We Seek Breakfast.--I Air My German.--The Art of Gesture.--The
Intelligence of the Premiere Danseuse.--Performance of English Pantomime
in the Pyrenees.--Sad Result Therefrom.--The "German Conversation"
Book.--Its Narrow-minded View of Human Wants and Aspirations.--Sunday in
Munich.--Hans and Gretchen.--High Life v. Low Life.--"A Beer-Cellar."
At Munich we left our luggage at the station, and went in search of
breakfast. Of course, at eight o'clock in the morning none of the big
cafes were open; but at length, beside some gardens, we found an
old-fashioned looking restaurant, from which came a pleasant odour of
coffee and hot onions; and walking through and seating ourselves at one
of the little tables, placed out under the trees, we took the bill of
fare in our hands, and summoned the waiter to our side.
I ordered the breakfast. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me
to try my German. I ordered coffee and rolls as a groundwork. I got
over that part of my task very easily. With the practice I had had
during the last two days, I could have ordered coffee and rolls for
forty. Then I foraged round for luxuries, and ordered a green salad. I
had some difficulty at first in convincing the man that it was not a
boiled cabbage that I wanted, but succeeded eventually in getting that
silly notion out of his head.
I still had a little German left, even after that. So I ordered an
omelette also.
"Tell him a savoury one," said B., "or he will be bringing us something
full of hot jam and chocolate-creams. You know their style."
"Oh, yes," I answered. "Of course. Yes. Let me see. What is the
German for savoury?"
"Savoury?" mused B. "Oh! ah! hum! Bothered if I know! Confound the
thing--I can't think of it!"
I could not think of it either. As a matter of fact, I never knew it.
We tried the man with French. We said:
"_Une omelette aux fines herbes_."
As he did not appear to understand that, we gave it him in bad English.
We twisted and turned the unfortunate word "savoury" into sounds so
quaint, so sad, so unearthly, that you would have thought they might have
touched the heart of a savage. This stoical Teuton, however, remained
unmoved. Then we tried pantomime.
Pantomime is to language what marmalade, according to the label on the
pot, is to butter, "an excellent (occasional) substitute." But its
powers as an interpreter of thought are limited. At least, in real life
they are so. As regards a ballet, it is difficult to say what is not
explainable by pantomime. I have seen the bad man in a ballet convey to
the _premiere danseuse_ by a subtle movement of the left leg, together
with some slight assistance from the drum, the heartrending intelligence
that the lady she had been brought up to believe was her mother was in
reality only her aunt by marriage. But then it must be borne in mind
that the _premiere danseuse_ is a lady whose quickness of perception is
altogether unique. The _premiere danseuse_ knows precisely what a
gentleman means when he twirls round forty-seven times on one leg, and
then stands on his head. The average foreigner would, in all
probability, completely misunderstand the man.
A friend of mine once, during a tour in the Pyrenees, tried to express
gratitude by means of pantomime. He arrived late one evening at a little
mountain inn, where the people made him very welcome, and set before him
their best; and he, being hungry, appreciated their kindness, and ate a
most excellent supper.
Indeed, so excellent a meal did he make, and so kind and attentive were
his hosts to him, that, after supper, he felt he wanted to thank them,
and to convey to them some idea of how pleased and satisfied he was.
He could not explain himself in language. He only knew enough Spanish to
just ask for what he wanted--and even to do that he had to be careful not
to want much. He had not got as far as sentiment and emotion at that
time. Accordingly he started to express himself in action. He stood up
and pointed to the empty table where the supper had been, then opened his
mouth and pointed down his throat. Then he patted that region of his
anatomy where, so scientific people tell us, supper goes to, and smiled.
He has a rather curious smile, has my friend. He himself is under the
impression that there is something very winning in it, though, also, as
he admits, a touch of sadness. They use it in his family for keeping the
children in order.
The people of the inn seemed rather astonished at his behaviour. They
regarded him, with troubled looks, and then gathered together among
themselves and consulted in whispers.
"I evidently have not made myself sufficiently clear to these simple
peasants," said my friend to himself. "I must put more vigour into this
show."
