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But personally no one can help a kindly feeling towards the Emperor, and towards the young Empress also, as he hears of her virtues and her charities.
Nor can one help liking the Viennese and the Austrians. They are very courteous and very polite – rather more so, if the truth must be told, than their German neighbors. Perhaps great prosperity has been bad for the Prussians, as adversity has been good for the Austrians. At any rate the former have the reputation in Europe of being somewhat brusque in their manners. Perhaps they also need a lesson in humiliation, which may come in due time. But the Austrians are proverbially a polite people. They are more like the French. They are gay and fond of pleasure, but they have that instinctive courtesy, which gives such a charm to social intercourse.
And so we go away from Vienna with a kindly feeling for the dear old city – only hoping it may not be spoiled by too many improvements – and with best wishes for both Kaiser and people. They have had a hard time, but it has done them good. By such harsh instruments, by a discipline very bitter indeed, but necessary, has the life of this old empire been renewed. Thus aroused from its lethargy, it has shaken off the past, and entered on a course of peaceful progress with the foremost nations of Europe. Those who talk of the "effete despotisms" of the Old World, would be amazed at the signs of vitality in this old but not decaying empire. Austria is to-day one of the most prosperous countries in Europe. There is fresh blood at her heart, and fresh life coursing through her aged limbs. And though no man or kingdom can be said to be master of the future, it has as fair a chance of long existence as any other power on the continent. The form of government may be changed; there may be internal revolutions; Bohemia may obtain a separate government like Hungary; but whatever may come, there will always be a great and powerful State in Eastern Europe, on the waters of the Danube.
We observed to-day that they were repairing St Stephen's, and were glad to think that that old cathedral, which has stood for so many ages, and whose stone pavement has been worn by the feet of many generations, may stand for a thousand years to come. May that tower, which has looked down on so many battle-fields, as the tide of war has ebbed and flowed around the walls of Vienna, hereafter behold from its height no more scenes of carnage like that of Wagram, but only see gathered around its base one of the most beautiful of European capitals – the heart of a great and prosperous Empire.
CHAPTER XVI.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. – OUT-DOOR LIFE OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE
Vienna, August 13th.
No description of Germany – no picture of German life and manners – can be complete which does not give some account of the out-door recreations of the people; for this is a large part of their existence; it is a feature of their national character, and an important element in their national life. To know a people well, one must see them not only in business, but in their lighter hours. One may travel through Germany from the Baltic to the Adriatic, and see all the palaces and museums and picture galleries, and yet be wholly ignorant of the people. But if he has the good fortune to know a single German family of the better class, into which he may be received, not as a stranger, but as a guest and a friend – where he can see the interior of a German home, and mark the strong affection of parents and children, of brothers and sisters – he will get a better idea of the real character of the people, than by months of living in hotels. Next to the sacred interior of the home, the public garden is the place where the German appears with least formality and disguise, and in his natural character.
Since I came to Europe, I have been in no mood to seek amusement. Indeed if I had followed my own impulse, it would have been to shun every public resort, to live a very solitary life, going only to the most retired places, and seeking only absolute seclusion and repose. But that is not good for us in moments of sorrow. The mind is apt to become morbid and gloomy. This is not the lesson which those who have gone before would have us learn. On the contrary, they desire to have us happy, and bid us with their dying breath seek new activity, new scenes, and new mental occupation, to bind us to life.
Besides, I have had not only myself to consider, but a young life beside me. In addition to that, we have now a third member of our party. At Hamburg we were joined by my nephew, a lieutenant in the Navy, who is attached to the Flagship Franklin, now cruising in the Baltic, and who obtained leave of absence for a month to join his sister, and is travelling with us in Germany. He is a fine young officer full of life, and enters into everything with the greatest zest. So, beguiled by these two young spirits, I have been led to see more than I otherwise should of the open-air life and recreations of these simple-hearted Germans; and I will briefly describe what I have seen, as the basis of one or two reflections.
