It rained, in the first place, which was very inconsiderate of it;
rained on the race-course, on the school-girls in white muslin with
wreaths of flowers on their heads, on the peasants in their distinctive
dresses, making their full, white sleeves limp and shapeless, spotting
the scarlet-and-blue bodices of the maidens from the Steinlach Thal and
Black Forest; rained on the monkey-shows and negro minstrels, the Punch
and Judys, the beer-shops, booths, and benches, on the country people in
their best clothes, the city people in their worst, upon all that goes
to make up the Cannstadt Volksfest,--in short, upon the just and the
unjust.
It was a beautiful experience to sit there in a waterproof, holding an
umbrella and seeing thousands of other people in waterproofs holding
umbrellas, on the raised circular seats that extended round the whole
great race-course, while, occupying the entire space, within the track
was a mass of men standing, also with umbrellas; but on account of our
elevated position we could see very little of the men, while the
umbrella effect was gigantic. It was like innumerable giant black
mushrooms growing in a bog.
And all the time the band opposite the empty royal pavilion played away
with great energy, while without this enclosure for the races, among the
surrounding booths and "shows," country people were plunging ankle-deep
in the mud, and the violins that call the world to see the Fat Woman,
the accordion which the trained-dog man plays, the turbulent orchestras
of the small circuses, and the siren tones of the girl who sings for the
snake-charmer, united to make an ineffable Pandemonium.
This Volksfest was founded fifty years ago by Wilhelm, father of the
present king of Wuertemberg, who did much to promote the agricultural
interests of his people, taking great personal interest in everything
appertaining to farming, stock, etc., giving prizes with his own hand
for the best vegetables and fruits, the largest, finest cattle,--for
excellence, in fact, in any department. Since then, it is an established
national event, that happens every year as regularly as September comes;
always attracting many foreigners, to whom it is amusing and
interesting, in the rare opportunities it affords of seeing many
distinctive features of Suabian peasant-life. It should be visited with
thick boots and no nerves, for the ground is as if the cattle upon a
thousand hills had come down in a great rage and trampled it into pits
and quagmires, and the noise is--utterly indescribable. To say that the
Volksfest combines the peculiar attractions of the Fourth of July, St.
Patrick's Day, a State Fair, and Barnum, gives, perhaps, as correct a
notion of the powwow that reigns supreme, as any elaborate description
that might be made.
Yes, it is like entertainments of a similar grade with us,--like, yet
unlike. The elephant goes round, the band begins to play, the men in
front of the different tents roar and gesticulate and try to out-Herod
one another, the jolly little children go swinging round hilariously on
the great whirligigs, the man with the blacked face is the same
cheerful, merry, witty personage who charms the crowd at home. Indeed,
they are all quite the same, only they talk German, they are jollier and
fatter, they take their pleasure with more abandon, and there is one
vast expansive grin over the whole throng. Instead of the tall, thin
girl in book-muslin, who comes in from the country to see the circus,
clinging tight to her raw-boned lover's hand, both looking painfully
conscious and not so happy as they ought, we have here, too, the country
sweethearts, but of another type. The peasant-girl and her _Schatz_,
broad, blissful, rosy, the most delicious personifications of
unconsciousness imaginable, go wandering about among the clanging and
clashing from the tents, the beer-drinking, the shouts and rollicking
laughter, and find it all a very elysium. Their happiness is as solid as
they themselves; and if there are other eyes and ears in the world than
those with which they drink in huge draughts of pleasure as palpably as
they take their beer from tall foaming tankards, they, at least, are
oblivious of them.
But we left it raining heavily, cruelly blighting our hopes. A Volksfest
with rain is a heartless mockery of fate, and a rainy Volksfest, when
there is a Kaiser to see, unspeakably aggravating. But the obnoxious
clouds being in German atmosphere naturally knew what etiquette demanded
of them, and respectively withdrew just as the pealing of the Cannstadt
bells announced his majesty's approach; and as he and his suite rode
into the grounds, the sun, who had made up his mind to have a day of
retirement and was in consequence a little sulky about appearing, had
the courtier-like grace to try to assume a tolerably genial expression,
since he had burst unwillingly into the imperial presence.
The pavilion for the people of the court was filled with ladies in
brilliant toilets, with their attendant cavaliers, as the glittering
train rode towards it; the city guard in front, according to an old
custom, then the Kaiser and king side by side, and, after them, all the
princes and grand dukes, etc., whom we have had the honor of mentioning
more than once of late, and of seeing them often enough to look at them
critically and search for our individual favorites as they gallantly
gallop by. The enthusiasm of the multitude was immense, and the shouting
proved that peasants' lungs are powerful organs.
