal friends in whom he placed confidence, who, he felt, would keep the place a home. And the matron, a wise, kind gentlewoman, who recognises that the whims of old age are important to the aged, and who is not only kind but cheerful, has carried out the spirit as well as the letter of the Founder's wishes. In 1890 Mr. Fejervary met his last and greatest grief; he lost the sweet and noble wife who had been his comrade for over 45 years. Mrs. Fejervary, after a very short illness, not recog nised as dangerous by herself until the very end, died in the home that she had made so happy for him. She was a woman of whom it is hard for those who had the privilege of her friendship to speak without using terms that seem extravagant in ordinary. The word that rose to the lips of her very casual acquaintan ces, most naturally, speaking of her, is saint . Yet a saint does not usually appear to the imagination as a woman with a keen sense of humor and exquisitely polite. Neither does a 47 saint (the usual saint of sermons and fiction) have the broadest toleration for those outside her own faith and race and class or carry her common sense into her religion : it is enough to say that Mrs. Fejervary was all that a saint ought to be, but usually is'nt! She was a de voted Catholic; but to those virtues which the protestant world is willing to grant to the pi ous Catholic, she added some, believed (by Anglo- Saxon protestants - - we are not the most mo dest race in the world) to be peculiarly their own. No Puritan ever was less willing to do evil that good may come, more rigidly exact in truth, or more devoted to righteousness as we distinguish it from religion. She was tried by many sore afflictions. She belonged te a race of patriots and warriors, but not one of them ever loved his country with a more ardent devotion than she. Yet she left it, forever, without a murmur to follow her husband to an alien land and harsh conditions. She lost kindred and children; her baby girl died of a pestilence, her only son went from her just as he was apparently about to fulfill 4 8 every promise of his beautiful youth. She, her self, during her last years suffered from many pains and infirmities. It was a great affliction to her that her hearing was impaired. But no distress ever shook her fortitude. No one ever heard her complain. I doubt whether she ever considered that she had need of complaint. She was infinitely happy in her husband and her daughter, she had enough to give to the poor, health and strenght she would have welcomed as blessings but they did not seem to her the nesessaries of happiness ; for many, many years she was happy without them. For a while after she left him, her husband hardly seemed to have the power to go on li ving; but his love for his daughter roused him to make the effort for her sake; and he did live five calm yet busy years. Nor, I like to think, were these year the least happy of his long and useful life. There is no intention in this tribute of a friend, to ascribe to its sub ject any qualities that he did not possess; he would be the last man to wish the present of unreal virtues. Nicholas Fejervary was not a 49 saint, he was a righteous man ; he had his pre judices as intense natures, however noble or he roic or conscientious are of their very quality, prone to have; they were not many but they were strong ; he could hate as well as love ; he felt an undying gratitude for kindness ; and he resented cruelty, treachery and injustice with lifelong resentment. It was hard for him to forgive. But during these last peaceful years, not only did the bitter griefs of his life grow into a softened sorrow, not only was he tole rant of what had once vexed him; he came to forgive wrong and to pity the wrongdoer. His mind retained all its vigor, and his body much, up to his last ilness. He died, as he wo uld have wished to die, in his own home, wat ched and tended by the one who loved him best and whose love was the sunshine of his old age. He had lived eighty four years. They were good years, stainless, full off honorable work, of high endeavor, of patriotic struggle, of heroic fortitude, of justice and mercy to all men, to his own they were full of tenderness and purity and the deepest affection. Only his 4 50 own knew the sensitive nature that was behind the dignity of the man. Only they knew how tenderly and faithfully he loved. But his near friends caught glimpses of these things; and we all knew his integrity and kindliness. He was generous not only in large ways but in a hundred small, neighborly, kindly fashions, the fashions that sweeten daily life. He was conti nually doing little kindnesses and doing them so delicately that they were twice as welcome. He used to send the Hungarian papers and magazines to countrymen who could not afford to subscribe for them; he would save all his foreign stanps for children who might be ma king collections; he liked to send gifts from his orchards and his vineyards to his friends; he liked to select dainty little presents for those dear to him; he was always contriving little pleasures for the old men at the Home; and to the poor he was a constant friend in need. He was so quiet in his benefactions that no one, even his daughter probably knows their extent; but the long train of the poor that stood on the streets to watch his last earthly journey, the plainly dressed men and women that came to his home and begged for a last look of their friend these bore witness. And wittness was borne by his friends, by his fellow citizens of all ranks. A life like his is an ideal and a blessing to any community and the memory of it will not fade. As for him, "So has he joined the Choir in visible, Of those immortal dead who live again, In minds made better by their presence ; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn Of miserable aims that end in self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge men's minds To vaster issues. So to live is Heaven; To make undying music in the worlds. The End. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE RECALL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Book Slip-Series 458 5^890442 CT275 French, Alice, 1850-1934. F44 Nicholas Feje*rva*ry, in memoriam; a tribute F7 of affection and respect from Octave Thanet. Budapest, 1898. 51 p. port. 1. Fej^rvaVy, Nicholas, 1811-1895 .iBRAK f OF Q DAVIS