"So we won't put a word about smoking into the law, and we'll only have
the understanding that, when the reading is all done, every man shall
light his pipe with the wisdom he's got by listening, and smoke what's
been told him. Is that right, or not?"
"Yes: that's right."
"And whoever wants to talk must take the pipe out of his mouth," said
the voice of an unknown speaker, who has been too modest to reveal
himself to this day.
Another knotty point was the place of meeting. With a fine tact,
the teacher objected to the school-room. All the members of the
town-council being present, the large anteroom of the town-hall was
fixed upon.
On Jack George's motion, it was resolved that every man should be at
liberty to have his glass of beer before him, but no more. This
proposal made Jack George so popular that he was elected to the
executive committee with Mat and Kilian.
There were many other difficulties to be overcome; but a knot of
enthusiasts had gathered around the teacher, who carried him over every
thing in triumph. The foremost of these were Mat and Thaddie. The
latter only regretted that he could not find some herculean labor to
perform for the teacher: he would gladly have run through the fire to
please him.
On the other hand, the society had two mortal foes, in the landlord of
the Eagle and the College Chap. The former feared for his custom, and
railed against the teacher, who since his betrothal boarded with his
intended father-in-law. The College Chap suspected "psalm-singing" in
all things, and said that his brother only meant to catch the people
first and pluck them afterward.
It is a customary trick of the monarchical Governments of Europe to
disarm demagogues by appointing them to office. In pursuance of the
same policy, the teacher made Constantine "alternate reader." Now that
it afforded scope for his ambition, the College Chap was one of the
most devoted adherents of the society.
Thus the teacher gradually learned to understand men and to govern
them. He made efforts to gain the support of the old teacher and of the
Jewish schoolmaster. What the former wanted in zeal the latter richly
atoned for. Some Jews, who, being engaged in agriculture or in
mechanical trades, were always at home, also took an active part.
The selection of the books was not easy. Our friend soon found that
didactic reading, or that which aimed immediately at moral instruction
and improvement, must not be allowed to preponderate. Without degrading
the matter to mere amusement, he read extracts from the Limpurg
Chronicles, Gleim's poems, and the lives of Schubart, Moser, Franklin,
and others. Particular success attended the reading of Paul and
Virginia, and of Wallenstein's Camp, to which were added some chapters
from Simplicissimus. The greatest attention, however, was excited by
the reading of K[oe]rner's "Hedwig, the Bandit's Bride," by the
teacher, the College Chap, and the Jewish teacher. The exalted diction
and wonderful incidents produced a great impression. At the close of
the piece, Mat inquired, "What became of the robbers in the cellar?
Were they burned or hanged?"
The teacher could not repress a laugh at this sympathetic question, but
he knew not what to answer. Perhaps one of our readers will have the
goodness to inform him.
Sometimes the old popular books were read likewise: the Schildburgers
aroused especial merriment.
The teacher now rarely found time to enter general reflections into his
note-hook: what he thought was at once communicated to those around
him, and what he felt was expressed to Hedwig. We find one or two
observations, however, in those half-forgotten leaves:--
"When I look at these lucubrations, it occurs to me that I used to be a
great egotist: I meant to swallow the whole world, instead of giving
the world any benefit from my being in it. What is the value of all
this selfish refinement of feeling compared to a single sound thought
imparted to the mind of another! How glad I am to have all this behind
me!"
"How easy it is to appear great, learned, and superior, if you withdraw
from intercourse with the people, build a private palace of knowledge
and thought, a castle on a hill, far from the denizens of the valley!
But the moment you descend to mingle with the inhabitants of the plain,
the moment you live among them and for them, you find to your
astonishment that often you are ignorant of the simplest things and
untouched by the finest thoughts. I have read of princes who never, or
scarcely ever, are seen by the people. For them it is easy enough to be
hedged with majesty."
"As the breath of the land and sea returns to them after having been
congealed into rain-drops in upper air, so the spirit of a people must
return from the lofty realms of literature to its source,--the people's
heart."
"There can be no doubt that many of the world-renowned Grecian heroes
were no more educated in what we now term education than my Hansgeorge,
Kilian, Mat, Thaddie, Wendel, and so on, not to speak of Buchmaier,
Bat, owing to the publicity of their political and social organization,
of their arts, of the forms of worship which emanated from the very
core of the people's heart, a world of thoughts, feelings, views, and
delicate suggestions hovered in the air. People were not restricted to
Biblical stories, narratives of men and women who had lived in other
climes and under other traditions, having no immediate correspondence
with their own condition. They heard of their own forefathers, who had
lived as they lived, who had acted thus and so and thought so and thus:
particular sentiments and anecdotes were handed down from generation to
generation; all these things concerned them nearly; and at need the
descendants emulated the heroism of their ancestors. We give the name
of sacred history to the fortunes of a foreign people, and neglect our
own as profane. The Greeks had Homer by heart; and this gave them a
fund of sayings and images adapted to their condition. We Germans have
no one to take his place: even Schiller is not in the reach of every
class of the people. Almost all we have is a stock of national wisdom
garnered up in the form of proverbs, which has developed itself
independently of the Old and New Testament. We have the sentiment of
the people incarnate in their songs. This the Greeks had not."