Accordingly he rubbed and patted that part of himself to which I have
previously alluded--and which, being a modest and properly brought-up
young man, nothing on earth shall induce me to mention more
explicitly--with greater energy than ever, and added another inch or two
of smile; and he also made various graceful movements indicative, as he
thought, of friendly feeling and contentment.
At length a ray of intelligence burst upon the faces of his hosts, and
they rushed to a cupboard and brought out a small black bottle.
"Ah! that's done it," thought my friend. "Now they have grasped my
meaning. And they are pleased that I am pleased, and are going to insist
on my drinking a final friendly bumper of wine with them, the good old
souls!"
They brought the bottle over, and poured out a wineglassful, and handed
it to him, making signs that he should drink it off quickly.
"Ah!" said my friend to himself, as he took the glass and raised it to
the light, and winked at it wickedly, "this is some rare old spirit
peculiar to the district--some old heirloom kept specially for the
favoured guest."
And he held the glass aloft and made a speech, in which he wished long
life and many grand-children to the old couple, and a handsome husband to
the daughter, and prosperity to the whole village. They could not
understand him, he knew; but he thought there might be that in his tones
and gestures from which they would gather the sense of what he was
saying, and understand how kindly he felt towards them all. When he had
finished, he put his hand upon his heart and smiled some more, and then
tossed the liquor off at a gulp.
Three seconds later he discovered that it was a stringent and trustworthy
emetic that he had swallowed. His audience had mistaken his signs of
gratitude for efforts on his part to explain to them that he was
poisoned, or, at all events, was suffering from acute and agonising
indigestion, and had done what they could to comfort him.
The drug that they had given him was not one of those common, cheap
medicines that lose their effect before they have been in the system
half-an-hour. He felt that it would be useless to begin another supper
then, even if he could get one, and so he went to bed a good deal
hungrier and a good deal less refreshed than when he arrived at the inn.
Gratitude is undoubtedly a thing that should not be attempted by the
amateur pantomimist.
"Savoury" is another. B. and I very nearly did ourselves a serious
internal injury, trying to express it. We slaved like cab-horses at
it--for about five minutes, and succeeded in conveying to the mind of the
waiter that we wanted to have a game at dominoes.
Then, like a beam of sunlight to a man lost in some dark, winding cave,
came to me the reflection that I had in my pocket a German conversation
book.
How stupid of me not to have thought of it before. Here had we been
racking our brains and our bodies, trying to explain our wants to an
uneducated German, while, all the time, there lay to our hands a book
specially written and prepared to assist people out of the very
difficulty into which we had fallen--a book carefully compiled with the
express object of enabling English travellers who, like ourselves, only
spoke German in a dilettante fashion, to make their modest requirements
known throughout the Fatherland, and to get out of the country alive and
uninjured.
I hastily snatched the book from my pocket, and commenced to search for
dialogues dealing with the great food question. There were none!
There were lengthy and passionate "Conversations with a laundress" about
articles that I blush to remember. Some twenty pages of the volume were
devoted to silly dialogues between an extraordinarily patient shoemaker
and one of the most irritating and constitutionally dissatisfied
customers that an unfortunate shop-keeper could possibly be cursed with;
a customer who, after twaddling for about forty minutes, and trying on,
apparently, every pair of boots in the place, calmly walks out with:
"Ah! well, I shall not purchase anything to-day. Good-morning!"
The shopkeeper's reply, by-the-by, is not given. It probably took the
form of a boot-jack, accompanied by phrases deemed useless for the
purposes of the Christian tourist.
There was really something remarkable about the exhaustiveness of this
"conversation at the shoemaker's." I should think the book must have
been written by someone who suffered from corns. I could have gone to a
German shoemaker with this book and have talked the man's head off.
Then there were two pages of watery chatter "on meeting a friend in the
street"--"Good-morning, sir (or madam)." "I wish you a merry Christmas."
"How is your mother?" As if a man who hardly knew enough German to keep
body and soul together, would want to go about asking after the health of
a foreign person's mother.
There were also "conversations in the railway carriage," conversations
between travelling lunatics, apparently, and dialogues "during the
passage." "How do you feel now?" "Pretty well as yet; but I cannot say
how long it will last." "Oh, what waves! I now feel very unwell and
shall go below. Ask for a basin for me." Imagine a person who felt like
that wanting to know the German for it.
