feuton Studies Sidney » Whitman THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES EX LIBRIS ERNEST CARROLL MOORE M TEUTON STUDIES BY THE SAME AUTHOR. IMPERIAL GERMANY. COXTNT MOLTKE :— " I have read this study on Germany with the greatest interest." PKINCE BISMAUCK :— " I consider the different chapters of this book masterly." JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE :— " Equally excellent in manner and matter." JOHN STUAKT BLACKIE :— " I class this work with Aristotle's Politics and Bryce's America, as one of the three best books on the concrete philosophy of politics that I know. No better work could be placed into the hands of our modem false prophets of liberty and irreverence than the chapters on the Prussian monarchy. And yet, though the author's main business is to exhibit excellence, he is always just, and never attempts to veil the faults or to deny the dangers that belong to any form of social organization." PEOFESSOK GOLDWIN SMITH:— "I hope it is not presumptuous in a stranger to e.xpress to you the pleasure with which he has read j'our Imperial Germany, especially that part of it in which you do justice to Bismarck." THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS. THE TIMES : — " Mr. Whitman is industrious, judicious, and well-informed ; and his sketch of the ' Dual Monarchy ' is well up-to-date without being merely superficial and ephemeral." PALL MALL GAZETTE :— " Of much value, and contains in its three hundred and odd pages more information than will be found in many volumes of much larger size and greater pretensions." SPECTATOR: — "Thoroughly readable; contains a good deal of impartial criticism and keen observation." MANCHESTER EXAMINER :—" Avery comprehensive survey, anda valuable critical study." Teuton Studies BY SIDNEY WHITMAN AUTHOR OF IMPERIAL GERMANY," "THE REALM OF THE HAB3BURGS,' ETC. Helena. So sage denn, wie sprach ich auch so schon 1 Faiist. Das ist gar leicht, es muss vom Herzen gehen. Goethe. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ld. 189s \AU rights resented] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. TO MY OLD FRIEND ADOLF COUSTOL 86r7G0 PREFACE The principal contents of this book have ap- peared in different periodicals, and I am indebted to the Editors of the Fortnightly Review^ the Con- temporary, the Pall Mall Magazine, the Preiissische Jahrbiicher, the Boston Youth's Companion, and the Chatitanqtian for their kind permission to reprint. All the articles have, however, been practically re-written ; and the study of Moltke in particular has been considerably enlarged from valuable first-hand information. It may perhaps appear to the reader that the Teuton spirit is somewhat unduly predominant in these pages. Upon reflection, however, it will, I think, be evident that it is almost impossible to present the essential characteristics of a foreign nation without running the risk of appearing to enlarge, where the aim is simply to illustrate. October, 1895. CONTENTS THE GERMANY OF THE PAST THE GERMANY OF TO-DAY ... THE WORKING-MAN THE FOREST DAS LIED THE DRAMA THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT A VISIT TO A FACTORY GLIMPSE OF A WATERING-PLACE . COUNT MOLTKE, FIELD-MARSHAL . BISMARCK AT FRIEDRICHSRUH FRIEDRICHSRUH REVISITED l-AGE I 13 27 60 70 81 96 202 232 TEUTON STUDIES THE GERMANY OF THE PAST It is barely within the memory of the present middle-aged generation that Germany has come to occupy once more the political position which she enjoyed before the Reformation, and which her geographical situation, as well as her past history, warrants her to hold as her rightful heritage. But the importance of the political events of the last thirty years is not even now fully realized by the public at large ; although they imply nothing less than the displacement of the Catholic (Austria) and the Celto-Roman (France) by the mainly Protestant Teuton in the hegemony of Europe. Nor is the significance of this change limited in its effects to the scope of politics of the Cabinet ; it may be said to affect indirectly, for good or evil, many branches of national life on the continent of Europe, possibly for many generations B 2 Teuton Studies to come. But where the average unit fails to " see," we find unseen spiritual and intellectual forces at work. And it is in these that we can trace the antagonism, the reaction, the rebellion which great dynamic manifestations in the life of nations, as in nature itself, always call forth. Thus, to the close observer, the distinct wave of anti-Teuton sentiment — a sort of Celtic self-assert- iveness which is passing, more or less, over the civilized world — is only a natural phenomenon, a direct outcome of the events already referred to. Even a cursory glance at the part which the Teutonic race has played in the making of European history must be of peculiar interest at such a moment. The people whom we call the Germans, and who call themselves die Deutsche^, are a branch of the Teutonic race which again belongs to the great Aryan family. They are first mentioned in the fourth century B.C. as inhabiting land on the shores of the Baltic. Three centuries later they had spread far and wide, and were settled between the Vistula and the Rhine, extending from the northern seas as far southward as the Alps. But Germany in those days consisted in great part of huge forests, lakes, and morasses, without sufficient arable land to furnish subsistence for so many. The endeavour to find more genial economic and climatic conditions urged the Germans still farther The Germany of the Past 3 south, and brought them, about 100 B.C., into contact and collision with the Romans. This event may be considered one of the momentous milestones of history, — this first meeting face to face of two antagonistic worlds, one destined ultimately to rise on the ruins of the other and to mark the course of the world's history for many centuries. In the words of Schiller — " Das Alte stiirzf, es cinder Ji sick die Zeiten, Und fieues Lebefi bliiht aiis de7i RidnciiP On the one hand are the Romans — a race of politicians among whom the idea of the State had risen to splendour and power hitherto unattained, the lawgivers, the colonizers of the ancient world, the masters of statecraft; but with the seeds of decay already at their heart. Rome is no longer the Rome of Scipio Africanus; the Senate no longer the stoic body who welcomed the de- feated general and thanked him because he had not despaired of the republic. The unit has deteriorated, for the dominant class is already infected by the spread of luxury and corruption, though all this is still invisible beneath the glitter of arms of a splendidly trained soldiery. These soldiers are as yet the hardy, trained sons of the Roman agriculturist, in time destined to disappear together with the culture of the soil itself amid 4 Teuton Studies increasing urban centralization. And pitted against these are the Germans. They are described as tall of stature, with fair auburn hair, which fell in long ringlets over their shoulders. Their eyes are said to have been of such an intense piercing blue as alone to distinguish them easily from other races. War and the chase were their foremost occupa- tions ; drunkenness, laziness, and gambling their vices. But their virtues were great physical courage, utter recklessness of self, chastity in both sexes, and freedom from the treachery so marked in most of the races of the ancient world. At first, even Roman veterans shrank from meeting these fierce invaders, so totally different from all hitherto-encountered foes. When Marius, the great Roman general, had trained his closely- knitted legions to face their onslaught and to defeat them, the Romans still found antagonists in the German women who defended the camp. They strangled their children and then themselves rather than submit to the dishonour inherent to submission. This was a new and ominous ex- perience for the conquerors. The German wave was driven back for a time from the South and spent itself toward the West. But only for a short time. Through centuries we note the old world vainly struggling against the constantly renewed force of the German race. The Germany of the Past 5 tramping through Europe to the din of arms, laying the foundations of new peoples and dynas- ties in Germany, in Italy (the Goths, the Longo- bards), in Spain (the Goths), in France (the Burgundians, the Franks, the Normans), in the Netherlands, even in England (the Saxons, the Northmen), until then a Roman colony peopled by races of Celtic blood. In course of time a new ethic code gained the day in the form of Christi- anity, and gave spiritual tone to the rough man- hood swayed alternately by the instinct of separa- tion and a longing for better things, until in the year 800 A.D. we have a mighty German and Christian emperor, Charles the Great, holding sway over the greater part of Europe and ex- changing courtesies with the renowned Moham- medan caliph, Haroun al Raschid. The coronation of Charles the Great in Rome, the central event of the Middle Ages, restored the Roman Empire in the West under the leadership of a new people. In the pregnant words of Professor Bryce : " The inheritance of the Roman Empire made the Germans the ruling race of Europe, and the brilliance of that glorious dawn has never faded and can never fade entirely from their name. " A peaceful people now, peaceful in sentiment even now when they have become a great military power, ac- quiescent in paternal government, and given to the quiet 6 Teuton Studies enjoyment of arts, music, and meditation, they delight tliemselves with memories of the time when their con- quering chivahy was the terror of the Gaul and the Slav, the Lombard and the Saracen." But although the Latin had ceded to the Teuton in martial prowess, we find a powerful influence having its source in Italy and acting uninterrupt- edly through all time, even up to the present day, upon the Germans, not merely in matters of religion, but also in other phases of national life. It is a pet idea of Prince Bismarck that, as in physics and chemistry, so also in the composition of races, a certain fusion of different elements is necessary to great political result. He instances the French, the English, and the Prussians, all three composite races, as cases in point. Thus, if we take the Teutonic stock as largely supplying the male ingredient in the family of nations, we find an ex- planation for the irresistible attraction which Italy, the supple, the feminine, has ever exerted over her northern neighbours. An idea, political in its in- ception, wings its flight from the Eternal City. The flaming word is uttered by an Italian priest- hood, and its echoes touch and call into action King Richard in England, Duke Gottfried of Bouillon in the Netherlands, — even the sturdy Scandinavian fisherman on his fiord hurries forth to shed his blood in the far East. But it is among The Germany of the Past 7 the Germans that the Crusades become the most extraordinary manifestation of altruistic ideality known to history. Conduct, asceticism, suffering in an ideal cause, fill the record of an age during which the Crusades gleam as a loadstar over the horizon of Germany. When the work of the sword is done for a time, there is a long lull in the political world. In this period one of the most interesting developments in the history of civilization is gradually taking effect. The remnants of classic literature which had sur- vived the wreckage of the old world, had found a resting-place in the churches and monasteries, where they were treasured by the monks, who, notwith- standing their horror of a pagan world, were con- scious of their value. It is principally to German monks of the Benedictine Order that we owe the survival of what we possess of classic literature ; for they, in the retirement of their monasteries, were busy at work for generations gathering and copying out and promulgating the manuscripts in their possession. Thus did they contribute their share to the culture of mankind and prepare the ground for the gigantic revival of European culture, commonly known as the " Renaissance " (the Cinque Cento). German nationality upholds the Roman Empire through this eventful period in the history of 8 Teuton Studies Europe. Feudalism is the one great institution which marks the political world, whilst, under the tutelage of the Catholic Church, a new culture is struggling into life and thence into magnificent adolescence. In this period we note the growth of commerce, particularly the power and splendour of Italian and German towns, the grace and culture of the life of the citizen. It is of this period that Ruskin speaks as follows, 'referring indeed to Italy, but also more or less marking the current of hfe in Germany : " And now, thirdly, we come to the period when classical literature and art were again known in Italy, and the painters and sculptors, who had been gaining steadily in power for two hundred years — power not of practice merely, but of race also — with every circumstance in their favour around them, received their finally perfect instruction both in geometrical science, in that of materials, and in the anatomy and action of the human body. Also, the people about them, the models of their work, had been perfected in personal beauty by chivalric war ; in imagination, by a transcendental philosophy ; in practical intellect, by stern struggle for civic law ; and by commerce, not in falsely made, or vile, or unclean things, but in lovely things, beautifully and honestly made. And now, therefore, you get out of all the world's long history since it was peopled by men till now — you get just fifty years of perfect work. Perfect. It is a strong word. It is also a ^me one." The Germany of the Past 9 This was the time when the German Hanse towns possessed more merchant shipping than England ; when Germany was the home of merchant princes who helped their monarchs from their own private means ; when German architecture was most splen- did, when German life was most luxurious, and German manufacture the most renowned. It is a German monk who discovers the dark compound which was destined to sound the knell of chivalry, — gunpowder ; a German who invents the printing press. Thus prepared by the work of generations another idea is already in the germ. Wealth and culture had brought luxury and lasciviousness in their train ; and here we have the rebellion of the hardier Teuton against the dominant influence of the South. This time it is no longer the dynastic leadership of the throne. The note issues from the cloister cell, and is uttered by the son of a German peasant, Martin Luther. He has seen with his own eyes the canker beneath the splendour of pontifical Rome, and he returns home to free his countrymen from what had gradually grown into an intellectual bondage, intolerable to the sons of a hardier soil. It is difficult to form an adequate idea of the gigantic personality of Martin Luther, or of the far-reaching- influence of his work. But we are lo Teuton Studies able to take note of the typically national tone of his character. He was essentially German, in his pertinacity, his bluntness, his coarseness, if you will, but German also in his childlike simplicity and honesty, and, above all, in the lofty calmness of his courage. Such was the man who laid the train which, once ignited, blazed forth in the Reformation all over Europe, and found its culmin- ating point in that dreadful scourge known as the Thirty Years' War (i 618—1648). This great struggle was fought out mainly on German soil by Germans, and the price which Germany paid for these birth-throes of modern thought was her political hegemony in Europe From the end of the Thirty Years' War (which left Germany with about five millions of inhabitants out of her previous sixteen millions) dates the rapid decline of the German Empire. The Germans had lost the political hegemony of Europe, but they had gained freedom of thought. And the gratification of this dominant yearning of the national character made them for a while comparatively careless of politics, and also indif- ferent to wealth and luxury. During more than a century and a half the gloom which had overcast the political destinies of the German race is only once lit up by the powerful personality of Frederick the Great driving the French before him at Ross- The Germany of the Past 1 1 bach, fiercely grappling with the Moscovite invader on the plains of Zorndorf, and preparing the way for the final expulsion of many-coated Austria from her sinister hegemony in Protestant Germany. But the crowning moment had not yet come. Much suffering had yet to be undergone before we can speak again of Germany as a great political power. Germany as yet is only active in the realm of thought and contemplation. Goethe is born, and in him we find the last and most fruitful manifestation of that strange affinity between the German cast of mind and that of Italy, to which we have already referred. We need but turn to Goethe's works to find the blending of all that is perennial and beautiful in antiquity — in the art world of medieval Italy with the wide, philosophic, humanizing conceptions of Germany's peerless poet-philosopher. Goethe, as is well known, fore- shadowed the drift of Darwin's work, which in our time has revolutionized our conceptions of the genesis of the organic world. It was Goethe who, in the character of Faust, teaches the highest philosophy to all — namely, that happiness is to be found only in the fulfilment of duty, useful work done for the benefit of all, Faust, after passing through every stage of worldly power and enjoy- ment without obtaining rest, at last finds content- ment as a tiller of the soil ! But even where 12 Teuton Studies Goethe's efforts were incomplete or unproductive, his example has remained a constant spur to the intellect of Germany. In fact, without the figure of Goethe, it is as impossible to conceive the idea of German culture as it would be to fancy Protes- tant Germany without the personality of Martin Luther. We have already shown how enthusiasm for an idea — the mission of the race — had resulted in long political weakness. According to Professor Bryce (p. 362) : "The tendency of the Teuton was and is the inde- pendence of the individual life .... as contrasted with the Celtic and so-called Romanic peoples, among whom the unit is more completely absorbed in the mass." This acute observation largely explains the political disasters of Germany in the past, as it also furnishes an indirect explanation for the political re-birth of Germany in our time. For if the independence of the individual had resulted in two centuries of political impotence, it was also to be credited with the steady growth of intellectual and moral qualities — the latter largely nurtured by suffering — which, when the supreme moment for collective action arose, lent it an irresistible impetus, and, in our time, resulted in the political regeneration of Germany. THE GERMANY OF TO-DAY It is many years ago now since Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the English poet, visited Germany, and could find nothing better to say of the town of Cologne, than that it was the abode of ugly wenches and nasty stenches. That was long before the Germans had realized that practical spirit (das Praktische) which in our time was destined to enable them to crown the edifice hitherto built up dreamily by philosophic ideality. The Germans were as yet a stay-at-home people who had seen little or nothing of the world, and it was Alexander von Humboldt, under the patronage of Prussian royalty, who gave an im- pulse to the whole nation by his travels and re- search. His almost Aristotelian universality at- tracted the attention of the intellect of the country and opened up a new scope of national interest : the affairs of the trans-oceanic world at large. An interest this which the Germans were destined 13 14 Teuton Studies to turn to wonderfully good account some day — as is clearly shown to-day by their enormous colonial trade. Still as lately as fifty years ago there was little tangible evidence of the great practical possibilities open to the German nation. But even then, a few shrewd observers saw well beneath the surface. Not to mention Thomas Carlyle, a novel-writer and keen-sighted man of the world as well, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, roundly declared Prussia to be the best governed country in Europe. Little did he or others dream that this " good " government should so soon and so swiftly come to be translated into great deeds of war and peace, for the monopoly of prowess had long been held to belong to others. Theory, learning, and ideality were all very well for the unkempt Teuton ; but union, celerity, the cyclonic destruction of the foe, — these were not to be expected of the some- what awkward sons of the Fatherland. Thus, great was the surprise of public opinion at large, when the clarion of war first and suddenly revealed what had been silently nurtured in town and village by plain living, high thinking, and good government. A vast military system, so often and unjustly decried, had taught iron discipline to a whole nation ; a subordination of the unit, a subordina- The Germany of To-Day 15 tion of self, such as the world had never seen since the days of Sparta — and, what is more, a self- subordination having its root, not in fear or tyranny, but in a carefully nurtured spiritual instinct of honour and duty. It was this that made possible a united Germany, born on the battle-field. When the outside world had recovered from its surprise — the surprise of the world being a signifi- cant factor accompanying every great event in history — there they were, the tangible results of all the plodding, the honest hard work done in poverty in the past. After two centuries of national suffering and misery — the curse of the Thirty Years' War had been lifted from the country, a victorious nation — led by a great monarch, pos- sessing great strategists and, judging by results, the greatest statesman, perhaps, of all time ! It was indeed strange that all these rare elements should have been found simultaneously among a people hitherto distinguished by the lack of every one of them. And stranger still it would seem to us, that there have been so few inquiries into the true source of it all ; that people have been satisfied at most to find mechanical solutions where spiritual keys alone could solve the riddle. But more surprise still was in store ! A nation had hardly risen by the art of war, before it was already turning to the arts of peace with rare 1 6 Teuton Studies vigour and success. Not that the Germans have ever again shone in those arts which produced a Cathedral of Strasburg, a Holbein, a Durer, and a Rembrandt. This time it is music which lends its accompaniment to an epoch of martial greatness. Striking indeed it is to note that the Germany of this eventful period should have brought forth the greatest musical genius the world has seen since the days of Beethoven. The mythical Rhine-daughters rise from the river, and Siegfried forges his sword anew to the sound of marching armies. The Twilight of the Gods completes the Nibelungen Tetralogy which forms the grandest of historical allegories. The Master- singers of Niirnberg fittingly illustrate a great period of German civic dignity and culture — the blessings of peace. And lastly, the note of altruistic self-abnegation is struck in Parzival, as though to point onward, where the hope of the future must lie ! It is a German king (Ludwig II. of Bavaria) to whom the great composer is indebted for material assistance in these mighty products of genius, and who, in the spirit of medieval ideality, writes to the composer : " I glory in the prospect of being able to devote my best energies to the furtherance of your great national work." But neither victory nor song led to national intoxication. The sword was sheathed and the The Germany of To-Day 17 pen of the organizer, the pencil of the draftsman, the compass, the trowel, the pickaxe and shovel were taken in hand. The great minds which directed the national destinies were not content to rest on their laurels. Every department, even the victorious army, was carefully re-organized. The German post-office and telegraph systems, for- merly a byword, soon became a model for the rest of Europe to copy. The German railways likewise, largely State property, from being behind the time, have, as well as the post-office service, become mainly subservient to, and the powerful furtherers of, national industry and commerce ; and this to an extent met with elsewhere in Hungary alone. Stately public buildings have been raised all over the country, which, if not always irreproach- able in style, at least give an imposing appearance to many German towns by their massive propor- tions. While a short-sighted and humanly envious world was hypocritically lamenting the inevitable pauperism and bankruptcy which must result from keeping up a huge standing army, capital was forthcoming on every side, and national wealth was increasing by " leaps and bounds." Already the outward aspect of German towns is in keeping with the upward tendency of things. Money has changed hands over bricks and mortar to an extent only to be met with in the annals of the United States. C 1 8 Teuton Studies The city of Berlin has become, within the short span of twenty years, one of the finest in the world ; and is seemingly destined to be tJie town of the future on the European continent. It is already said to be the best governed city of the present day. No wonder such is the case, for the office of mayor of a great German town is one to which only men of acknowledged ability and unblemished probity are likely to be elected. It is a post of high honour and dutiful responsibility ; not one for the gratification of vulgar self-seeking or vanity. We can even read in American magazines what German cities do for their citizens, of the extreme cleanliness of German towns, of the small cost at which the authorities manage to secure decency. In fact, the description is such, that an English paper in referring to it, is fain to concede that it reads like a fairy tale. And yet it is only sober truth. Whatever the criminal statistics of German towns may be, one thing is certain, namely, that the pitiful squalid shabbiness, the filth and drunk- enness (of both sexes) so painfully evident in many large English towns, if it exists in Germany at all, is invisible to the eye. Towns such as Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Stras- burg, Cologne, and Dresden ^ possess (or will ^ The new Central Railway Station at Dresden in course of construction will cost sixty million marks (fifteen million The Germany of To- Day 19 shortly possess) railway stations such as are not to be matched for size or conception on the whole continent of Europe. A similar statement may be hazarded with regard to the public offices, the schools, the new university buildings in Strasburg, the huge barracks which have grown, as it were, out of the earth since '70 all over the country. They give an outward im- pression of splendour, of national dignity, and greatness. But more remains to be told, which is not so readily visible to the naked eye of the casual observer, and this is the enormous industrial and commercial rise of Germany. Some years ago a friend of mine said of Germany : " There is only one thing I admire in Germany, and that is the system which can take yonder clumsy ploughman, who, left to himself, could not do half the work of an English rustic, and turn him in a couple of years into the finest soldier in the world." This worthy saw " something," but not enough. He heard a bell ring, but could tell neither its meaning nor its situation. In the first place, notwithstanding unparalleled dollars). A strange product this for a country which we have long been credibly informed is, in consequence of its ruinous military expenditure, on the high-road to bankruptcy. 