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diff --git a/23533-8.txt b/23533-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3622d6a --- /dev/null +++ b/23533-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2170 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A War-time Journal, Germany 1914 and German +Travel Notes, by Harriet Julia Jephson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A War-time Journal, Germany 1914 and German Travel Notes + +Author: Harriet Julia Jephson + +Release Date: November 18, 2007 [EBook #23533] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WAR-TIME JOURNAL, GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + A WAR-TIME JOURNAL + + GERMANY 1914 + AND + GERMAN TRAVEL NOTES + + + [Illustration: ENGLISCHE KRIEGSFÜHRUNG + (_How the Englishman makes war._)] + + + + + A + WAR-TIME JOURNAL + GERMANY 1914 + AND + GERMAN TRAVEL NOTES + + BY + + LADY JEPHSON + + AUTHOR OF 'A CANADIAN SCRAP-BOOK' AND + 'LETTERS TO A DÉBUTANTE' + + LONDON + ELKIN MATHEWS, CORK STREET + M CM XV + + + + + PREFACE + + +Prefaces are rarely read, yet I have the hardihood to venture on this +one because there are certain things in connection with my journal +which it is necessary to explain. On returning from Germany, although +urged by my friends to publish the story of my experiences, I refused, +fearing to do anything which in the smallest degree might prejudice +the case of those still in captivity. There came a day, nevertheless, +when I read that all English people had left "Altheim." The papers +announced that men under forty-five had been interned at Ruhleben, and +those over that age had been sent to Giessen. There seemed, therefore, +no possible object in further withholding the journal, since, after +all, there was nothing in it which could by any possibility affect the +fate of others less fortunate than I. Accordingly I sent my manuscript +to the _Evening Standard_, which accepted it, and published the first +couple of pages. Then, in deference to the wishes of people whose +relations were still at "Altheim" (having been sent back from +Giessen), I stopped my diary. However, in view of the daily +revelations in the Press as regards prisoners in Germany, I have come, +after seven months, to the conclusion that nothing I can say will in +any degree make the condition of prisoners there worse. Meanwhile it +is of supreme interest to compare the opinions and conduct of Germans +at the beginning of the war with what they express and observe now. My +journal is simply a record made each day of my detention, and although +it has no pretension to being literature, it is at least a truthful +picture of the state of things as we in Altheim saw them at the +beginning of the war. For obvious reasons the place of detention has +been given a fictitious name. + + HARRIET J. JEPHSON. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +A WAR-TIME JOURNAL 11 + +GERMAN TRAVEL NOTES: + + "TAKIN' NOTES" 67 + + OF SOME FELLOW TRAVELLERS AND THE CATHEDRAL OF MAINZ 76 + + SCHLANGENBAD 84 + + LIEBENSTEIN 90 + + TRÈVES 96 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + +ENGLISCHE KRIEGSFÜHRUNG _Frontispiece_ + (_How the Englishman makes war._) + +ENGLAND FINDET HILFSTRUPPEN + (_England finds troops to help her._) + + I. IN KANADA 17 + (_Behold the German idea of a Canadian._) + + II. IN POLYNESIEN 33 + (_The German idea of an Australian._) + + III. NUR IN LONDON NICHT 49 + _But not in London!_ + +_These illustrations are reproduced from German newspapers._ + + + + + A WAR-TIME JOURNAL: + GERMANY, 1914 + + +VILLA BUCHHOLZ, ALTHEIM, _August 1st._--Last night a herald went round +the town and roused everyone, blowing his trumpet and crying, "Kommen +Sie heraus! Kommen Sie alle fort!" This was a call to the reservists, +all of whom are leaving Altheim. To-day the crowd cheered madly, sang +"Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz," and "Deutschland über alles," showing the +utmost enthusiasm. To my horror, I find that the banks here refuse +foreign cheques, and will have nothing to do with letters of credit. I +have very little ready money with me, and the situation is not a +pleasant one! + +_August 2nd._--Germany has declared war against Russia! All men old +enough to serve are leaving to join the army. Proclamations are +posted up in the Park Strasse, and crowds are standing in tense +anxiety in groups, discussing matters with grave faces. We don't know +how to get away, since all trains are to be used only for the troops +while "mobilmachung" is going on. People have got as far as the +frontier and been turned back there, and some who left Altheim +yesterday are still at Frankfort. I tried to buy an English paper in +the town, and was told that none were to be had until England had made +up her mind what she was going to do! We think of motor-cars to the +frontier, or the Rhine boat. + +_August 3rd._--Alas! all steamers on the Rhine are stopped and +motor-cars are impossible, because an order has come out that +petroleum is to be reserved for the Government. I made another attempt +to cash a cheque to-day, and again the bank refused. A Russian who +stood beside me was desperate. He spoke execrable French, and cried +excitedly: "Comment donc! je ne puis pas quitter le pays et j'ai une +famille et trois femmes!" Poor Bluebeard! his "trois femmes" (wife and +daughters) looked terrified and miserable. Our position is incredible +and most serious. Still, one cannot but admire the glorious spirit of +sacrifice and patriotism which animates all classes of the German +people. Just what it was in the war of 1813, when women even cut off +their hair and sold it to help their country. + +_August 4th._--Troops are marching through the streets and leaving for +the Front all day long. The ladies of Altheim go to the station as the +trains pass through, and give the soldiers coffee, chocolate, cigars, +and zwiebacks. They get much gratitude, and the men say (poor deluded +mortals): "Wir kriegen für Sie" (We fight for you). I saw poor Frau +G---- (my doctor's wife) to-day. She was quite calm, but looked +miserable. Her eldest son, Dr. T----, left for the front this morning. +I sympathised, and she said, choking back a sob: "Man gibt das beste +für das Vaterland" (one gives one's best for the Fatherland). No +letters come, nor papers; and we are only allowed to send postcards +written in German. + +_August 5th._--Our baker has gone to the war, and Dr. G---- 's butler; +the schools have shut up, so many masters having been called upon to +fight. Even learned professors turn soldiers in this country, and +most of the weedy cabhorses here have left Altheim to serve their +"Fatherland." My Bade-Frau's husband has gone to the front, and so has +our Apotheke; there are no porters left at the station, and a jeweller +is doing duty as station-master! The Red Cross Society meet daily, and +make preparations for the care of wounded men. Hospitals, private +houses, and doctors' houses are getting ready, and all motors have +been put at the State's disposal. Insane hatred against Russia exists, +and the Russians here are not enjoying themselves! My position is most +serious: no money, and no return ticket! + +_August 6th._--I went out early in quest of news, and looked in at +K---- and L----'s. A young clerk, pale with excitement and anger, in +reply to my question: "Gibt es etwas neues?" literally hissed at me: +"England hat Krieg erklärt" (England has declared war). It was an +awful moment, although one was prepared for it in a measure, feeling +sure that England would be faithful to her bond. + +Next came the Press announcements, "Das unglaubliche ist Tatsache +geworden" (The unbelievable is become an accomplished fact). "England, +who poses as the guardian of morality and all the virtues, sides with +Russia and assassins!" Abuse of Sir Edward Grey, of our Government, +and of all things English, follows. When vituperation fails, the +"Frankfurter Zeitung" reminds its readers that, after all, such +conduct is only what may be expected from "Die historische Perfide +Albions." That it is a blow none the less is shown by more than one +newspaper beginning "Das Schlimmste ist geschehen." (The worst has +happened.) Miss M----, Miss H----, and I went to the "Prince of +Wales's Hotel" to see Mr. S----, who had made out a list of the +English in Altheim, and tried to telephone to our Consul in Frankfort +to ask what he was going to do for our rescue. The telephone people +refused to send the message because we were English! Mr. S---- and +other men here are doing all they can to secure a train when the +mobilisation is over. He advised us to pack up and be ready to start, +also not to show ourselves out of doors much, as there is the greatest +fury and indignation at present against the English, and to be careful +what we said and did. We are all terribly anxious, and it is rather +trying for me, as I am the only woman in the place quite alone. + +_August 7th._--Still no help! Innumerable wild rumours are flying +about. They say that those who left Altheim have all come back, unable +to get farther than Frankfort. We are beginning to feel hopeless. +Nothing about England is in the German papers, and, of course, we see +no others. It is quite terrible being without news. Last night there +was great scrubbing and scraping of Altheim shop windows, and all the +notices: "English spoken here" have disappeared. + +There is a mania about spies in Frankfort, we hear, and some Americans +yesterday were very roughly handled because their motor bore a French +maker's name. The Americans have returned to Altheim, and their motor +has been taken to fight for the Fatherland! Our situation is dreadful, +but we are keeping up brave hearts. Every day a fresh "Bekanntmachung" +(notice) appears; that of to-day was addressed to the children and +called upon them to