After the horsemen came a line of open carriages, in the first of which
was the empress and her majesty Queen Olga; the latter looking, as
usual, pale, stately, gracious, and truly a queen. Princess Vera, the
Grand Duchess of Baden, and other ladies followed, and they all went
into the pavilion, while the Kaiser and king rode about among the
people, looking at models, machinery, animals,--and being scrutinized
themselves from the top of their helmets to their spurs, it is needless
to say.
Upon joining the ladies the crown prince took off his helmet, kissed the
queen's hand, then his mother's, which amiable gallantry we viewed with
deep appreciation and interest. The next thing to see was the prize
animals, which were led over the course past the pavilion, wearing
wreaths of flowers. Some vicious-looking bulls, their horns and feet
tied with strong ropes, and led by six men, regarded the scarlet of the
officers' uniforms very doubtfully, as if they had half a mind to make a
rush at it, ropes or no ropes. There were pretty, white cows, who wore
their floral honors with a mild, bovine grace: and sheep with ribbons
floating from their tails, and a coquettish rose or two over their
brows, were attractive objects; but _pig_ perversity and ugliness so
adorned was too absurd.
The event of the day was the "gentlemen's races," as they are called,
being under the direction of a club, of which the Prince of Weimar is
president, and Prince Wilhelm a member. They were interesting, and the
whole picture gay and pleasing,--the flying horses, with their jockeys
in scarlet, yellow, and blue silk blouses; the pavilion full of bright
colors, the hundreds of banners waving in the breeze; beyond the
grounds, pretty groves, and the little Gothic church at Berg, well up on
the hill: but, as the Shah of Persia said when they wanted to have some
races in his honor at Berlin, "Really, it isn't necessary. I already
know that one horse runs faster than another."
There were two structures there which deserve special notice. When I
tell you that they were composed of ears of corn, apples, onions, etc.,
you will never imagine how artistic was the result, and I quite despair
of conveying an idea of their beauty. One was the music-stand, having on
the first floor an exhibition of prize fruits; above, the military bands
from the Uhlan and dragoon regiments; yet higher, a platform with tall
sheaves of wheat in the corners, and in the centre, upon a large base, a
column sixty feet high, perhaps, bearing on its summit a statue of
Concordia. But the walls of this little temple, and the lofty column
too, were all of vegetables, arranged with consummate skill on a firm
background of wood covered with evergreen. Imagine, if you can, a kind
of mosaic, with arabesques in bright colors; sometimes a solid white
background of onions, with intricate scrolls and waving lines of
deep-red apples, seemingly exactly of a size, ingeniously designed and
perfectly executed. It was quite wonderful to observe how firm and
compact and precise this vegetable architecture was; and surprising
enough to discover old friends of the kitchen-garden looking at us
proudly from this thing of beauty. Golden traceries of corn, elaborate
figures in cranberries, aesthetic turnips and idealized beets,--all the
products of Wuertemberg soil, in fact,--utilized in a masterly way, and
all as firm and sharp in outline as if carved out of stone. A broad
triumphal arch fashioned in the same way was quite as much of a marvel,
and most effective as one of the gates of entrance.
After the races the Kaiser rode away in an open carriage with the king,
and that was the last we saw of this attractive old gentleman, with his
genial, kindly, honest face, and simple, soldierly ways,--in his
freshness and strength certainly a wonderful old man, whatever
newspapers and political writers may say of him. They say his private
life is simple in the extreme; that his library is only a collection of
military works; that he carefully keeps everything that is ever given
him, even sugar rabbits that the children in the family give him at
Easter. It is said that once, in Alsace, in the midst of the excitement
over him and the celebration, he noticed a little boy all alone in the
streets crying bitterly, and called to him. "What's the matter, little
man?" said the Kaiser.
"Matter enough," replies the exasperated child. "This confounded emperor
is the matter. They're making such a fuss about him, my ma's gone and
forgotten my birthday." The next day the boy received a portrait of the
Kaiser, richly framed, with the inscription,--
"From the Emperor of Germany to the little boy who lost his birthday."
After the line of carriages drove off, the cavalcade formed again, led
this time by the crown prince and the Grand Duke of Baden; and they
galloped over the course and out of the west gate in a very spirited
way, to the great delight of the people, who shouted and cheered most
frantically. Is anybody weary of hearing about these distinguished
riders? We are a little tired of them ourselves, it must be confessed,
goodly sights though they be. But now they are quite gone, and the last
remembrance we have of them is the fall of their horses' hoofs, the
glittering of metal, and the waving of plumes as they swept through the
pretty arched gateway, stately and effective to the last.
The rollicking spirit of the Volksfest at evening, stimulated by
unlimited beer, was a wonderful thing to observe. We stayed to see it by
lantern-light, in order to be intimately acquainted with its merriest
phases, and the noise of it rings in our ears yet, though now the _Fest_
is quite over, the _Volks_ are gone to their homes, the hurly-burly's
done.