20 Teuton Studies military success, you will rarely hear a German pose as the " finest soldier in the world." He wisely leaves this self-appreciation to more im- pulsive races. He usually says nothing on that score. The average German is now thinking more of making money, and the worst of it is, that he is successful, disagreeably successful, in this his latest departure. From being pitied for his helplessness and his poverty, he has come within three short decades to be feared and hated as a rival. " Discard that man-slaying machine, it is ruining you," cried our economists twenty years ago, ** and come and trade with us." He has kept his de- fensive army, but he has come all the same and traded with us with a vengeance. The causes of German commercial success are naturally various and complicated, though one cause, I think, has hitherto received less attention than it deserves, and this is this very military system referred to above. Quite independently of the acknowledged value of German school and commercial training, the discipline of the German army has done wonders for the nation ; for it is a mistake to think that plodding alone has done the work. The army has supplied the nation with the " practical " ability which was formerly largely wanting through absence The Germany of To- Day 21 of touch with the outer world. It has remedied the lack of athletics and outdoor games, which disappeared amid the ruin of the Thirty Years' War. The army has raised the nervous force, the physical energy of the nation to a degree hitherto but imperfectly appreciated abroad. It has also been mainly active in stemming the tide of early improvident marriage, this most fruitful source of puny neurotic manhood, pauperism, and drink. The stalwart vigour of the German race of to-day might well be obvious to the most superficial observer coming from other lands. And many are of opinion that the favourable causes which have brought this about are likely to tell with un- diminished force in the future. Only the other day an English paper noted with "surprise" a series of statistics, from which the unwelcome facts shone forth, that, whereas the average English boy was heavier than the German at an early age, the difference in weight between them gradually de- creased, until at manhood the average weight was in favour of the German. But the army has done more than this. In other countries often a centre of demoralization, in Germany the army has been a source of moral and physical cleanliness. Moral in the sense that it has compelled those elements to act and obey. 22 Teuton Studies which in other countries remain the scum of the population. It is to no small extent this military- training, from which the Germans are falsely said to flee to other countries, which makes them such successful competitors in every walk of life. It has imbued them with a sense of order, a capacity for work. Thus, wherever the German clerk, the working-man, is found among the English-speaking race, he is invariably recognizable by his thrift, and above all by his freedom from the crowning Anglo-Saxon vices of drunkenness and betting. It is a mistake to think that the German works for low v/ages ; he is as anxious for a high wage as any Celt or Anglo-Saxon ; but his superior training, largely that of the school of the army, has disciplined him to work and wait patiently for better times. Thus, the better educated classes in particular have become rivals to England in commerce, manufacture, and even in shipping enterprise. North Germany, despite her restricted and un- favourable seaboard, owns two of the largest steam- ship companies extant. In fact the tonnage of Germany's merchant navy is, I believe, the second largest in the world. The town of Hamburg, which was reduced to the verge of ruin by the French at the beginning of this century, and half burnt to the ground fifty years ago, has, within The Germany of To- Day 23 the short space of the last thuty years, risen to be one of the greatest shipping ports in the world, strongly competing with London and Liverpool. The growth of industry in Germany is too vast a subject to deal with here ; at the same time it is interesting to note, that the comparative ease with which small men starting in business, if of good character, are able to obtain credit and raise capital to assist them, has done a great deal to account for the spread of successful industry in Germany. It is but natural that such a spell of national growth and material prosperity as Germany has enjoyed in our time should have brought some serious drawbacks in its train. An enormous increase of industry and commerce has reared a class hitherto unknown in Germany, and somewhat corresponding to the English type of the well-to-do vulgarian, and equally objectionable. Nor have the qualities of this type remained restricted to the parvenu ; they are met with among others as well. Thus, the pomposity of the pro-consul is no longer a speciality among certain other nations ; he may be found flourishing in all his offensiveness beneath the Imperial German flag, holding his own amid Sprcad-Eagleism, Chauvinism, and British civic Romanns sumisni in all his newly gilt ugliness. But there arc more serious " isms " than any of 24 Teuton Studies the foregoing, which owe their fierce propagation (not their inception — this was inevitable) to the events of the last thirty years. The sight of so much unaccustomed luxury ^ and wealth, where formerly simplicity and frugality had been the distinctive features of all, has reacted unfavourably on those who have been unable to acquire it for themselves. It has added fuel to incite one of the cardinal weaknesses of the German character, envy. In this may perhaps be found an additional cause for the spread of socialism and various other " isms " among the poor but better educated classes. Among the ruck of the working-classes sudden but temporary prosperity has proved anything but an unmixed blessing. Whereas the outward aspect of Paris and other French towns has scarcely altered during the last twenty years, most German towns can show, besides palatial Government buildings, whole quarters of comely private dwellings which have been built since 1 870. Railways have been extended all over the country, and vast quantities of timber which had stood for generations for want of a market have risen enormously in price, and been ^ Germany lately imports the most expensive Havanna cigars in enormous quantities. Thirty years ago a man smoking an imported cigar was usually taken to be either a spendthrift or a millionaire. Even to-day the sovereign of Saxony still smokes his modest penny weed. The Germany of To- Day 25 felled to supply building material. Hence wages rose temporarily in some places to ten times their previous height, only to drop again and leave the working population dissatisfied and demoralized. The working-man has in the meantime, in con- sequence of sudden high wages, taken to the speciality of the prosperous Anglo-Saxon — three days work and four days drinking in the week. In many places where previously, say, ten beer- houses had been sufficient, over forty now do duty for a population scarcely risen in number. No wonder that such conditions have been productive of much mischief. The struggle for existence has become more severe all along the line, and has affected the character of those classes among which formerly the term of " Biedermann," meaning a man of integrity, of plain, honest dealing, used to be applied to a distinctive type of German middle- class life. Hard work and honesty no longer suffice to gain a competence, any more than they do elsewhere. Every department of intellectual life is over-stocked. No wonder that a cry is raised, that everything (even science and art and literature) is made to do duty for self-advertisement, and provide a cloak for doubtful dealing. The quack, the nostrum vendor, hitherto the speciality of more advanced countries, is gaining a footing in the Fatherland. 2 6 Teuton Studies Complaints are rife that trickery has invaded every sphere of activity, notwithstanding the serious efforts of the best Germans in authority and otherwise to stem the tide. Germany can no more escape the conditions of modern life, now that she has embarked on the wave of speculative manipulation, than others. THE WORKING-MAN A COMPARISON I Mr. Herbert Spencer has warned us that there is no poHtical alchemy by means of which we can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts. If this be true distributively when applied to the actions of born leaders of men, it is equally true in respect of the collective life and action of the " social organism," the " body politic," and in particular of its labouring members. National energies have been strenuously bent upon self-maintenance and self-protection. Ram- parts once set up for peace and stability have been reconstructed to shield the warrior in the world's fight for wealth. And again, national barriers have fallen, like Jericho's wall, at sound of a voice summoning the nations to Pax Laboris ; and the world stood ready to listen when, at the Berlin 27 28 Teuton Studies Labour Congress in 1890, Jules Simon called for a toast, " a toiis cenx qid so2iffrent ! " Then there were many discussions, and attempts were made — in vain we fear — to lay down broad and comprehensive rules, to shield the worker in need of a rest-day, and to lighten the burden of sex in woman, and help the tender growth of the child. And we took comfort and pride therein at the time, feeling that in our land the bitter cry of the factory slave had long since found audience and redress, heedless that the slave of the shop, the sweating-den, and of public locomotion are still uttering that cry, and that the worker still contrasts the fostering from above of his mental and aesthetic wants with the lack of leisure to live by them. With all that, we are still bent on international investigation. A Royal Commission has been appointed to inquire into the state of labour in England and abroad ; and Mr. Geoffrey Drage, its able secretary, has recently published the results of his observations in Germany and other countries. We ourselves believe that no international dicta or dictation can adequately regulate the career and life of the labourer, so as to satisfy the work- ings of his mental, moral, and physical idiosyn- crasies, the range of difference in his industrial efficiency, and the varied character of his labour. The real problem in a determination of the The Working- Man 29 length of the working-day, whether for the employer and the labourer inter se, or for the regulating sovereign power that watches over both alike, is to ascertain whether a given number of hours coincides with, or is greater or less, than the time sufficient or necessary for the exercise of the maximum of effective production in different kinds of work and with different ranks of workers. How far that rate of efficient production varies according to the nationality of the worker, we all know from the late Thomas Brassey's classical comparisons. And modern statistics bear him out, at least in the output of the French and English miner, the average annual product of the pitman in the Departement du Nord and the Pas de Calais being one hundred and fifty-two tons, while the Durham miner accomplishes three hundred and thirty- three tons. Hence the difference, that whereas French coal from those districts costs nearly nine shillings per ton at the railway, the price at Durham does not exceed five shillings, a ratio which may, of course, be reversed in other branches of labour. Still less can any regulative body, less local in its scope than a municipality, or at the widest a specific trade board, adjudicate justly and wisely the number of hours for different kinds of workers in different kinds of trades. Why is it then that, apart from these limitations 30 Teuton Studies in the efficiency of international labour legislation (or conventions), practically no account was taken of the specific characteristics, inherited and acquired, of the workers of different nations, and of the mental, moral, and physical reactions from the conditions of their lives, when at work or at play ? II Two salient features impress us in the world of labour. The first, in its positive aspect, is the continuous dogged effort exercised in the pursuit of private interest ; in its negative aspect, the absence of, or abstention from, self-indulgence. Thus the Chinaman swamps the labour-market of America, and the Jew that of nearly every country. The other feature is the co-operative tendency, subordinating the individual to the interest of the class. This latter feature has attained its greatest development among English-speaking races. The combination of these two forces constitutes at the present day the most powerful lever of labour, although by concomitant variation from a common cause, where wants are lowest, co-operation seems so also, and vice versa. Germany, England, and America stand pre- eminent among the nations as those in which the The Working-Man 31 organization of working-men has been carried to such a pitch, that they are competent to conduct a more or less successful struggle in their own defence, without of necessity breaking out in lawlessness, rebellion, or bloodshed. In France, Belgium, or Austria, on the other hand, we see nearly every serious crisis, when the striking stage is reached, accompanied by sanguinary tumults. There would seem to be among the labouring classes in those countries an insufificiency of that cohesion and moral stamina which is needed to restrain individual recklessness, and to carry out a determinate plan of action with calmness and self-possession. A plan of action may have taken years in devising, but when the critical moment is at hand — the moment which is to test the organization, in structure and in function — all is confusion, if not disintegration. To prove this, one need only compare the frantic yet futile pro- cedure of a strike-mob in Austria and Belgium with the London Dock Strike of 1889, when thou- sands of the coarsest type of unskilled labour were piloted by one or two leaders past the reefs of want and suffering extending over several weeks, without a single serious breach of the public peace ! Such discipline was, it is true, of no mushroom growth ; it was the outcome of fifty years' training in the bitter school of labour. 32 Teuton Studies Riots, intimidation, and bloodshed were once equally characteristic of an English strike. But so also was the healthier, more vitalizing feature of dogged voluntary loyalty and tenacity shown by the men to their leaders. The " self-help " of the English-speaking peoples manifests itself in its quiet sturdy way, not only in individual effort and enterprise, but in their combined action for a common interest, and that at times on a scale so imperial as to reveal Labour " helping it- self," with hands that meet stretched from the Antipodes. Ill According to a view which is very widely diffused throughout England, and reinforced in Germany by the propaganda of many German Liberals, the English working classes enjoy a far happier lot than their German brethren. Every- body is familiar with the catch-phrases of poli- ticians of all parties as to the absence of liberty, the vexatious restrictions, the high-handed oppres- sion, suffered by the private citizen generally, and the working-man specially, in so-called military monarchies such as Germany, as compared with the political freedom and civic independence of our own constitution. There has hitherto been a The Working- Man ^;^ certain political gain for the English citizen in this distorted view, inasmuch as it has awakened a sentiment of cheap compassion for foreigners, together with a national pride and complacency in his native institutions, which for the time being fosters a nation's self-respect and stability. A close first-handed study, however, of the every-day life of the working-man in both countries' is full of evidence that this self-congratulation is not altogether justified. We can well believe that this view is not in harmony with those of learned German observers, who come to England to study our institutions. To begin with, we have never found evinced, in their laudatory writings about the labour question in England, a sufficiently careful consideration of the statistics of drink, destitution, and pauperism in our great industrial centres. On the other hand, we hear of the long hours of labour in Germany, and thereby seek to explain the cheapness of its products. Yet we too have still a working day varying up to fifteen hours for the servants of companies conducting public loco- motion, and for innumerable employes in shops. And if we can point to starvation wages in the lace-works of Silesia and Saxony, we too have our continuous tragedies amongst Spitalfields weavers and Cradley Heath chain-forgers, amongst East- D 34 Teuton Studies End seamstresses and West-End upholstresses; and, even where high wages are paid to-day, to-morrow's change of fashion may to the same worker bring dismissal and starvation. But purely economic conditions of life are not those with which we are here concerned. IV Let us begin with the undoubted advantages enjoyed by the English labouring classes, which are denied to German. In the first place, the English working-man is entirely free from direct taxation. Secondly, he enjoys an almost un- limited freedom of speech, of public meeting, and of combination. Thirdly, he has no military duties to fulfil. Fourthly, he is exempt from the petty, burdensome surveillance which exists under an elaborate, disciplinarian, bureaucratic State administration. The English workman is free from nearly every positive form of State super- intendence. He needs no certificates of birth, baptism, or confirmation. He has not invariably been baptized, and seldom confirmed, and is not- withstanding qualified for nearly every civil line of life. He needs no Arbeitsbuch, no legal testi- monial of any kind, yet he is free to open any The Workinsf-Man & business or carry on a trade, if only he can afford in his outlay to purchase a licence (where licences are necessary). No barrier is set up to the free play of his " self-help," but neither is any regard paid to his moral welfare. He must accomplish everything through his own resources, and "off his own bat," and this in the face of the serious trials, tests, and temptations revealed in the drink and vital statistics among the working classes. Such is, we believe, a fair statement of the main advantages enjoyed under the British constitution, so far as the labouring classes are concerned. We should have mentioned one more important advantage, viz. free trade, as securing cheap neces- saries, if these blessings were not in part cancelled, for the labourer, by the power of the middleman and the scarcely-checked liberty of adulteration of those necessaries. It will be patent to every one that the favour- able conditions in the workman's lot in this country amount essentially to freedom from obligations due to any extraneous corporation. Discipline from above is at a minimum. If resources say, " Thou canst," external authorities say, " Thou mayest." But let not this freedom nor this absence of discipline deceive our friends in Germany. There is a harder discipline rough- hewing the life and character of the English 36 Teuton Studies workman than attends upon his German confrere^ despite his military training — the iron discipline of " free," i. e. " orphaned " competition in the battle of life, which the English labourer must undergo, if he would not, in the social exposure of his class, succumb to temptation, despair, and ruin.^ What we assert has, of course, its limitations and exceptions, but its essential truth is unimpeachable. In this discipline we find the clue to the truly- great qualities of the aristocracy of the British workman. Rarely does the German professor, who comes to England to study the social question, comprehend what it has cost to evolve and main- tain those virtues. The wars of this century are child's play in comparison with the tale of life- blood, with the reckoning of misery and despair, at the price of which English labourers have developed their self-help. The struggles of to-day are a mild echo of the sufferings in former years, yet even to-day the ^ One hunded and fifty-one thousand individuals of both sexes were arrested in England in 1889 for being drunk and disorderly. The true significance of these figures only comes home to us when we bear in mind how far an intoxicated person may go with us without incurring the attention of the police. In certain districts of Manchester the death-rate, instead of moving within the average of the country at large — 17 to 28 per thousand — rises to between 80 to 90 per thousand. The Working- Man 37 battle still rages, as every one can see who comes with open mind and heart responsive to human misery. The battle-field stretches from London westward to the coal and iron districts of Wales, and northward to Glasgow, and further, not for- getting Ireland, even if we confine our survey to Irish industrial towns. The weak, the unprotected, the drunkards — all who cither start handicapped by heredity, or fall through force luaj'ejir or other external cause — these are the smitten and wounded in this mighty battle of self-help, which lacks a counterpart in the records of the civilized world. Self-help is the English labourer's word of salva- tion, maintaining the strong and " valiant," as the weak give way around him and tend to drag him down. Would other nations have purchased their benefits at such a cost 1 Certainly not, if inspired merely by a spirit of envy, hatred, and reveng-e. V If the stress of competition leaves the English labourer " free " to do only what the discipline of circumstance obliges him, his political freedom, it must be remembered, is contingent on political sufferance. We, more than most nations, can 38 Teuton Studies afford to maintain freedom of speech, freedom from military service, and from nearly all Govern- ment surveillance, through the stability of our political institutions ; and this condition is due in great part to our geographical position. We would render full justice, notwithstanding the appalling results of a laissez-faire excessive, to its beneficent influence in contributing to the expansion of the best instincts in the elite of our labouring class, in that they through it have trained their self-help to a pitch unrivalled except in America, where similar or yet more favourable factors have secured yet greater results. Moreover, under our system, the labourer has kept on the whole surprisingly clear of envy and animosity, which tend to ranker growth whoa a determinate horizon and vexatious restrictions hamper free movement. Still, as we have said already, all our English freedom and liberty is a matter stii ge^ieris, and without formal guarantee.^ It can be suspended in an over-night sitting of Parliament if the step seem desirable for the welfare of society or of the State. The mere resolution of a scared parlia- mentary majority suffices to suspend liberty of speech upon a three days' deliberation. Speeches for which men have been arrested in Ireland might 1 Cp. Prof. A. V. Dicey, Laws of the Constitutioti^ Lec- ture VI. The Work i no-- Man o pass with impunity in England, even though their seditious points were fifty-fold intensified. We made very little stir during the Napoleonic wars to vindicate our national exemption from ser- vice. Men, drugged by press-gangs, were hauled on board over-night, and treated to a dose of the "cat" if the dawn brought its demur. Such pro- cedure was customary eighty years ago,^ and who will maintain that England, at the approach of national danger to-morrow, would not summarily legalize the formation of a general military Land- stun n ? Again, our lower classes arc exempt from direct taxation, it is true, but can it be maintained that high rents, enormous duties on alcohol and tobacco, and widespread adulteration, do not sometimes con- stitute a heavier burden than is borne by petty direct taxation of labourers of other lands ? Finally, in so far as our working classes are exempt from burdensome surveillance, we question whether in the whole of Europe there is any law so draconic as that which forbids a poor man, under severe penalty, from procuring a drop of alcoholic stimulant to administer to a comrade who, during the hours of Divine Service on Sunday, has chanced to get run over. The mere " trespass " on private soil in England is prosecuted in a ' Ash ton, Social England under the Rcge7icy. 40 Teuton Studies fashion which contrasts sharply with the liberal views on such matters abroad. Even the sea-coast in places forms no exception to our system of land- monopoly. German admiration of our English liberty can hardly fail to be modified when it is encountered by the fact that a Scotch peer recently sent his lackey to warn off two old women from his private shore, not because he wished to bathe in modest solitude, but because they were trespassing. VI Now let us turn to the advantages in the lot of the labourer in Germany. In the first place, he possesses universal parliamentary suffrage — a de- mocratic dream of the future in England, which will not, we trust, be fulfilled until his English brother is equal to the responsibility. Secondly, the German labourer is more or less protected by draconic laws against the adulteration of food and drink. The significance of this can be tested, by analogy, by a brief residence under the conditions of a labourer's life in an English manufacturing town. Thirdly, he enjoys a proportionately cheap administration of justice. Fourthly, he can with comparative ease become a freeholder in land or house property. Fifthly, he has long profited by The Working- Man 41 an excellent free national education, such as we are tryin;^ to imitate. Finally, he has the help of the great system of State insurance. We have not enumerated as an advantage the duty of military service, though it is none the less our conviction that in that obligation lies a blessing and a source of moral stamina to the German nation. It would be a surprise to many who com- plain of German competition, if they knew how much of the success of German competition in the world's market is due to qualities which owe their source to military training. But we must refer to a factor which does not permit of such definite classification as the fore- going advantages, and in which, nevertheless, wc discern the principal basis of the better conditions of existence attending the German working-man — we mean his social and cesthetic surroundings. A London acquaintance remarked to us not long ago, " What irritates me about you is your penchant for Germany." " Now tell me," was our reply, " you, who have often been there, where have you noticed a greater amount of harmless enjoy- ment of life among the people, here or there ? " " Unquestionably in Germany." " Very well, there you have an explanation of my sympathy for German life." We did not refer our friend to the reverse of 42 Teuton Studies the medal, to the fact that in Germany the social amenities of life lead often to idleness, love of pleasure, moral effeminacy. We left unmentioned the coarseness of moral fibre in the working classes of the Rhine, Maine, and Neckar districts. We said nothing of the outbreaks of fury on the part of drunken labourers against everything of an order higher than their own, such as we have witnessed in Saxony. We did not remind him of the frequent knifing affrays between workmen, which, even when ending fatally, are punished only by a moderate dose of prison. All this and more we left unsaid, preferring to recognize not excres- cences and extravagances, but rather the sound kernel, that capacity and taste for harmless joy, in nature and family life, which is more or less to be found everywhere among the working classes in Germany. Perhaps there is no better proof that this moral health does exist than the domestic sobriety and respectability of the wives of German working- men. Drunkenness, which is so painfully preva- lent among their British sisters, is among German women practically unknown. There is hardly a more detestable feature in the social status of a nation's labouring poor, than that the women should be prone to drunken and dirty habits. Nothing reveals more brightly than the opposite The Working- Man 43 trait what the Germans have attained to, and what we yet vainly hope for from our iron school of self-discipline. VII Now, if the statements and results given above are true, it may be asked — 1, Why do those German working-men who come to England seem, with few exceptions, to prefer the conditions of life and work they find here to those of their own country ? 2. Why is there apparently more discontent among the working classes in Germany than in England ? To the first question it may be replied, that as a matter of fact few German bond-fide working- men come to England, and even of these very few come to our great provincial centres of industry. Those who come at all prefer England because here, as in America, they have hitherto found far more commercial life, a wider field of labour, and in consequence more opportunity in some depart- ments of industry for earning money. True, this holds as a rule only for those who are ready to work at a far higher pressure than they are used to in their own country. Social life in England 44 Teuton Studies is more oppressive, but offers less temptation to idleness, except to follow pleasures of the lowest kind, which have no power to attract those German workers who, with a somewhat higher culture, are energetic enough to leave their country. So the German in England holds more closely to his work and produces more. These folk do not pay much attention to the sad social circumstances of labourers in England ; they have no time for gin- shop theories, or forget them in their struggle to earn and to save. Thus it comes to pass that German workmen who come to England often attain an assured position sooner than their native competitors — witness, for instance, the enormous number of German bakers in London. If they prove weaklings, they go down in the struggle, or emigrate on to America, or, it may be, return disappointed to Germany. The second question before us is of more radical importance, and we can but put forth in reply an individual opinion. Prince Bismarck hit the nail on the head when he asked in this connection — " Have you ever seen a contented millionaire } " " Certainly not ; " and so too the German working-men possess in their better education and in the wider horizon of human possibilities thus opened to them a fund of greater discontent. The mass of German working-men The Working- Man 45 are discontented, because each is incapable of attaining what he daily sees others enjoying — a state of mind of course not pecuhar to the class. Thus, whereas German education has opened up to each a wider perspective, it has not proved itself equally capable of reconciling the masses to the inaccessibility of that perspective for each and every one. In other words, education has left the man but human ; intellectually higher than before, but not equally advanced morally. The enormous nervous tension during the wars of 1866 and 1870-71, the unprecedented increase of wealth and luxury in Europe, significantly indicated by the introduction of gold coinage, the far-reaching education, have re-acted on the national character in the direction of restlessness, craving for pleasure, covetousness, and a sudden development of national and social self-consciousness. Whereas the efforts of English working-men have hitherto moved towards an essentially practical, utilitarian goal, those of the Germans reveal, on the one side, a philosophic ideality of aim, on the other, a virulent animosity, both of which characteristics are wanting in the English. The moral effects of our educa- tional legislation in England have yet to be gauged ! 