gather in the harvest, the workers having gone as +soldiers and turned their "pruning hooks" into swords. My postcards +written in German have all come back. One cannot communicate with +anyone outside Altheim. What a position! God in His mercy help us! It +seems so strange to see German troops marching to the tune of "God +Save the King," yet it is Germany's National Anthem too, and these are +the words they sing to it:-- + + "Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz, + Herrscher des Vaterlands, + Heil Kaiser Dir!" etc. + +[Illustration: IN KANADA +(_Behold the German idea of a Canadian_)] + +A "Warnung" has now been affixed to trees in the Avenue forbidding +Russians, English, French or Belgians to go within 100 metres of the +station. The Russians are being hardly used, but so far Germans are +quite nice to us. Mrs. N---- tells me a gruesome tale of a Russian +lady who left her hotel for Russia smiling, well dressed, and happy. +At Giessen all Russians were turned out of the train and put into a +waiting-room, and locked up there without any convenience of food, +drink, or beds for the night. The following morning they were told to +come out and soldiers marched them several miles into the country to a +farm-house. Some of the poor creatures were faint from want of food, +and others had heart disease, and fell exhausted in the road, the +soldiers prodding them with their bayonets to make them get up! After +several hours' detention there, they were brought back to Altheim, +where the poor lady arrived a pitiable wreck! What an experience! I +have been packed up for days! + +_August 8th._--I went into the Park Strasse this morning to buy a +"Frankfurter Zeitung." Outside the shop where I bought it some +American women stood gazing at a map of the war, and one said: "I am +_disgusted_ with England, just disgusted. So degrading of her to help +a country like Russia, and side with assassins, just degrading! All we +Americans despise her now." I thought to myself: "If I go to prison +for it, I will not allow anyone to call my country 'degraded and +disgusting.'" So I said, trembling with wrath, "There is nothing +'degrading' in being honourable, nor despicable in keeping true to +your word. England promised to protect Belgium's frontier, and she is +bound to do it." + +Several Germans were gathered round the map, and they scowled at me +until I faced them calmly and said: "Jeder man für sein Land" (Every +man for his country), and they answered quite civilly: "Gewiss!" +(Certainly). The Americans in Altheim, I found afterwards, were +chiefly of German extraction, which accounted for the woman's +behaviour. + +Early this morning three men arrived to search my room for weapons. I +was in bed, but they pushed past the maid Käthchen, forced their way +in, pried into every corner, and departed. Emile the housemaid here +has _four_ brothers at the war. Dreadful rumours are flying about as +to our destination. One day we hear we are to go to Denmark, another +to Holland. Sometimes we are told that we shall not be allowed to +leave Germany until the war is over; again that we shall be sent away +at a moment's notice; that we shall be left at the frontier, and have +to walk for six hours, and carry our own luggage, etc. + +The German papers are perfectly horrible in their violent abuse of +England, and we are so miserably anxious, not about ourselves, but +about our dear, dear country, and how she is faring. Käthchen said +this morning, "Die deutschen in Ausland sind sehr schlecht behandelt" +(Germans abroad are very badly treated). "See how well the foreigners +are treated _here_," by way of impressing upon me how thankful I ought +to be for my mercies. + +_August 9th._--No papers! No news! No letters! No money! All of us are +more or less packed up ready to start. We are warned that no heavy +luggage can go with us, and are limited to two small "hand Gepäck," +which we can carry ourselves. I have presented my best hats to +Käthchen, and it consoles me to think how comical she will look under +them!--but "flying canvas" is the order of the day. + +_August 10th._--The "Frankfurter Zeitung" calls England "ehrlos" +(dishonourable), and the Belgian frontier question "only an excuse," +and even kind, good Dr. G---- raged against England. One is sick with +longing to hear how the war gets on from the English point of view. +The papers here never allude to England's movements--only to her moral +delinquencies. I am so poverty-stricken now I wash my own +pocket-handkerchiefs, guimpes, and blouses! + +The American part of our community have quite recovered their spirits +since money has come for them. The United States is making every +effort to rescue her people, and get them back in safety to America. +No one seems to concern themselves about us, and we can't get away +while mobilising is going on. All Germans show the greatest deference +to Americans, and call them "our honoured guests." We, of course, are +the _dis_honoured ones, and in disgrace! + +Altheim people so far are passably civil to us, but sometimes one has +a disagreeable person to deal with, as I had to-day at the Bad Haus. +The girl who stamps our tickets refused to pass mine until I could +show her my Kur Karte. I had none, and told her so, and asked her why +I should pay twenty marks for a card, when I could not get any of the +privileges to which it entitled me: the band, terrace, reading-room, +and so on. Her answer was a persistent dogged reiteration of "Sie +müssen eine Kur Karte haben, sonst können Sie nicht baden," and not +having twenty marks in the world at present I had to come away without +my bath. Every day there are fresh appeals to the patriotism of the +people. They are pasted on walls, windows, and even trees. + +_August 12th._--Such an amusing thing has happened. Mr. S---- said to +Dr. ----, "We English have captured your Kronprinzessin Cecilie," +without saying that he meant the _ship_, and not the _lady_. As the +Government keeps all such disagreeable intelligence dark, it was news +to the doctor, and he stoutly contradicted it, and went round the town +afterwards telling people: "Just think what liars the English are; +they say they have captured our Crown Princess!" We learnt of this +prize-taking from the "Corriere della Sera." + +_August 13th._--The newspapers are full of German victories and abuse +of England. Also they declare that the most terrible atrocities have +taken place in Belgium, where women have despatched wounded Germans on +the field and shot doctors. The indignation is tremendous. + +_August 14th._--Permission has at last been given for "Fremden" +(foreigners) to depart, and also the threats and restrictions as to +the railway station have been removed, but we must submit our +passports to the police, who send them to Berlin to be stamped by the +military authorities, and in about a week we shall be free. "Gott sei +Dank!" + +_August 15th._--I went to the Polizei-Amt, a dreary little house, and +found both yard and staircase crammed with people. After waiting a +long time in the _queue_ I had to beat a retreat, the neighbourhood of +Polish Jews being too overpowering! In the afternoon I ventured again +with the same result. They say Holland is crammed with refugees, and +the hotels so full that people are sleeping on billiard tables even. +We are allowed to choose between Switzerland and Holland. + +German papers express deepest disappointment that Italy has not been +"ehrlich" (honourable) to her "Dreibund," and yet (extraordinary +people) the Germans blame us for being true to ours. + +_August 16th._--I sent a telegram off to Ems this morning, of course +written in German, but the official behind the little window where I +handed it in refused to send it until I showed him my passport. As I +have not yet succeeded in getting through the crowds at the police +station I still had mine. We hear dreadful tales of hardships endured +by those who have managed to get away from other places. Some went by +the Rhine steamers, which are now running, but wherever they passed a +fortress they were made to go below. As the cabins were not enough for +all, preference was given to other nationalities, and English people +had to sit up all night on deck, even in pouring rain. The entire +absence of news is for us quite terrible. One feels so out of the +world, not knowing what is happening outside our prison doors. The +"Frankfurter Zeitung" is full of nothing but boasts and untruths. A +fresh "Bekanntmachung" has been posted up forbidding us to leave the +town, and ordering us to be indoors by nine o'clock. + +_August 17th._--The Landsturm has been called out and leaves to-day +for the Front. These men are the last to be requisitioned, being +elderly.