At the end of the book were German proverbs and "Idiomatic Phrases," by
which latter would appear to be meant in all languages, "phrases for the
use of idiots":--"A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the
roof."--"Time brings roses."--"The eagle does not catch flies."--"One
should not buy a cat in a sack,"--as if there were a large class of
consumers who habitually did purchase their cats in that way, thus
enabling unscrupulous dealers to palm off upon them an inferior cat, and
whom it was accordingly necessary to advise against the custom.
I skimmed through all this nonsense, but not a word could I discover
anywhere about a savoury omelette. Under the head of "Eating and
Drinking," I found a short vocabulary; but it was mainly concerned with
"raspberries" and "figs" and "medlars" (whatever they may be; I never
heard of them myself), and "chestnuts," and such like things that a man
hardly ever wants, even when he is in his own country. There was plenty
of oil and vinegar, and pepper and salt and mustard in the list, but
nothing to put them on. I could have had a hard-boiled egg, or a slice
of ham; but I did not want a hard-boiled egg, or a slice of ham. I
wanted a savoury omelette; and that was an article of diet that the
authors of this "Handy Little Guide," as they termed it in their preface,
had evidently never heard of.
Since my return home, I have, out of curiosity, obtained three or four
"English-German Dialogues" and "Conversation Books," intended to assist
the English traveller in his efforts to make himself understood by the
German people, and I have come to the conclusion that the work I took out
with me was the most sensible and practical of the lot.
Finding it utterly hopeless to explain ourselves to the waiter, we let
the thing go, and trusted to Providence; and in about ten minutes the man
brought us a steaming omelette, with about a pound of strawberry jam
inside, and powdered sugar all over the outside. We put a deal of pepper
and salt on it to try and counteract the flavour of the sweets, but we
did not really enjoy it even then.
After breakfast we got a time-table, and looked out for a train to
Ober-Ammergau. I found one which started at 3.10. It seemed a very nice
train indeed; it did not stop anywhere. The railway authorities
themselves were evidently very proud of it, and had printed particulars
of it in extra thick type. We decided to patronise it.
To pass away the time, we strolled about the city. Munich is a fine,
handsome, open town, full of noble streets and splendid buildings; but in
spite of this and of its hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants, an
atmosphere of quiet and provincialism hovers over it. There is but
little traffic on ordinary occasions along its broad ways, and customers
in its well-stocked shops are few and far between. This day being
Sunday, it was busier than usual, and its promenades were thronged with
citizens and country folk in holiday attire, among whom the Southern
peasants, wearing their quaint, centuries-old costume, stood out in
picturesque relief. Fashion, in its world-wide crusade against variety
and its bitter contest with form and colour, has recoiled, defeated for
the present from the mountain fastnesses of Bavaria. Still, as Sunday or
gala-day comes round, the broad-shouldered, sunburnt shepherd of the
Oberland dons his gay green-embroidered jacket over his snowy shirt,
fastens his short knee-breeches with a girdle round his waist, claps his
high, feather-crowned hat upon his waving curls, and with bare legs, shod
in mighty boots, strides over the hill-sides to his Gretchen's door.
She is waiting for him, you may be sure, ready dressed; and a very sweet,
old-world picture she makes, standing beneath the great overhanging
gables of the wooden chalet. She, too, favours the national green; but,
as relief, there is no lack of bonny red ribbons, to flutter in the wind,
and, underneath the ornamented skirt, peeps out a bright-hued petticoat.
Around her ample breast she wears a dark tight-fitting bodice, laced down
the front. (I think this garment is called a stomacher, but I am not
sure, as I have never liked to ask.) Her square shoulders are covered
with the whitest of white linen. Her sleeves are also white; and being
very full, and of some soft lawnlike material, suggest the idea of folded
wings. Upon her flaxen hair is perched a saucy round green hat. The
buckles of her dainty shoes, the big eyes in her pretty face, are all
four very bright. One feels one would like much to change places for the
day with Hans.
Arm-in-arm, looking like some china, but exceedingly substantial china,
shepherd and shepherdess, they descend upon the town. One rubs one's
eyes and stares after them as they pass. They seem to have stepped from
the pictured pages of one of those old story-books that we learnt to
love, sitting beside the high brass guard that kept ourselves and the
nursery-fire from doing each other any serious injury, in the days when
the world was much bigger than it is now, and much more real and
interesting.