46 Teuton Studies VIII Thus in comparison with what we find in Ger- many, the ambitious instincts of the great mass of English labourers have hitherto been characterized by moderation, and that in spite of noisy plat- forms, in spite of the high percentage of drunken- ness and dissolute poverty which has disgraced a portion of them to a degree unknown in Germany and France. Let a smart carriage drive closely past a French labourer, he will shout after it, ^' Sacre aristo!'* The English son of the people would take harmless pleasure in the fine horses. Hatred at the pos- sessions of others has so far found no firm footing in England. Some years ago it happened in Scotland that a large shipbuilder had no more orders. He called his workmen together, told them the state of affairs, and proposed to build two steamers at his own risk, if they would work at half wages, other- wise he would be forced to close the yard. The workmen accepted his proposition. Times mended, and the shipbuilder was able to dispose of his steamers to advantage — thereupon the workmen put their heads together, and, wonderful to relate, suggested that, in consideration of the risk their master had run on their behalf they would work The Working- Man 47 one whole week for nothing. This decision, which the firm declined with thanks, was tantamount to a money present of four thousand pounds. Now, whether or no the annals of German labour and employment can point to a similarly sympa- thetic transaction, the probability is that the con- ciliatory spirit which prompted it is hardly to be found in Germany, in spite of the higher education, and, as we think, of the better social conditions of life obtaining among the German working classes. We do not intend to convey the impression that the labour struggle in England does not bear other fruit. Such mighty contests are not carried out, even with the maintenance of public peace, without hostile displays on both sides. Many an English employer can tell of the tyranny of the employed. Only recently a whole crew refused to put to sea because the ship's baker had not joined their union. None the less it remains a remarkable fact, that a case like that which we have cited was possible, no less than those cases in which employers in England and America have themselves made successful appeal to their unions for assistance against the tyranny of the labourers themselves — cases which are noteworthy as proofs of the moral force which co-operation among working-men is capable of exercising. It seems to us that if our EnG:Hsh workinsf-men 48 Teuton Studies could go to Berlin, and see their brethren there spending their summer evenings in the countless respectable beer and concert gardens with their families ; if they could see the Saturday evening workmen's trains taking home, for a Sunday in the country, the men who during the week have been working in the capital, and are now speed- ing to the open fields singing their inimitable Volkslieder ; if on a summer holiday they could take a bird's-eye view of the network of German railways, and watch the working-class excursionists setting out with wife and children to rejoice in the beauties of nature, and enjoy simple, wholesome fare and good beer, without indulging in drunken- ness or coarseness ; if our working-men could see all these things, they would find it somewhat more difficult to believe in the myth of the wretchedness and misery of the lives of German working-men. And with what astonishment would they learn from trustworthy sources, that a man of small means in poor Germany can point to a savings fund of more millions than the working-man in wealthy England. And, on the other hand, we should like to persuade some of these honest German malcontents to come to England — say to London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bradford, Sheffield, or Hull — and cast their eyes on the sunless social life of the great The Working- Man 49 masses of English workmen, on their wretched dwellings, the domestic helplessness of their wives, the numbers of deadly gin "palaces" enticing the working-man at every corner. They would then not only wonder at the moral stamina, which in such circumstances can " war down " misery and prevail in the battle of life, but they would also find less ground for discontent in their own condition. That we ourselves should so little realize these facts, is explained by the fact that we have grown up among them, and that too few of us travel sufficiently, or, when travelling, observe enough for the social hardness of our industrial life to be brought home to us. The thing that is daily before our eyes is the thing we are slowest to observe, and the English temperament is pro- verbially tardy in the acceptation of new im- pressions. On the other hand, German labourers suffer from a subjectivity of mental grasp which so often impairs the judgment of the majority of mankind. If this were not the case, they would be more prompt to derive inspiration from the comparison of attainable facts, and be less disposed to feed their passions and undermine their strength by the pursuit of chimerical hopes. Could they but sec the wretched, dirty dwellings E 50 Teuton Studies of so many of our working classes, and the statistics of the consumption of liquor among both sexes in this rank of life, they could not but cease to believe blindly in the infallibility, the omnipotence, and, above all, in the mildness of our social methods — and this however much they might appreciate one achievement. Similar enlightenment might also attend those who are impatient for the realization of their fetish — the greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number — as well as those who would justify the labouring classes of all countries in feverishly seeking the absolutely best conditions of life. Such enlightenment, however, can only come of accurate observation of actual facts, and not of credence in problematic possibilities. For humanity of all classes — not only the class of labour — the millennium is yet a very great way off. Content flies from us with a swiftness pro- portioned to the hastiness and indiscretion where- with we seek it. That the pursuit may be forwarded by the gospel of reconciliation more speedily than by that of enmity is a conviction which we have gained by a long study of the working classes of England and Germany. Unfortunately, many are found in both countries whose interest it is to disseminate hatred where it is apt to flourish — amongst a people, for instance, \\ ho, like the Germans, have ever given themselves The Working-Man 51 to criticism, inclined rather to search for spots upon the sun than to take their pleasure in its quicken- ing rays. Thus we witnessed recently in Berlin a play in which the virtue of the workman's daughter is made the toy of the rich man. As in all typical works, we see here a load of sophistry suspended by a thread of truth — the truth of the matter being that such cases happen everywhere, in some countries oftener, in others more rarely, than in Germany. The sophism is contained in the assumption set forth in high relief, that the source of the state of things as depicted lies in the circumstances of the working class of that par- ticular country. For in truth such occurrences are comparatively rare in countries where labour has little organizing power {e.g. in France and Ireland, in which latter country female virtue amongst the poorest classes has become proverbial) ; while in England, where labour is so powerful, they are not infrequent. It is perhaps only natural for such dramatic pieces, pandering to the hostile instincts of the masses, to find favour, inasmuch as they appeal more to the lower than to the nobler impulses. 52 Teuton Studies IX Now if, keeping these premises in view, we seek to infer the direction in which recent German labour legislation will exercise its greater result, we shall arrive at the following conclusions. The substantial expression given by the action of the German Government in the cause of Labour has imparted to that cause, in every nation, a moral support and an impulse which no subsequent turn of events can ever take away. Even had there been no further result than the inducing people to make an intelligent study of the circum- stances of the life of neighbouring peoples, this alone would have rendered good service to labour. A recognition, social and political, of the dignity of the cause, has achieved more than decades of agitation. Her lawful claims throughout the whole world have thereby been advanced much nearer to their realization. The Socialist press in America or on the Continent may deny this fact as they please, but its truth remains, a corner-stone of granite, immovably firm, inasmuch as it rests not at all upon the will of those who refuse to acknow- ledge it. And it has influenced ethically classes other than the labourer's, and in such a manner as must necessarily in course of time issue in the benefit of the latter. For its import is a social The Working- Man 53 recognition of labour sorely needed in this material- istic age. We know the story of the English factory worker since the development of large-scale industry : how at first he lay sunk in bondage to the employer, an orphan morally and physically ; how, aided to some extent by noble-minded men of rt// classes, he won for himself, in mortal struggle with the ruling classes, the protection of his interests. What has been won hitherto is of a practical, utilitarian sort, determined by co-operation and discipline among the better class of English labourers, and serving chiefly for the protection of the body, in pecuniary matters, from the encroach- ments of the capitalist, and from the free com- petition in the supply of labour on the part of the workmen themselves. Little, however, has been achieved in England, in spite of much individual effort on behalf of their social and moral position, their education, the elevation of their status from a purely human point of view. In saying " little has been done," we mean that what has been accomplished — and this in individual cases amounts to a great deal — has affected only a few workers, the elect of their kind, and cannot therefore be regarded as the common property of their class. The rigid social conservatism of the dominant English bourgeoisie, the cold, aristocratic character 54 Teuton Studies of the English Church, and, above all, the pe- culiar aesthetic training of the English nation itself, have been in this direction of very slow growth. We may say, accordingly, that up to the present all movement in the Labour question in England has received its impact from beneath, and has its cause in the pressure of burdens heavily felt and resisted. The results won are due more or less to the wrestling of the labourer himself with colossal opposing elements. In Germany, and especially in Prussia, we see an entirely inverse development, discipline and intervention working downwards from above. Here we find the State, which in England by its policy of laissez-faire had exposed the working classes to all but destruction, working always — in spite of much severity, in spite of many a pressure here and there — for the protection of the masses ; working by diffusion of national education, by physical and mental training in the army, by thoroughly efficient checking of food-adulteration, by surveillance, conscientiously carried out, of sanitation,^ by superintendence of public insurance 1 " There are many labourers' dwellings remaining in Eng- land, which in Germany would be pronounced unfit for hire.' — Problems of a Great City, Arnold White. Remington, 1886. The Times {ox Sept. 10, 1890, contained a Report on Workmen's Dwellings in Manchester, which are stigmatized The Working- Man 55 offices, by limiting the rights of ground landlords, and finally, by establishing the system of State insurance — advantages which in England are left more or less to the initiative of the labourers them- selves. Comparatively few demands have been made on the German labourer's oivn self-help. This sharply-defined contrast affords us the key to the future task of Germany. That discipline, which she has imposed from above, must hence- as "tenements worse than pigsties, saturated with the filth and noisomeness of a century." In connection with the above it is suggestive to read the following extract from the Berlin correspondence of the Standard, 1890. (From our Berlin Correspondent.) " People at home can have but a faint idea of the sort of houses inhabited by the working classes in Berlin. A visitor from London would not believe his eyes on being shown the enormous palatial-looking residences and the wide, spacious streets, open to fresh air, provided for the workmen in this capital. The external appearance of the dwellings is really astonishing. If rents are high, it is due to local circum- stances ; and if the hygienic conditions are not what they ought to be, this is owing to the people themselves in a large degree, who are averse to ventilation, and are not quite accustomed to habits of domestic cleanliness. Much remains to be done for the amelioration of the lot of the working classes ; but since we are not yet in an Utopian age, it must be admitted that the conditions of life of the Berlin skilled labourers are, in comparison, quite as good as if not better than elsewhere." 56 Teuton Studies forth recommence from beneath, and penetrate upwards throughout the entire body of the people. In England, notwithstanding all socialistic pro- paganda, we see a select band of Avorking-mcn organizing itself more and more, in peaceable self- culture, without animosity, and with steadfast regard for " constitutional measures," and so making for the natural solution of the so-called " social question." This phenomenon is of the very highest importance to the continental working class. The study of the terrible struggle waged by English working-men might to some extent both reconcile the former with their own present state, and also point for them the road by which they may discern and win what they yet lack. Every attempt at solution of the Labour Ques- tion will for a long time to come make heavy demands on the self-denial of the labourers, on the co-operation of the elect among the educated classes and on the discretion of the State. The aims of the German labourer must be attained by way of peaceful co-operation, self- denial of the individual, elevation of moral sense in the family, subjugation of the love of indulgence, and improvement in the quality of their work. Their superior education ought to make the mastery of these problems an easier matter for the Germans than for the English, left upon their The Working- Man 57 thorny path to their own resources. And even if this be only partially accomplished, they will be able not only to claim, but also to compel, a higher social recognition without any assistance from State protection. England and America afford excellent examples in co-operative effort, the Prussian army-training in self-denial, the healthy conditions obtaining among the lower classes in Norway in the elevation of moral sense, and the elite of English workmen, who frequently abstain altogether from beer and spirits, show an example in subduing the love of indulgence. Now, if we may venture to trust our opinion, we would affirm that the country which will soonest feel the benefit of recent public discussion is not so much Germany as other countries, and in especial England. What the leaders of the German working classes chiefly demand is higher wages and less work. But no emperor can directly satisfy such a purely economic demand. They must needs secure it by themselves, by raising the value of their work, as others have secured it else- where. True, a monarch may render indirect aid by permitting and encouraging a legitimate system of co-operation. German culture introduced above and working downward has become proverbial. The elevation of the value of each man's product 58 Teuton Studies can in like manner be effected from above down- wards ; but if the growth is to flourish, it must be fruitful in the people themselves, and in order to this there must be a certain free initiative in the labourers themselves. There must also be sufficient time. Directly, a ruler may procure for the working classes social and educational advantages. These the German, thanks to the past, possesses in no small degree. What is now necessary is to draw the attention of English working-men to these social advantages enjoyed by their German brethren ; in time they will attend, and reap the benefit of their attention. A careful consideration of the industrial situation in Germany might teach the doctrinaire, that "schooling" alone cannot make men happy, since they can see in Germany a proletariat of education affording a more melancholy spectacle than perhaps anywhere in the world of labour. Such a consideration would warn us off from all blind copying of German educational ideas, but need not prevent us from borrowing useful notions. And we can safely admire in broad strata among the German nation a sobriety and a loyalty to duty, especially in the world of officials, which might well serve as models. No, it will not be merely that this man and that will climb over his fellow's head by mere utilitarian instinct, by pecuniary luck, by successful energy. The Working-Man 59 Genuine progress can only lie in the uplifting of a mighty stratum of the human race, as it were the earth's surface itself, out of the waters, thence- forth to deck itself with bloom and verdure, and blossom into a happier future. The lever in that upward effort is and will be the creation of, and the aspiration after, those human ideals, which are " the Divine realities of things." It is to be hoped that our insular practical good sense, matured in Titan warfare through self-help, will, in the future, win even more recognition of the dignity of labour. We shall seek the attain- able in a spirit, not of enmity but of unanimity, not building on the false theory that every indi- vidual can rise beyond what nature and nurture have qualified him to become, but resting on the conviction that it is humanly possible so to adjust every situation, no matter how modest, that it may catch a sunbeam of content and happiness. THE GERMAN FOREST Our distant ancestors mostly lived in or near to thick virgin forests ; whereas we in our age of large towns, newspapers, steam power, and elec- tricity, not only cut down trees, but appear to forget the part assigned to forest land in the economy of nature. To such an extent is this forgotten, that we have neglected the study of this special subject; and yesterday the English Govern- ment was obliged to go to the University of Freiberg in Saxony in order to learn how to preserve and cultivate the forests of India. The important part assigned by nature to the forest is distinctly proved by the well-known effects upon climate and economic conditions of life where reckless cutting down of trees has taken place. The same connection between cause and result can be indirectly traced on a large scale when we glance back for centuries. The soil on which flourished the prosperous civilizations of 60 The Forest 6i ancient history, in Asia Minor and North Africa, has all but entirely lost its former productiveness — mainly owing to the gradual but almost total destruction of timber in those parts. The fertile plains which Homer describes, upon which the largest herds of horses and cattle grazed in plenty, only yield to-day here and there a meagre pasture for a few stray goats and sheep. In the same way the population has decreased, and where science and art once flourished, there has been for centuries nothing but a desolated wilderness. The centre of gravity of progressive civilization moved northward to countries in which forests were held in honour. In more recent times Greece, Italy, Spain, and even the south of France have deteriorated with regard to the productiveness of the soil because of the short-sighted neglect of the woods (C. v. Fischbach). Among European countries, Germany and Austria are those in which we still find most forest land left, and in which most is done to cultivate it. Thus we find that the German Empire contains nearly fourteen million hectares (one English acre is equal to 0*405 hectare) of forest land, the cultivation of which, in one form or another, gives employment to a quarter of a million persons. But ^* der deutscJier Wa/d" — as the Germans love to call their woods — has many other points of 62 Teuton Studies significance to us besides those of national economy. Tlie sentiment connected with the forest in Germany is a dominant feature of the country, and no wonder, for the forest has played a great part in the history of Germany. It was in the Teutoburg Forest that Arminius (or Herr- mann, the prince of the Cheruskian [ka-rus'ki-an] tribe) slew the Roman legions of Varus, this first signal defeat of Imperial Rome, the tidings of which sent Augustus Caesar wailing through his palace, crying : " Varus, Varus, give me back my legions." Throughout the early centuries of our era, the forest was the nursery of the Germans. Here they sought refuge from defeat, and hither neither the Romans nor the barbarous horsemen from the east of Europe cared to follow them. They were born and bred in their forests, which offered them shelter in the long winters ; and hence they issued forth in the spring, ready for fray and adventure. In the Middle Ages their convents were mostly situated close to forests, in the depths of which the robber knights used to lie in wait for the monks on their return home with the fat offerings of the faithful. And not for these alone. The forest offered a general place of ambush for all those of predatory instincts in times when the right of the strong (das Faustreclit) was exercised more or less all over the country. The Forest 6 o It was under such circumstances that some German knights attacked a pary of monks, among whom was Dr. Martin Luther ; although in this instance it was not robbery that dictated the raid. They carried Luther off to safeguard him against his many enemies, and kept him hidden away in the Thuringian stronghold, dz'e Wartbiirg. It was there that he, amid the most glorious forest scenery in Germany, translated the Bible ; and the very cell in which he worked is shown to visitors to-day. When we bear in mind the part which the forest has played in German life for many centuries, it is not surprising that everything connected with den IVald has gained a hold over the imagination of the people, the like of which we seek for in vain among Latin races, who have lived almost with- out forests for countless generations. Thus to-day, where the Frenchman retires for rest or recreation to his campagne, to his riverside, or to his fashion- able bam de mer, the German seeks change of scene among the many so-called " watering-places," which are generally in reality nothing else but picturesque forest sites, '-' Litft-Kurortel' as the word indicates, places in which the pure forest air is supposed to bring " cure " to the ailing. It is at times amusing to witness the almost fatalistic belief which the nerve-racked German possesses in the healthful qualities of the forest. Week after 64 Teuton Studies week, he will spend the whole day from early morn till sunset in the woods of the Litft-Kiirort, eagerly inhaling the ozone-charged forest air, and philosophically reflecting on the transitory char- acter of all mundane matter. Many Germans disdain the gathering centres of the fashionable world, and take their holidays in out-of-the-way nooks and corners — hidden away from mankind — living in some solitary forest inn or cottage for weeks together. One instance particularly occurs to me. A chamberlain of the late Emperor William — a very aristocratic personage indeed — came on a visit to the Giant Mountains in Silesia, and was so impressed by the beauty of the scenery, that he brought his wife and family with him and stayed all the summer, lodging in the cottage of an old packer in a glass factory close by. And not for one season only this. Herr von E. eventually bought the cottage of the packer — for it was his own freehold, as is so often happily the case in Germany — and made the modest dwelling the permanent summer home of his family, year by year, for many years. There his beautiful daughters grew up in daily communion with der deutscher Wald. The enormous growth of German towns in our time — for in truth many towns in Germany have The Forest 65 increased even more rapidly than American cities ^ — seems only to have intensified the national love for the forest. In some, particularly in Thuringia, there exists a curious custom of the inhabitants. In Rudolstadt, for instance, the ambition of every person, even of those of slender means, such as small shopkeepers and mechanics, is to own a " Trdnke." Rudolstadt is situated in a valley, through which runs a small river named the Saale, and is surrounded by picturesque mountains covered with all kinds of trees — oak and many beautiful species of fir. The "Trdnke" is the name given to some chosen forest nook up on the hill, past which a living streamlet runs. The Rudolstadt burgher builds a little hut there, constructs a rudimentary stove in the open ; the brook — die Trdnke, the drink fountain — provides 1 Berlin was smaller than Philadelphia in i860. Since then its population has been increased by a million inhabit- ants, while Philadelphia has increased by barely half that number. In 1870 New York counted 950,000 inhabitants, and Berlin 800,000. In 1890 the position was reversed, Berlin having 1,578,794, while New York had only 1,515,301. Similar comparisons may be established between other cities — Hamburg increased from 263,540 inhabitants in 1875 to 569,260 in 1890 ; while Boston, which had 342,000 inhabit- ants in 1875, had only 448,000 in 1890. In the same period Leipzig has distanced San Francisco, and Munich and Breslau have outgrown Cincinnati. Between 1880 — 1890, Buffalo increased from 155,000 to 255,000, and during the same period Cologne went up from 144,800 to 281,000. F 66 Teuton Studies him with water, and thither he takes his wife and children of a summer evening, or, in some instances, from Saturday to Sunday night. There they pass their time, cook their meals, receive their friends, and enjoy the exhilarating fresh air. On excep- tional occasions a cask of beer is provided, and the company will join in singing one of those soul- stirring German songs, which no one can forget who has been privileged to hear them sung on a beautiful summer evening under the starry canopy of heaven. But the forest offers its special attractions in every season of the year. In the winter there are sleighing parties ; at Easter and Whitsuntide the German forests literally swarm with tourists — for the school-youth of all Germany make long pedestrian excursions in the spring. Almost every German town owns a ScJiutzcnverein (a rifle club). And wherever a forest is in the vicinity, there surely enough the targets are set up and a picturesque Schutz&nJiaiis is erected. There every week the town people congregate, and the echo of their rifles is heard far and wide. These ScJiiitzenvereine form a distinct feature of social life of the German middle classes. Another German institution is the Gesangvereine^ singing-clubs. Almost every town possesses one of them. In the winter part-songs are rehearsed. The Forest 67 but as soon as spring comes round picnics are arranged to the nearest wood, and the Gesangverein forms the staple entertainment of the party, as they pass an afternoon in the woods. Also in view of these numerous excursions and the festive character peculiar to them, any number of excellent inns and restaurants are to be met with right through the length and breadth of German forest lands. The Germans love to erect monuments to their great men amid the solitude of trees. The national monument opposite Bingen on the Rhine — erected to commemorate the victories of 1870-71 — stands against a woodland background, the famed Nieder- wald. In the midst of the Teutoburg Forest, in the principality of Detmold, there is a monument to Arminius in memory of his victory over the Romans, It is not the least typically German characteristic of Bismarck that he resides at Friedrichsruh, in the midst of an old Saxon forest — the Sachsenwald. There throughout the year his many admirers give each other rendezvous to do honour to Germany's latter-day champion. Indeed, when I review the manifold expressions of veneration for Bismarck which the last few years have called forth, I cannot but think that some small portion of the patriotic sentiment which his personality calls forth is owing to the fact that 68 Teuton Studies he lives in the forest. It would seem almost unnatural for the German mind to wax poetical over a man who lived in a town house, or perhaps in a luxurious flat like a Parisian bourgeois. We are also not surprised to find the forest playing a large part in the literature and song of Germany. To begin with, the old German gods are supposed to have dwelt in the Gotterliain — the grove — the wood of the gods. The Nibelungen saga deals largely in forest scenery. In fact Richard Wagner has gone so far as to devote an entire scene to the rendering of the song of birds in a German forest. But not alone has Wagner felt the spell of the woods. Most German song-writers have given expression to their love of the glen. Thus Franz Schubert's beautiful series of Miiller- lieder^ although nominally devoted to the illustration of miller life, are in reality forest songs. For in most parts of Germany the windmill is unknown, the mill is mostly driven by water — the water of a rapid running mountain stream — and thus the majority of German mills are situated in the forest. In the description of the sentiment connected with every phase of forest life, German writers and composers are almost as prolific as those of other countries in