A kaleidoscope of cities. A new garrulity. Words like busy little brooms
sweeping up after a war. A world of foreigners. Europe was running about
with empty pockets and a cracked head. England had had a nose-bleed,
France a temporary castration, and the president of the United States
was walking around in Paris in an immaculate frock-coat and a high silk
hat. The President was closeted in a peace conference mumbling
valorously amid lifted eyebrows, amused shoulder shruggings, ironic
sighings. A long-faced virgin trapped in a bawdy house and calling in
valiant tones for a glass of lemonade.
Erik Dorn drifted through a haze of weeks. This was London. This, Paris.
This, Rotterdam. And this, after a long, cold ride standing up in a
windowless coach, Berlin. But all curiously alike. People in all of them
who said, "We are strangers to you."
There was nothing to see. No impressions to receive. More cities, more
people, more words and a detachment. The detachment was Europe. In his
own country there was no detachment. He was a part of crowds,
newspapers, buildings. Here he was outside. Familiar things looked
strange. The eyes busied themselves trying to forget things before
them, scurrying after details and worried by an unrelation in
architecture, faces, gestures.
It was mid-December when he sat in a hotel room in Berlin one night and
ate blue-colored fish, boiled potatoes, and black, soggy bread. He had
been wandering for days through snow-covered streets. Now there was
shooting in the streets.
"Germany is starving," said an acquaintance. "Our children are dying off
by the thousands, thanks to the inhuman blockade."
But despite even the shooting in the streets Dorn noticed the Germans
had lost interest in the war. The idea of the war had collapsed. In
England and France the idea was still vaguely alive. People kept it
alive by discussing it. But even there it had become something
unnatural.
One thing there was in common. Only a few people seemed to have been
killed. London was jammed. Even though the newspapers summed it up now
and then with "a generation has been killed." Paris, too, was jammed.
And Berlin now, jammed also. The war had been fought by people who were
dead. And the people who were alive were living away its memory.
In Berlin a week, and he thought, "A circus has pulled down its tent,
carted off its gaudy wagons, its naphtha lights, and its boxes of
sawdust. And a new show is staking out the lot."
The new show was coming to Berlin. Fences and building walls were
plastered with its lithographs ... "The Spirit of Bolshevism Marches
... Beware the Wrecker of Mankind...." Posters of gorillas chewing on
bloody knives, of fiends with stringy hair setting the torch to
orphanages and other nobly drawn edifices labeled "Kultur, Civilization,
Humanitat...." The spielers were already on the job. Machine-guns barked
in the snow-covered streets. A man named Noske was a _Bluthund_. A man
named Liebknecht was a _Schweinhund_.
In his hotel room Dorn, eating blue-colored fish, spoke to an
acquaintance--an erudite young German who wore a monocle, whose eyes
twinkled with an odd humor, and who under the influence of a bottle of
Sekt was vociferating passionately in behalf of a thing he called _Welt_
Revolution.
"I don't understand it yet, von Stinnes," Dorn smiled. "I will later. So
far I've managed to do nothing more than enjoy myself. Profundity is
diverting in New York, but a bore in Berlin. There's too much of it.
Good God, man, there are times when I feel that even the buildings of
the city are wrapped in thought."
Von Stinnes gestured with an almost English awkwardness. His English
contained a slight French accent. His words, amused, careless, carried
decision. He spoke knowingly, notwithstanding the Sekt and the smile
with which he seemed to be belying his remarks. Thus, the Majority
Socialists were traitors. Scheidemann had sold the revolution for a kiss
from Graf Rantzau. The masses.... "Ah, m'sieur, they are arming. There
will be an overthrow." And then, Ludendorff had framed the
revolution--actually manufactured it. All the old officers were back.
Noske was allowing them to reorganize the military. The thing was a
farce. Social Democracy had failed. The country was already in flames.
There would be things happening. "You wait and see. Yes, the
Spartikusten will do something ..."
Dorn nodded appreciatively. He felt instinctively that he had stumbled
upon a man of value and service. But he listened carelessly. As yet the
scene was more absorbing than its details. The local politik boiling
beneath the collapse of the empire had not yet struck his imagination.
There were large lines to look at first, and absorb.
Snow in unfamiliar streets, night soldier patrols firing at shadows,
eager-eyed women in the hotel lobbies, marines carousing in the Kaiser's
Schloss--a nation in collapse. Teutonia on her rump, helmet tilted over
an eye, hair down, comely and unmilitary legs thrust out, showing her
drawers and laughing. Yes, the Germans were laughing. Where was there
gayety like the Palais de Danse, the Fox Trot Klubs, Pauligs; gayety
like the drunken soldiers patrolling Wilhelmstrasse where a paunchy
harness-maker sat in Bismarck's chair?
