We have just passed through terrible days. On Sunday morning Franz
arrived here unexpectedly on his way to Stettin, to which town, as
I take it, he has been transferred. My wife appeared not the least
surprised at his coming, but she showed all the more emotion at his
going away again. She sobbed aloud, hung upon his neck, and seemed
utterly incapable of bearing the separation from her son. Franz parted
from me, too, as though it were a matter of never seeing each other
more. Agnes was not about at the time, but I heard that they intended
to meet at the railway station.
On Wednesday I chanced to read to my wife some intelligence in the
_Onward_, that once more a number of emigrants, in seeking to evade
pursuit by the frontier guards, had been shot down by the latter. She
became greatly excited at the news, and upon my saying, in response to
her inquiry, that this had taken place in the roadstead of Sassnitz,
she fainted. It took me some considerable time to bring her back
to consciousness. Presently she narrated to me in broken sentences
that Franz and Agnes had gone off together on Sunday, not, as I had
supposed, to Stettin, but to Sassnitz, with the intention of leaving
Germany altogether. From the account in the paper, it seems that,
upon the arrival of the Danish mail-steamer from Stettin, the frontier
guards at once boarded the vessel, and attempted to drag the fugitive
emigrants back by sheer force. The emigrants offered resistance, and
there was a sanguinary encounter.
They were anxious hours we spent before our fears were somewhat set at
rest by the appearance of a new number of the _Onward_, with a list
of the killed and arrested. Franz and Agnes were not in either of the
lists, but what can have become of them?
My wife now related to me the story of the young people’s resolve to
get away from the country. It seems that Franz had some time previously
confided to her his fixed determination to leave Germany as soon as
possible, as he found the state of affairs unbearable. Fearing that my
well-known respect for the law might lead me to oppose his intentions,
he earnestly begged his mother not to breathe a syllable of his plans
to me. All her efforts to induce him to give up the idea were futile.
Seeing his determination was unalterable, the good mother could no
longer find it in her heart to oppose it. In old days, and quite
unknown to me, my wife had laid by sundry gold pieces, and these she
gave to Franz to make use of as passage-money on a foreign ship.
At first, Agnes had opposed the plan. She was ready, she said, to
follow Franz to the end of the world if needs be; but she could not see
at present, she added, what necessity there was for their leaving all
else that was dear to them. But in a short time her own circumstances
became so unpleasant that she altered her opinion. All this I have only
just learnt.
In old days, in the stillness and purity of the maternal home, the
young maiden used to carry on her business as a milliner, selling her
wares for the most part to a house in a large way. Now she saw herself
obliged to work in a big sewing establishment, and to spend the whole
day with a number of women and girls, many of whom had habits and
principles not at all to her mind. Her chaste maidenliness was often
shocked at a good deal of the talk, and at the familiarities between
the girls and the male managers. Sundry complaints she made only tended
to make her position still more unpleasant. Her personal attractions
likewise soon drew upon her an amount of offensive attention from one
of the head managers. An abrupt repulse on the part of Agnes only
subjected her to those petty annoyances and harassments in her work by
which a mean nature seeks its revenge.
I make no manner of doubt that there was plenty of this sort of thing
under the old system. But at least there was then this advantage, that
people could make a change if anything did not suit them. Nowadays,
however, many of the managers seem to look upon their workgirls as
little better than defenceless slaves, who are delivered over to them.
Many of the higher placed officials see all this well enough, but as
they themselves act not a whit differently as regards the abuse of
power, they are very lenient in respect of all complaints made to them.
Under such circumstances the near relations, or lovers of maidens whose
honour is thus menaced, have often no other resource left than to take
the law into their own hands. The result of this state of things is,
that cases of personal chastisement, manslaughter, and even murder are
frightfully on the increase.
Agnes, who only has her mother left, had no protector in Berlin. Her
complaining letters to Franz in Leipsig drove him to desperation, and
ripened his resolve to no longer delay the execution of his plans.
Agnes coincided heartily with his views, and latterly she and my wife
sat up half the night to get all ready for the journey.
At length the decisive Sunday had been reached, that Sunday which
had given rise to so much anxiety and painful uncertainty to us. The
suspense was terrible, but, at last, at the expiration of nearly a
week, the arrival of a letter from the English coast put an end to our
fears.
According to this letter the pair were fortunately not on board the
Danish mail-steamer. The fisherman at Sassnitz, to whose house they had
gone on their arrival there, is a distant relation of my wife’s. The
letter went on to say that the inhabitants of the coast about there
are greatly incensed against the new order of things, because by it
they have been largely deprived of the comfortable living they made
out of visitors to the different bathing-places. Permission to go to
watering-places and health resorts is now only accorded to such persons
as are duly recommended by a properly constituted medical commission.
Our wary fisherman strongly opposed all idea of taking a passage by
one of the mail-steamers, because a vigilant look-out had latterly
been kept on these. Watching his opportunity, and availing himself of
the attention of the authorities being engrossed by the affair of the
Danish steamer, he put Franz and Agnes on board his fishing smack,
and made for the open sea. He took them up as far as Stubbenkammer
Point, where he fell in with an English goods steamer returning from
Stettin, whose captain readily transferred the fugitives to his
vessel. The English, whose trade has been very seriously affected by
the new order of things, never lose an opportunity of having a slap at
our socialistic Government by giving all the aid they can to persons
desirous of leaving the country.
So in a short time Franz and Agnes duly reached England, and now they
are already on their way to New York.
Poor children! what a deal they must have gone through! And my good
wife, above all; my wife who kept all her cares and troubles so long
locked up in her bosom, quite unknown to me! How shall I ever be able
to recompense her for all the immense sacrifices she has made as a
mother?