the theme of love. To me the most perfect expression of German sentiment in honour of the forest is to be found The Forest 69 in the beautiful song of Mendelssohn's, entitled, Ahschied voni Walde, the words of which were written by Freiherr von Eichendorff, and the first verse of which runs as follows — " IVer hat dich, du sclimer Wald Aiifgebaut so hoch da drobeii ? Wohl den Meister will ich loben, So lang' noch mein^ Stimiii' erschallt ! Lebe wohl, Lebe wolil^ du schoiicr Wald ! " For the benefit of those whose German is doubt- ful, I append a simple translation — " Who hath reared thee, forest fair, High upon the mountain land ? Let me praise the Master hand While my voice hath strength to dare. Fare thee well, Fare thee well, my forest fair." DAS LIED It is fashionable in England to be musical. We often hear the question, Are we a musical nation ? and the answer is usually an affirmation of the fact that we are an eminently musical nation. Certainly, to judge by the amount of music bought, the number of our public concerts, our monster oratorio performances, our musical " at homes," the regular army of foreign singers and music-masters domiciled among us, to say nothing of the omni- present Italian organ-grinder, and the so-called German bands (not one of which hails from Germany — in fact they are forbidden to exercise their itinerant calling in the Fatherland) — to judge by all this, we are indeed a musical nation par excellence. Again, if it be a virtue to be music- ally long-suffering, then indeed the good-natured patience with which we put up with the vilest jingle of sound in our public streets as well as in our private drawing-rooms, entitles us to lay claim 70 Das Lied yi thereto. But for all this, in the sense in which Germany is a musical nation, England, it seems to me, can hardly be called so ; for music, and song in particular, does not enter into the life of the English people as it docs into the life of the German. I am far from sharing the view that a love for music is the indispensable ingredient of general culture which it is often assumed to be. It may be even questionable, whether the culture of music adds to our sincerity, our honesty, or our unselfishness. For instance, the picturesque Italian who warbles his aria con amove is often far more cruel to dumb animals than the rougher unmusical Anglo-Saxon. But however this may be, there can be no doubt that music is capable of embodying the loftiest of human feelings and aspirations, and it is at all times a life-beautifying influence, when it enters into the life of the people as it does in Germany. Much of the harmless enjoyment of existence to be witnessed to so large an extent in Germany may be fairly put down to the national innate love of music, and more especially of song — das Lted. For although Germany has produced the greatest musical composers of the world in every branch of musical composition, the untranslatable Lied is the domain in which German music has remained most national. An opera of Mozart or Wagner, a 7 2 Teuton Studies fugue of Bach, a symphony of Beethoven or Schumann, can be and are often produced in other countries, in fact they are the common property of the civihzed world ; but the German song still clings to the soil of its birth — save when Germans abroad occasionally meet together (as was. the case recently on Bismarck's eightieth birthday), and find, in joining in a German song, the common bond that links them with the country of their origin. It has been well said that every poetical effort of a German is based upon a musical frame of mind. And the same might be said in connection with almost every other emotion to which the individual German is subject — religion, patriotism, love. All these are identified with music in Germany in a manner distinct from that of other people. Thus, the Reformation, which partially or at least temporarily banished every form of vocal music from some countries, found its way in Germany to the hearts of the people by means of Luther's stately choral songs. It is a peculiar feature of German Protestant churches that they are frequented far more by the humble classes than is the case in aristocratic England — although in the large towns church attendance has, there as elsewhere, decreased among all classes. But in the German Church Das Lied 73 service the chorals are started more from the body of the congregation than is usually the case in English-speaking communities. The services of the late Mr. Spurgeon at the Tabernacle in London were the only ones which, with their impressive singing by the whole congregation, have ever recalled to me the mighty effect of a German Protestant congregation joining in one of Luther's majestic chorals. But although the churches are somewhat neglected, the choral is still widely cultivated, particularly in the schools, in the army, and even in the universities on specially impressive occasions. In passing through a German town, particularly in the summer, the visitor is often struck by hearing school-children sing. The schools are mostly imposing buildings, situated on the finest sites, where preliminary instruction is shared by all classes together. The windows are wide open, and you may just happen to witness the singing lesson, and hear the youthful voices sing one of those glorious choral songs, " Ein^ feste Burg ist iinser Gott" — " A fortress strong is the Lord our God." It was a choral of Luther's, " Nun danhet Alle Gottl^ in which the whole army joined in a spirit of grateful reverence to God on the morrow of the 74 Teuton Studies battle of Sedan. At the universities in moments of patriotic enthusiasm, such as for instance at the outbreak of the 1870 war, German students often met and sang " Ein' feste Burg" and the effect, I am assured by eye-witnesses, was one of rare impressive grandeur. The connecting link between religion and patriotism which the German choral embodies is peculiarly national. It finds its explanation in the history of the country, where, as in Scotland of old, the struggle for Protestant freedom of thought was for a time identified with the sentiment of national autonomy. The choral possesses the characteristics which belong only to those creations which are essentially an outcome of national sentiment ; and therefore has retained a hold over the people which the Catholic Te Deuvi has lost, and which the Anglican scholarly hymn-book never possessed. With regard to patriotism, it may be averred, that amid the darkest hours of national disaster, from the period of the Thirty Years' War down to our own time, the German Lied has kept the flame of patriotism alight. In the War of Liberation of 1813 song did almost as much as the sword.^ And 1 The soul-stirring strains of the American song, "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave," occur to me as a signal instance of similar influence exercised by a song at a time of a great national crisis. — S. W. Das Lied 75 in 1870 the famous song of "The Watch on the Rhine " played a part which it would be impossible to appreciate without knowing something of German life and character. The German soldier is incom- plete without those beautiful songs which stir his patriotism, as they also recall the romance attached to this life in days gone by. Singing is universally cultivated in the German army. German soldiers sing while on the march, and of an evening in their bivouac a song is often the necessary accompaniment to the pipe, when the day's work is done. It is strikingly illustrative of the poetical sentiment of the German race, that the most beautiful of these old soldiers' songs deal with pathetic incidents in a soldier's life, and hardly ever touch the vainglorious or bombastic note. One of this former typs treats of a soldier who, hearing the Alp horn of his native land from the opposite bank of the Rhine, deserts and swims across the stream. He is caught and condemned to death, and the burden of his song consists of these inci- dents, the love of his native hills, of his misfortune. " Ye comrades all, here for the last time you see me ; the shepherd boy with his Alpine horn is the cause of my sorrow ! " Another song of a similar character deals with the subject of a soldier who is told off as one of a patrol commanded to shoot a comrade for some 76 Teuton Studies offence not mentioned. This comrade was the singer's dearest friend, and the song tells how all the soldiers except him miss the condemned man, — ich aber, ich traf iJin mitten ins Herz. In a previous article, dealing with the German forest, I have already referred to the part played by das Lied in connection with the national love of nature. Also some of the most beautiful songs of this description are regularly in use in the army as well as among Ger^man students. In fact the aca- demic youth of Germany is, and ever has been, the nurturing ground for this essentially national form of music. The songs in constant use among German students are printed in a thick volume of six hundred pages, DcntscJies CGmniersbnch, which was first brought out in 1858 in its present form and dedicated to the great German patriot of the War of Liberation of 1S13, Ernst Moritz Arnot. This invaluable collection of Lieder will give the reader a deeper insight into German character than almost any number of historical works could do. For so thoroughly do the songs of a nation reflect its character, that the saying of Fletcher of Saltoun, " If I may only make the ballads of a nation, let him who will make its laws," is generally accepted as a classical utterance. But my reference to these student songs were incomplete if I did not point to the great number Das Lied yj of essentially humorous songs among them. There are few more pregnant signs of the healthy spirit of the academic youth of Germany than its partiality for the harmless form of humour embodied in these songs. As is well known, long walking tours, some of them during the summer holidays, lasting for several weeks, are general in German schools. The masters, who accompany the boys on their expeditions, are often old university men, and they make a point of encouraging the love of song among the youth confided to their care. And as they walk together along the high-roads, with their knapsacks on their backs, the professor has his Comiiiersbuck ready handy. Nor is a tuning-fork forgotten. When a halt is made, the tuning-fork is struck, and, when once the right pitch found, the master starts singing one of those humorous German student songs in which all join. The scene is one of happy, innocent joy of life not easily to be met with outside Germany. But it is in the domain of lyric and love that the German Lied has perhaps reached its highest devel- opment. Also in no country have the lyrics of the greatest poets so greedily been set to music by great composers as in Germany. Goethe's Erl King led Schubert to the composition of one of the most beautiful of songs, merely to mention 78 Teuton Studies one among many of Goethe's which Schubert set to music. Heine, the poet, was another of those from whom Schubert sought and found inspira- tion. But even the wide range of German poetry- did not content Schubert ; one of his most charm- ing compositions is written to Shakespeare's words — " Hark, hark, the lark at heaven's gate sings." But Robert Schumann (in one sense perhaps the most exalted song-composer that ever Hved) went even further than Schubert in his efforts to weld the German Lied into a wondrous product of divine music allied to soul-stirring words. He was not satisfied with a single gem of song — as those of Heine, for instance — set to undying melody, stand- ing by itself. His compositions include whole ranges of subjects, spelling whole episodes of human life, in fact the whole Sein 7ind Warden — as the Germans say, the whole Being and Development of Life — as fit themes for the German Lied. Thus we have the whole history of a poet's love — Dichter- /iede,\vith words by Ruckert(if I am not mistaken) — portrayed in a series of songs fitting one on to the other as pearls fit in side by side in a crown. Then another series, " Woman's Love," which as the poetic rendering of a woman's soul life is perhaps the most perfect thing of its kind in existence ; though in Das Lied 79 order to understand the full beauty of sentiment embodied in the music allied to thoroughly German words, it is almost imperative to have inherited or imbibed something of German feeling. The influence of these — particularly of Schu- mann's — songs in Germany is something extra- ordinary. It is not merely that almost every German lyric song-writer since Schumann's day has worshipped him, sought inspiration from him, and endeavoured to copy his methods where they have been unable to follow the flight of his genius. Schumann's songs have supplied, as it were, a musical Bible, with the aid of which German man- hood and womanhood mutually interpret to each other their holiest feelings of love. Schumann's songs have succeeded in lending expression to an ideality of feeling, compared to which the Italian, French, or even the English love-song is ineffectual indeed. In fact, in the sense in which Schumann's songs are love-songs, I know of no love-songs in any other language or country. If I have not dwelt hitherto on the German Volkslied, the song of the soil, of the people, it is not that such are not renowned and exquisite in their way. But their like, though in many ways different, exists in other countries besides Germany, — notably in Slavonic countries, also in Scotland and Ireland. But in no country, to my knowledge, 8o Teuton Studies is the Volkslied so intimately part and parcel of the life of every class of the community as in Germany. In no country does the senthnent embodied in the people's song find such a daily echo in the nation's life as in Germany. It is heard in the family circle, in the school, in the university, in the army, it is sung at the table of the rich, it is heard in the hut of the peasant, it cheers the working-man on his way home from his weekly toil, singing in high spirits at the prospect of a Sunday's rest. One of the most striking impressions a foreigner may carry away from Germany is that of the order and decency which prevail on occasions of public holidays, not- withstanding a certain rough, boisterous enjoyment of the moment. The influence of the Lied has always seemed to me to be in part an explanation of this. A man may be ever so coarse, but he can hardly remain in contact with the spirit of the German Lied from the cradle to middle age without rubbing off some of that uncouthness of feeling and behaviour which we only too often meet with in some countries, in which the pathos and sentiment of a true German Volkslied are materia incognita. THE DRAMA It is not easy for English-speaking nations to understand the part which the theatre per se has played, and in a smaller degree still plays, in the national life of Germany. Whereas with us the taste for the drama is, after all, only a fashion, a luxury, in Germany the theatre has now for nearly a century formed a portion of the education of all classes, a necessary adjunct in the social life of the masses. Thus, if a German actor were to dare to address a fashionable audience on the Educational Mission of the Stage, as is often done in England, in the true spirit of the bagman praising his wares, he would make himself ridiculous. As in Italy, where the closing of many theatres through the with- drawal of State subventions resulted in the im- mediate increase of crime, in Germany the theatre has long had a strong humanizing, refining in- fluence. But the German theatre of to-day has been no more able to overcome the disadvantages 8i G 82 Teuton Studies to dramatic art inherent to our practical, mechanical age, than have other forms of art in all countries alike. The music-hall, an entertainment formerly totally unknown in the Fatherland, with its " strong men" and its coarse songs, has done a deal to undermine the influence of the stage. For all that, the German theatre is not yet reduced to the necessity of calling upon the self-advertising actor to read homilies to the public based upon the theme that " there's nothing like leather " : mean- ing the particular kind you have to sell. A German critic writing on the decay of the theatre of to-day, states the case as follows — " ' You intend to write a treatise on the deplorable state of our theatres ? ' said a friend to whom I had mentioned my intention. ' But, let me ask you, who is going to read it ? ' " ' Who ? ' I replied, ' why the whole educated public, all who take an interest in the drama, — the actors them- selves. Everybody who has the excellence of our national theatre seriously at heart.' " ' But who is there still that really has ? We live no longer in the age of Lessing. We have other fish to fry to-day, than to trouble ourselves about so trivial a matter as a high-class theatre. The struggle for bare existence engrosses us more and more ; and if we manage to save a moment of leisure for ourselves, we devote it to poHtics and to the press, which are certainly of greater importance than the theatre.' The Drama S;^ "'And yet,' I replied, 'the popularity of the drama was never greater than during the last season ; with a couple of exceptions, all the Berlin theatre proprietors have done a splendid business.' " ' Yes, I willingly admit this. After the wear and tear of our daily work, we long for a little relaxation of an evening. We want to forget our daily surroundings, to fancy ourselves elsewhere, far from the worries which pursue us in our business vocations, we want to see other faces, to laugh ; that is why we go to the theatre.' " ' Thus we make up a public which is only too easily pleased, and cares little about the aesthetic laws of the drama, their high aims, etc. If what is offered us is only half-way palatable, we are quite satisfied, as long as it takes us away from ourselves.' " Farther on the same writer adds — " ' The German public has become sluggish with regard to theatrical matters ; it has lost the high standard of criticism which it possessed in former times. . . . The theatre no longer occupies the prominent place in public life it once did, it has given way before politics, social questions, &c.' " And the author proceeds to devote a hundred pages or more to the description of the decay of the German theatre, to the manipulation of an indulgent public by a race of cunning money- making impresarii ^ : the whole forming a descrip- tion of the mode of procedure more or less rampant ^ Ohne Schminke, Conrad Alberti, Dresden, Pierson's Verlag, 84 Teuton Studies in matters of dramatic art in every country to-day — in some to a far greater degree than in Germany. The author in question is evidently not acquainted with countries such as England, France, 'and the United States, or he would find much to be still thankful for with regard to the German theatre. But for all that, there can be no douht that the German theatre is no longer to-day what it was, and this for the reasons given above. Still, even what is left from former times of this most import- ant element of German culture is well worth the attention of all those who take an interest in human civilization and progress. The German drama, if we except the Passion plays of the Middle Ages, is essentially of modern growth. In fact, the Germans had no theatre worthy the name when the Elizabethan dramatists flourished in England. During the seventeenth century English strolling players roamed over the Continent, and gave rough-and-ready performances of English masterpieces at fairs or other places of public resort. With Lessing the German national drama may be said to have started into being, and later on it reached its apogee in the works of Goethe and Schiller. The English and the Greeks were the models which served those three great men who, within the short period of half a century, created a national drama, with which only the The Drama 85 dramatic literature of Elizabethan England can compare. Although the want of a powerful political national life prevented the dramatic genius of -Germany from concentrating itself in one focus and thus creating a homogeneous national drama, the existence of the many small German states brought other special advantages to bear upon the development of the German drama. Almost every small potentate possessed a theatre of his own, and many of them encouraged the growth of dramatic talent to the very great increase of dramatic taste throughout the country. Thus, whereas it was possible for the English drama to reach its highest development in the capital of London, and the province to remain totally ignorant of the theatre as such, in the Germany of the last century there would be a court theatre in most of the hundred capitals of the small German states. This general permeation of the drama right through the length and breadth of the country is one of the old advantages which still exists in Germany to-day. For whereas the number of independent states has diminished, and in consequence the number of court theatres has lessened, on the other hand, many of the large and wealthy German towns, such as Hamburg, Breslau, Leipzig, Frankfurt-am-Main, &c,, possess theatres which rival those under royal •■'~' — ~ - 86 Teuton Studies patronage. But perhaps the greatest advantage which the German court theatres of old conferred on the community — and partly still confer to-day — was that they were carried on independently of the aim and necessity of money-making. Thus young talent, so long as its tendencies were not of a subversive political character, got a hear- ing, an opening, which it might otherwise have struggled for in vain. An English dramatic author, unless he obtained a footing in London, might starve ; whereas the genius of a Schiller, disdained at Stuttgart, would find an outlet under princely patronage at Mannheim, and later on, the fullest encouragement at the court of the art-loving grand-duke, Charles Augustus, at Weimar. There are few more enthralling chapters in the history of intellectual effort, than the story of princely patronage of Germany's dramatic genius in those great Weimar days at the close of the last and the beginning of this century. The pecuniary conditions of life were indeed petty, as judged by our standards of to-day, and the rewards sometimes took no more tangible form than the bestowal of a freshly-gathered laurel wreath. But though life was simple, aye, even penurious, aims were high, and " character," high-mindedness, lofti- ness of thought and ideal were wrought from the fire of petty surroundings. The Drama 87 Goethe and Schiller did not ask themselves what the public wanted, what it was ready to accept and pay for. These men had a low opinion of popular taste, they cared not for the sensational, but strove to give the best they were capable of producing, trusting to the cultured few for recognition. It is impossible to avoid asking ourselves here what would become of such men in our time who dared to disdain the verdict of the modern monster tyrant, "pubhc opinion," as vouchsafed to us by enormous cash takings. Goethe resigned the direction of the Weimar court theatre sooner than give his consent to the performance of a piece in which a dog played a leading part. What would he have had to say to a dramatic chef d'ceiivre in which a popular prize-fighter or a railway- engine on the stage formed the principal piece de resistance ? The Weimar era is the glory of intellectual Ger- many, and well it may remain so, for it provided the German nation with a poetic and dramatic standard which it will take many generations to excel. But even after the great men who had done so much for the nation had gone to rest, the high standard they had created in matters theatrical was lived up to for a time far more than is the case in the present day. Quite independently of the original work of the Weimar dramatists, they ■liiMBi^aaaAiaiaifi^^: 88 Teuton Studies conferred a lasting benefit on dramatic art in Ger- many by their enthusiastic furtherance of the appreciation of Shakespeare. We might search the records of creative intellectual life of the world in vain to find so striking and unselfish a devo- tion of great minds to the work of genius of another land. Both Goethe and Schiller wor- shipped Shakespeare ; and fortunately for them and for Germany the German nation produced, as if for the occasion, a cluster of stars of the first magnitude, worthy translators of the great English bard. It may safely be asserted, that no literature possesses anything to compare with the German translation of Shakespeare by Schlegel and Tieck. Even to-day amid sensationalism, puffery, and journalistic log-rolling, the works of Shakespeare supply the corner-stone of the national drama of Germany. When the glory of Weimar departed, the theatres of Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, and others took up its traditions. I can well remember the time when a performance of Richard III., Hamlet, or Othello possessed a far higher interest to the Dresden public than the most important piece of political news. It was an interest totally distinct from that which we attach to the popular " star," eagerly bid for in two hemispheres to-day. No reporters intruded on the private life, which was of a plain, The Drama 89 humdrum kind. But the great actor or actress was popular for all that, albeit in a different way. People were not eager for new faces ; they did not care to pay fabulous prices for performers who came from afar with a great reputation. They harboured a feeling of partisanship not far removed from gratitude toward the actor who spent his life simply among them, and to whose best efforts they were indebted for so much intellectual enjoyment. Thus if the rumour got abroad that a well- known actor was about to leave the town, public feeling ran high. On one occasion the leading citizens of Berlin, with Professor Graefe at their head, waited upon a popular actress, begged her to give up her intention of quitting the place, and promised to petition the court theatre authorities to accede to her wishes. Reigning princes too were profuse in their bestowal of marks of favour on talented members of the theatrical profession. But, strange to say, neither these marks of favour nor popularity among the public led the actor to stray from the surroundings among which he lived. He did not seek the society of the aristocracy, nor en- deavour to push his sons into the army or diplomacy. He remained an actor — was often a cultivated gentleman besides — and his sons became actors in due course. He was proud of his vocation and con- tent with what it offered him. It is this contentment, 90 Teuton Studies this plain living, which were so characteristic of the past, and which we believe had a deal to do with the individual excellence which an artist was able to bring to his calling — the product of whole- hearted devotion to one worthy object in life. In those days, the whole population of a town such as Dresden was composed of devotees of the theatre. Each coterie had its special favourites among the artists, and it was a common thing to hear people say, " I must go to the theatre to-night, for X is going to play." Nor was it only those who played leading parts, whether in comedy or opera, who came in for their share of popular favour and patronage. Even the humblest parts were performed by cultured actors and actresses, many of the choristers were artists of acknowledged excellence, and they one and all, as members of the court theatre, enjoyed a uniform social position and respect. But a change came over the scene with the growth of modern international communication. The great Dresden actor, Bogiimil Davison, ac- cepted an offer to " star " in the United States. He went there, brought back a handsome sum of money, and the seeds of the illness which carried him off. The Dresden theatre has never again been what it w^as in those simpler and happier days. The Drama 91 If I have dwelt somewhat at length on these characteristic features connected with the theatre of the past in Germany, it is that they are the main source of what still remains worthy of record to-day. There is still something left of simpler and more earnest times. In the first place, the seed of the past has borne rich fruit. A public, embracing all classes throughout the country, which from one generation to the other had been made familiar with the dramatic masterpieces of the world, was bound to reap some lasting benefit. That this has been the case with the German pub- lic must be evident to the most superficial observer. Notwithstanding the present trend of affairs by which theatrical Germany is daily becoming more like other countries, there is still a large public left which is imbued with an earnest, honest love for great and good work for its own sake. This public does not long to see a German Mr. Irving's Hamlet, it wants to see Shakespeare's Hamlet — towards the interpretation of which an honest, painstaking actor may contribute his mite, but whose personality only possesses microscopic powers of attraction in comparison to those of the master-mind and his work. This public insists on seeing Shakespeare's Hamlet, OtJiello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Richard HI. from time to time, even if only mediocrities are there to interpret 92 Teuton Studies these wondrous creations ; whereas with us, if it were not for the " enterprise " of some wire- pulling theatrical "star," immortal plays such as King Lear^ Macbeth^ Othello^ and others might remain and do remain unperformed in London for ten to twenty years at a stretch ; — for they would not pay expenses. The German public would feel as if its education were being neglected if it were not provided with regular opportunities of witness- ing the masterpieces of the " Sweet Swan of Avon." But this public expects unity and uniformity, even if, as aforesaid, it be but that of mediocrity. Never mind gorgeous scenery and luxurious " properties," never