To begin with Hamburg. This is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. One part is indeed old and dingy, in which the narrow streets are overhung with houses of a former century, now gone to decay. But as we go back from the river, we mount higher, and come into an entirely different town, with wide streets, lined with large and imposing buildings. This part of the city was swept by a great fire a few years ago, and has been very handsomely rebuilt. But the peculiar beauty of Hamburg is formed by a small stream, the Alster, which runs through the city, and empties into the Elbe, and which is dammed up so as to form what is called by courtesy a lake, and what is certainly a very pretty sheet of water. Around this are grouped the largest hotels, and some of the finest buildings of the city, and this is the centre of its joyous life, especially at the close of the day. When evening comes on, all Hamburg flocks to the "Alster-dam." Our hotel was on this lake, and from our windows we had every evening the most animated scene. The water was covered with boats, among which the swans glided about without fear. The quays were lighted up brilliantly, and the cafés swarmed with people, all enjoying the cool evening air. Both sexes and all ages were abroad to share in the general gayety of the hour.
Some rigid moralists might look upon this with stern eyes, as if it were a scene of sinful enjoyment, as if men had no right thus to be happy in this wicked world. But I confess I looked upon it with very different feelings. The enjoyment was of the most simple and innocent kind. Families were all together, father and mother, brothers and sisters, while little children ran about at play. I have rarely looked on a prettier scene, and although I had no part nor lot in it, although I was a stranger there, and walked among these crowds alone, still it did my heart good to see that there was so much happiness in this sad and weary world.
From Hamburg we came to Berlin, where the same features were reproduced on a larger scale. As we drove through the streets at ten o'clock at night we passed a large public garden, brilliantly lighted up, and thronged with people, from which came the sound of music, and were told that it was one of the most fashionable resorts of the capital; and so the next evening – after a day at Potsdam, where we were wearied with sight-seeing – we took our rest here. Imagine a vast enclosure lighted up with hundreds of gas-jets, and thronged with thousands of people, with three bands of music to relieve each other. There were hundreds of little tables, each with its group around it, all chatting with the utmost animation.
The next day we drove to Charlottenburg, to visit the old palaces and the exquisite mausoleum of the beautiful Queen Louise, and on our return stopped to take our dinner at the Flora – an enclosure of several acres, laid out like a botanical garden. A large conservatory, called the Palm Garden, keeps under cover such rare plants and trees as would not grow in the cold climate; and here one is in a tropical scene. This answers the purpose of a Winter Garden, as great banks of flowers and of rare plants are in full bloom all the winter long; and here the rank and fashion of Berlin can gather in winter, and with the air filled with the perfume of flowers, forget the scene without – the naked trees and bitter winds and drifting snows – while listening to musical concerts given in an immense hall, capable of holding several thousand people. These are the festivities of winter. But now, as it is midsummer, the people prefer to be out of doors; and here, seated among the rest, we take our dinner, entertained (as sovereigns are wont to entertain their royal guests at State dinners) with a band of music in the intervals of the feast, which gives a new zest, a touch of Oriental luxury, to our very simple repast.
At Dresden we were at the Hôtel Bellevue, which is close to the Elbe, and there was a public garden on the bank of the river, right under our windows. Every evening we sat on the terrace attached to the hotel, and heard the music, and watched the pleasure boats darting up and down the river.