Gayety with a rumble and a darkness underneath. But such things were
only wilder accents to laughter. If the detachment would leave him, if
he could familiarize himself, he could lay hands on something; dance
away in a macabré mardi-gras.
Two bottles of Sekt had been emptied. A polite Ober responded with a
third. Von Stinnes grew eloquent.
"Not before March, Mr. Dorn. It will come only then. This that you hear
now, pouf! Hungry men looking for crumbs with hand-grenades. The
revolution is only picking its teeth. But wait. It will overturn, when
it comes. And even if it does not overturn, if it fails, it will not
end, but pause. You hear it whispering now in the streets. Hungry men
with hand-grenades. Ah, m'sieur, if you wish we will work together. I am
a man of many acquaintances. I am von Stinnes, Baron von Stinnes of a
very old, a very dissolute, a very worthless family. I am the last von
Stinnes. The dear God Himself glows at the thought. I will work for you
as secretary. How much do you offer for a scion of the nobility?"
"Three hundred marks."
"A month?"
"No, weekly," laughed Dorn, "and you buy half the liquor."
Von Stinnes bowed.
"An insult, Mr. Dorn. But I overlook it. One becomes adept in the matter
of overlooking insults. You will need me. I am known everywhere. I was
with Liebknecht in the Schloss when he slept in the Kaiser's bed. Ho! it
was a symbol for you to see him crawl between the sheets. Alas! he
slept but poorly, with the marines standing guard and frowning at the
bed as if it were capable of something. For me, I would have preferred
beds with more pleasant associations. And when Bode tried to be dictator
in his father's chamber in the Reichstag--yes," von Stinnes closed his
eyes and laughed softly, "he seized the Reichstag with a company of
marines. And he sat for two days and two nights signing warrants,
confiscation orders. Until a soldier brought him a document issued by
Eichorn the mysterious policeman who was dictating from the Stadt House.
And poor Bode signed it. He was sleepy. He could not read with sleep. It
was his own death warrant. It was I who saved him by taking him to the
house of Milly. He slept four days with Milly, in itself a feat."
Von Stinnes swallowed another glass of wine. His eyes seemed to belie
his unsteady, careless voice. His eyes remained intent and mocking upon
Dorn.
"You have come a few weeks too late. There were scenes, dear God, to
make one laugh. In the Schloss. Yes, we bombarded the Schloss--but after
we had captured it. The Liebknecht ordered. Everything was done in
symbols. Therefore the symbol of the bombardment of the Schloss. So we
rushed out one night and opened fire, and when we had knocked off the
balcony and peeled the plaster from the walls, we rushed in again and
sang the _Marseillaise_. What wine, m'sieur! Ho, you have come a few
weeks too late. But there will be other comedies. And I will be of
service. I belong to three officers' clubs. One of them is respectable.
Women are admitted. The other two ... women are barred. And look...." He
slapped a wallet on the table and extracted a red card, "'member of the
Communist Partei--Karl Stinnes,'" he read. "Listen, there are 75,000
rifles in Alexander Platz, waiting for the day."
"Where did you learn your English, von Stinnes?"
"Oxford. Italian in Padua. French, m'sieur, in Paris. During the war."
The baron laughed. "Ah, _pendant la guerre, m'sieur, en Paris_."
"And now," Dorn mused, "you are a Spartikust."
The baron was on his feet, a wine glass raised in his hand.
"_Es lebe die Welt Revolution_," he cried, "_es lebe das Rate
Republik!_"
"What did you do in Paris, von Stinnes?"
"Pigeons, my friend. I played with pigeons and with vital statistics and
made love to little French girls whose sweethearts were dying in the
trenches. And in London. But I talk too much. Yes, my tongue slips, you
say. But I am lonely and talk is easy.... I drink your health ...
_hein!_ it was a day when we met...."
Dorn raised his glass.
"To the confusion of the seven deadly virtues!" he laughed.
"I drink," the baron cried. "We will make a tour. We will amuse
ourselves. I see that you understand Germany. Because you understand
there is something bigger than Germany; that the world is the head of a
pin spinning round in a glass of wine. I have been with the other
correspondents. Pigs and donkeys. The souls of shopkeepers under the
vests."
The baron seated himself carefully and pretended an abrupt seriousness.
"I have made up my mind to die behind the red barricades. Perhaps in
March. Perhaps later. Another glass, m'sieur. Thanks. I shall die
fighting for the overthrow of the tyranny of the bourgeoisie ... Noske
and his _parvenu_ Huns. Ho! Dorn, we will amuse ourselves in a crazy
world, eh, what? The tyranny of the bourgeoisie!"
The baron laughed as he rolled over the phrase.
"There will be great deal to enjoy," Dorn smiled. The wine was making
him silent.
"Yes, to enjoy. To laugh," the baron interrupted. "I cannot explain now.