mind who is responsible for these and for the theatrical wigs, the electric light, the brandy and champagne which may be had of the licensee of the reeking theatrical bar — this public cares not for these. As long as there is honest and painstaking effort, der Gesaniteffect — the effect of the whole — will be more congenial, more healthy, more culture-spreading, than would be the limelight thrown upon the central figure — which casts all else in the shade, and ruins the best interpretation of genius. Yes, genius, — creative genius — is what the old school had been taught to venerate — to see therein the nearest manifestation of the divine that is vouchsafed to us, and to seek therefrom inspiration, gladness, and hope. The Drama 93 Such is a fruit of true culture, and in furthering this growth in Germany the theatre has done wonders. It remains for me to say a few words about two features of the German drama of the present day which are essentially national, and thus from one point of view the most interesting of all. The one is das VolkstJieate}\ the people's theatre, and its staple product, das Volksstilck, the people's play. To be strictly correct, das Volksstiick is not a mushroom growth of to-day, for sample pieces dealing with German peasant life in some form or other are among the oldest products of the German stage. But the pieces which constitute the reper- toire of the Volkstheater of to-day are all of recent authorship, Anzengrubcr (who lived in the first half of this century) being perhaps the most talented writer in that line. The home of the Volkstheater is Bavaria, in which country picturesque peasant life still exists to a greater extent than in any other part of Ger- many. In Munich there is a special theatre, das Gcirtnerthoriheater, entirely devoted to the produc- tion of popular pieces dealing with the life of the peasant class. The pieces in question are of thrill- ing, pathetic interest, and many of a high order of literary merit. This class of entertainment is so popular in Germany, that the company in question 94 Teuton Studies occasionally goes on tour, and plays to crowded houses all over the country. But peasant life is no longer the only kind of popular class life in Germany. Industrialism has a life of its own, and occasionally a very hard one, and already a dramatic poet has arisen in the person of Gerhardt Hauptmann, who has brought the sufferings of the individual classes on to the stage. In the case of Hauptmann, as also that of Sudermann, perhaps the most popular German dramatic author of the present day, we have pregnant instances of the political influence of the stage in Germany. Both these writers, dealing in a keen, carping spirit with the social conditions of modern society, may be said to be playing the part of the mole in undermining old foundations and paving the way for socialism. Nor must we in conclusion omit to mention the gigantic figure of Richard Wagner — the creator of the music-drama, the mightiest personality con- nected with the German stage of our time. Opinion as to the lasting value of Wagner's work is very much divided even in Germany ; whether his methods point to a regeneration of dramatic art, or whether they are the most potent products of decay. One thing is certain however, namely, that his musical drama has influenced, for good or for evil, the musical drama (and music per se as well) The Drama 95 of the world. In Germany itself his powers of attraction are still enormous. When managers are in doubt how to fill their theatre, their trump card is still Wagner. And what lends a picturesque aspect to this striking fact is, that whereas one half of Germany is speculating on the political uncertainties of the future, many of these very same Germans throng to the theatre to applaud the works of this erratic Saxon genius, which almost without exception deal with and glorify a mythical character. The same carping German citizen who during the day has imbibed his dose of journalistic enlightenment with regard to the socialistic state of the future, is delighted at night, when he hears the trumpet blast on the stage which brings before him the Twilight of the Gods, the chivalry of the Middle Ages in Lohengrin, the homely patriarchal life of the Master Singers of Nurejuberg, and the mysticism of Catholicism in Parsifal. Thus contrasts and contradiction blend with one another, and go to form das Sein tind IVerdcn in the drama — as in the real daily life — of the German people. THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT I The first Napoleon prophesied that in fifty years Europe would be either Republican or Cossack. He reckoned without the Jew. It is now about fifteen years since the first tidings of organized agitation against the Jews upon the Continent reached us in England through the daily press. It was only natural that the occasion should have afforded us ample oppor- tunities for contemplating the vagaries of others with that mixture of pity and didactic advice which we have fortunately been ever able to tender gratis. But, however that may be, it is sad to note that our well-meant exhortations have hitherto had no effect. Professor Heinrich von Treitschke, the Prussian historian, was the first man of acknowledged position to take a serious, though scarcely an impartial, view of what many then believed to be 96 The Anti-Semitic Movement 97 only a passing craze. In a series of articles in the well-known Preiissische Jahrhiicher^ he pointed out the growing power of the Jews, their solidarity as a separate caste [of foreign race] in Germany, their arrogance in the press, their resentment at the slightest reference to themselves as lese-majeste, while they daily indulged in unlimited criticism on their own behalf. All these things he stigmatized as the causes of the Anti-Semitic agitation. Treitschke foretold an enormous increase of the movement ; and his prophecy has been more than fulfilled. That which appeared to be, at most, a temporary agitation has enlarged its area, and to- day the so-called Anti-Semitic movement bids fair to assume international dimensions only second to those of Social Democracy itself. Russia is already engaged in ridding herself mercilessly of a Jewish population about equal to that of England in the time of Elizabeth. And it is difficult to see what Europe will do if the Russians persist in their policy of expulsion. Will cruelty restrain them .-' Cruelty has never restrained one race in conflict with another, and it is not likely that it ever will. In Russia hardly a day passes but instances occur of unprovoked violence offered to Jews. I have myself seen a Russian 1 See Preussische Jahrbncher, November 15, 1879, and following. Berlin. H 98 Teuton Studies sentinel striking an inoffensive Jew Avith the butt end of his musket. Even on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean lawless passions survive, which many of us fondly imagined to have died with the Middle Ages. The following telegram from Triest appeared in the Berliner Tageblatt of the i6th of February last — " The Jewish merchant Balleli, of Corfu, who was formerly established here, was walking in the streets of Corfu when he met two Greeks. One of them carried a revolver, which he fired into the air in order to frighten Balleli. His comrade called to him, ' Why fire in the air ? Lay that Jew low ! ' Thereupon the other fired again, and Balleli fell dead with a bullet through the heart." In Roumania the French Anti-Semite, Jacques de Biez, is received with open arms at large meet- ings, and feted as a herald of liberation from Jewish thraldom.^ In Austria a Prince Liechten- stein is the avowed chief of an influential party bent on the boycott of the Jews — nay, on their extermination. Parliament and town council are charged with Anti-Semitic electricity, which pro- duces periodical explosive shocks. As I write ^ 1 According to the Almanach de Cotha (1892) there are 4cxD,ooo Jews in Roumania, among a total population of 5,000,000 souls. - This article was originally printed in May 1893. The Anti-Semitic Movement 99 the Viennese Municipal Elections have resulted in the return of forty-six Anti-Semites, which gives this party one-third of the Council, In former years the Anti-Semites were returned by the lower classes, but at these elections they received a large number of votes from the well-to-do class {Daily CJironicle, April 18). A Vienna newspaper winds up its daily matter in the sense of Ccsteriim censeo, Judmcm esse delendum. The hatred and vilification of the Jew in Austria are only limited by the capacity to lend them public expression. But it is in Germany that the agitation is most significant. There the Anti-Semitic movement has called forth a complete literature of its own. Thousands of books and pamphlets, accusing the Jew of every imaginable crime, crowd the bookstalls and swell the booksellers' shelves. So-called philosophical treatises from the pens of professors in the North find an eager public, as also do the fanatical de- nunciations of the Catholic Dr. Sigl in the South. He it is who exclaims, " Never mind, the Jew shall be burnt." Herr Stoecker, the Prussian ex-Court Chaplain, in open Parliament, calls the Jews the "scum of the earth" (February 18, 1893). Against this we have — as if to illustrate the traditional diversity of German opinion — Professor Mommsen, who tells us that Anti-Semitism has already thrown back German civilization a century, and that it loo Teuton Studies represents the sentiments of the '^canailie" {Frank- furter Zeitung, April 12, 1893), Only the other clay a member (Herr Ahlwardt) was elected to the Reichstag whose personal record was such that, but for his fanatical Jew-hatred, he might have sought in vain for a dozen votes from one end of the country to the other. At a more recent election still (Liegnitz, February 1893) the Anti-Semitic candidate received 6,586 votes, against 129 recorded at the election three years ago. In short, the bulk of the Conservative party has openly declared itself in sympathy with the aims of the Anti-Semitic movement. The Catholic party are clamouring for the admission of the Jesuits, in order to unleash them upon the Liberals in general and the Jews in particular. Even the hard-gritted Swiss are beginning to feel the presence of the Jew. In response to a petition signed by 84,000 names, the Federal Chambers are deliberating whether the slaughter of beasts in the Jewish fashion shall be tolerated any longer. In France, the one country in which the emanci- pation of the Hebrew ^ constituted one of the first 1 The Jews in France date their emancipation from the decree of the National Assembly of September 27, 1791. But complaints of Jewish usury in Alsace had become so general by the year 1806, that Napoleon imposed fresh The Anti-Semitic Movement loi humanitarian triumphs of the Rcvohition ; in France, the one country that the Jews themselves have never ceased to laud gratefully as their Zion, as the ''light " and intelligence of the world — Jew- hatred is said to be rapidly increasing. The voluminous works of the furious Anti-Semite, Edouard Drumont,^ are eagerly read by many thousands of readers. In Italy too the move- ment seems to take root, as lately evidenced by violent Anti-Semitic articles in the clerical Italia Reale of Turin. In the United States — the refuge and home of the heavily-laden, the weary, and the oppressed — significant instances of so-called intolerance are to be witnessed. Hotels advertise that no Jews are admitted. A Jewish lady was summarily ejected from one hotel, although she was suffering from illness. Her husband, a millionaire, started a rival establishment, and sold up the offending hotel- keeper. On our own hospitable shores the unheard-of, the undreamt-of, has come to pass. The Gothic restrictions upon them, which finally lapsed in 1816. See Preiissische JahrbiicJier, "Napoleon und die Juden" (Ernst Barre, February 1891). ^ La France Jtiive^ La France J itive dcvajii T Opinion, La France J uive et la Critique, La Conqnete Juive, Lc Systcnie Jiiif et la Question Socialc, L'Escrinie Scniitiquc, La Fin d'un Monde, &c. Paris : C. Marpon and E. Flammarion. I02 Teuton Studies arches of Parliament have re-echoed with appeals to stop the immigration of the outcast Hebrew. Even a newspaper noted for its humanitarian enthusiasm has joined in the cry, and emphasizes its views by articles from the pen of the very man whom the munificent Baron Hirsch engaged to go to Russia and see what could be done for the persecuted of his race. That the Anti-Semitic movement, as we witness it on the Continent, harbours dangers for the State there can be no doubt. It was to these that the German Chancellor recently drew attention. He pointed out that an agitation which was at present only directed against the Jews might end in a com- mon crusade of the proletariat against all forms of property. A more immediate danger would appear to lie in the probability that the Jews, regardless of higher motives, will devote their influence to whatever party may consent to go with them against their foes. It is a well-known fact that the crusade against Russia which is constantly being preached in Austria is largely the work of Jewish journalists. The periodical writings of Professor Vambery are a striking instance of this. In home politics the same tendency of the Jews may be traced from day to day, waging against those elements which will not frankly mix with them an unrelenting warfare. This is distinctly traceable in the bitter tone of The Anti-Semitic Movement 103 the Jewish press towards the Conservative party in Germany, which for the moment represents the interests of close upon four hundred thousand freehold farmers in Prussia alone. It is further shown by the curious spectacle presented by the Jews, who, at all times opposed to military taxa- tion, are to-day supporting the German Government in its demands for an increase of the army. Under the present Hgime the Jewish Liberal newspapers have all but developed into official organs. It is probable that a Jewish policy of do lit dcs may be witnessed on a large scale in the future. We have noticed something of the kind recently in the United States. The Jews of New York " went solid" for the Democratic party, in grateful memory of certain Jewish diplomatic appoint- ments during President Grover Cleveland's last tenure of office. Not that we would wish it to be inferred that such appointments were unde- served. We merely mention the instance as that of the straw which shows the way the wind blows. The next diplomatic appointments will show whether this assistance has been appreciated at Washington. Such is a very bare outline of a mass of facts which form a curious comment on our boasted civiHzation and its humanitarian progress. Let I04 Teuton Studies us endeavour to contribute something towards an explanation of their source and tendency. It is only natural that the Jews themselves should attribute the hostility offered them solely to the remnants of prejudice, bigotry, and religious intolerance, lingering from the past ; and in this they are to some degree encouraged by the Liberal party in Germany. It is said that the Jews, not being in possession of true equality,^ cannot be expected to show to the full those qualities and virtues which are the outcome of true liberty. And in proof of this these partisans are never tired of pointing to England, where the Jew is not only prosperous, but respectably Conservative, exceed- ingly charitable, popular and honoured, inasmuch as he adorns our civic offices, our legislative bodies, even our peerage, and has come to figure con- spicuously in society. France, too, has been cited as an example of what freedom and true equality have done for the Jew. France until recently was supposed to furnish ^ In Germany the Jews are still boycotted in some sections of society, and rigorously excluded from the post of active officers in the army, though not from the reserve. In theory many Jews attain the qualifications of officership, notably by means of their high standard of education. But the officers of a Prussian regiment retain the privilege of declining to accept any individual they may object to ; and this veto is almost always exercised when a Jew, having passed his military examination, comes uj? for election. The Anti-Semitic Movement 105 the most striking exemplification of the truth of the trite saying, " Every country possesses its fair share of the Jews." To-day this reference is apt to prove a two-edged sword, having regard to the prominence of sundry German Jews among the many people implicated in the Panama collapse. Thus has an enterprise, intended to link worlds together, resulted in additional antagonism. II It is perhaps from the year 1848 that we may date the starting-point of the latest development of commerce and enterprise upon the Continent. It has resulted in the gradual social and material emancipation of whole classes which had hitherto led a life of simplicity and frugality. It heralded the expansion of the " public " as we see it to-day. Cupidity and the love of luxury have increased among all classes out of all proportion to the means of gratifying them, particularly during the last twenty years. The gradual removal of frontier restrictions, the improvements in means of communication — notably, the universal use of the electric telegraph — have practically brought the whole world into an undreamt-of propinquity and closeness of io6 Teuton Studies competition. The strong rise and the weak fall by the roadside as never before in the history of man. The " sweater " and the " sweated " begin to occupy the attention of legislators. " The wars of the future will be wars of tariffs," Lord Salisbury tells us. And this means, wars for bread. To-day money is no longer earned, as of yore, but largely — luoi. Application and industry have become of secondary importance, as means to success, compared with the instinct which enables men to "corner" an article or "rig" a market, and win or lose a fortune in a week. The mental requirements of such a struggle become more and more severe ; its conditions infuse a feverish fire and unrest into the blood, against which only the strongest can bear up. We note the evolution of a new type of fighting man : " the Manipulator," that is to say, the Exploiter,^ the Promoter, the Amalgamator, the Floater, the Inflator, the Ex- pander, the Puffer, the Wire-puller, the Rigger, the " Worker " (in the sense of the mover, the winder- up of a clock) — a kingly type of our time. And what is more, he is met with successfully at work in nearly every walk of life ; in politics, literature, learning, science, art, and, above all, in journalism ^ The English language does not possess the exact counterparts to the French words — exploiter) exploiteiir^ exploitation. The Anti-Semitic Movement 107 and in commerce. Of this type the Jews furnish, in proportion to their number, by far the highest percentage, at least among continental nations. They are not only the most eager combatants, but they are the most seaworthy in the storms of our latter-day life.^ Where the arts of advertisement are yet in their infancy the Jew is the principal advertiser and almost the only advertising agent. None under- stand the public as the Jew does, for he stands apart from it — yes, at times soberly above it — and surveys it pathologically. He dominates the Press on the Seine, the Spree, and the Danube. For he possesses the self-assurance, the suppleness and alertness of mind needful to success in journalism to an extraordinary degree. The great inter- national telegraphic news-companies, Reuter and Wolff, &c., are the property of the Jew. He rules the money and the produce markets. It is only as a landowner and a manufacturer that he is still comparatively in the background ; for, with all his '■ The large proportion of the Jews engaged in occupations involving exceptional tension of the nervous system may be inferred from the high proportion of Hebrew lunatics. Thus, although the Jews on an average are the longest lived of any race, yet, according to Lombroso, they furnish six times as many lunatics to continental asylums as any other people (vide Men of Genius^ C. Lombroso. London : Scott. 1892). io8 Teuton Studies natural gifts, he seems deficient in the qualities necessary to success in these fields, notably in the bent and capacity to control labour. It may be that these callings are uncongenial to him, because they set irksome limits to his speculative tempera- ment. On the other hand, the purveying of popular amusements, notably of the drama, is almost entirely in his hands. He supplies the capital, the impresario, the performers, the critics, and the wealthy audience as well. Hisy^^rzV for that which will " take " with the public is unrivalled in every department of national life. Moreover, although living to some extent under a social ban, individ- ually he manages to secure a large share of social recognition, of titles, and decorations. The consul- ship of the great and lesser Powers is almost entirely in the hands of Jews. The Consuls- General of Great Britain in Frankfort and Vienna are Jews, and the recently deceased Consul-General at Berlin was also a Jew. The learned professions are filled with Jews, as is, in fact, every profession that leads to " getting on." A large percentage of the lawyers and judges of the different courts throughout North Germany are Jews. At a recent examination in one of the Prussian classical schools {Gyumasieii) the item of religion fell into abeyance, because all those who came up for examination were Jews. Thus they supply an abnormal and -y The Anti-Semitic Movement 109 daily increasing proportion of the intellectual fighting material of the country. Jewish families crowd the best hotels in the summer watering-places. They supply the greater number of the first-class passengers who travel to and from the Continent and America. They are always travelling on business or for pleasure. The rival steamship companies of Bremen and Hamburg fit up their steamers with ever-increasing luxury, mainly with an eye to Jewish patronage. The strength of the Jewish element in Germany may be judged from a few facts. In Berlin their number has increased from 45,464 to close upon 100,000 in eighteen years. Most of the palatial private houses in the Thiergarten are the property of Jews. In the Bellevue Strasse — one of the finest streets in Berlin — there are said to be only three houses left which do not belong to Jews. In short, if the Press only possessed the power ^ it has in England, if the entry to society and to Parlia- ment were as easily open to the blandishments of wealth,^ and the army as free to Jewish energy as 1 We hold it on the authority of H, von Treitschke, that the Press in Germany does not possess the power it wielded a generation ago, and that its want of influence is directly owing to the general knowledge that it is so largely in the hands of the Jews. 2 Strange to say, neither the possession of wealth, nor the disbursement of charity, has as yet any influence in securing no Teuton Studies other professions already are, Imperial Germany would be completely under Jewish dominion. Thus there are at the present only three exceptional features of German life which militate against a Hebrew predominance in Germany, not only in a financial, but in every other sense. And what makes this state of things the more surprising is, that whereas Freemasonry is a large element in the success of the social and financial manipulator in America, on the Continent it is far less so. The Jews are the most zealous Freemasons in the world ^; but in Austria (not in Hungary) Free- masonry is prohibited, and thus this enormous leverage is entirely wanting to account for their success. The Jew, indeed, is possessed by a dominating instinct of solidarity which can even dispense with the cement of Freemasonry. Com- munity of persecution supplied it in the past with a fellowship which is now one of the sources of Jewish power in every walk of life. This is seen most strikingly in the Press, though it is scarcely less evident in commerce, where the extent to election to the Reichstag. The majority of the members are essentially poor men. ^ Freemasonry offers some explanation of the extraor- dinary commercial success of the Jews among the keen Americans of the Eastern States. The Jews own forty-nine synagogues in New York City, and several hundred millions of dollars in landed property. The Anti-Semitic Movement 1 1 1 which the Jews assist one another financially is unique. The disclosures of Jewish bankruptcies often show how ruin has been the consequence of an incredible amount of misplaced confidence among the bankrupt's own relations. In the Press the Jews in many places form an iron *' ring." Every production of a Jew, be it literary, dramatic, or artistic, is noticed at once and if possible puffed into fame — practical Free- masonry on a liberal scale. Manipulation is ram- pant all along the line. And success here is rendered all the more easy by the notorious want of enthusiasm which has ever characterized the Germans towards talent of their own. One has only to consult Goethe and Schiller's opinion on this subject to appreciate the full force of the situation. In the more commonplace walk of commerce, as distinct from that of the high regions of " mani- pulation," the latter half of the nineteenth century found the Jew also armed with superior weapons. Leaving his all-round ability and toughness of fibre entirely out of consideration, we have to re- member that our time found him with centuries of commerce in the blood — like the English and the Dutch ^ — an aristocrat in this point — calm, self- ' It may be cited as a remarkable proof of the commercial hardness of the Dutch, that whereas the Jews and the 1 1 2 Teuton Studies possessed, and above all free from weakening vice. Our time found the populations of Central Europe engrossed in bureaucracy, the career of arms, handicraft, and the tillage of the soil. They were parvenus in commerce, in the same sense as the Jews are still \?LX^) took upon him- self to point out the danger which would result if the French frontier were left denuded of troops. France would doubtless interfere, and therefore it would be necessary that at least two army corps should remain in the western provinces. When the general in question had done speaking, Moltke turned to the King and said, " Now I have to ask your Majesty, whether you wish to beat the Austrians or not } " The King replied with much surprise, " Yes, of course I do ! " " Well then," continued Moltke, " in that case the whole army must march against Austria. Two army corps on the Rhine will not stop the French ; two army corps more in Bohemia will secure the decision." When the other insisted further upon the danger of this proposal, Moltke curtly replied, " Yes, in war everything is very dangerous." And it is need- 184 Teuton Studies less to add, that his proposal was accepted by the King. Dann luage ( " Then dare " ). Therein lay the kernel of Moltke's greatness as a leader. The bold daring of the man was as stupendous as it was icy cold — cold as if sprung forth from beneath the helmet of Pallas Athene. It is asserted on the most unimpeachable authority, that Moltke was one of the most daring strategists that ever lived ; that if his methods were open to criticism, it was their too daring boldness which called the doubt into life. No man ever faced the responsibility of suddenly sending fifty thousand men to their account with a more unflinching will than he. "And if the whole brigade remains stretched on the sod {auf der Strecke) it will have accomplished its purpose — it will have arrested the enemy for ten minutes, and done its duty ! " For the moment great aims were in view, they seemed to turn Moltke to stone. There is an indefinite something in the compo- sition of those rare types of genius, which are destined to lead mankind in hecatombs to the slaughter-house, for which no mathematical chess- player's ^ talent, no mechanical thinking powers, and, above all, no genius for self-advertisement, ^ As a matter of fact, neither Napoleon nor Frederick the Great nor Moltke were exceptional mathematicians or chess-players. Count Moltke, Field-Marshal 185 can sufficiently account. In great leaders of men there is a " something " reflected in the expression of the eye, something genuine — bare of all histri- onic taint — which tells of death and eternity, the capacity to face them calmly and to force legions of men to do the same. Moltke was endowed with this daemonic " something " to an extraor- dinary degree. It is not a product of the reflec- tive faculties, but rather an ingredient of the blood, the beating of a strong heart, a supreme effort of will-power. Moltke may have lacked the imagin- ation of a Hannibal, he probably did not possess the fertile fancy of a Frederick or of a Napoleon. His serene intellect was more akin, to that of a Caesar — a comparison which seems borne out by the sober conciseness of the writings of both these great men. The imposing grandeur of the dann wage is characteristic of both in singularly striking similitude. Caesar, at the battle of Mundae, leading the tenth legion against Pompey's son to the cry, " Are you going to give way to a parcel of boys ? " is paralleled by the thrilling episode of August 18, 1870, when Moltke gave those terrible orders which resulted in the hurling back of the French under the blood-stained walls of Metz ! The King was in a sad state of nervous depres- sion at the thought of the dreadful slaughter. Moltke had quietly ridden away to avoid the 1 86 Teuton Studies pestering questions of the Duke of Coburg and other decorative figures who followed the Staff. In the meantime, the victory was won. In the evening the question was mooted, what would take place if the French were to attack again on the morrow ? Count Roon was lamenting the valu- able lives that had been lost already. Moltke, in his icy manner, merely replied, " If the