But of all the cities of Germany, the one where this out-door life is carried to the greatest perfection, is here in Vienna. We arrived when the weather was very hot. For the first time this summer in Europe we were really oppressed with the heat. The sun blazed fiercely, and as we drove about the city seeing sights, we felt that we were martyrs suffering in a good cause. We were told that the heat was very unusual. The only relief and restoration after such days was an evening ride. So as the sun was setting we took a carriage and made the circuit of the Ring-strasse, the boulevards laid out on the site of the old walls, ending with the Prater, that immense park, where two years ago the Great Exposition was held, and where the buildings still stand. This is the place of concourse of the Viennese on gala days, when the Emperor turns out, and all the Austrian and Hungarian nobility, with their splendid equipages (the Hungarians have an Oriental fondness for gilded trappings), making a sight which is said to be more dazzling than can be seen even in the Hyde Park of London, or the Bois de Boulogne at Paris. Just now, of course, all this fashionable element has fled the city, and is enjoying life at the German watering places. But as there are still left seven or eight hundred thousand people, they must find some way to bear the heats of summer; and so they flock to the Prater. The trees are all ablaze with light; half a dozen bands of music are in full blast, and "all the world is gay." It is truly "a midsummer night's dream." I was especially attracted to a concert garden where the band, a very large one, was composed of women. To be sure there were half a dozen men sprinkled among the performers, but they seemed to have subordinate parts – only blowing away at the wind instruments – while all the stringed instruments were played by delicate female hands. It was quite pretty to see how deftly they held the violins, and what sweet music they wrung from the strings. Two or three young maidens stood beside the bass-viols, which were taller than themselves, and a trim figure, that might have been that of a French vivandière, beat the drum. The conductor was of course a woman, and marshalled her forces with wonderful spirit. I don't know whether the music was very fine or not (for I am not a judge in such matters), but I applauded vigorously, because I liked the independence of the thing, and have some admiration, if not sympathy, for the spirit of those heroic reformers, who wish to "put down these men."
But the chief musical glory of Vienna is the Volksgarten, where Strauss's famous band plays, and there we spent our last night in Vienna. It is an enclosure near the Palace, and the grounds belong to the Emperor, who gives the use of them (so we were told) to the son of his old nurse, who devotes them to the purpose of a public garden, and to musical concerts. Besides Strauss's band, there was a military band, which played alternately. As we entered it was executing an air which my companions recognized as from "William Tell," and they pointed out to me the beautiful passages – those which imitated the Alpine horns, etc. Then Strauss came to the front – not Johann (who has become so famous that the Emperor has appropriated him to himself, so that he can now play only for the royal family and their guests), but his brother, Edward. He is a little man, whose body seems to be set on springs, and to be put in motion by music. While leading the orchestra, of some forty performers, he was as one inspired – he fairly danced with excitement; it seemed as if he hardly touched the earth, but floated in air, his body swaying hither and thither to the sound of music. When he had finished, the military band responded, and so it continued the whole evening.
The garden was illuminated not only with gas lamps, but with other lights not set down in the programme. The day had been terribly hot, and as we drove to the garden, dark masses of cloud were gathering, and soon the rain began to come down in earnest. The people who were sitting under the trees took refuge in the shelter of the large hall; and there, while incessant flashes of lightning lighted up the garden without, the martial airs of the military band were answered by the roll of the thunder. This was an unexpected accompaniment to the music, but it was very grateful, as it at once cleared and cooled the air, and gave promise of a pleasant day for travelling on the morrow.
I might describe many similar scenes, though less brilliant, in every German city, but these are enough to give a picture of the open-air life and recreations of the German people. And now for the moral of the tale. What is the influence of this kind of life – is it good or bad? What lesson does it teach to us Americans? Does it furnish an example to imitate, or a warning to avoid? Perhaps something of both.
Certainly it is a good thing that it leads the people to spend some hours of every day in the open air. During hours of business they are in their offices or their shops, and they need a change; and anything which tempts them out of doors is a physical benefit; it quiets their nerves, and cools their blood, and prepares them for refreshing sleep. So far it is good. Every open space in the midst of a great population is so much breathing space; the parks of a city are rightly called its lungs; and it is a good thing if once a day all classes, rich and poor, young and old, can get a long draught of fresh, pure air, as if they were in the country.