[1] After long waiting among Jews, Infidels, and Turks, I at +last got entrance to the Chief of Police's office, had my passport +taken, paid one mark fifty, and was told to come back on Thursday, +when it would be returned from Berlin. The Chief was a gruff, +disagreeable old man, who, to my amiable "Guten Tag" and "Adieu" +vouchsafed no reply. + + [Footnote 1: This we were told at the time.] + +_August 18th._--A dreadful blow! We English are forbidden to go to +Holland, and told that our destination is to be Denmark. Imagine +crossing that mined sea now! For reasons of their own German +authorities will not allow any of us to go by or near the Rhine. + +_August 19th._--The German Press is to me a revelation of bombast, +self-righteousness, falsehood, and hypocrisy. What shocks one most is +the familiar and perpetual calling upon God to witness that He alone +has led the Germans to victory and blessed their cause. I read a poem +yesterday, which began "Du Gott der Deutschen," as if indeed the Deity +were the especial property of the German Nation! Massacre, pillage, +destruction, violation of territory, everything wicked God is supposed +to bless! What hideously distorted minds, and where is the sane, if +prosaic Teuton of one's imaginings! I wake often in the morning and +wonder if all that has happened here has not been a horrible +nightmare--if it can be possible in the twentieth century that I, a +woman, am a prisoner, and for no sin that one has committed. I cannot +order an Einspänner and drive to the station without a challenge and +danger. I cannot possibly get away without my passport. If I attempted +to drive to the Rhine my fate might be that of the poor Russians who +were shot the other day. In any case I could not leave Germany without +my passport nor enter Dutch territory without permission from the +Netherlands Consul at Frankfort. It seems all hopeless and +heartbreaking. + +_August 20th._--Another terrific blow! Fraulein S---- came into my +room this morning and said: "Kein Engländer, kein Ausländer, kann +Deutschland verlassen" (no Englishman, no foreigner can leave +Germany). I rushed off immediately to the Polizei Amt and found it +only too terribly true. Worse! Mr. W---- and Mr. S----, who tried to +arrange for a steamer on the Rhine to take us away, have been +arrested, and are being tried on a trumped-up charge of _forgery_, and +the Company who were the go-betweens demand 3,000 marks because the +boat came a certain distance down the river in order to embark us. + +(_Later_) The Englishmen have been acquitted of forgery, but we fear +we shall have to pay the £120. I have one mark left! + +There is jubilation all over the town as the Germans have taken +Belfort. Käthchen enters triumphantly. "Unter Führung des Kronprinzen +von Bayern haben Truppen gestern in Schlachten zwischen Metz und den +Vogesen noch einen Sieg erkämpft," and she goes on with the weary old +story of "viele tausend Gefangene" (many thousand prisoners). + +_August 21st._--I found that charming old American friends of mine, +the W----s, were here, and I went to see them at the Grand Hotel. They +have been to a Nach Kur in Thuringia, and have had most alarming and +unpleasant adventures coming back. However, being American their pains +and penalties are nearly over. A special train is to take them and +their compatriots to the Hague on Wednesday next. They go to the +flesh-pots of Egypt, and we are left to eat manna in the wilderness! +They can drive in the country, while we poor Britishers may not go +outside the town, and oh! how sick we are of the avenues and streets +of the red-roofed Bath Houses and shop windows whose contents we know +by heart. Mr. W---- told me a good tale of the _chef_ of a Hotel here, +who was obliged to obey his country's call and join the French forces. +When he found German bullets whizzing about him at Mülhausen, he said +to himself (so the story goes), "What is my duty? Is it best for me to +let these cursed Germans make an end of me, or live to cook another +day for my country?" He decided that living was his game, threw his +rifle away, lay flat on his face, and let the bullets whistle over +him. He was taken prisoner to his great relief, and now lies in +Frankfort prison where his German brother chef has visited him! The +French of course are a brave nation, but I daresay the poor cook was +more at home with his pots and pans than with bayonets and rifles! + +No papers! no letters! no news! no chance of escape! Two men were put +in prison yesterday for laughing at Germany. Two Russians were stopped +in a motor car, and when arms were found upon them they were put up +against a wall and shot. + +_August 22nd._--Altheim has gone mad with joy over the victory near +Metz. Church bells chime and German children sing "Deutschland über +Alles" _ad nauseam_; and the Kur Haus and all private dwellings are +draped with bunting. Red Cross people are busy preparing for the +wounded--sewing classes are held every day in Bad Haus 8, and the +doctors are full of work. Mr. S----, a young Englishman, formerly in +the army, has been arrested, and also the hall-porter of the "Grand," +and two English valets. + +_August 24th._--A terrible day! First of all Käthchen announced with +complacency and obvious triumph, that there had been a great victory +"ganz herrlich!" and that an English Cavalry Brigade had been cut to +pieces at Lunéville, and that those who were not killed had "run +away"! Of course I did not believe this, but it made one terribly +anxious. Then in came Miss H---- saying that two men of our little +colony had been arrested and taken to the police-station, whence after +examination they were to be sent to Frankfurt. At the Polizei Amt the +Officials exhibited the results of their _Kultur_ by being rude and +rough to the unfortunate people arrested. A Polish woman whose son had +been made prisoner sobbed and cried, whereupon the grim old inspector +came into the room and said sternly: "Kein Frauen Jammer hier!" +ordering her out of the room. I was in the Park Strasse and heard some +Germans chuckling and saying: "Zwei Engländer sind verhaftet" (two +Englishmen are arrested), looked round, and saw two of our little +community, both service men, following each other in Einspänners, each +surrounded by soldiers and fixed bayonets. It was anything but a +pleasing sight to me! + +_August 25th._--The clouds are lifting, thank God! Cheering news has +come that we are to be allowed to leave this delightful country in +eight days' time; most likely we shall have to travel either by way of +Switzerland or Denmark. Those sagacious personages in Berlin seem to +imagine that the secrets of the Rhine fortresses will reveal +themselves to us as we go by! What a compliment to our powers of +clairvoyance! + +Fraulein G---- has just been in to see me. Usually she is a most +pleasant, gentle little woman, kind and charming; now she is full of +scorn and hatred of England. She says the Englishmen were arrested +because they were heard to say that German papers were "full of lies." +"So they are," said I, "and you can go now and get me arrested too." +"Oh, no," said she, "I would not tell on _you_!" In spite of her +magnanimity I cannot think our interview was a success. We argued +until I said, "If we are to remain friends, we must not discuss the +war. I _can_not think England wrong, and as a loyal German you think +Germany right. Don't let us talk about it any more." + +The "Frankfurter Zeitung" declares that no workmen in England will +fight for their country, only the "mercenaries" who are well paid to +risk their lives. Oh, this life is hard to bear! Such intense, +frightful hatred speaks in every look, in every action of our enemies. +It is consoling to remember that their own Nietzsche says: "One does +not hate as long as one dis-esteems, and only when one esteems an +equal or superior." + +_August 26th._--A chauffeur at the Bellevue was arrested to-day and +taken to Frankfort. He is only twenty, a Glasgow lad, and absolutely +harmless. + +I am so sick of "Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz" that as the children pass +my villa shouting it or "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?" I go out on +my balcony and retaliate by singing "Rule Britannia." Small children +with flags and paper cocked hats, toy swords and tiny drums march +through the streets, day after day, singing patriotic songs, whilst +(poor dears!) their fathers are being slaughtered in thousands. No +reverses are ever reported in the German papers, nothing but victories +appear, and Germans are treated like children. If it were not for the +"Corriere della Sera" we should be tempted to believe the Allies in a +bad way. The "beehrte gäste" departed this morning. At the station a +band played, flags were waved, and every American man and woman was +presented with a small white book which contained the telegrams which +passed between the belligerent nations at the beginning of the war. +Again we hear that Copenhagen is to be our destination. + +[Illustration: IN POLYNESIEN +(The German idea of an Australian)] + +_August 27th._--I saw Dr. G---- this morning. He begged me to be most +careful what I said. Two patients of his (English) Levantines were +talking on the Terrace, and one said to the other, "We had better +shave off our moustaches, or we shall be taken for military men." They +were promptly arrested, having been overheard by a spy. We are now +ordered to get health certificates, which are to go to Frankfort, and +be forwarded to the military authorities in Berlin. There is an idea +that we may go away on Tuesday next. We have found out that our +passports never went to Berlin at all, but are lying at this moment in +the drawer of that old demon in the "Polizei-Amt." + +_August 28th._--Nothing new. The German papers, as usual, full of +their victories and their piety, and their patriotism, and their +"Kultur," and goodness knows what not besides. Both Kaisers praising +each other and distributing iron crosses _ad lib._, early though it be +in the day. No mention of English troops or England, except to abuse +the "Verflüchte" English. + +A train of wounded men arrived yesterday, and bandaged and lame +soldiers are to be seen limping about the town, looking ghastly pale +and ill. At the Lazarett behind the "Prince of Wales' Hotel" there are +many sad cases. The Red Cross Society has made every provision for +their comfort and happiness possible. Sheets have been hemmed, pillow +cases sewn, bandages got ready. The Germans, however, are chary of +admitting English women to share their labours, and those who go and +offer to help meet with a very chilly reception. + +_August 29th._--An account has come of the battle of St. Quentin. The +"Frankfurter Zeitung" calls it "decisive," and says that the German +army has cut off the English army from its base. + +_August 30th._--Joy at last! Even the "Frankfurter Zeitung" +acknowledges that there has been a fight in the North