French attack again to-morrow, there will be another battle, that's all." Beneath the self-contained manner of this man there were nerves of steel and a daring compared to which the dash of the cavalry leader is, after all, but poor stuff. Essentially conservative and proud by nature and training, it was a matter of comparative indif- ference to Moltke in what estimate his work was held by the world at large. Thus he allowed the myth of Koniggratz, which in a large measure was calculated to detract from his own share of work on that occasion, to obtain almost universal accept- ance. Had he not himself laid down the dictum that it was not always for the interest of the world at large to know exactly how things had taken place, or rather, who was exactly responsible for them .'' But though personally indifferent as far as he was himself concerned, he was not so indifferent as to the form in which historical events should reach posterity. The historian must know the Count Moltke, Field- Marshal 187 truth, at all hazards. Thus, nearly twenty years after the battle of Koniggratz, he sat down and wrote an exact account of the origin and course of that momentous day expressly for the private in- formation of a relative, who sent it of his own accord to Heinrich von Treitschke, the Prussian historian. It was not necessary to mention that, owing to the bickerings of the Crown Prince and Prince Frederick Charles, the battle of Koniggratz might have been jeopardized ; that, in fact, the Crown Prince did start later than was pre-arranged ; but somebody at least should know that the battle itself was not a haphazard chance which only the fortunate arrival of the Crown Prince had turned into a victory. It was part of INIoltke's plan — of his most precise dispositions, carefully taken the previous evening in good time — that the Crown Prince should come. He was bound to put in an appearance, and that at a specified time, not earlier nor, if possible, later. Fie had received distinct orders from his superior in command to come, and he came as in duty bound — nothing more nor less. So certain was it that he would come, that several hours before the Crown Prince's arrival, when the King asked Moltke how things were going, the latter replied, " Your Majesty will gain to-day not only the battle, but also the campaign." " It could not have been otherwise," he added laconically, in 1 88 Teuton Studies writing with reference to the above episode many years afterwards. Similarly with regard to the question of per- sonal responsibility on a broader scale, Moltke let public opinion retain its own conception of facts until, just before the fall of the curtain, a short postscript to his history of the 1870 war revealed the startling fact that, from first to last, neither in the campaign of 1866 nor 1870-71 was there such a thing as a Council of War ever held ! There were " listeners," but no " councillors " ! This silent man with the eagle eye was responsible for all. It is curious and, indeed, most significant, to find a critic noting it as a great hardship that Moltke did not get all the credit for his work. As if the highest aim in a great life was to get the full blaze of credit for our actions ! — like some suc- cessful bagman, proprietor of a patent medicine, or charity-monger. As is well known, this question of the council of war occupied a deal of public attention at one time. It is perhaps less generally known that Moltke was always a decided opponent of councils of war in any shape or form. At the beginning of the " Sixties" a description of the Franco-Austrian campaign in Italy (1859), edited by the Prussian General Staff, but in reality written by Moltke himself, appeared in Berlin. Count Moltke, Field- Marshal 189 It attempted to show that the disasters of the Austrians were principally caused by the fact that the Austrian General-in-Chief, Count Gyulai, was not allowed to act independently, but had to refer to a permanent Council of War sitting in Vienna. Moltke's ideal scheme provided that the monarch himself should be the Commander-in-Chief, and only take council with the Chief of his Staff, the right choice of whom, of course, must be the supreme crucial responsibility of the ruler. The decision to give battle is often a matter of a few minutes. If the sovereign listens to the advice of one man, who accepts the full responsibility for it, the affair is soon settled. If he listens to the opinion of several, who cannot accept the responsibility for their advice, he naturally may come to have to weigh contradictory views, and then have to decide be- tween them himself. The consequences would be uncertainty in the direction of affairs, yes, even the missing of the supremely critical moment. There- fore, it was always Moltke's endeavour, even in time of peace, to see that the General Staff was kept independent of the Ministry of War. In this he met, from time to time, with a deal of opposition from various quarters. Moltke had particularly the future in mind when he insisted on the un- divided responsibility of one man. lie feared that days would come for Germany when a monarch, I go Teuton Studies however naturally gifted, might at a given moment be more susceptible to outside influences than was William the Victorious, than would, in a word, be consistent with benefit to the community, when indecision in the leader of an army might be fatal ! Thus Moltke's decided conviction and expressed opinion on this matter, of the pernicious effects of councils of war, may well be taken to be a solemn legacy of warning, which he left to the military authorities of his country. Moltke's injunctions possess an additional value for his countrymen, because of the faculty of prescience with which he was gifted in a remarkable degree. His letters abound in shrewd surmises with regard to the course events were destined to take. To cite but one instance of Moltke's re- markable foresight. On March 4, 1 871, he wrote from Versailles — " The greatest danger now for every country lies, I suppose, in Socialism. The relations that are springing up with Austria I consider very good. Like Austria formerly, France will, of course, snort for revenge ; but when she recovers her strength, she is more likely to turn against England than against the mighty Central Power that has been formed in Europe. England will then reap the fruits of her short-sighted policy." The truth, or, if true, the fulfilment of the words of the last sentence, remains to be proved ; but Count Moltke, Field-Marshal 191 already there can be no doubt about the applica- tion of the preceding ones ; as also that not one n;an in a thousand would have shared Moltke's views in 1871, when they were expressed. When everybody was thinking of France's revengeful hatred for Prussia, he calmly foretold that she would be likely sooner or later to turn against England. Almost a fit subject for humorous banter at the time, but scarcely one for laughter now. So many conjectures are current with regard to the mutual relationship of Moltke and Bismarck to each other, that the following may find a place here. According to all testimony, the dif- ference of character and temperament of these two eminent men was so great, as almost to preclude the possibility of intimacy. To Bismarck, Moltke may have appeared too " objectif," — a peculiar untranslatable quality — and vice versa, Bismarck in the eye of Moltke to be not sufficiently " objectif." But once any serious interest was in view they always understood each other immediately. When the last Emperor William was in St. Petersburg for the last time, in the early " Seventies," Bismarck, who accompanied him, was asked how he stood with Moltke, to which he is said to have answered, " How should we stand to one another 1 I procure him the war, and he procures me the victory." How thoroughly Moltke shared Bismarck's view 192 Teuton Studies with regard to the master stroke of Bismarck's policy, the entejiiewlth. Austria, is proved by a letter in which Moltke wrote to his wife — " It is my old song {Dann hat es keine Noth\ If Austria be with me, whom then shall I fear ? " Many are the anecdotes, the quaint sayings, related of Moltke, most of them bearing the dis- tinct stamp of his individuahty. The following told to the writer by a witness has, as far as we know, never before been in print. It was during one of the latter days of August 1870. The whole German army had swung round, and was marching towards Sedan, the echoes of its tread sounding the death-knell of French preponderance in Europe. A Prussian infantry regiment passed Moltke and his Staff on the high-road. A casual incident may have led the General to exchange a few friendly words with some of the officers of the regiment, for one of them was bold enough to ask his Excellency how matters stood. "All goes well," he replied, not unpleasantly, in his laconic way ; " the trap is shut and the mouse is inside " (" Die Klapp ist zil iind die Mans ist drin"). Moltke was an enthusiastic traveller, even in his old age, and always travelled in a plain dark suit and round felt hat, in which attire it was, as already suggested, very easy to mistake him for an old school-master out for a holiday. On one Count Moltke, Field-Marshal 193 occasion, Moltke was staying at Ragatz in Switzer- land, and taking a walk through the forest to the village of Pfaffers, he entered a country inn to re- fresh himself. The innkeeper sat down beside him and entered into a conversation. "A visitor down at Ragatz, I presume .■' " " Yes " (Ja woJd). " Moltke is said to be there," " Yes, he is there." " Have you ever seen him ? " " Oh yes, often." " What does he look like > " " What should he look like } Like one of us." Moltke's taciturnity, his objection to useless talk, has become proverbial. The following story is an illustration. He was travelling with his aide-de-camp on the road to Creisau. After they had been alone in the railway carriage for some time, a gentleman got in and went on for some distance. On entering the carriage he recognized Moltke and, bowing, said — " Good morning. Excellency," and when he got out he added — '■'■Ich eniphele michgehorsamst, Excellenz " (" Good afternoon, your Excellency "). That was all that passed ; yet when he had taken his departure^ Moltke burst out — " Insupportable chatterbox ! " Moltke's private life was marked by an austere, almost ascetic simplicity. A certain aristocratic 194 Teuton Studies pride forbade him changing the simple mode of life of his early days of poverty. Although he had no children of his own, he evidently desired that future generations who bore the name which he had made so renowned should be blessed with affluence. The very bread at the table of the field-marshal was the same commis-brod eaten by the common soldier. A bottle of light Moselle wine did endless duty at table, it being quite an excep- tional favour if a younger member of the family participated in a glass. In fact, long after the crowning mercies of 1870, which brought Moltke a handsome donation, the scale of living in his family was such that it was not an impossible contingency to rise hungry from dinner. Three hundred marks (.^15) a month was all that was allowed for housekeeping purposes even at Creisau, where the family gathering often consisted of eight to ten persons. And out of this sum the eggs, butter, and milk had to be paid for ; for although they were furnished from the estate, yet they were charged for in the separate account kept of the farm produce. Having been a poor man the best part of his life — to the hardening effects of which Moltke touchingly refers in his correspondence with his wife — when comparative affluence came, it found him too old to change. What would doubtless have degenerated into the vice of a Count Moltke, Field- Marshal 195 miser in a smaller man was, however, redeemed in him by the capacity for rising occasionally above his penurious habit. He could be generous at times, as many of his relations have still grateful cause to remember. One of those nearest to him, starting on a visit to Creisau, was once asked by a penniless relative to deliver a letter to the Field-Marshal, in which he was asked to give the writer a couple of hundred thalers. He did not quite like the job, knowing what it meant to ask Moltke for money. So on his arrival at Creisau, he thought it more straight- forward to tell " Uncle Helmuth " (Moltke's Christian name and common appellation in the family) what it was all about before giving him the letter. Moltke took the letter in silence, read it, and merely said, " He shall have it." But a trait of earlier years of grinding poverty is even more to his honour. He had earned sixty thalers {£<^) by doing some translation, and sent the money to one of his poor relatives, regretting that it was all he had, and that he was only sorry he could not see any possibility of being able to make it a yearly allowance, as work was so hard to get. On another occasion, as is well known, he had agreed to translate the whole of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the sum of ;^8o. When he had translated seven of the 196 Teuton Studies nine volumes, the publisher failed, and he got nothing. These experiences, doubtless, contributed to sour his temper, which could at times, as we have already hinted, be irritable to a degree. Indeed, for all his love of nature, music, painting, and literature, Moltke was hard, even when he did not intend it. Thus the task of living with him was one continual strain upon the nervous system. It was like being gradually ground to powder. The fear that any- body should be favoured in his career through being a connection of his own, was almost a monomania with him. In fact it was rather a hindrance than an advantage to be able to claim kinship with the great strategist. Moreover, when he retired from active service, and the present Emperor bade him retain his nephew, Major von Moltke, as his personal aide-de-camp, it was some time before the crotchety old disciplinarian could get over the uncomfortable humour caused by such gross favouritism. But with all his constitutional irritability, he could rise superior to personal considerations in a manner that can only be called magnanimous. During the '66 war. General von Blumenthal, the Chief of the Staff of the Crown Prince's army, had written a letter to his wife in which he severely criticized Moltke and others. This letter fell into the hands of the Austrians, and they naturally published it Count Moltke, Field- Marshal 197 in their newspapers. When peace was concluded, Blumenthal called on Moltke to apologize for what he had written. Moltke put it right immediately, and said, " My dear Blumenthal, what a man writes to his wife is nobody else's business. Let us remain as good friends as ever." Moltke, indeed, could be magnanimous in a per- sonal matter — there was usually scant mercy for a breach of disciplinary etiquette in that stern oligarchy of which he was the adamantine figure- head. He was once on a visit at the German ambassador's at Rome. The German military attache at the Embassy was absent at the time in Naples ; and, having married a rich wife, fondly fancied he could afford to indulge in the policy of laissez-aller, which means death in the Prussian service. So instead of returning to Rome immedi- ately of his own accord to pay his respects to his superior, he merely wrote to the ambassador, asking him to inquire of Moltke whether his presence was needed. He received the answer, that the Field- Marshal dispensed with his services. The end of it was, that the attache in question was recalled within a fortnight, and his career, at all events in that direction, was at an end. In his country house at Creisau Moltke received the visits of his relatives, among whom were some lovely nieces and their children, who brightened up 198 Teuton Studies the house by their presence. The old widower delighted in their presence, for he could be gallant and attentive to a degree when in the humour. We have seen a photograph of Moltke in the centre of a group of his nephews and nieces and their chil- dren in the grounds of Creisau. They are all evidently taken in broad laughter, for the Field- Marshal is standing behind a cannon (one of those taken in '70, and given to him by the Emperor) wearing a lady's straw hat, and his face is quite a study of droll humour. Moltke always wore a wig, for he was perfectly bald. One day an intimate friend ventured to ask him why he wore such a very shabby one, '^ Ach Gott" he replied, " die hatja 8 mark gekostet " (" Remember, it cost eight marks "). Moltke's wig experienced some strange uses. It was at Meaux, in September 1870, that the General was conferring with his officers. " The grate had been crammed with wood, which produced a tre- mendous heat in the room. Moltke was walking up and down the room, and suddenly felt the want of something to wipe the perspiration off his face ; but deep in thought as he was, instead of taking his pocket-handkerchief from the night-table, he picked up his wig and passed it over his face, without being at all conscious of his mistake. He repeated this every time he passed the night- Count Moltke, Field-Marshal 199 table, and probably would not have found it out, if we had not at last drawn his attention to the fact." — {Deutsche Rtindschau, 1895.) Moltke's face is only known to the world at large with a wig and a beardless chin. And yet he once possessed a profusion of fair hair and a full moustache, until an affection of the skin de- prived him of both. One day a nephew of his got upon his shoulders and held himself tight by grasping hold of the Field-Marshal's head. Sud- denly he called out, " Uncle can take his hair off." The child had pulled off his wig. Of course a general burst of laughter, in which Moltke heartily joined, was the result. Referring again to Moltke's love of nature and art, it may be mentioned, that when he bought the Creisau estate in 1867, he laid out a park of trees, under the shade of which he used to take his walk twenty years later. Referring to this he would say, " These trees are a living proof that it is never too late to begin." Like Bismarck, he seems to have had a peculiar affection for trees, for at times he would express his conviction that after his death he would be able to watch their growth. His strong liking for music is common knowledge. Joachin was a frequent and welcome guest at Creisau ; Mozart and Beethoven were his favourite composers. He also appreciated Wagner, when 200 Teuton Studies he could detect a melody in his music — which was not always. On one occasion he was prevailed upon to go and hear the Meistersdnger at the Berlin Opera House. As it happened he arrived during one of the stififest passages. After listening for a while he turned to his companion, " This is really even more monotonous than a Reichstag debate. There at least you can propose the closure. I am off." And he left there and then. Schumann's and Schubert's songs he loved to hear. He was thoroughly at home in English and Ger- man belles-lettres. Goethe's Faust he knew almost by heart. It is characteristic, that among painters he failed to appreciate Raphael, whereas he had a boundless admiration for Lenbach, the great German portrait painter of to-day. It was one of Moltke's peculiarities that he invariably chose to sit on the box-seat next to the coachman when driving about the country, or when fetching guests from the railway station. He could enjoy the scenery better — a great consideration with him ; moreover, he was not obliged to keep up a conversation — another great consideration for a man who laid it down as an axiom that the secret of good talking lay in never referring to one- self. He was always immersed in thought, even when driving across country. It often happened, that when he had been sitting silently in a carriage Count Moltke, Field-Marshal 201 with a companion for hours together, he would suddenly say, " There now, I have got my letters done." And when he arrived home, he would sit down and knock off at a sitting the result of his cogitations en route. Moltke was also an excellent rider, and presented a striking appearance on horseback. It is still in the memory of all, how every honour was heaped on the old paladin during the latter years of his life, singularly verifying the applica- tion of the words, " Semper felix, faiistus, angustus." His ninetieth birthday called forth the panegyrics of the whole civilized world, the journalistic testi- monies of which were collected at the time and bound in two huge volumes. The last time the writer saw Moltke he was lying in state : officers of all denominations — mostly men of huge stature, as if chosen for their untainted descent by a hundred generations from the giants of the German primaeval forests — stood with drawn swords guarding the bier. The finely-chiselled head, without a vestige of hair, the aquiline nose standing out abnormally prominent against the sunken face — the cruelly hard lips closed like a chasm to all eternity — not unlike a Roman Csesar's head in death. Clad in a plain cotton shirt, his arms crossed before him, his hands holding violets and laurel, there he lay in peace. BISMARCK AT FRIEDRICHSRUH " The truth is," says Motley, the American historian and diplomatist, writing to his wife from Varzin i (one of Bismarck's country seats), " he is so entirely simple, so full of laissez-aller, that one is obliged to be saying to oneself all the time : This is the great Bismarck, the greatest living man, and one of the greatest historical characters that have ever lived. When one lives familiarly with the Brobdingnags it seems for the moment that everybody is a Brobdingnag too, that it is the regular thing to be ; one forgets for the moment one's own comparatively diminutive stature." These words struck me very forcibly when I first read them. I had not been many minutes in the company of Prince Bismarck, strolling in the grounds of Friedrichsruh, before they recurred 1 The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley, vol. ii. P- 340. 202 Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 203 to me with the burning conviction of their veracity. Nearly eleven years before, I had seen him wan and sallow, alighting from a railway carriage, stooping as he walked with the support of a stick. The careworn statesman was then on the way to Kissingen to recruit his health. To-day he stood, with bright and kindly smile of welcome, as straight and strong as any of the majestic pine-trees that hide from outer view the Schloss of Friedrichsruh. His hair has turned white in the interval, it is true ; but his complexion is as fresh and clear as that of a healthy English country youth. The Gestemunde election had just taken place, and the press of Europe was pitying the disap- pointed statesman. But I failed to recognize the disappointed statesman in the hearty Prussian landowner who, accompanied by his son, led me into the grounds of the chateau, evidently eager to show me his rural hobbies. It was a warm spring day, and the Prince was attired in the black frock-coat he always wears when not in uniform, a broad white cravat, usually known as a " choker," such as we are accustomed to see worn by clergymen or gentlemen of the old school, and a broad-brimmed black felt hat. He stood as erect as any military man in the prime 204 Teuton Studies of life. The kindly smile of those wondrous eyes is a sunny ray of greeting to the visitor, who is charmingly impressed by a manner which is as gracious as it is simple. After the first few words of welcome, the Prince led the way into the grounds, which are thickly wooded. The birds were chirping merrily ; and I have since been told that this music of nature is one of Bismarck's special delights. He cares little for artistic gardening, he loves trees — the free and wild development of nature. Carefully laid-out plots of turf — the so-called Englischer Garten (though I believe their origin to be Dutch) — are not at all to his taste. He prefers broad woodland landscape, what the Germans in their poetical language call der Hain, the natural grouping of the glade, which, with its depth and shading, leaves a fanciful scope to the imagination. A short walk brought us to a meadow intersected by a stream, on which a swan was watching the movements of a foal feeding close by. The Prince drew my attention to this, remarking with a smile that the swan was evidently jealous. " Do you see," he said, " how that bird draws itself up ? It knows that we are watching it, and wants to^ show_ itself off to the best advantage — clearly a female. Animals have a language of their own, you know ; it is only the conceit of Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 205 man that bids him fancy he has the monopoly of speech." The Prince was in the best of humours, and seemed anxious to show me his plantation full of all sorts of fir-trees from all parts of the world. The Levant, Japan, North and South America — he has laid all of them under contribution, and has collected together an assortment of over thirty varieties, each of which he cites by its Linnaean designation. He brightened up visibly among his trees ; and it came as a revelation to me, to find in one whose whole life had been devoted to the fiercest struggles of man this rare power of concentration directed towards the slow, peaceful products of nature. I felt it fortunate that an early youth spent in northern woodland scenery enabled me to enter with some familiarity into the spirit of Prince Bis- marck's partiality for trees. I gleaned, indeed, from his conversation that to him trees have more than the common interest of inanimate things. He loves to watch their growth, and when they attain maturity is often loth to have them cut down, his rich imaginative faculty endowing them with a life which he is unwilling to shorten. He showed me a bench ensconced in a shady corner of a meadow, encircled with fir-trees, " This is one of my favourite seats, but a stupid 2o6 Teuton Studies gardener of mine has planted these young trees in front of it, which in time to come would spoil the view. I shall have them out and placed elsewhere." We passed a lake, on the opposite side of which a target was visible. " This is the only place in which I can keep up my pistol practice without fear of accidents," he said. I remarked that it seemed a long range for a pistol. It must have been over a hundred yards. " Oh, my revolver carries that distance easily. And though I am not so young as I used to be, my hand is still fairly steady. I can now and then manage to bring down a squirrel." By this time we had come to the chateau, an irregular building betokening alterations and ad- ditions, hidden on all sides by trees. After lunch Prince Bismarck invited me to take a drive with him, whilst the other guests, led by Count Herbert, followed us through the woods on horseback. On passing through the gate of the chateau, a loud cheer greeted the Prince — " Long life to his Serene Highness Prince Bismarck, the Unifier of Germany ! " Every day a crowd collects about the gates eager to catch a glimpse of the Iron Chancellor as he leaves the chateau for his afternoon drive. People come from all parts, and, especially on Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 207 holidays, Friedrichsruh becomes a shrine for pil- grims. Sometimes they vent their feelings in loud cheers ; at others they uncover in silent reverence. This was only one of the many evidences of the Prince's hold upon the heart and imagination of a vast section of the German people, that I witnessed during my short visit at Friedrichsruh. Scarcely a day passes but telegrams reach him embodying good wishes and expressions of reverential love and devotion from some social gathering or other throughout the country. When the trains stop at Friedrichsruh every head is put out in the hope of catching a glimpse of the " retired " statesman. And should he happen to be present, to welcome a friend or bid adieu to a visitor, they give place to a cataract of hats held out in silent deferential greeting. The interior of the chateau itself is, perhaps, the most tangible proof of the large place Prince Bismarck has long held, and I am convinced still holds, in the hearts of his countrymen. Every room is full of presents and presentation pieces, and I am told it is the same at Varzin and Schoen- hausen, his other seats. Without taking into con- sideration portraits, marble busts, and illuminated addresses, the very furniture of the place largely consists of huge presentation pieces, sent to him 2o8 Teuton Studies by trades, corporations, or other societies. There is a large oak case along the wall, containing a supply of writing materials enough for generations to come, and a great carved oak chimney clock, that may well be expected to sound the hours of joy and sadness in the family for many a year yet. Two huge iron safes contain the recent offering of some German manufacturers — a silver dinner- service ; and whilst we were inspecting this, a servant brought two sets of massive gold drinking cups and tankards, the gifts of the German residents of Moscow and Odessa. Once in the forest, the carriage left the high road, and threaded its way through the lofty beeches and firs, regardless of any path. The Prince was anxious that his visitor should get a sight of as many deer and wild boar as possible, to effect which we drove round so as to advance with the wind in our favour. We only saw the deer scampering off at a distance, but got a closer view of some magnificent wild boar, a whole herd of which crossed our path leisurely within a few yards of the horses. But we had now got far from the road, amid the tangled underwood, in front of a shallow brook which impeded our progress. The coachman was obliged to dismount here, in order to find a way Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 209 back to the main road. Bismarck pointed to two stately pine-trees in front of us. "There, up in mid air, between those trees, I should like to