Next to the pleasure of sitting in the open air, the attraction of these places is the music. The Germans are a music-loving people. Luther was an enthusiast for music, and called any man a fool, a dull, heavy dolt, whose blood was not stirred by martial airs or softer melodies. In this he is a good type of the German people. This taste is at once cultivated and gratified by what they hear at these public resorts. I cannot speak with authority on such matters, but my companions identified almost every air that was played as from some celebrated piece of music, the work of some great master, all of whom are familiar in Germany from Mozart to Mendelssohn. The constant repetition of such music by competent and trained bands, cannot but have a great effect upon the musical education of the people.
And this delightful recreation is furnished very cheaply. In New York to hear Nilsson, opera-goers pay three or four dollars. But here admission to the Volksgarten, the most fashionable resort in Vienna, is but a florin (about fifty cents); to the Flora, in Berlin, it was but a mark, which is of the value of an English shilling, or a quarter of a dollar; while many of the public gardens are free, the only compensation being what is paid for refreshments.
One other feature of this open-air life and recreation has been very delightful to me – its domestic character. It is not a solitary, selfish kind of pleasure, as when men go off by themselves to drink or gamble, or indulge in any kind of dissipation. When men go to these public gardens, on the contrary, they take their wives and their sisters with them. Often we see a whole family, down to the children, grouped around one of these tables. They sit there as they would around their own tea-table at home. The family life is not broken by this taking of their pleasure in public. On the contrary, it is rather strengthened; all the family ties are made the closer by sharing their enjoyments together.
And these pleasures are not only domestic, but democratic. They are not for the rich only, but for all classes. Even the poor can afford the few pence necessary for such an evening, and find in listening to such music in the open air the cheapest, as well as the simplest and purest enjoyment.
The drawbacks to these public gardens are two – the smoking and the beer-drinking. There are hundreds of tables, each with a group around it, all drinking beer, and the men all smoking. These features I dislike as much as anybody. I never smoked a cigar in my life, and do not doubt that it would make me deadly sick. Mr. Spurgeon may say that he "smokes a cigar to the glory of God"; that as it quiets his nerves and gives him a sound night's sleep, it is a means of grace to him. All I can say is, that it is not a means of grace to me, and that as I have been frequently annoyed and almost suffocated by it, I am afraid it has provoked feelings anything but Christian.
As for the drinking, there is one universal beverage —beer. This is a thin, watery fluid, such as one might make by putting a spoonful of bitter herbs in a teapot and boiling them. To me it seemed like cold water spoiled. Yet others argue that it is cold water improved. On this question I have had many discussions since I came to Germany. The people take to beer as a thing of course, as if it were the beverage that nature had provided to assuage their thirst, and when they talk to you in a friendly way, will caution you especially to beware of drinking the water of the country! Why they should think this dangerous, I cannot understand, for surely they do not drink enough of it to do them any harm. Of course, in passing from country to country, one needs to use prudence in drinking the water, as in other changes of diet, but the danger from that source is greatly exaggerated. Certainly I have drunk of water freely everywhere in Europe, without any injury. Yet an American physician, who certainly has no national prejudice in favor of beer, gravely argues with me that it is the most simple, refreshing, and healthful beverage, and points to the physique of the Germans in proof that it does them no injury. Perhaps used in moderation, it may not. But certainly no argument will convince me that drinking it in such quantities as some do – eight, ten, or a dozen quart mugs a day! – is not injurious. When a man thus swills beer – there is no other word to express it – he seems to me like a pig at the trough.
But of course I do not mean that the greater number of Germans drink it in any such quantities, or to a degree that would be considered excessive, if it is to be drunk at all. I was at first shocked to see men and women with these foaming goblets before them, but I observed that, instead of drinking them off at a draught as those who take stronger drinks are wont to do, they let them stand, occasionally taking a sip, a single glass often lasting the whole evening. Indeed it seemed as if many ordered a glass of beer on entering a public garden, rather as a matter of custom, and as a way of paying for the music. For this they gave a few kreutzers (equal to a few pence), and for such a trifle had the freedom of the garden, and the privilege of listening to excellent music.