Sea, and that we +have sunk German ships, but, of course, it was "overpowering numbers +and larger ships" that did it, and the Germans covered themselves with +glory as usual. I came home and hung out my flag, the best I could do, +a red silk dressing jacket, lined with white, and draped over a blue +silk parasol, which I tied knob out, to look like a pole. + +On our church door to-day was posted a typewritten notice: "We have +smashed your army on the French Continent,(!) and we will smash _you +too_ if you dare to ring your bell!" + +_August 31st._--I heard a small boy singing to-day: + + "Wo liegt Paris, Paris liegt Hier, + Den fingen drauf' Das nehmen Wir." + +I pray it may not prove prophetic, but they all talk of occupying +Paris as a certainty, and the German Emperor has invited a number of +his Generals to dine with him there on the 12th of September. I hear +that a doctor went into the Prince of Wales' Hotel to-day, and saw +stuck up in the hall the words: "Das Seegefecht in der Nordsee" (in +which of course we were victorious). He tore it down and stamped on +it. An altruistic German waiter thinking to please the English guests +had put the first sheet of the "Frankfurter Zeitung" in a prominent +position to console them for the many defeats we are supposed to have +had. John Burns' speech at the Albert Hall is reported in full in the +German newspapers, headed "Eine Rede des ehemaligen Englischen +Minister, John Burns. England gegen seine wahren interessen" (a speech +of the former English minister,[2] John Burns. England against her +true interests). No passports yet! No release! This suspense is +wearing! + + [Footnote 2: This speech I have since learnt was an absolute + invention.] + +_September 1st._--The sentimentality of the Germans is amazing! They +cannot even insert a simple notice of a death on the battlefield +without this sickly parade, "Heute starb den Heldentod furs Vaterland, +unser innigste-geliebter einziger Sohn," etc. Always a "hero's death" +and "for his Fatherland." A fresh "Bekanntmachung" has appeared, we +prisoners of war are not to leave the town, not to stand in groups +("rotten" they call it) talking in the streets, to be in our houses at +9 p.m., etc. Two ex-Frankfort prisoners have been sent for by the +Chief of the Police accused of indiscreet talking. "I hear," said the +great man, "you say you were fed on nothing but bread and water in +prison." "No," said Mr. ----, "I had soup in the middle of the day, +and coffee and bread at night, and in the morning." "Then why do you +tell lies!" Such utter childishness, to believe every scrap of unkind +gossip! + +_September 2nd._--We are buoyed up with hope, as they talk of our +getting away this week! It _will_ be delightful to leave this +perpetual bell-ringing and flag-waving and Vaterlandslieder behind us! + +_September 3rd._--The whole of Altheim went mad last night, +processions, bands, marchings all night, and such a noise that at last +a nurse had to come out from the Lazarett near the Park and beg the +revellers to think of the poor wounded sick, and spare them. No one +could sleep! The last blow has come, our church is closed! + +_September 4th._--Despair! The American Ambassador at Berlin has +telegraphed that we English are not to leave! The Russians are going, +but our treatment is retaliatory, because they say England is +detaining German women, and Russia lets them go. To make all worse +Fraulein S----, tired of keeping me so long for nothing, has given me +notice to quit at the moment when for three days I have had no greater +fortune than 2_d._ in my pocket. Where I am to go, or who will take me +in without money I can't imagine! The American Ambassador in Berlin +and Mr. Ives, the American Vice-Consul at Frankfort, are working +untiringly and most kindly for us. We do not complain of actual harsh +treatment, although to be turned adrift in the world without money by +one whose tenant I had been for five years is hardly kind. However, +war is war undoubtedly. Mr. Ives is from the Southern States, Mr. +H----, his Chief, from the Northern. The Scotch chauffeur has been +released after a week in prison. He looks pale and dispirited, "a +sadder," and no doubt "a wiser man." + +_September 5th._--The "Times" of the 5th August has turned up in +Altheim. It has gone the round of our little community until such a +worn, creased remnant reached me, that I had much ado to keep it +together until I could master its contents. One felt a second Rip Van +Winkle, awaking after a long sleep, our world being so confined here. +At last I have discovered how to get money from England. One writes to +the American Embassy in Berlin, and encloses a telegram (with postal +order for the same) to one's banker in London, instructing him to pay +the sum of money wanted to the American Embassy in London, to be +forwarded through their kind offices to the Embassy in Berlin. The +telegram to be written on a sheet of foolscap paper, with the full +name and address of the sender, and the name also of the nearest +American Consul. No letters can be sent through this channel. + +_September 6th._--No church now! Even that taken from us! The +American Vice-Consul has been here, and still thinks that we may get +away in a fortnight. We are sick with hoping and being disappointed. +The German Press full of the most virulent abuse of England, +"treacherous," "hypocritical," "lying," "cowardly," "boastful," there +is no bad name they don't call her! Russia and France and Belgium get +no lashings of scorn and fury and hatred such as England does! At last +the account of Sir Edward Goschen's interviews with Von Jagow and +Bethmann Hollweg has appeared in the German papers. I had read it all +in the "Corriere della Sera" long ago. They talk of stopping Italian +papers in Germany since they are pro-English (in German, "lying"). + +Most of my English friends here went to the German church to-day. The +Pfarrer pointed out to his congregation how clearly God had favoured +their cause, how victory had followed victory, the virtuous, religious +people triumphing over the wicked, ungodly nations. Then he spoke of +the day so near when Germany should annihilate the "Macht von +England," and teach her when crushed and humbled "die Wahrheit," +Religion and Morality! Humph! + +_September 7th._--Wonder of wonders! no bell-ringing to-day, nor +processions of singing youngsters, so we hope there is a lull in the +"Sieges." + +Miss H---- went last week to have her hair washed, and during the +process her hair-dresser remarked casually to her, "We shall be in +Paris in a day or two, and in London in another week, and when we have +conquered England as well as France you will all have to learn to +speak German." This shows the amazing conceit and arrogance of the +people. Poor, ignorant things, they are quite hoodwinked by their +rulers--and even look forward to seeing their Kaiser "Emperor of +Europe"! One day we read that a bag has been made of 30,000 Russians, +the next that the number was understated, and that it is 70,000. As +for Belgians and French, every day 10,000 men and guns _ad lib._ are +captured, and the poor silly people believe it all. Villas and streets +are still beflagged, and by this time we know every patriotic song in +the "Vaterlandslieder" book by heart. One tries to be plucky, but our +hearts are very sad just now. + +Paris seems doomed, and apparently the French have abandoned hope +too, since Poincaré and his Cabinet have gone to Bordeaux. The German +Press call him a "Feiger" (Coward). + +_September 9th._--Unaccountably the forward march seems to have been +checked, although we don't know why. Maubeuge has fallen, and of +course the usual bell-ringing and bunting and singing has celebrated +the victory. We cannot understand what our troops are doing. There is +no mention of them in the German papers, only columns of sneers and +abuse of England. + +_September 10th._--A rumour has reached us that the Crown Prince has +been captured, and that the enemy is retreating. No official +confirmation has come to hand however; but the flags are down at last, +and the jangling of bells has ceased, and we have not heard +"Deutschland über Alles" for twenty-four hours, "Gott sei Dank"! +Prince Joachim is wounded, and he has sent a telegram worded after the +manner of his dear Papa, thanking God who in His goodness permitted +him to be wounded for his beloved Fatherland. I wonder what Frederick +the Great would have thought of these boastful warriors. We English +are looked upon with horror as the brutal barbarians who use dum dum +bullets, and Sir Edward Grey's dignified disclaimer is reported under +the polite heading "Grey leugnet" (Grey lies). + +_September 11th._--Nothing new in the situation, but we rejoice to see +grave faces and groups looking solemn in the streets, and talking in +subdued voices, and thank God! we hear no bell-ringing! Everything +cheering we read in the "Corriere della Sera" is denied in the +"Frankfurter Zeitung" or given as a production of the "Lügen Fabrik" +(manufactory of lies). + +_September 12th._--The Germans seem depressed, no flags, no bands, and +although there is a notice posted up in the town to say that the Crown +Prince has achieved another victory, there is evidently something +unsatisfactory in the background to counterbalance this. I draw +deductions from the "Frankfurter Zeitung," which has a bitter article +entitled "Torheiten" (Folly), and which speaks of the "Kindische +Freudengeheul" (childish howls of joy) of the English and French +Press, because "ein parr Kalonnen deutscher Soldaten ein Stuck weges +zurückgezogen haben" (two columns of German soldiers had withdrawn a +bit of the way back). Then the writer contrasts the boastful words +("prahlender wörte") of England with the self-restraint and pious calm +and virtuous behaviour of Germany. One has only to