But you seem to understand. Or am I drunk? _Ein galgen gelachter, nicht
wahr?_ I will take quarters at the hotel. I know the management well. I
saved the place from being looted in the November excitement. Have you
seen the Kaiser Salle? His Majesty dined there once. A witless popinjay.
Liebknecht is a man. Flames in his heart. But a poor orator. He will be
killed. They must kill him. A little Jew, Haase, has brains. You will
meet him. And the Dadaists--they know how to laugh. The cult of the
absurd. Perhaps the next emperor of Germany will be a Dada. An Ober
Dada--who knows? Once the world learns to laugh we may expect radical
changes. And in München I know a dancer, Mizzi. Dear God, what legs! You
must come there to see legs. Faces in the Rhineland. Ankles in Vienna.
But legs, dear God, in München! It is the Spanish influence. Let us
drink to Mizzi...."
The wine was vanishing. The baron paused out of breath and sighed. His
face that seemed to grow firmer and more ascetic as he drank, took on a
far-away shrewdness as if new ideas had surprised it.
"I've felt many things," Dorn spoke, "but thought nothing yet. So far
Europe has remained strange. I am in a theater watching a pantomime. I
have entered in the middle of the second act and the plot is a bit
hidden. But we will have to find some serious work to do. I must meet
politicians, leaders; listen to laments and prophecies...."
"All in time, all in time," the baron interrupted. "Am I not your
secretary? Well, then, trust me. You will talk to-morrow with Ebert. We
begin thus at the bottom. Of all men in Germany who know nothing, he
knows least. Thursday, Scheidemann. Treachery requires some shrewdness.
The man is not quite an imbecile. If your Roosevelt were a Socialist he
would be a Scheidemann. Daumig, Pasadowsky, Erzburger--rely upon me,
m'sieur. And Ludendorff. Ah, there we have real work. If Ludendorff will
talk now. He is supposed to be in Berlin. I will find him and arrange
for you. And so on. You will meet all the great minds, all the big
stomachs. I will take you to Radek who is hiding with a price on his
head. And Dr. Talheimer on the Rote Fahne, if they do not arrest him too
soon. Bernstorff is in the hotel. A man with too much brains. Yes, an
intelligent bungler. He will die some day with a sad smile, forgiving
his enemies. And if we need women, mention your choice. Mine runs to the
married woman of title. A small title is to be preferred. It is a slight
insurance against disease. Others prefer the gamins. There is not enough
difference to quarrel about. Or do you want a little red in your amours?
A _sans culotte_ from Ehrfurst or Spandau? In Essen you will find
Belgian women. They will love for nothing. For that matter, a bottle of
wine and a bar of chocolate and you can have anyone. There is no virtue
left, thank God. And yet, for variety, I sometimes think there should be
a little. Ah, yes, yes! I miss the virgins of my youth. Another bottle,
eh? Where's the button? What do you think of German plumbing? It is our
Kultur. We are proud of our plumbing. It was the ideal for which we
fought. To introduce our plumbing throughout Europe--make a German
bathroom of the world."
A sound of heavier firing in the streets interrupted. The two sat
listening, the baron's face alive with an odd humor.
"_Es lebe die Welt Revolution_," he whispered. "Do you hear it? Only a
murmur. But it starts all over Germany again. Workingmen with guns. You
will see them later. I among them. Stay in Europe, my friend, and see
the ghost of Marat rising from a German bathtub."
"Who are shooting?" Dorn asked.
"Shadows," the baron laughed. "The government wishes to impress the good
burgher that there is danger. So the government orders the soldiers to
shoot at midnight. The good burgher wakes and trembles. _Mein Gott, das
Bolshevismus treibt! Gott sei dank für den Regierung._ ... So the good
burgher gives enthusiastic assent to the increase in the military
budget. Dear God, did he not hear shooting at midnight? But they play
with more than ghosts. Noske's politik will end in another color.
To-night there are only shadows to shoot at. To-morrow ... remember what
I tell you...."
The telephone rang and Dorn answered. A voice in English:
"The gentlemen will have to put out the lights. The Spartikusten are
coming."
"Thank you...."
"What did he say?"
"We must put out the lights."
The baron laughed.
"It is nonsense. Come, your hat. We will go have a look."
They hurried down to the lobby. An iron door had been drawn across the
entrance of the hotel. In the lobby the shooting seemed a bombardment of
the building. A group of American and English correspondents were
lounging in the heavy divans, drinking gin and talking to a trio of
elaborately gowned women. The talk was in French.
"Hello, Dorn," one of the Englishmen called. Dorn approached the table,
von Stinnes following, and whispering, "I will request the porter to
open the gate."
"Baron von Stinnes, Mr. Reading."
The Englishman shook hands and smiled.