find my rest, where the sunlight and the fresh air can still get at one. The idea of being shut down, suffocated in a band-box, has its terrors." We regained the open — a neighbourhood of large farmyards. The Prince discussed his system of farming the land. He spoke in English, and, to my surprise, is thoroughly acquainted with many of our technical agricultural terms. He wanted to show me one of the typical old Saxon farmhouses — low brick buildings, in which the owners share the ground-floor with their cattle. Their chief peculiarity is the absence of any chimney, the smoke from the hearth finding egress above the door. We alighted and entered. The peasant and his wife came forward to welcome us and to kiss his hands. We sat down in their little sitting-room at the back, which is scrupulously clean, for the cattle are herded in separate pens on each side of the entrance. Coloured prints of the Emperor, of Moltke, and Bismarck were on the walls. The Prince is evidently a kind land- lord, to judge by the brightness and visible affection with which the old couple greet him. He asked their age, whilst the woman seemed instinctively to retain her hold upon his coat. 2IO Teuton Studies " Oh, Heber Fiirst, I was eighty last birthday, and my husband is eighty-two." " Oh, surely that is not so bad ; why, you see we are not far apart. We have life before us yet, both of us ! " By the time we had reached home again it was close upon the dinner hour, and the guests — and there is a constant stream of them — had begun to assemble in the drawing-room. Princess Bismarck had been ailing for some time, but was just able to take her seat at table. This is, perhaps, the most delightful hour of the day at Friedrichsruh. Count Herbert and Countess Rantzau (German Ambassadress at the Hague), the Prince's married daughter, do their share of entertainment. No family gathering could be more genial and less conventional. The adsine is a great feature, and any new idea of the chef meets with general recog- nition. The Bismarcks are also keen judges of wine — though since Dr. Schweninger has put some restriction on the Prince's diet, the choice of the wines seems to have devolved upon Count Herbert. Prince Bismarck's conversation — whether he be walking, driving, or at table — is one continual coruscation of fancy and idea. However trifling the subject started, it is certain to evoke one of those bright flashes of his unique mind which has Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 2 1 1 enriched the German tongue with a store of "winged words." For Bismarck's epigrammatic sayings have already secured for him a " niche " in the edifice of national folk-lore, side by side with Goethe, Schiller, and Frederick the Great. A love for Shakespeare is one of his most con- spicuous mental characteristics. His knowledge of our English bard is extraordinary — it is part of the very flesh and blood of the man. He quotes him continually and with marvellous aptitude. Some years ago an article in an English magazine was causing some stir by its insistence upon the idea, that England's true policy was to hold herself aloof from continental politics, and that Italy would be well advised to retire from the Triple Alliance. The article was anonymous, being signed simply by the letter G. Bismarck was reading it when, looking up to a visitor, he asked him whether the article in question did not recall any passage of Shakespeare to his memory } His visitor, himself thoroughly familiar with Shake- speare, racked his brain in vain to find an analogy. " But surely — ^just think," said Bismarck ; " don't you remember Richard the Third? Think of those words, ' England, beware of Gloucester ! ' " On the present occasion the conversation turned upon his old friend Motley, of whom Bismarck speaks with a tenderness of fecHng which would 212 Teuton Studies surprise those who only know the iron statesman. " Yes, Motley's was a singularly ideal and lofty character," he said. " But was he not of a rather delicate physique } " I ventured to ask, struck by the contrast between the giant at my side and my own impression of what Motley might have been. " Oh no, scarcely delicate ; but he was of a sensitively nervous organization. A few glasses of wine would soon make him lively, and then he would lean back in his chair, and with his hands behind his back, under his coat, he would recall his favourite song of the student days we spent together at Gottingen : " ' In good old colony times, When we lived under a king, Three roguish chaps Fell into mishaps • Because they could not sing,' &c." This caused one of the visitors to remark, that it was a strange fact that the population of wine- growing countries were usually moderate drinkers. " Yes," Bismarck said, " this is indeed a wonder- ful dispensation of Providence. For where wines grow, the people are mostly ' half-seas over ' by nature ; and if they were given to drink as well, they would soon be perfectly mad." Asked how he accounted for this, he replied Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 213 that he concluded that the force of the sun must be partly accountable for it. To this I added at random, that it must have been rather sunny in Palestine, and that I wondered whether the Jews, who were ever reputed such a cool-headed race, grew vines. " Yes, indeed," replied Bismarck, " wine and olive oil were their staple trades. And they must have been stout drinkers too at times. Don't you remember the marriage at Cana of Galilee ? We are told, you know, or led to infer as much from the remark, that the good wine was first consumed, and the inferior reserved until the company had lost their sense of discrimination." Towards the end of dinner, Bismarck turned to give a bone to his dogs, who are his constant companions, one of which was a gift from the present Emperor. Somebody mentioned the well- known incident during the Berlin episode of Prince Gortschakoffs rencontre with " Tyras." " That affair," said Bismarck, " has been totally misrepresented. Gortschakoff was sitting in con- versation with me when, in rising from his chair, he seemed to stumble, and I sprang towards him fearing he might fall. ' Tyras,' evidently imagin- ing we were wrestling, made a bound towards us from the other side of the room. I called to the dog in a loud voice, but Gortschakoff, possibly 2 14 Teuton Studies surprised at the tone of my voice (my mouth was close to his ear), ejaculated, ' J'etais venu dans les meilleures intentions.' I fancy it must have been some sudden fit of faintness on his part, and that it was my voice, and not the dog at all, that startled him." Dinner over, the company move to the drawing- room, the latest guest, irrespective of rank, leading Princess Bismarck. Then, according to German custom, the children kiss their parents, and Prince Bismarck bends down and kisses his wife's fore- head. I felt a wave of warm sentiment roll in upon me, as I watched this stately patriarchal figure standing a head and shoulders above his surroundings, with a benevolent smile on his lips and his eyes aglow with kindness. There was indeed something Olympian in his calm repose, and yet withal there was the homely father, the reverential and loving husband. It is small won- der that round this man there circles an affection that is more than love, for it includes reverence. There can be few families, whatever their position or nationality, that in their daily inter- course reflect a brighter glow of affection and mutual sympathy. Thus it would seem but natural that a visitor should carry away with him a^memory that is little less than hallowed by association with this simple and united family Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 215 circle. For while to the historian this man is " great," it needs but common clay to perceive, that goodness is with him too. The newspapers are now brought in — an endless collection. Not that the Prince " takes in " many; they are sent to him from far and wide by known and unknown hands. He is sitting in his easy- chair, and lights his long china pipe. The family and visitors sit in groups around. The Geste- miinde election has just taken place, and a French paper, L'Aiitorite, has a leading article entitled, " The End of the Ogre." Bismarck reads it out aloud to us, puffing at his pipe between the sen- tences. The grossness of the abuse evidently amuses him greatly ; and when he comes to his own personal description — the cruel mouth, the wicked eyes, the fierce bushy eyebrows, he face- tiously remarks, " It is wonderful how they will cling to my poor eyebrows." Music fills up a part of the evening. Princess Bismarck is well known to be passionately fond of music, and is herself a skilled performer. The Prince, although not what would be called a devotee, has a keen appreciation for Beethoven, as also for characteristic melodies, such as German and Russian Volkslieder, particularly those that are cast in a minor key. These have a soothing efifect on him. As he himself told me, " I could 2i6 Teuton Studies never bring myself to listen to music to order, as people do at concerts. But at home, when it comes unbidden, there are few things that I like more." Thus the evening passes pleasantly, and at about half-past ten o'clock Bismarck rises to retire, and wishes good-night all round — although his leaving is not in any way a signal for a general break-up. The ladies retire shortly, but the guests re-form. Refreshments are brought in. Count Bismarck looks after the wants of the company. Hunger and thirst are hailed as welcome convivial attributes, and soon conversation on general topics and bright good-humour become general. But for one like myself, to whom the days spent in intercourse with this master-mind of his age are an event in a life-time, it was not easy to fall in with the drift of the conversation. The lighter it grew, the more my imagination seemed to seek refuge amid the thousand and one memories of Prince Bismarck's extraordinary career, which took new and warmer colour from my recent contact with the man. True as it is of almost every genius that the " child is father to the man," that outworn dictum of Wordsworth was never better exemplified than in Bismarck. All manly exercises and healthy feats of strength have been his pleasure and pride Pismarck at Friedrichsruh 217 from his youth up. " Hie ! Bismarck," was the cry in Bismarck's college ; and even in later days, when- ever a boyish freak could be indulged in, or a scrape evaded. Even to-day, in his old age, one of the few distinctions which Bismarck really prizes is the medal for saving life, the bestowal of which dates back to early manhood, when he saved his servant from drowning at the imminent risk of his own life. There is something rugged in the full story of Bismarck's boyhood. To begin with, in those days there was a deal of Spartan simplicity, not to say of hardship according to our modern ideas, in the family life of a Prussian country squire. Many of the small nobility resided all the year round at their ancestral seats, some of them situated amid endless forests, near undrained morasses, far away from any large town — perhaps only to be reached by long and expensive journeys in post-chaises, or, during four months of the year, by sleigh. Little better than a farmer's life in proud aristo- cratic seclusion, involving hours of an unearthly earliness, and an austere frugality such as would shock the soul of our latter-day middle-class domestics. Bismarck's father had been in the Body Cara- bineers, and used to tell how for five years it was his duty, every morning at four o'clock, to measure 2i8 Teuton Studies out the hay for the regimental horses. With such a training it was no wonder if iron discipHne characterized the household. Shooting (die Jagd) afforded the only break to the endless monotony of superintending the crops and the farmyard. But even sport, whether the pursuit of the roe-deer, the capercailzie, the black-cock, the partridge, or the hare — all these were carried on in a manner involving long hours and any amount of fatigue. Such, to some extent, were the surroundings amid which young Bismarck passed the first few years of his life — romping over the farm, playing soldiers with the boys in the village of Kniephof, which takes its name from the family estate.^ Still, the Bismarck family may be said to have possessed exceptional affluence, inasmuch as they kept a good table, received occasional guests, and managed to vary the monotony of their rural existence by coming up from distant Pomerania to Berlin every winter ; something like our wealthy families com- ing up to London for the season, for in German capitals the winter is the season. But there was another far more important point with regard to which the Bismarck household may be said to have been an " exceptional " one, and this was in the personality of Bismarck's mother. ^ The Bismarck family moved thither from Schoenhausen, where Bismarck was born, when he was a year old (1816). Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 219 Like the mothers of so many great men, Bismarck's mother was a remarkable, a very exceptional woman. The daughter of a privy councillor, noted for his intellectual attainments, she united a cultivated intellect with a well-balanced heart and mind. Her dominant characteristic was tact of the heart, one of the rarest gifts in woman, if not in man. With her it was blended with a true sense of unobtrusive piety. Her one thought was the education, the moral well-being of her children. And there can be no doubt that the splendid train- ing which Bismarck received both at home (in those ineffaceable details which in after-life can be traced back to the nursery days) and later at school, were almost entirely due to the anxious solicitude of his mother. For it was her decision which school should be chosen for her boys ; and hers again was the choice of the private tutors whose efforts made Bismarck an accomplished linguist, and thus able to prize and treasure through life our Shakespeare in the original. In fact, the influence of Bismarck's mother on the training of her children was so well known among the friends of the family, that years afterwards, when she had long been laid in her grave, whenever some strik- ing success was scored by the great statesman, his friends would say, " Bismarck, if only thy mother could have lived to witness this ! " 2 20 Teuton Studies It throws an interesting side-light on human nature in general to take note of the well-authen- ticated fact, that some of the most bitter attacks to which Bismarck has been subject in the ephemeral literature of the time, have been called forth from the Prince's refusal to receive those who have at times eagerly sought the privilege of making his personal acquaintance. There are few more deadly wounds struck at our vanity than those, and two of Bismarck's characteristics — his light opinion of the veneer of an insincere con- ventionality, and his total freedom from the vice of cant — have sometimes led him to slam the door in the face of those who approached with the instinct of the lackey, to advertise themselves by the light of his countenance. This great judge of character ever had a keen scent for the lackey and for the faiseur. Thus it has happened before now, that those who had found Caesars willing to receive them, have had their tympanum rudely shaken by the reverberating echo of Bismarck's door. This reverberation was ever the same, whether it struck upon the ear of the enterprising journalist, or the self-advertising lordling or diplomatist. Since Bismarck's retirement, his enemies have asserted that the Prince has become accessible to all conditions of men. This is a popular and a grievous error. Except that he has lately possessed Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 221 more leisure time, Prince Bismarck's habits and methods have remained unchanged. He has at all times been the most easy or the most difficult of access. Even to-day, the high, the popular, and the influential have sought him in vain ; whereas it may have pleased him to unbend himself to the humble representative of any obscure newspaper. The key to his action is simply, and ever has been, the spontaneous volition of an independent and genial temperament. He receives or denies himself to whom he likes ; he has ever done so. There are few public men who have .been able to do likewise. Enthusiasts have before now written pseans in his praise, without receiving even a sign of the recognition longed for — not even now, since his retirement. This may seem hard, but it is often the way with rugged natures such as his. The maxim of do iit des, which rightly finds its daily application in the field of politics, has never found acceptance in the private life of this unique character. It has ever been in vain to approach him with flattery, from whatever side it might have been attempted ; on the other hand, few men have been more open to the influences of personal sympathy. For what some fail to understand is the difference between the hard-worked public servant and the man. In politics his genius 2 22 Teuton Studies enabled him to rival Machiavelli in cunning, whether it showed itself in debate or in the adroit- ness of taciturnity. But all this was ever foreign to Bismarck's true nature. Longfellow says somewhere, almost as if he had known Bismarck, " Sublimity is always simplicity." It is this simplicity, this freedom from average con- ventional slavery — with all the charming urbanity of the gentleman of the old school — this absence of worldly caution and cunning, which have often exposed Prince Bismarck to the mis-interpretation of an age too readily given to judge everything by its own standard of empty formulae. And those who love formulae as opposed to the intangible divine spirit of things, love comparisons — particu- larly those of an odious nature. Still it was incredible and not too creditable to the common sense of Bismarck's enemies, that, after his retire- ment, they should have exalted the late Dr. Wind- horst at his expense — perhaps the greatest enemy the supremacy of Prussia in Germany has ever had. In reading some of the newspapers at the time of Windhorst's recent death, it almost occurred to me to ask, Did Prince Bismarck or Dr. Windhorst found German unity and her peace-guarding supremacy in the centre of Europe .'' Is it of him or of Dr. Windhorst, that Professor Goldwin Smith recently wrote — Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 223 " The great man ... to whose wonderful qualities .... Germany owes her unity, and Europe her liberation." For his achievements are so colossal that even after twenty years there are many, otherwise worthy, intelligent persons, who have been unable to get the proper perspective, and thus failed to grasp the proportions of his work. The love of invidious comparison has since taken a less inexcusable, but still an erratic flight, in drawing a fanciful contrast between the character of Bismarck and that of Moltke, always to the disadvantage of the former. It would be difficult to imagine anything more illogical than this. When Goethe heard that people were busy com- paring him and Schiller, he wrote to the latter saying that the public would be better advised to thank Heaven that they possessed "two such fellows " {zwei solche Kerle) instead of indulging in fruitless comparisons. May we not be allowed to point out the dif- ference of nature in these two Titanic figures of German history, without falling into the tempta- tion to exalt the one at the expense of the other } For of the two, Bismarck is essentially a fuller embodiment of the national character, even though we were to deduce this merely from his passions. His is the temperament of the lion — the roaring, raging, gladly battling nature, to whom struggle 224 Teuton Studies is a necessity of life, as it was a necessary means to the achievement of his work. His is the spirit of the Roman — gaudia certaminis — reflected in those eyes which, once beheld, few have been able to forget. The passionate nature is plainly reflected in the rare lustre of Bismarck's eyes, though they at times beam with a degree of tenderness rarely to be met with among average humanity. The home instinct, indeed — that tendency at the heart of man which repeats with Burns, " To make a happy fireside clime To weans and wife, That's the true pathos and sublime Of human life," — the character, to put it colloquially, of " the family man," is developed in Bismarck to its most perfect proportions. To this, I fancy, he owes much of his popularity in England. For there are, perhaps, few points in Bismarck's character which have brought his personality so near to the English-speaking race, as this well-known fact of his being a model " family man " — a father and husband according to our own homely standard. His published letters show eloquently that he was nowhere really at home except when he was in the society of his wife and children. Even when Ambassador at Petersburg, he used Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 225 to spend his spare hours in sitting with his boys in their school-room, and assisting them to prepare their lessons. Such are the psycho- logical mysteries in the composition of some of the world's great men. I do not think Bismarck could say an unkind word to his son Herbert. Yet he suddenly heard in 1870, after the terrible 1 6th of August before Metz, that both his sons had fallen in battle ! The father rushed to inquire after his boys, but the statesman could not allow himself to be unnerved, even by so dire a calamity. In the words of the German ballad — '■'■ Mein So/in ist wie ein anderer Mann. Frisch vorivdrts an den Feind." (" My son is like another man. Up, onward towards the foe.") Princess Bismarck has never, even to the present day, been able to forget those dreadful hours of suspense. Prince Bismarck, if not less sensitive, is more philosophical. In his presence, you feel that a great statesman cannot afford him- self the luxuries of sentiment legitimately culti- vated by humbler mortals. He need not necessarily be less human than they, but his work calls for a certain something beyond the possession of average humanity. It is generally reported that Prince Bismarck is a rich man, and this surmise has afforded some of his less amiable compatriots food for one of their sturdiest grievances against the great statesman. Q 226 Teuton Studies '* He has made his Patriotism pay him well," they chuckle. Bismarck has a simple and direct reply, " There is nothing some of my enemies find so difficult to forgive as my crime of having become a wealthy man," I have heard him say. " Well, I suppose I must admit that I have been fairly successful in a worldly, material sense ; I even wonder at it myself sometimes. For if I look back I feel my wants were not extravagant. As long as I have a chair and a table, and something overhead to keep the rain off, I feel I could be happy." It would be almost an impertinence to affirm that which is, of course, self-evident : namely, that Prince Bismarck never took advantage of what many men in his exalted position would have considered legitimate opportunities for invest- ment. And nobody was so fully cognizant of the fact as his honime d'affaires, the late Baron Bleichroder, the Berlin banker. It is even said that the unbounded personal admiration which Bleichroder felt for the Prince was largely due to his accurate knowledge of Bismarck's lofty imper- sonal character in money matters. On one occasion, Bismarck's over-sensitive feeling of punc- tilio even led to his losing a very large sum of money, as I learnt years ago from an unimpeach- able source. The Prince had invested his ready money in the funds of a certain country, in the Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 227 prospects and good faith of which he ahvays had unshaken belief. Diplomatic circumstances, how- ever, arose, which in no way affected the credit of the country, but which caused the Prince to feel that it was not consistent with his position to hold these securities any longer. So he disposed of them, against the urgent advice of Baron Bleich- roder, at a great loss, which he never recovered. But even more than this. Far from being the shrewd administrator of his large estates he is reputed to be, Bismarck has often gratified his hobbies as a country gentleman at the expense of his pecuniary interests as a landowner, and has spent large sums of money unproductively. In fact, although the nominal value of the Bismarck estates may be roughly put down at from eight to ten million marks, the income derived therefrom just enables him to live in the well-to-do, but by no means lavish manner he has been accus- tomed to for so many years. This is, however, after all, considerably below the standard of a rich man in his position. In truth, I should not be surprised to learn that among the intimates of his household, several — for instance his famous physician, and a certain great painter — can show a larger net income than the far-famed architect of German Unity with all his broad acres, his royal and national endowments. 228 Teuton Studies Unlike many houses, where a spick-and-span tidiness narrows the sympathies, whilst gratifying our instinct for order, the Bismarcks' dwelling has always borne the marks of children roaming about at will ; in other days his own children, to-day the grandchildren. Bismarck has even been accused of being a too indulgent father. If so, he has certainly not earned the usual result of parental indulgence — filial ingratitude. For his children, though all married, are always backwards and forwards on a visit to their parents — a rare sight among the solitary great. It is a gladdening spectacle to see the old German champion at home in his domestic circle, smoking his long pipe, and smiling as only he can smile, when he looks on at the romps and games of his grandchildren — the sons of his daughter, the young Rantzaus. They must not disturb Grosspapa when reading his papers after dinner, but they are not afraid of him ; how should they be ? for they have learned to love him, and hand- some, well-brought-up boys they are. Then there are Bismarck's other grandchildren, the daughters of his son William, thorough little types of the German, blue-eyed, budding Frduleins. And it is indeed amusing to note Bismarck's playful manner with them, sometimes at table gravely treating them with all the deference due to the full-grown Bismarck at Friedrichsruh 229 maiden, and slily watching the effect of it all on the undeveloped feminine instinct for admiration. But there is a strong suspicion in the household that the old fighter's heart is more taken up with the " boys " {die Jungeii) than with the fairest little sprig of womanhood. It is an instinct which says that the former will live and become men — not unworthy of the old Grosspapa^ if it pleases God — but the girls, well, they will live to be admired, to receive courtly homage, if you will, but the heart of it, the battling instinct, the family name — that it is the heritage of the men ; a goodly inheritance indeed, which none shall take from them ! It is the moral trait in Bismarck's character that — added to a certain heedlessness and frankness of manner which is paramount with him — constantly recalls his affinity to Martin Luther. If I picture to myself Dr. Martin Luther with the manners of a man of the world, with the black frock-coat, the broad manifolded white-tic, and the wide-brimmed felt hat ; then the fiery eyes, peering out like glowing coals from beneath it, would be there too, and the likeness were complete. This similarity forces itself unconsciously upon you, as you look at the portraits of Bismarck's ancestors on the walls of Friedrichsruh ; the features of Luther recur in all of them. Even some pictures of children of the 230 Teuton Studies family reminded me strongly of the well-known family group of Luther's wife and children. But there is a peculiar interest besides connected with this. It explains things which have often been a riddle to many ; for instance, the entire absence of the histrionic in Bismarck's composition — an element this quite lacking in Friedrichsruh. And what makes this fact the more interesting to us, is that the histrionic vein is of such vital importance in our time that only heaven-born genius can succeed in accomplishing its honest work without it, and then often only at the expense of contem- poraneous recognition and applause. But Provi- dence would seem to have ordained it thus, that natures such as those of a Luther, a Bismarck, a Cromwell, or a Lincoln show a lack in this respect. Thus Otto von Bismarck would probably have thrown the ink-bottle at the head of the Satanic Tempter, exactly as Dr. Martin Luther did, regard- less of all ink spots on floor or furniture. It would seem to be part of the nature of the kind that it is incapable of receiving " sulphurous " visits with lips pursed in amiable lines, ready to speculate on the chances of a pour boire. It reflects the bright side of human nature to know that Prince Bis- marck's character has struck deep and lasting root into the veneration of the best blood of Germany. For the feeling which Bismarck inspires seems to Bismarck at Friedrlchsruh 231 me to find a clear and beautiful echo in a little poem which was addressed to the Prince on the occasion of his birthday, April i, 1891, of which I append a translation — " Long may we thy presence hold, Growing older with the old ; Yet, thy power by age unwrung, Young for ever 'mid the young, Unforgotten by us, still Ever unforgetable ; God's best gifts with thee be rife, Love of Work and Joy of Life." FRIEDRICHSRUH REVISITED Any one revisiting Berlin for the first time since the retirement of Prince Bismarck can hardly fail to be struck by a certain change out of all pro- portion to the time that has elapsed since that event. The laurel-crowned busts of William the Victorious have mostly disappeared from places of public resort, and plaster-casts of the Emperor William the Second have taken their place. Bismarck awaits his statue in Berlin in the only material worthy of him, and in the meantime the founder of the German Empire is boycotted in the capital.