look at the +postcards in the Park Strasse to see which of the combatants is +boastful. England is drawn as ignominiously lying on the ground (when +she isn't running away) and Germany invariably is kicking or thrashing +her. + +People are less friendly than at first, though the bath attendants, +people in the Inhalatorium, and doctors are most kind. I had tea at +Müller's with Miss H---- the other day. There were at least thirty +empty chairs in the tea-room, but a German woman marched up to the +chair on which I had laid my daily newspaper, and ordered me to take +it off, as she must have my chair! She was stout and ugly, and had a +way of doing her hair which, as a writer says, "alone would have +proved impeccable virtue in the face of incriminating circumstantial +evidence." For all their "Kultur" Germans are gross, and to the last +degree inartistic. Their "_nouveau art_" is repulsive; their dressing +outrageously ugly, and their cooking atrocious. I have watched them +here year after year tramping up and down the shady walks stolidly +drinking, wearing garments of ingeniously devised ugliness and blind +to "_l'inutile beauté_." There is no variety of type nor individuality +of person in either men or women. These worthy _Hausfrauen_ have no +grace of dainty frills, diaphanous lace or rustling petticoats. They +are obviously and incontestably of the class described by a witty +writer to whom "a lace petticoat is as much a badge of infamy as a +cigarette on the stage." The German proletariat cannot be susceptible +to externals, else the universal sad-coloured skirt, the ill-fitting +blouse and the ugly hat worn by his women-folk could not find favour +in his eyes. + +Life in Altheim has changed under war conditions. The Kur Haus is +closed, there are no teas on the Terrace or promenadings to the +strains of Grieg or Strauss, or theatrical performances. The German +Kur-Gäste have left, and only the Russian, English and a few Belgian +prisoners of war remain. Russians here are chiefly of a very low +class. Most of the women go about bareheaded, and all are rough and +unkempt and dirty-looking. I fancy some of them have suffered much +privation, but happily their order of release has come. They will have +to travel by Denmark, Sweden and across to Petrograd. The weather is +autumnal, and they have only summer clothes, like us. We cannot help +them, having so little money ourselves. I have had to borrow twice, +and tried to sell my jewellery without success, but I have developed a +latent and unsuspected talent for laundry work. The pretty summer +shops in the Park Strasse are now closed, and the sound of beating +mattresses is heard everywhere; the blinds of most of the villas are +drawn down, and the families having no longer lodgers have descended +to their winter quarters on the ground floor. Only a few _einspänners_ +are left, as both _Kutschers_ and horses are gone to meet a +"Heldentod" for their Fatherland. + +One sees white-capped nurses and Red Cross Ambulance men and wounded +and bandaged warriors everywhere. When recovered, the soldiers get +three days leave to visit their families, and then return to the +Front. Poor souls! Shops are chiefly tended by women nowadays, and +the German Frau is not a capable shopkeeper like the French woman. A +"Drogerie" here is presided over by the wife of the man who owns it, +in his absence at the war. She is a gentle, rather pretty creature, +but amazingly slow and stupid. If tooth-powder be asked for, she +mounts a ladder, searches among a hundred bottles, shakes her head +despairingly, and wonders where her "Mann" has put it. Outside her +Küche and house, the German woman does not shine, but she is a +faithful unselfish wife, and a good and affectionate mother. Mr. Ives +thinks we shall certainly get away next week. I hope so! The weather +is cold and rainy, and there is no fire-place in my room. + +_September 13th._--The Altheim daily papers complain that they are +inundated with foolish questions over the telephone. "Ist Namur +belgisch oder französisch?" (Is Namur Belgian or French?) + +"Gehen die Schottländer wirklich mit nackten Beinen in die Schlacht?" +(Do the Highlanders really go into battle with naked legs?) + +"Wie lange wird es ungefähr dauern, bis die Deutschen Paris +eingenommen haben?" (How long will it be before the Germans have +taken Paris?) and so on. + +_September 14th._--Again rumours of our going, but even though release +will be most welcome, we all dread the journey. Terrible tales come to +us of the treatment meted out to foreigners crossing the frontier. +Many English were turned out of Wiesbaden and sent here. At F---- they +had their luggage searched, and the ladies of the party were stripped +to the skin by women who even combed their hair to see if by any +ingenuity they had concealed plans and drawings in the puffs and +coils, two soldiers with fixed bayonets mounting guard meanwhile +outside. No doubt we shall remember this journey to the end of our +lives, but what can you expect from a people whose Prophet Nietzsche +says, "What is more harmful than any vice? Pity for the weak and +helpless--Christianity!" + +_September 15th._--The singular absence of humour of the Germans often +amuses me. I think it was Palmerston who described Germany as "that +land of damned Professors." They are all so desperately in earnest, +and their "Kultur" is so serious, that jokes and fun seem like +blasphemy. My penury has again been relieved by Mr. S----'s kind loan +of £1. Lady M---- came in to tell me that the American Vice-Consul had +telegraphed to Mr. W---- the good news that we are all to go on +Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday next. I have heard this story so often +that I am utterly sceptical. We conclude that things are going badly +for the enemy, since there is no bell-ringing, and the flags have been +taken in. + +[Illustration: NUR IN LONDON NICHT +(_But not in London!_)] + +_September 16th._--I hear that no men who have served in the Army or +Navy are to be allowed to go with us. To-day's "Frankfurter Zeitung" +thinks that England must be at her last gasp, or she would not have +"barbarians such as Indians, Japanese and _Highlanders_" fighting her +battles for her! They also declare on "unimpeachable evidence" that +India is in a state of revolt, and that the Japanese are to be +despatched at once to quell the rebellion. Any misfortune to the +British delights them. + +_September 17th._--The B----s, who to our envy have received special +passes to go to Denmark, got as far as Hamburg and then had their +passports taken from them. The Chaplain and his wife disappeared one +morning, and we learn that he obtained a special pass on the ground of +being a clergyman. He was heard to utter something about the "Bishop +of London," and perhaps that was the talisman. Lady M---- tells me +that they have arrived in Hamburg, we wonder what their fate will be! + +A delightful story has just reached me from an Italian source. In the +church of a Convent Hospital in France, one of the sisters was +praying aloud with immense fervour, and when she came to the +"Confiteor" she said: "C'est ma faute! c'est ma faute! c'est ma très +grande faute," whereupon uprose a Turco crying out: "Ah! non! ma +Soeur! c'est la faute à Guilleaume!" + +_September 18th._--A letter at last! but only one from the American +Consul at Frankfort, saying that the Foreign Office wanted to know my +whereabouts as several friends had inquired about me and my safety. I +can't imagine why, when America rescued her stranded citizens long +ago, and sent them money to get home, we should be suffering like +this. Nothing more about the phantom train! Our nerves are becoming +wrought up, and we are developing unexpectedly irritable and +argumentative natures. The weather is amazingly windy and horribly +cold, one shivers in summer garments, and cannot afford to buy warmer +things. A leading article in the "Frankfurter Zeitung" gives us a +grain of comfort, since it is headed "Geduld und Zuversicht" (patience +and confidence), and begins, + +"In consequence of the victorious news of the first weeks, those +remaining at home had become accustomed to constant victories, and +the pause in the news of the battlefield of the West is a great trial +of patience." Long may that trial last! On the whole we ought to be +thankful that we are in Hesse and not in Prussia. The Hessians are a +simple, kindly people, pleasant, and good tempered. I have known +Germany well for eighteen years. When first we travelled in the +Fatherland I found each Duchy, or Kingdom, or Principality, devoted to +its own particular Ruler, and little outside it mattered to its +people. Nowadays there are no Hessians or Würtembergers, not even +Saxons or Bavarians, but all are Germans, and for one photograph of +the Grand Duke of Hesse and his Duchess you will see here one hundred +of "Unser Kaiser" and "Unsere Kaiserin." They have become +Imperialists, and the ambitious spirit which animates them is shown by +the act of a soldier at Liège who chalked up on a wall: "Kaiser +Wilhelm the Second, Emperor of Europe." + +I have now 2_d._ left in the world, and have not taken my inhalation +for two days, not being able to pay for it. The money I telegraphed +for has not yet come, and life seems very difficult! I think of the +old lines: + + "'Tis a very good world we live in, + To lend, or to spend, or to give in; + But to beg, or to borrow, or get a man's own, + 'Tis the very worst world that ever was known." + +_September 19th._--At the eleventh hour and when I seemed at the end +of my resources, help came from a most unexpected quarter! I can never +cease to be grateful for the goodness and kindness which relieved my +distress. The Germans look downcast, the Russians jubilant. How +paternal this Government is no one who has not lived in Germany can +imagine. For instance, above the nearest pillar box I saw a notice +written "Don't forget address and stamps!" + +_September 20th._--Our passports are now in the hands of the military +authorities at Frankfort, and Mr. Ives, the American Vice-Consul, is +doing all in his power to get us leave to go. The Superintendent of +the Inhalatorium is most kind and sympathetic. She inquired why I had +not been there for three days, and when I told her "Gar kein Geld" (no +money) was the cause, she cried with real feeling, "Schrecklich!" +(terrible). Any thing to do with money or the want of it appeals to +the Teutonic mind, although the Germans sneer at us for being a nation +of shopkeepers. There are two words we hope never to hear again, +"Kultur" and "Unser." "Unser Deutschland," "Unser Kaiser," "Unser +Kultur." How weary and trite are these! What an extraordinary mixture +the Germans are, brave, conceited, sentimental, prosaic, patriotic, +and yet no people so soon lose their national characteristics, and +become citizens of another country as Germans. Many of their +intellectual poses are absolutely morbid. They adore Ibsen as a +playwright and despise Goldsmith and Sheridan; they worship Gauguin, +and the school of Impressionists, and have little appreciation +nowadays for pre-Raphaelitism. They are intensely and truly musical, +and it is amazing, taking into consideration their extraordinary lack +of humour, that they should be such accomplished students of +Shakespeare, but of real wit or humour the German possesses not an +atom. Take, for instance, the modern novels of Suderman, of Rudolph +Herzog, of Rudolph Stratz, of Bernard Kellerman, of Paul Heyse, and +you will find intense seriousness, tragedy, pathos, masterly drawing +of character, and absolutely no fun from cover to cover. As for the +"Fliegende Blätter," the German "Punch," it is the sickliest imitation +of humour possible to conceive. Foremost in science, the German is yet +a neophyte in the graces and arts of life. What cooking! what clothes! + +_September 22nd._--If we may believe such good news we are to be +released from this irksome life, and set at liberty next Saturday. Our +joy is much damped, however, by hearing that none of the men are to be +allowed to leave, and, of course, their wives stay with them. Mr. Ives +has made a special journey to Berlin on behalf of our poor men, but +the authorities are obdurate. + +People say that the loss of life in this terrible war is beyond belief +as far as the Germans are concerned. To hide this the Emperor requests +that no one shall wear mourning for the dead until the war is over. +Also, no complete catalogues of casualties are issued, only lists for +each kingdom, or duchy, so that the bulk of the people have no idea of +the waste of life. The wounded being so numerous, the doctors now have +little time to attend to them on the spot, and therefore they are put +into trains and sent off to "Lazaretts" sometimes before even their +wounds are washed. A Belgian lady who had a special police permit to +go to Frankfort, returned this afternoon in a train full of wounded +soldiers. One of these was put into her carriage. He had been badly +shot in the arm; his sleeve was soaked with blood, and that had +coagulated; his wound had never been washed, and French earth was +still on his boots, and yet he had been sent in this condition from +Rheims to Giessen! + +_September 23rd._--Terrible news! A telegram was posted up in the town +this morning, saying that three English "Panzerkreuzers" had been sunk +by one German submarine. Of course the church bells pealed, and the +flags came out, and the children sang "Nun danket alle Gott," because +950 brave Englishmen had gone under. We are much depressed, and our +depression is aggravated by the want of occupation here. We dare not +sketch for fear of being "verhaftet" (arrested). It is no good writing +because every scrap of paper will be taken from us on the frontier; +nobody I know plays bridge, and so I read and walk all day long. Miss +H---- tells me that a rude young clerk in the "Löwen-Apotheke" refused +to talk English to her this morning, "You will have to learn German +now, because we shall be in London within a fortnight," said he! No +German I have yet known foresees any other result of this war but +success. The Fatherland Commissariat, according to the Italian papers, +leaves much to be desired. The unfortunate soldiers are almost +starving, and often live for days together on raw carrots, turnips, +herbs, or any other vegetable they can root up out of the ground. The +doctors are puzzled because men have died of such seemingly slight +wounds. One case seemed so incomprehensible that an autopsy was +decided on, and a raw root with fragments of earth upon it was found +in the poor creature's stomach. The Russians left at 5 a.m. this +morning, men and women. It is more than hard that our poor men should +be left behind. Lady M----, who has been ill, and her daughter, an +invalid lady, and her maid, were given special passes to go a couple +of days ago. Miss M---- and Miss G---- went to the police station +armed with these passes, and requested to have their passports back. +"The Demon" curtly refused. "But you _must_ give them to us," said +Miss M----. "Don't say _müssen_ to me!" said "the Demon," "_bitten_ +is the word!" (Don't say _must_ to me, _beg_ is the word). + +_September 24th._--Joyfully packing! A last meeting was held at the +"Prince of Wales' Hotel" where kind Mr. S---- presided, and we all +received instructions for our journey, and our long detained +passports! + +Fifty women and children go. We sleep in Frankfort, and cross from +Flushing to Folkestone. Oh! that terrible mined sea, and the +"untersuchung" of the Frontier. I tremble for this Diary, all letters +I have destroyed. + +FRANKFORT, _September 25th._--We are still in the enemy's country of +course, but have come out of our prison Altheim. All were early at the +Bahn-Hof. There for the last time, please God! we found our old horror +the Chief of Police. He had a long paper in his hand, and read out our +names; "Hamilton?" "Here!" "Your passport?" (which he scrutinised as +if he had never seen such a thing before), and so on. As we got our +precious papers back we passed through the barrier, where our tickets +were clipped, and on to the platform above. The train when it came in +was crammed with soldiers, and we were advised to wait two hours for +the next, but (to a woman) we all preferred travelling third, or even +fourth class, rather than remain another hour where we had suffered so +much. Miss G---- told me afterwards that she had travelled with two +German men, who cursed England up and down, using the most horrible +language about her. + +Presently a wounded soldier came into the carriage, and they asked him +where he had been fighting. "On the Western Frontier," said he. + +"With the French?" + +"Yes." + +"Did you see the English?" + +"No." + +"Of course not! They had all run away. Cowards, cowards!" + +These are the things which make life so unendurable in an enemy's +land. I was sent here to the "Hessicher-Hof," which, although it +masquerades under another name, I had no difficulty in recognising as +the former "Englischer-Hof." Miss H---- went to the "Hotel Bristol," +and when she got there found over the door the one word "Hotel." What +we women should have done without the able committee who arranged all +details for us with such kindness and thoroughness, I cannot imagine. + +_September 28th._--There were few tears shed when we steamed out of +Frankfort two days ago on our way to home and freedom. It was +wonderful to feel that we might talk above a whisper in the +railway-carriage; amazing that we had not to scrutinize carefully +every corner to be sure no spies lurked there, and most delightful of +all to know that we had got beyond the reach of the Demon of the +Burg-Strasse. Egotistically enough we went over in retrospect our +anxieties, disappointments and miseries. Should we ever get rid of +that evil shadow, we wondered, which had darkened so cruelly two weary +months of our lives! + +Now and then we looked out of the windows with distaste--agreed that +the outskirts of Frankfort were hideous with their obtrusive and +insistent collection of factory chimneys; and shuddered at the distant +and beautiful background of mountain and forest, to us so teeming +with painful memories. We exclaimed at the unsightliness of the huge +skeleton lettering proclaiming to all the world that a _maschinen-Fabrik_ +was below. Even when we entered a bucolic region of modest gardens and +saw nothing more aggressive than cabbages and turnips, we turned away +from the sight with aversion. Yet the villages are picturesque enough, +and so are the towns. Timber-framed and gabled houses, steeply pitched +red roofs and stunted grey and mossy church spires, certainly make no +unpleasing picture. In happier days I have admired the grape-vines +meandering over the whitewashed cottages, and marvelled at the +monotony of taste which furnished every window-ledge with exactly four +pots of scarlet geraniums. Now, nothing pleased us that was German; +scenery, architecture or people! "This," we said to ourselves, is "the +sunny Rhineland through which we are passing, and we see no obvious +signs as we go by of the struggle which is devastating Belgium and +menacing France." At the first station, however, we realised that +Germany was indeed at war. Red Cross nurses seemed everywhere. Long +tables were spread with snowy cloths and bore coffee urns, zwiebacks, +hörnchen and huge bowls of steaming soup ready for the poor wounded as +they pass through. Now and then pale bandaged faces looked out at us +from passing trains, and men on crutches hobbled by, and the horrors +of mutilating war came home to us all. At Goch we had to show our +passports, and