Soon after the reading-room was organized, the teacher established a
musical association, which was joined by all the single men and a few
of the married ones. This appeased mine host at the Eagle, as they met
for practice in his room up-stairs. Though virtually the master-spirit
of the whole, our friend devolved the ostensible management upon the
old schoolmaster, who was marvellously well fitted for the office. They
wisely devoted the most of their attention to popular songs. The
villagers were delighted thus to come by their own again in a new dress
and without the omission of the text consequent upon mere oral
transmission. One by one, some new songs were cautiously introduced,
great attention being paid to the time and emphasis.
As the opposition of the College Chap had been the chief obstacle of
success of the reading-room, so the arrogance of George threatened to
stifle the glee-club in the bud. Considering himself a singer of
renown, he took the lead, but disdained any reference to time and
measure. The steps taken to conciliate him failed: he left the club,
and his secession threatened to dismember it. Its good effects had
already been perceived: many vulgar and improper songs had been
displaced by better ones; and, though the preference might be owing to
their novelty rather than to their superiority, yet the better words
and tones, once introduced, could not but exercise their legitimate
influence.
George now noised abroad that the teacher meant to make the grown-up
folks sing children's songs, and that it was a shame for grown-up
people to sing them. He soon drew a party around him, and the number of
those who remained faithful dwindled away. Thaddie offered to give
George a good whacking; but Buchmaier found a more gentle method of
preserving the club. He invited the parson and all the members of the
club, except George, to sup with him on New Year's Eve. This infused
new life into the dry bones.
The parson had left the teacher entirely undisturbed; for he was not
one of those who decry every thing good which they have not originated
themselves.
On New Year's Eve there was great rejoicing in Buchmaier's house.
"Mr. Teacher," said Buchmaier, "when you're married you must get up a
glee-club for the girls."
"And the young married women may come too," cried Agnes.
"Yes; but you must keep them singing all the time, or they'll talk the
devil's ears off."
Many a toast was given. Boys otherwise noted for their bashfulness here
made speeches in presence of the parson, the teacher, and the squire.
At last Thaddie seized a glass and drank to "the teacher and his
lassie," which was drunk with never-ending cheers.
With Hedwig he was on the happiest footing. She willingly followed all
his suggestions the moment she was convinced that he no longer desired
to remodel her whole being but only to further her native development.
At first his experience was singular. Whenever he wished to direct her
thoughts into a higher channel, he made a thousand preparations and
inductions. He meant thus and so, and she must not misapprehend him.
Once Hedwig said, "Look here: when you want me to think something, say
it right out, and don't make so many concoctions about it. I'll tell
you whether I like it or not."
So he dropped this last remnant of his solitary wanderings, and they
understood each other perfectly. Even in school the new impetus to his
mind was invaluable. He illustrated abstractions by illustrations drawn
from what was familiar to all. He labored earnestly at a history of the
village, intending to make it the starting-point for his instruction of
the history of the country.
[Illustration: They went to church, preceded by the musicians.]
Some wiseacres predicted that the teacher's zeal would not be of long
duration. We take the liberty to think otherwise.
Spring came, and the bells repaired to Rome to tell the story of the
village: they had fewer sins than usual to report of the past winter.
After Easter came the wedding-day, which had been fixed on the
anniversary of the teacher's arrival in the village. On the evening
before, Hedwig went to the old teacher and asked him to do his best in
the prelude next day. He smiled, and said, "Yes: you shall like it."
Next day they went to church, preceded by the musicians. Hedwig dressed
like her playmate Agnes, the teacher decorated with a nosegay, like his
playmate Thaddie, Buchmaier, Johnnie, and the Jewish teacher behind
them. When all had assembled, the old teacher began the prelude. Every
one smiled; for the old joker had interwoven the air of the
Lauterbacher very skilfully into his piece. Soon after, the glee-club
struck up the chant,--
"Holy is the Lord!"
and the nuptial tie was fastened with joyous earnestness, Blessings
attend it!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Bartholomew's Sebastian's.]
[Footnote 2: Not a lord of the manor, according to the English
acceptation of the term, but a sort of village mayor, elected by the
farmers out of their own number. Very little of the feudal tenure
remains in the Black Forest, the peasants being almost everywhere lords
of the soil.]
[Footnote 3: A ring of hard wood or stone fixed to the end of the
spindle, to weigh it down and improve its turning.]
[Footnote 4: About half a cent.]
[Footnote 5: And thereby escape being taken as a recruit.]
[Footnote 6: Joseph; Joe.]
[Footnote 7: The name of a tract of ground. All the lands belonging to
a village are divided into such tracts, every tract having particular
qualifications. These are subdivided, and the subdivisions distributed
among the farmers: in this manner every farmer has a portion of every
kind of ground belonging to the farm-manor.]
[Footnote 8: If the American reader is tempted to doubt or to contemn
this stretch of economy, he must remember the different standards
governing the people of the Old and the New World in this respect.]
[Footnote 9: Clotho holds the distaff, Lachesis spins the thread, and
Atropos severs it.]
[Footnote 10: Black Forest provincialism:--a scamp, a loafer.]
[Footnote 11: Suabian.]
[Footnote 12: Brother.]
[Footnote 13: Son of God.]
[Footnote 14: What temptation a counterfeit wild cat holds out to the
traveller to sit down upon it, the translator is not in a condition to
explain,--probably on instance of the matter-of-fact character of the
American mind.]