^ Official personages have even been known to cross the road if they see an intimate of Friedrichsruh approaching. In the country at large people are less up-to-date in their feelings and in their actions ; and the hold Prince Bismarck retains, in spite of political faction, over the cultured ^ This was written in 1893. 232 Friedrichsruh Revisited 233 classes of his countrymen — though not easily gauged by a perusal of the daily press — is as strong as ever. This sentiment found recent adequate expression in the following lines of one of Germany's leading poets — "Thou goest from thy work, But not thy work from thee ; For where thou art is Germany ; Thou wert : and thus were we. "All that through thee we grew We know, and every land ; What without thee we may become We leave in God's own hand." Ernst von Wildenbriich. How strong is the popular attachment, and how universal the regret at Bismarck's retirement, may be illustrated by the following authentic anecdote. "What is the matter with you.-"' a landowner asked of his dejected old gamekeeper. " Ah, Herr Baron, I know you're going to serve me like Bismarck." " What do you mean } " "You are going to discharge me." " No, I shall never do that." "Ah!" murmured the old man half to himself, "it was a pity, after all, that the Emperor sent Bismarck away. Of course he was growing old, and he couldn't have expected to draw his full salary; but it seems to me that he was still worth 2 34 Teuton Studies keeping, even if the Emperor had only kept him on to take note when the old man shook his head, or nodded ! " Sic transit. . . . ****** The train stops just long enough to enable you to alight at the picturesque little station of Fried- richsruh, which of late has become a shrine for the pilgrimage of thousands from far and wide — yea, sometimes even from the most distant parts of the earth, as I myself have had ample occasion to notice.^ It is now three years ago. Friedrichsruh was specially e7i fete, for Count Herbert Bismarck was engaged to be married, and his young bride, accompanied by her parents, had arrived on a visit. And, in accordance with a pretty German custom, the house was decked inside and out with evergreens arranged in garlands and festoons spelling words of "Welcome" and "Good Luck." All the members of the Bismarck family and friends from far and near have come together to do honour to the occasion. The somewhat primitive inn, the " Landhaus," is ^ According to the La Plata Gazette of May 27, in a rural district of the Argentine Republic {el Gran Cliacd) there exists a portrait of Bismarck which is venerated by the inhabitants as that of a saint — San Biman — who cures the diseases of the Believing. Friedrichsruh Revisited 235 peopled by photographers, reporters, and artists, all bent on providing material for a public eager for every detail connected with the magic name of Bismarck. And pleasant days were those spent in the hospitable domain of the Sachsenwald under the kindly care of its guiding spirit — Princess Bismarck. Princess Bismarck was born some seventy-one years ago (April 11, 1824), at Viartlum in Pomc- rania. She is descended from one of those hardy Pomeranian country families, whose records are inscribed in the diplomatic and martial history of Prussia. Otto von Bismarck came to her home at Reinfcld forty-six years ago, and found her, as he tells us, " amid a circle of upright, plain-living Christians." He married her, and the lasting happiness of his choice was placed on record years afterwards in his own words to a friend — " You have no idea what this wife has made of me." Endowed with enough energy and intellect to suffice for half-a-dozen average lives. Princess Bismarck has always preferred to live only through her husband and her children ; and through them alone is the key to her sympathies to be sought. She has thus remained the ideal German housewife, for whom the gaieties and frivolities of the world have never really existed. For so many years the 236 Teuton Studies centre of the world's homage, Princess Bismarck looks back on all those times of busy turmoil with a feeling not far removed from loathing. " I had little of my children's or my husband's company in those days," she says. " Bismarck used to work all day, and could not sleep at night." The Princess refers to the quiet days of her resi- dence in Frankfurt-on-the-Main as the happiest time in her life. This was true happiness to her, and far preferable to the dazzling life in Berlin. Princess Bismarck loves to relate little anecdotes of the simplicity of these and even earlier times ; and to-day she is still the same at heart. Although the scale of living at Friedrichsruh has changed, the spirit presiding over the household is still that of the plain German housewife, anxiously bent on looking after the comfort of her family and of her guests, never thinking of herself. Although at times hardly fit to be up and about when she is troubled with her chronic complaint, asthma, she invariably insists on presiding at table. There she will sit, often without touching a morsel ; but, in spite of suffering, her eye is everywhere, con- trolling, ministering, seeing that everybody is attended to and satisfied. If the conversation at table should turn on a fresh delicacy of the season — some new dish — you can observe Princess Bis- marck whisper a word to one of the attendants ; Friedrichsruh Revisited 257 nor need you be surprised to see the very plat in question make its appearance at table the next day. The desire to gratify every wish of her family and her guests seems to monopolize her. And yet, even at table she is possessed by a little hobby of her own. Among the many silver mugs, tankards, and cups to be found in the dining-room, there is a small goblet, the cover of which is ornamented with enamel and gold roses. This is a memento from a dear friend of the Bismarck family, left to the Princess in memory of her kindness to him when ill. Whatever else is left out, this goblet must always be on the table. After dinner, while her husband is reading, Princess Bismarck sits opposite him for hours, mostly silently watching him, as if to glean from his face the sense of what he is reading, eager to enter into his every train of thought. Now and then he will look up, exchange a remark with her, and relapse into reading. Regularly at about half-past ten he retires to rest, after wishing good- night all round, and exchanging a kiss with each member of his family. Not so the Princess. She is a poor sleeper. Thus the household keeps late hours, and guests willingly sit up to enjoy the pleasant supper gathering, at which Princess Bismarck again makes it a point of presiding. It is then that the plans 238 Teuton Studies for the next day are arranged, and orders given for the carriage to go to the station to fetch any guests who may be expected by the midnight train from the capital or from Hamburg. Even when the party has broken up, Princess Bismarck will still linger on in the drawing-room with her daughter. Countess Rantzau, and pore over the music shelves, and if anybody who happens to be musical is still up, she will ask him to play one of her favourite themes of Beethoven to her before retiring. It would be well-nigh impossible for a nature such as that of Princess Bismarck to have lived so many years without acquiring something of the battling spirit of her great husband. She is a strong partisan and a keen critic. And no wonder, for unaffected simplicity and sincerity are her only standards. She knows no other, for she holds no worldly estimate of things or people. Neither persons nor things impress her, be they ever so impressive, if they fail herein. But even here her kindliness of heart has a softening influence. She bears no malice, and a kind word can turn her and bring a smile to her face, where a world of argument would have failed to convince her. Again, when once her mind is made up with regard to a friend, no petty differences can change her goodwill or shake her confidence. Friedrichsruh Revisited 239 Princess Bismarck has suffered much from ill- health of late years. Nor is this surprising, for she, in common with so many other German mothers who have lived through the last thirty years and their great events, has had her fair share of worry and anxiety — not to mention the re- peated attempts upon her husband's life. But if there is one thing that can nerve her to overcome pain and fatigue, it is to bid welcome to those whom she believes to be fervent partisans or admirers of her great husband. Nor is it an easy matter to gain her favour, for she has seen too much behind the scenes of the great world to trust readily in the untried sincerity of anybody. On the other hand, when once she takes a liking to you, she is, like her son Herbert, a staunch friend. Count Herbert Bismarck is little understood in the country of his birth, except by those who enjoy the privilege of his friendship. There where political passion is apt to invade private life, and give more colour to personal likes and dislikes than in England, it was perhaps only natural that the son of a Bismarck — placed early in life in high position — should have afforded a welcome target for the shafts of rancorous enmity. And more readily so, since he has undoubtedly inherited the quick, spontaneous, receptive nature of his 240 Teuton Studies mother for sympathy or antipathy, as well as the gift to discern when the one or the other is called for. His enemies aver that Count Herbert was a severe disciplinarian at the Foreign Office, but I cannot easily connect the idea of severity with one whom I know to be a devoted son and husband, a true friend, and of whose popularity with the humblest of the dependents in his ancestral home I have often been witness. Per- haps the highest testimony to Herbert Bismarck's character is furnished by those who had ample opportunities of watching him closely in private life, during the years of his official duties in Berlin, when all the world of either sex was full of smiles for the son of the all-powerful Chancellor. I have found these witnesses uniformly testify to his unaffected, genuine simplicity of heart, allied to a healthy contempt for adulation, the source of which he was invariably clear-sighted enough to discern. One day when in company with Count Herbert, I happened to be reading a newspaper in which a gross personal attack on him was prominent. Needless to say, I put the paper in my pocket to make sure he should not see it. Some little time afterwards I told him of it, and of my anxiety Friedrichsruh Revisited 241 that he should not see it, " Oh," he replied, smiling, " you need not have taken the trouble ; I have kept a whole collection of far worse things, which I can show you." On another occasion, when I happened to be alone with Prince Bismarck, the conversation turned on the charges of favouritism brought against the Chancellor. I was agreeably surprised at the philosophical good-humour with which the Prince willingly entered upon a subject in private, which he has always held beneath his dignity to notice publicly. " Was it not natural," he said, " that I should turn to the one nearest to me, in whom I could trust implicitly, for help in the many important responsibilities and work I was burdened with during so many years ? " There was some- thing of the apologetic simplicity of a child, some- thing truly touching in the unaffected spontaneous words of this wonderful man, from whose moral courage and determination not even the fierce antagonism of a world in arms could ever detract a cubit. The fact is, that a deal of the personal enmity to which Herbert Bismarck has been subjected is intimately connected with a lurid feature of the public life of our time. Where the arts of so- called popularity arc usually manipulated with a cunning worthy the production of a successful R 242 Teuton Studies advertisement for soap, a Herbert Bismarck is entirely out of place — truly a square peg in a round hole. No honied words to an eager inter- viewer from him, not even if the refusal — as has been often the case — should entail a subsequent cataract of malicious abuse. In a roundabout way — as is so often the case in this tortuous world of ours — that which is " true " has already exacted recognition. It is significant that of late a number of men of many parties have come to look upon Herbert Bismarck, not only with sympathy, but with confidence as well. Among these men are many who by no means share his political views. But there is something deeper than the mere faith in certain political measures, which, amid a world of self-advertising trickery, instinctively attracts us towards that which can claim the possession of the one rare attribute, character ! So too there are many practical men in the fatherland to-day who are of opinion that Herbert Bismarck might yet — if he likes — have a prominent political future before him. But those who know him best aver that ambition, particularly that kind which partakes of a largely personal character, is about the last thing with which Herbert Bismarck is likely to be troubled. At present he lives at Schonhausen with his young wife and family, from whence he rarely strays. Friedrichsruh Revisited 243 except to visit his parents, or to go to Berlin when the Reichstag is sitting. ^ ^ ^ r^ ^ ^ The whole first floor of the Friedrichsruh Schloss consists of a number of visitors' rooms, the only- small one of which is usually occupied by Count Herbert, otherwise they are all large lofty rooms, plainly but cosily furnished. Photographs of eminent persons and interesting engravings adorn the walls. One of the largest rooms is that which was usually occupied for months at a time by the late Privy Councillor, Lothar Bucher, Bismarck's house-friend and right-hand man for many years at the Foreign Office. It contains a good number of books, many of them full of marginal notes in Bismarck's own hand-writing. Everything has a comfortable homely stamp in these rooms, even down to the old French moderator lamps, which are lit every evening, and cast their soft light on the writing-table, where pens and paper are regu- larly placed for the convenience of the guests. As is well known, Prince Bismarck leads the life of a country gentleman in his retirement, besides keeping a watchful eye on the political movements of the world. Not from choice per- haps, but rather because, from long force of habit, he cannot refrain from following with absorbing interest what has been the loadstar of his life. As 244 Teuton Studies I once heard him say, " Formerly I had a lot of hobbies, foremost among which was shooting. But in course of time politics swallowed them all up, as a big trout swallows up the little trout." Persons outside his own family, whoever they be, seem to inspire but a transitory if not super- ficial interest in one who, all his life long, has held persons, however exalted or distinguished, as subordinate to "things" — "things" with him meaning the affairs of the State, the steering apparatus of the ship, the eternal uncertainties and dangers of wind and weather, to him the weather-beaten pilot of Teuton blood. It does one good to see Count Herbert Bismarck with his parents, for, the very embodiment of hardy manhood himself, there is a touch of feminine tenderness in his unceasing solicitude for both of them. And whenever he is absent " a letter from Herbert " forms an almost daily event at Fried- richsruh. Nor must we forget Count William, Bismarck's younger son, and the bodily reproduction of his father. In his younger days he was a man of Herculean strength. It is related of him, that in the famous cavalry charge of Mars la Tour (in which both brothers rode as common troopers, and Herbert Bismarck was severely wounded), after the melee^ Bill Bismarck (for by this homely and Friedrichsruh Revisited 245 essentially British cognomen Prince Bismarck's second son was invariably known in his younger days) lifted a wounded cavalry man up on to his own horse and carried him out of the fight. To- day the combativeness of old — as also the wild oats of earlier days — have had to yield to the sober dignity of the presidentship of the Province of Hanover. A steady, well-balanced, kindly man, not much given to poetry, but equitable in his judgment, even if it go against his feelings — a staunch friend, like his brother, is William Bismarck. It is said to be a misfortune to have a great man for your father; if so, it is one which Prince Bismarck's sons bear with becoming dignity. Nor is there the slightest trace of their being oppressed by their unhappy lot, when they unite to give a hearty welcome to their own friends or those of their parents. There is a genial and rare touch of sympathetic affinity between the intimates of the Bismarck household. Unlike a court, where petty enmities and jealousies abound, here common veneration seems to act as a bond of mutual sympathy and good-will. Those who met first under Prince Bismarck's roof have often become lifelong friends. And to us it would seem that the secret of all this is to be found in the uniform characteristics which distinguish the closest associates of the Bismarck 246 Teuton Studies family ; the genuineness, without which they would never have come to be the valued friends in a circle where a searching knowledge of human nature subjects one and all to a primary ordeal of criticism — " Be genuine." If you are that, you are welcome. Once accepted, there is no petty recurrent criticism, no attempt to detect flaws ; but the welcome is as genuine as the wines in which your health is occasionally drunk. No wonder that the best and oldest Jiabituds of the Bismarck family — whatever be their position in life, politics, literature, science, or art — are more or less something of what the Germans call '* Elementar Naturen" That is to say, they possess something of that which a German writer has acutely remarked as being so eminently character- istic of Bismarck himself, — that he is one of those who can afford to stand or fall, ohne RetoucJie^ like a bold sketch without stippling or varnish. Now that the late Privy Councillor, Dr. Lothar Bucher, is no more, Franz von Lenbach, the cele- brated painter, stands foremost among the oldest habituis of the Bismarck family. Surely it was more than chance that such a man should have lived in Germany's great battling period, and have become the portrait-painter of Bismarck, Moltke, and the grand old Emperor William. It was only meet that the man upon whose shoulders the Friedrichsruh Revisited 247 mantle of Rembrandt may be said to have fallen, should have appeared to perpetuate the bodily likeness and spiritual character of Germany's great sons for all time. It is, besides, only natural that Lenbach should have felt irresistibly drawn towards the man who embodied in himself the very ideals which floated before the great painter's vision — genius and greatness of character. And what more natural than that, once in touch, they should have become and have remained the closest of friends ? For Lenbach, as a man, has many points of affinity with Bismarck himself. To him the surface is little, the character every- thing. His mind's eye is ever keenly on his subject ; it divests him mercilessly of every rag of fustian ornament, be it wealth or position, leaving nothing but the man himself. And Bismarck is the one man who has lost nothing in Lenbach's eyes by this mental process. Again, Bismarck is the one man who has managed to inspire him with a kind of awe. And Lenbach's attachment is in keeping with the unique character of the impression Bismarck has made on him. He even occasionally measures his feelings for others by the standard of their relationship to his hero. Thus, being recently asked whether he would paint a well-known poli- tician, and how much he wanted for painting him, Lenbach replied — "Yes, I will paint him, and I 248 Teuton Studies will not ask much cither ; but if he Uad not been such a rabid opponent of Bismarck, I would have considered it an honour to paint him for nothing." And yet, with all this, Lenbach, the artist, is not quite happy and content. For should a friend dilate in praise of his glorious Bismarck portraits, he answers, with a peculiar searching smile, which alone would betray the keen judge of character, " Yes, I feel I might perhaps have been able to do him justice. But you see, I am an artist ; and in art, as in love, you require sympathy in order to rise to your best. Unfortunately Bismarck takes little interest in portraits himself. Out of politeness he may try to make me believe he does, but that does not deceive me ; his mind is ever far away. If I could only have got him to enter into the spirit of my work for five minutes — to express satisfaction — I feel I could have excelled myself. But no : in this, as in all other points, he is the exact opposite of the late Count Moltke, who was an enthusiast in matters of art, who took the keenest interest in his own portrait, and would have willingly sat half the day and watched the growing likeness." But if Bismarck takes but little interest in portraits of himself, he has a strong feeling of attachment for Lenbach, the genial and steadfast friend. The painter is an ever-welcome guest at Friedrichsruh, Friedrichsruh Revisited 249 and deserts Munich, its bowling alley, its pictures, even the loveliest of women, his wife {7ice Countess Moltke), whenever birthday or Christmas fetes gather the faithful round the hospitable board of Friedrichsruh. If Franz von Lenbach has taken care that the personality of Germany's great Chancellor shall be handed down in speaking likeness to future ages, Professor Schweninger can take credit to himself that Bismarck is alive to-day. For ten years ago the doctors had given him up. Fortun- ately, a hearty, jovial young Bavarian doctor had treated Bismarck's younger son successfully, and was by him recommended to his father. And here, as so often before in every walk of life, the "one" man succeeded where the "many" had failed. But let us quote Bismarck's own words. "Ah ! if it had not been for Schweninger ! The medical authorities — I do not care to mention names — had all given me up, and tried to convince the young Munich doctor that it was no use bothering the old fellow, who was suffering from cancer, with the severe training of his medical treatment. But the Professor has got the devil in him, and when he is here — we expect him to-night — we are all in high spirits." It is well to know that in the case of Schweninger science has recanted ; and to-day his greatest 250 Teuton Studies admirers are among those colleagues who had laughed at his pretension to cure Prince Bismarck. This applies, of course, to those doctors who are alive, for some of them have long pre-deceased the patient they had condemned — as now and then happens in the annals of medical science. How Professor Schweninger managed to succeed where others had given up hope I am unable to say. At least I can affirm that behind the bois- terous bonhomie of the swarthy Bavarian there lurk a powerful will, a crystalline intellect, and an extraordinary knowledge of human nature. There is something about the personal appearance of the Professor — his dark, searching eyes, his broad smile, revealing a powerful set of small faultless teeth — which gives you the idea that the prowling *' Man with the Scythe" is fain to slink off reluct- antly when he encounters him. There is something in his grip of the hand which inspires confidence ; and his jovial laugh is a good tonic for any complaint. Indeed, when he is at Friedrichsruh, to quote Prince Bismarck's words again, "we are all in good spirits." Like all those who have come into closer personal contact with Prince Bismarck, Professor Schwen- inger is devoted to him. When he saw the gradual success of his treatment, he enthusiastically pro- posed to give up his practice and devote himself Friedrichsruh Revisited 251 entirely to the Prince. But Bismarck was unwilling that his devotion should thus interfere with a career which was already a brilliant one. So it was finally arranged that a young pupil of Pro- fessor Schweninger, Doctor Chrysander, should combine the function of secretary to Prince Bis- marck with that of locum tenens for his chief. But the outsider would never guess this to be the case, for the Professor cannot so easily shake oft" the habit once acquired of looking after his illus- trious patient himself. And when you come to Friedrichsruh, Schweninger is either there, or has just left, or is just coming. Fortunate is the visitor who arrives at Friedrichsruh when Schweninger is there, for you then add to your acquaintance that of a kind-hearted, genial man. But even if he be away, his portrait, painted by Lenbach, can be seen hanging over Bismarck's bed, and words in his praise can be heard from Princess Bismarck, whom he has also treated successfully for years. The leisure of recent years passed in such a bracing spot as Friedrichsruh, surrounded by every care, has had a very beneficial effect on Prince Bismarck's health. He is in the open air most of the day, winter and summer alike, walking in his grounds in the morning, driving or riding far afield in the afternoon. But wherever he may be, politics still remain his all-engrossing interest. 252 Teuton Studies At the sight of the deer scampering among the thicket he exclaims, *' How I used to enjoy stalk- ing the deer of a summer evening ! But politics are like a big fish, which swallows up all the little ones. They swallowed up all my hobbies. Besides, I myself have changed. Somehow it gives me more pleasure now to see the deer running about alive, than to deface their pretty coats with a bullet mark." The playful spirit in which Bismarck will at times enter into some of the more eventful episodes of his life is typical of the man. You feel he is conscious of the importance of the work he has accomplished, but not that it was the product of his genius, — rather the result of the perversity and shortsightedness of his opponents. " The other day I happened to glance over some of my parliamentary speeches of earlier years. They struck me so favourably, I could hardly believe I ever concocted them. I'm sure I couldn't have done so in after years." A friend while talking to Count Herbert Bis- marck about his father, happened to say that he could not imagine Prince Bismarck covered with the conventional plethora of diamond stars and crosses — that there were only two decorations he could picture as befitting the Prince — the medal for saving life, and the Order Pour k Mcrite. " It Friedrichsruh Revisited 253 is curious that you should say so," replied Count Herbert, " for they just happen to be the first and last distinctions bestowed upon my father." Contrary to current belief, it is a fact that Bismarck never for a moment contemplated a return to active political life from the day he first took leave of it. The keynote to his political interest is hidden in his anxiety that "little bits" should not be broken off the edifice of his life's work. This anxiety often keeps him awake at night, but nobody would guess this to be the case who has merely enjoyed the Prince's company in his family circle ; for, except when conversing with anybody whose interest in politics is known to the Prince, they are rarely touched upon. Some frequent visitors have never had an opportunity of exchanging a single word with him on such matters. And now for one more picture before we take our leave of this puissant and united circle. It is a lovely summer evening. The company has adjourned to the balcony, leading from the dining-room, and over-looking the park with its expansive lake. Bismarck is stretched out on the sofa, his long pipe is brought, and Herbert Bis- marck's young bride has lighted it for him. Coffee is served, and everybody is in the best of humours, Hcinrich von Sybel, the German historian, and an 254 Teuton Studies old political antagonist of Bismarck's of pre- 1866 days, but long since one of his most fervent admirers, has just come on a visit. He is relating some facts connected with the wonders of the heavens. Where the naked eye can only discern a few thousand stars, the sensitive photographic plate reveals the presence of millions — an endless series of solar systems each far mightier perhaps than our own. Bismarck is interested ; but, possibly moved by some thought connected with the sincere religious faith he not only professes, he observes, with an arch smile — " Are they then so sure of it all?" Somebody has brought a huge cartoon entitled " Bismarck is coming," representing Bismarck dressed as an old gamekeeper, entering the Reichstag smoking his pipe, and a number of the members caricatured as Jesuits rushing away in all directions, while others rally round him. " Ah ! that is all very fine," says Bismarck, " but if I went there I should stand quite alone ! " Nothing could exceed the simple charm of Bismarck's conversation on such occasions. What- ever the subject, he is sure to brighten it with a witty remark, or an apt quotation from one of his three favourite authors — Horace, Shakespeare, and Goethe. Genuine kindliness of heart is reflected, not only in the expression of those wonderful eyes, Friedrichsruh Revisited 255 but also in the rich tones of his singularly sym- pathetic voice and manner. And yet there is something indefinable, which reminds you that this man was cast in a Daemonic mould — that he was marked by nature as one destined for the making of history. THE END. Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. V^5i^.-:"i^*^Cii UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. my 1 3 !35i ' ID URL JUN 6 19^^ ^^0 WSHJ 3 Form L9-50to-7,'54(5990)444 THE LIBRARY DNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES r 3 1158 01105 5950 iiffliii AA 000 988 839 7 M:k0y*'l •■;-^^if^i