have our luggage examined, but the reality proved not +nearly so bad as our imaginings, and on the whole the officials were +kind and courteous compared to our Altheim demon. The sun was setting +blood-red behind a distant line of black forest when we left Goch and +our enemies and imprisonment behind us and entered the Land of Promise. + +We had all been saddened in the morning to learn that Mr. Ives' +strenuous efforts to get permission for the men left behind to go +soon, had met with a curt refusal from the Commandant at Frankfort. +"When England returns our men, not before, and she had better be quick +about it," said he. But how true is Rochefoucauld's cynical +epigram--"Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux +d'Autrui!" Even our sympathy with, and sorrow for, those left in +Altheim could not damp the joy we felt to be free again; and when we +quitted Goch, the German frontier station, I thought how blessed would +be that day when "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and +their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword +against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall +sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall +make them afraid." + + + + + GERMAN TRAVEL NOTES + + "TAKIN' NOTES" + + +He who knows his Rhine and loves it must take of its charms in small +doses, or satiety is the outcome. There are those, of course, who can +travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, "'Tis all barren"; but the +ordinarily intelligent traveller may find much to delight and interest +on the banks of the Rhine, always provided that he suits his mood to +his environment, and takes but little of Rhine scenery at a time. For +surely between Coblentz and Bingen there is an iteration as regards +castles and ruins which is downright wearisome. Do we not between +these points find Lahneck, Marksburg, Sterrenberg, Liebenstein, The +Mouse, Rheinfels, The Cat, Schönburg, Gutenfels, The Pfalz, Stahleck, +Furstenberg, Hohneck, Sooneck, Falkenburg, Rheinstein, and Ehrenfels? + +Moreover, there is an affinity of form and colour and, indeed, of +situation between all these which produces the effect of perpetual +repetition. And we owe Byron a grudge for having written such trite +words as "the castled crag" in relation to the Rhine, since no +commonplace mind of the present day acquainted with his works but has +fallen back on "the castled crag" to describe Drachenfels or Marksburg +or Rheinfels, because, forsooth, its own English is too limited to +supply a better adjective. So it is that conventional and inadequate +English is perpetuated and individual force and expression are lost +because people accept the ideas of others and will not seek language +to convey their own. + +All of which above prosing is the result of a day on the Rhine when +the thermometer registered 74° to 84° in the shade, and a white vapour +hid the banks of the river from Köln till close on Bonn. At Bonn a +huge party of "personally-conducted" American tourists came on board. +Their sharp, keen, eager, shrewd faces and shrill voices proclaimed +their nationality at the outset. They were all obviously outside the +pale of Society, and their thirst for information and keen interest in +their surroundings were amazing. One learned before long that they had +"done" the Paris Exhibition and meant to have a "look in" at most +European countries before sailing from Naples. They took the whole +ship into their confidence before a quarter of an hour had passed; and +we shared alike in thrilling intelligences conveyed through the medium +of Baedeker's pages. "The castled crag" resounded from one end of the +boat to the other; and as for Roland and Hildegunde, the tragedy of +their lives was discussed, and exclaimed over, and lamented, until, +happily, a bend of the river hid Nonnenwerth from sight. + +In emphatic contrast to the nervous alertness of the Yankee was the +spectacle of the middle-class German and his ways. He sat by his +plain, stout, ill-dressed Frau, with his back to the scenery, and ate. +Occasionally he spoke in monosyllables: more often he drank; but the +end and object of his Rhine trip seemed to be that of consuming as +much food as lay within the limits of possibility. What Nemesis has in +store for him and those of his manner of life I can only imagine! + +At a table near us sat three women and two men. Directly we left Köln +a waiter set forth trays in front of them laden with coffee, +zwiebacks, hörnchens, and eggs. This meal over, they sat sleepily +blinking their eyes, whisking away flies, and mopping the moisture +from their faces until the sound of "Eis! meine Herrschaften!" "Bier! +meine Herrschaften!" roused them from their lethargy. Ices and beer +and cherries and peaches successively filled up the weary hours until +"the tocsin of the soul, the dinner bell," carried joy to their +hearts. I can never forget the rapturous look of anticipation and +satisfaction which those stolid middle-class Teutonic countenances +wore when "Mittagsessen" was announced. They shook off their normal +and habitual torpidity, and cheerfully elbowed their neighbours, +nearly tumbling down the companion-ladder in their eagerness to be +first in the field. They lost no time over the unlovely detail of +tucking a corner of their napkins down their necks, and smoothing its +folds over their protuberant persons; and they studied the +Speise-Karte with a conscientiousness that was worthy of a better +cause. + +Dinner began with a tolerably good soup, followed by tough roast beef, +cut in thick slices and garnished with carrots, peas and beans. Next +came veal, equally uneatable, and then a surprise in the shape of +Rhine salmon; after which followed chicken, salad, and _compôte_. +Finally, a stodgy pudding, sufficiently satisfying, and dessert. Not +one item of the menu was neglected by the five. They calmly and +conscientiously and readily ate through the Speise-Karte from start to +finish. Then they returned to deck, only to order coffee and ices, and +called for a bottle of champagne, three of light Rhine wine, and a +plateful of peaches; out of which they brewed a cup, ladling it from a +Taunus ware bowl into their long Munich glasses, and sipping it lazily +all the afternoon between such trifles as Kuchen and fresh relays of +cherries. They ate and drank from Köln to Bingen with rare intervals +of dozing, and I never once saw any of the party take the faintest +interest in the Rhine, so far as its banks were concerned. + +It was a relief to turn from such grossness to its antithesis in the +shape of two American ladies who sat near us. They were +well-preserved, well-bred spinsters under forty. Everything about them +was dainty and exquisitely neat. I likened them in my mind to bowls of +dried rose-leaves--the freshness gone, the perfume left. Such was +their intense and intelligent interest in travel that, rather than +lose a timber-framed village or historic castle, a vineyard or +watch-tower, they abstained from lunch and picnicked lightly on deck +off tea and eggs and hörnchen. They knew the legends of the Rhine as +you and I know (or ought to know) our Prayer-Books. They had studied +the history of Germany, and mastered the intricacies alike of the +Thirty Years' War and of the Hohenzollern pedigree; and they talked +well, expressing their ideas in good Saxon words; at times, perhaps a +trifle pedantic, but never offensively so. + +As the day wore on the temperature became almost overpowering. The +water reflected a blinding glare, and a heat like that of a burning +fiery furnace was radiated from the engines. I was wondering whether a +hammock in a cool English garden would not have been more desirable, +when I heard a plaintive, uneducated American voice behind me ask a +question of its mate which exactly embodied my own unuttered +sentiments: + +"What _I_ want to know, Jake, is: Is this pleasure, or ain't it? Did +we come here to enjoy ourselves, or what?" + +JAKE: "Wall, I guess you ain't used to travelling around, my dear, and +you don't understand it. Oh, yes" (with an obvious effort), "this is +real fust-class pleasure, this is!" + +MRS. JAKE: "Wall, I'm darned! I'd as lief be in our store." + +JAKE: "Sakes alive! You _do_ surprise me! Think what Keren-Happuch +Jones will say when you mention casual on your return something that +happened when you was sailing up the Rhine. She'll die of envy, she +will, and spite to think you've seen more'n her." + +MRS. JAKE (cheered somewhat): "Wall, I reckon, Jake, there's summat in +that. Keren-Happuch don't like anyone to do what she don't do." + +JAKE: "And then, my dear, think of your noo bonnet from Paris! That'll +be another pill for Keren-Happuch to swallow." + +MRS. JAKE: "My! Yes! I don't think much of Europe, anyway, but I could +never have bought that bonnet in Baltimore. But, Jake, do look on the +map and tell me when we get to Heidelberg." + +JAKE: "It ain't any good my lookin', my dear, for I wasn't raised to +these sort of things, and I'm darned if I know where to find it." + +A groan from Mrs. Jake, followed by: "Wall, I reckon when I find +myself again in No. 9, Mount Mascal Street, I won't want to go +travelling around even to cut out Keren-Happuch Jones." + +I came to the rescue at this point, and showed the good lady where +Heidelberg lay. She was a hard-featured, plain woman of some +thirty-eight summers, her hair was dragged back uncompromisingly from +her forehead, and there were no "adulteries of art" about either +coiffure or costume. + +"You see," she said apologetically, "Jake here and me are travelling +around, and the only way we can get on is to ask for a ticket to a +place, and never stop travelling till we get there. We speak German +all right because my parents were Germans, and Jake was born in +Germany; but he don't know much about it