Munich and the country round about it make a great exchange of peoples
every Sunday. In the morning, trainload after trainload of villagers and
mountaineers pour into the town, and trainload after trainload of good
and other citizens steam out to spend the day in wood and valley, and
upon lake and mountain-side.
We went into one or two of the beer-halls--not into the swell cafes,
crowded with tourists and Munich masherdom, but into the low-ceilinged,
smoke-grimed cellars where the life of the people is to be seen.
The ungenteel people in a country are so much more interesting than the
gentlefolks. One lady or gentleman is painfully like every other lady or
gentleman. There is so little individuality, so little character, among
the upper circles of the world. They talk like each other, they think
and act like each other, they dress like each other, and look very much
like each other. We gentlefolks only play at living. We have our rules
and regulations for the game, which must not be infringed. Our unwritten
guide-books direct us what to do and what to say at each turn of the
meaningless sport.
To those at the bottom of the social pyramid, however, who stand with
their feet upon the earth, Nature is not a curious phenomenon to be
looked down at and studied, but a living force to be obeyed. They front
grim, naked Life, face to face, and wrestle with it through the darkness;
and, as did the angel that strove with Jacob, it leaves its stamp upon
them.
There is only one type of a gentleman. There are five hundred types of
men and women. That is why I always seek out and frequent the places
where the common people congregate, in preference to the haunts of
respectability. I have to be continually explaining all this to my
friends, to account to them for what they call my love of low life.
With a mug of beer before me, and a pipe in my mouth, I could sit for
hours contentedly, and watch the life that ebbs and flows into and out of
these old ale-kitchens.
The brawny peasant lads bring in their lasses to treat them to the
beloved nectar of Munich, together with a huge onion. How they enjoy
themselves! What splendid jokes they have! How they laugh and roar and
sing! At one table sit four old fellows, playing cards. How full of
character is each gnarled face. One is eager, quick, vehement. How his
eyes dance! You can read his every thought upon his face. You know when
he is going to dash down the king with a shout of triumph on the queen.
His neighbour looks calm, slow, and dogged, but wears a confident
expression. The game proceeds, and you watch and wait for him to play
the winning cards that you feel sure he holds. He must intend to win.
Victory is written in his face. No! he loses. A seven was the highest
card in his hand. Everyone turns to him, surprised. He laughs--A
difficult man to deal with, that, in other matters besides cards. A man
whose thoughts lie a good deal below his skin.
Opposite, a cross-looking old woman clamours for sausages, gets them, and
seems crosser than ever. She scowls round on everyone, with a malignant
expression that is quite terrifying. A small dog comes and sits down in
front of her, and grins at her. Still, with the same savage expression
of hatred towards all living things, she feeds him with sausage at the
end of a fork, regarding him all the while with an aspect of such
concentrated dislike, that one wonders it does not interfere with his
digestion. In a corner, a stout old woman talks incessantly to a
solemn-looking man, who sits silent and drinks steadily. It is evident
that he can stand her conversation just so long as he has a mug of beer
in front of him. He has brought her in here to give her a treat. He
will let her have her talk out while he drinks. Heavens! how she does
talk! She talks without movement, without expression; her voice never
varies, it flows on, and on, and on, like a great resistless river. Four
young artisans come clamping along in their hob-nailed boots, and seating
themselves at one of the rude wooden tables, call for beer. With their
arms round the waist of the utterly indifferent Fraulein, they shout and
laugh and sing. Nearly all the young folks here are laughing--looking
forward to life. All the old folks are talking, remembering it.
What grand pictures some of these old, seared faces round us would make,
if a man could only paint them--paint all that is in them, all the
tragedy--and comedy that the great playwright, Life, has written upon the
withered skins! Joys and sorrows, sordid hopes and fears, child-like
strivings to be good, mean selfishness and grand unselfishness, have
helped to fashion these old wrinkled faces. The curves of cunning and
kindliness lurk round these fading eyes. The lines of greed hover about
these bloodless lips, that have so often been tight-pressed in patient
heroism.