But if we cannot enter into any eulogium of German beer at least it has this negative virtue: it does not make people drunk. It is not like the heavy ales or porters of England. This is a fact of immense consequence, that the universal beverage of forty millions of people is not intoxicating. Of course I do not mean to say that it is impossible for one to have his head swim by taking it in some enormous quantity. I only give my own observation, which is that I have seen thousands taking their beer, and never saw one in any degree affected by it. I give, therefore, the evidence of my senses, when I say that this beer does not make men drunk, it does not steal away their brains, or deprive them of reason.
No reader of any intelligence can be so silly as to interpret this simple statement of a fact as arguing for the introduction of beer gardens in America. They are coming quite fast enough. [If I were to have a beer garden, it should be without the beer.] But as between the two, I do say that the beer gardens of Germany are a thousand times better than the gin shops of London, or even the elegant "sample rooms" of New York. In the latter men drink chiefly fiery wines, or whiskey, or brandy, or rum; they drink what makes them beasts – what sends them reeling through the streets, to carry terror to their miserable homes; while in Germany men drink what may be very bitter and bad-tasting stuff, but what does not make one a maniac or a brute. No man goes home from a beer garden to beat his wife and children, because he has been made a madman by intoxication. On the contrary, he has had his wife and children with him; they have all had a breath of fresh air, and enjoyed a good time together.
Such are the simple pleasures of this simple German people – a people that love their homes, their wives and children, and whatever they enjoy wish to enjoy it together.
Now may we not learn something from the habits of a foreign people, as to how to provide cheap and innocent recreations for our own? Is there not some way of getting the good without the evil, of having this open-air life without any evil accompaniments? The question is one of recreation, not of amusements, which is another thing, to be considered by itself. In these public gardens there are no games of any kind – not so much as a Punch and Judy, or a hand-organ with a monkey – nothing but sitting in the open air, enjoying conversation, and listening to music.
This question of popular recreations, or to put it more broadly, how a people shall spend their leisure hours– hours when they are not at work nor asleep – is a very serious question, and one closely connected with public morals. In the life of every man in America, even of the hard-worked laborer, there are several hours in the day when he is not bending to his task, and when he is not taking his meals. The work of the day is over, he has had his supper, but it is not time to go to bed. From seven to nine o'clock he has a couple of hours of leisure. What shall he do with them? It may be said he ought to spend them in reading. No doubt this would be very useful, but perhaps the poor man is too jaded to fix his mind on a book. What he needs is diversion, recreation, something that occupies the mind without fatiguing it; and what so charming as to sit out of doors in the summer time, in the cool of the evening, and listen to music, not being fixed to silence as in a concert room, but free to move about, and talk with his neighbors? If there could be in every large town such a retreat under the shade of the trees, where tired workmen could come, and bring their wives and children with them, it would do a great deal to keep them out of drinking saloons and other places of evil resort.
For want of something of this kind the young men in our cities and in our country villages seek recreation where they can find it. In cities, young men of the better class resort to clubs. This club life has eaten into the domestic life of our American families. The husband, the son and brother, are never at home. Would it not be better if they could have some simple recreation which the whole family could enjoy together? In country villages young men meet at the tavern, or in the street, for want of a little company. I have seen them, by twenty or thirty, sitting on a fence in a row, like barnyard fowls, where, it is to be feared, their conversation is not of the most refined character. How much better for these young fellows to be somewhere where they could be with their mothers and sisters, and all have a good time together! If they must have something in the way of refreshment (although I do not see the need of anything; "have they not their houses to eat and drink in?"), let it be of the simplest kind – something very cheap, for they have no money to waste – and something which shall at least do them no injury – ices and lemonade, with plenty of what is better than either for a hot summer evening, pure, delicious cold water.