"I know the baron, Dorn. Rather old friends, what? Have a drink, damn
it!"
"Later, if you please," von Stinnes bowed stiffly. Reading beckoned Dorn
aside with an air of secrecy. Walking him to another part of the lobby
he began whispering:
"I'd let that blighter alone if I were you, Dorn. I'm just telling you
because you're rather new to these bloody swine."
Dorn nodded.
"I see," he said, and walked back to von Stinnes. Reading resumed his
place with the party.
"Perhaps it was a timely warning," the baron murmured as Dorn drew near
him. The gate had been opened and the two emerged. "I make a guess at
what Reading told you," the baron pursued.
"It is immaterial," Dorn answered. "I engage you not for your honesty
and many virtues, but because you're amusing...."
"Thus you relieve my conscience," von Stinnes sighed.
The wide avenue was deserted. Moonlight lay on the new-fallen snow. A
line of soldiers wheeled suddenly out of the Brandenburger Tor and came
marching quickly toward the walkers.
"_Weiter gehen, weiter gehen_," a voice from the troop called. Two
detached themselves from the ranks and approached rapidly.
"_Ausweise...._"
Von Stinnes glared through his monocle and answered in German, "What is
the matter with you? Are you crazy? I am Baron von Stinnes. My friend is
a member of the American Commission."
Dorn extracted a bit of stamped paper--his special credentials from the
German Foreign Office. The soldier glanced at it without troubling to
read....
"_Sehr gut, mein Herrschaften_," he mumbled. Dorn caught a glimpse of
his face. Its importance had vanished. The line of soldiers marched on.
When they had turned a corner the sound of firing suddenly resumed.
"Shadows again," chuckled von Stinnes.
Snow-covered streets, moonlight, waiting buildings, cold and
shadows--here was reality. The thing under the gay tumult of the cafés.
Under the baron's laughter. They were passing a stretch of empty shop
windows.
"It's cold," Dorn muttered. The baron looked at him with a smile.
"It is cold everywhere in Germany," he said quietly. "Men's hearts are
cold with hunger and fear. Brains are confused. Stomachs empty. The top
has been knocked off. The soldiers in the streets are the sad little
remains of a dead Germany. The new Germany lies cold and hungry in a
workingman's bed. Life will come out of the masses. And I am always on
the side of life. Not so? The old is dead. We drink wine to the new."
The sound of dance music drifted out of a café.
"Shall we stop?" the baron hesitated.
Dorn shook his head.
"Enough cafés. The streets are better. Dark windows."
They walked in silence through the snow, the baron humming a Vienna
waltz as the blurred echoes of machine-gun fire rose in the night around
them.
... Hours later Dorn lay sleepless in his bed. The smoke of wine was
slipping out of his thought.
"I'm alone," he murmured to himself. An emotionless regret came to him.
"There are still years to live." He wrapped himself closer in the
silk-covered quilts. "But how? Does it matter? I have loved, and that
is over. Rachel is ended. Haven't thought of her for weeks. And now, I
am like I was, only older and alone; yet not sad. So people adjust
themselves to decay. Senses that could have understood and wept at
sorrow die, along with the things whose death causes sorrow. Ergo, there
is no sorrow. Wings gone, tears gone, everything gone. Empty again, yet
content. I want nothing.... No desires...."
His brain was mumbling sleepily as the cold wind from the opened window
swept pleasantly through the room.
"Women to divert me. Wine to make me glad. And a companion--the baron.
Droll tragedian! And scenes for my eyes. Yes, yes.... They keep shooting
outside. Still shooting after five years. Shooting each other. The world
speaks a strange language. What imbecility! Yet life is in the masses.
It'll come out, perhaps. From Russia. Russians--a pack of idealists ...
a pack of illiterate Wilsons with whiskers. I'm like the baron. I admire
revolution. Why? Because it diverts."
He closed his eyes for moments. Still no sleep, and his thought resumed,
"Rachel, I once loved you. I can say it now without hurt. Empty memories
now--like drawings in outline. And some day even the outlines will leave
me."
A curious ache came into his heart. "Ah, she still touches me--still a
little. Poor dear one! What a farce! A glorious farce! The nights when
she whispered. Her face, I remember, yes, a little. Ghosts! Your eyes
are the beckoning hands of dream. That was the best sentence.... The
rest were good too--sometimes."
He smiled sleepily on his pillow ... "still shooting. It will be amusing
here. Some day when we're old, Rachel and I will see each other again.
Old eyes questioning old eyes. Old eyes saying, 'So much has died. Only
a little more remains to die.' Sleep ... I must sleep now. To-morrow,
work, work! And forget. But nothing to forget. It forgets itself. It
says good-bye. A sun gone down. What is it old Carl wrote?... 'The past
is a bucket of ashes, a sun gone down ... to-morrow is another
day....'"