I have great confidence in the power of music, especially in that which is popular and universal. Expensive concerts, with celebrated singers, are the pleasure of the rich. But a village glee-club or singing-school calls out home talent, and no concert is so like a country fête as that in which the young folks do their own singing.
With these pictures of German life and manners, and the reflections they suggest, I leave this subject of Popular Recreations to those who are older and wiser than I. I know that the subject is a very delicate one to touch. It is easy to go too far, and to have one's arguments perverted to abuse. And yet, in spite of all this, I stand up for recreation as a necessity of life. Recreation is not dissipation. Calvin pitching quoits may not seem to us quite as venerable a figure as Calvin writing his Institutes, or preaching in the Cathedral of Geneva; and yet he was doing what was just and necessary. The mind must unbend, and the body too. I believe hundreds of lives are lost every year in America for want of this timely rest and recreation.
Some traveller has said that America is the country in which there is less suffering, and less enjoyment, than in any other country in the world. I am afraid there is some truth in this. Certainly we have not cultivated the art of enjoying ourselves. We are too busy. We are all the time toiling to accumulate, and give ourselves little time to enjoy. And when we do undertake it, it is a very solemn business with us. Nothing is more dreary than the efforts of some of our good people to enjoy themselves. They do not know how, and make an awkward shift of it. They put it off to a future year, when their work shall be all done, and they will go to Europe, and do up their travelling as a big job. Thus their very pleasures are forced, artificial, and expensive. And little pleasure they get after all! Many of these people we have met wandering about Europe, forlorn and wretched creatures, exiles from their own country, yet not at home in any other. They have not learned the art, which the Germans might teach them, of simple pleasures, and of enjoying a little every day. This American habit of work without rest, is a wretched economy of life, which can be justified neither by reason nor religion. There is no piety in such self-sacrifice as this, since it is for no good object, but only from a selfish and miserly greed for gain. Men were not made to be mere drudges or slaves. Hard work, duly intermixed with rest and recreation, is the best experience for every one of us, and the true means by which we can best fulfil our duty to God and to man.
Religion has received a great injury when it has been identified with asceticism and gloom. If there is any class of men who are my special aversion, it is those moping, melancholy owls, who sit on the tree of life, and frown on every innocent human joy. Sorrow I can understand (for I have tasted of its bitter cup), and grief of every kind, penitence for wrong, and deep religious emotion; but what I cannot understand, nor sympathize with, is that sour, sullen, morose temper, which looks sternly even on the sports of children, and would hush their prattle and glee. Such a system of repression is false in philosophy, and false in morals. It is bad intellectually. Never was a truer saying than that in the old lines:
All work and no play
Makes Jack a dull boy.
And it is equally bad for the moral nature. Fathers and mothers, you must make your children happy, if you would make them good. You must surround them with an atmosphere of affection and enjoyment, if you would teach them to love you, and to love GOD. It is when held close in their mothers' arms, with tender eyes bent over them, that children first get some faint idea of that Infinite Love, of which maternal fondness is but the faint reflection. How wisely has Cowper, that delicate and tender moralist, expressed the proper wish of children:
With books, or work, or healthful play,
May my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
A good account at last.
Such a happy childhood is the best nursery for a brave and noble manhood.
I write on this subject very seriously, for I know of few things more closely connected with public morals. I do not argue in favor of recreation because seeking any indulgence for myself. I have been as a stranger in all these scenes, and never felt soberer or sadder in my life than when listening for hours to music. But what concerns one only, matters little; but what concerns the public good, matters a great deal. And I give my opinion, as the result of much observation, that any recreation which promotes innocent enjoyment, which is physically healthy and morally pure, which keeps families together, and thus unites them by the tie of common pleasures (a tie only less strong than that of common sorrow), is a social influence that is friendly to virtue, and to all which we most love and cherish, and on the whole one of the cleanest and wholesomest things in this wicked world.