because he was only two years +old when he left it eight-and-thirty years ago. We thought we'd like +to see the Paris Exposition, but my! it ain't to be compared to the +Chicago Exhibition, and as for Paris, it can't come up to Noo York, +and these river steamers ain't a patch on the Hudson River boats, and +I don't think much of Europe anyway." + +Jake, a good-looking, gentle-mannered man, tried to soften the +asperity of his wife's strictures without success. He evidently adored +her. + +"The way we travel," resumed Mrs. Jake, "is to think of a place we've +heard of, and to ask for a ticket to it. Now, we'd heard of Paris and +Cologne, and Heidelberg, and Baden, and Dresden, and Berlin, and +Hamburg, but we don't know now how they come--see? So we hev' to go +cavortin' around to find out which to take next. A gentleman way back +at Cologne"--she pronounced it "Klon"--"told me Heidelberg came next. +I quite thought Baden was near Hamburg, and that we should take it +last; but they tell me it ain't, and that, you see, has upset all our +calculations. Guess you're a Londoner, anyway; thought so by your +accent!" + +When we left the steamer at Bingen, the last I heard of Mrs. Jake was +a plaintive moan: + +"Guess I don't think much of Europe, anyway, and I wouldn't come +again, not even to cut out Keren-Happuch!" + + + + + OF SOME FELLOW TRAVELLERS AND THE CATHEDRAL OF MAINZ. + + +"Ja Wohl! Frau Rittergutsbesitzer. I have lived in the Herr +Professor's house for five-and-thirty years. I have pickled his +cabbage and preserved his fruit. I have minced with my own hand the +pork for his sausages before they had mincing-machines in +Schleswig-Holstein. I have seen personally to the smoking of his hams +and fish. I make his Apfelkuchen and Nusskuchen myself, and do not buy +them in the shop, like that lazy Hausfrau opposite us at No 2, who +comes from that God-forgotten country England, where all the women are +so badly brought up. I grant you that what I do is no more than the +duty of every God-fearing German _Haushälterin_; none the less, I do +not mean all my work to go for nothing, and I will not be ousted by a +hussy! In the time of the _vielbedauerten_ mother (Frau Regierungsrat +Lenbach) I had no worries about his matrimonial affairs; she looked +after those. But _sieh mal_, Frau Riedel, now the care of him is on my +shoulders. He has no more idea of taking care of himself than a baby! +He is exactly like that learned man--I think it was our great +Neander--who was running out of his college one day and ran into a +cow; so he pulled off his hat and said, '_Gnädige Frau, ich bitte um +Verzeihung_' ('Gracious lady, I beg your pardon'), and went on; and +the week after he came tearing round the same corner, thinking, I +suppose, of those heathen gods and goddesses whose pictures shame a +modest woman to look at, and he ran up against a lady, so he cried +out: '_Oh! du dumme Kuh! warum kommst du mir immer in den Weg?_' ('Oh, +you stupid cow, why will you always get in my way?') Yes, my Herr +Professor is just like that--quite as stupid, though they call him so +wise and clever; and what chance has a born innocent like he is +against a designing spinster of forty-five who makes him presents of +_Weihnachtstollen_ at Christmas, _Oster-Eier_ at Easter, and +_Geburtstagstorte_ on his birthday? I ask you what chance of escape a +poor _Junggeselle_ has? + +"Told him she wanted to marry him! Not I. Why, _liebe Frau_, I have +not lived sixty-five and a half years in this world for nothing! If I +let him suppose she was in love with him, that would be the very way +to make him like her. So as I laid the cloth for the Herr Professor's +_Abendtisch_, I remarked casually that Fräulein Bettine Meyer was not +at all a bad sort of woman really, and that she had some excellent +qualities, if only she did not make herself so ridiculous. 'How +ridiculous?' says he, sitting up. 'What does she do ridiculous, I +should like to know?' 'Why, wears a false front and curls bought at +Frau Kölsch's shop,' says I. 'Poor thing, she can't make herself look +young and beautiful, whatever she does, and Frau Rittmeister Bernstorf +was laughing at her the other day, and at the high heels and at the +stuffing the _Schneiderin_ round the corner puts into her gowns to +cover the angular bones! She would look much more respectable,' said +I, 'if she would brush her scanty grey locks back, and smooth them +with pomatum as I do, and wear a black lace _Mütze_ over them, instead +of making herself the laughing-stock of Schleswig.' And away I walked. +And the Professor ate no supper that night, and next day he left for +his _Ferienausflug_, and never called to say good-bye to Fräulein +Meyer; and so I put the extinguisher on that little candle just as its +flame was beginning to burn up, and--why! here we are at Mainz." + +And this is what I heard, and how I was entertained, in the +"elektrische Bahn" on my little expedition from Wiesbaden to Mainz. I +reflected, as I saw the Haushälterin get down heavily with all the +deliberation of her sixty-five and a half years, that feline amenities +are much the same in Germany as in England; and I felt sorry for poor +Fräulein Meyer, who might have given up her small vanities and made +pancakes and _Apfelkuchen_ for the Professor quite as well in the end +as the Haushälterin. + +The cathedral of Mainz was, of course, the object of our expedition. +It dominates the city from afar, with its wonderful towers and +pinnacles, making of Mainz (a commonplace city enough) a thing of +beauty. From the shores of the Rhine we crossed a wide street planted +with trees and lined on each hand with modern German houses of pinkish +stone (covered with heavy sculpture and breaking out into countless +balconies and bay windows), and soon found ourselves in the +market-place. And here, indeed, one felt oneself in the Germany of +bygone days. Instead of pseudo-classic buildings, heavy with +meaningless ornamentation, we found beautiful old timber-framed +houses, with deep eaves and wood carvings. On one of these I read: + + Zum Kurfürstlichen + Wappen. + Erneuert in Jahr + des Heils + 1899. + +It was evidently a Gasthaus of considerable antiquity, and had been +carefully restored. Close by a Brobdingnagian finger lured the unwary +to where it pointed--a low doorway above which was inscribed the +legend: "_Hier essen Sie gut_." The market-place had been dismantled +of its stalls and umbrellas all but one, which was being furled as we +arrived on the scene. A couple of men in blue smocks were sweeping up +the cabbage leaves, straw and refuse, market carts were driving off, +and smart-looking officers in beautiful uniforms strolled across what +we English miscall "a square" for want of a better word. + +But to get a good view of the exterior of the cathedral was what we +wanted, and to this end we dived down strange, evil-smelling alleys, +and went round and round a labyrinth of streets, always expecting to +see, and never arriving at, the cathedral's façade. At last we +realised that the quest was hopeless, since the building is so +surrounded and deformed by commonplace, ugly houses that nothing of it +but roof and towers can be seen from outside. We entered it at last by +a narrow lane between poor, ugly houses, an unfit approach indeed to +this beautiful Romanesque cathedral--one of the four famous Romanesque +Gothic cathedrals of Germany. The general effect of the interior is +that of strength, solidity, and simplicity. The grand structural lines +are noble and pure. There is an entire absence of the florid in +architecture, and no attempt at all at decoration as one understands +it in Spanish cathedrals. The tone of the walls and floor is a pinkish +brown, and the whole church has a warm glowing effect from its +richly-coloured stone. I could have spared most, if not all, of the +overladen rococo monuments to the Electors of Mainz, with their +monstrous records of impossible perfections; but my companion (a +German lady) thought them beautiful. The whole church struck one as +rather ill-kept; perhaps the red stone floor had something to do with +it. Dust and mud do not adhere somehow to an opus Alexandrinum +pavement. A guide appeared to offer his services, almost obsequiously +polite in his attentions to the English lady. Whatever their opinions +may be as to our failings and vices, our shortcomings and our +iniquities, most Germans are civil to us nowadays.[3] They hate us +cordially, envy us sincerely, attack us in the press and out of it, +and are insanely jealous of the people they affect to despise. But +while the superficial _entente_ lasts, they smile and bow and are +outwardly polite. I asked an English lady, the widow of a German +official, if her husband, having married an English wife, did not +cherish kindlier sentiments towards us than the majority of his +countrymen. "He died during the Boer war," she said, "and he died in +the sure and certain hope that England was done for." + + [Footnote 3: This was written before the war.] + +Apart from the Domkirche, there is little to see in Mainz, although +the city is of great antiquity, having been founded by Drusus. It is a +strongly fortified place, and stood once upon a time a memorable +siege. There are pleasant walks by the Rhine, beautiful Anlagen, a +picturesque old tower, and the site of Gutenberg's house to see. The +Grand Ducal Palace once sheltered Napoleon the First, as did many +another palace in Germany. The present Grand Duke prefers his palace +in Darmstadt, the Neue Palais (built by Queen Victoria for Princess +Alice), and comes little to the ancient city of bygone Electors. + +We have fallen into German ways--alarming thought!--and become +unquestionably alive to the virtues of cafés and Restaurations as a +wind-up to a day's expedition. At Mainz we discovered a café close to +the theatre, and sipped coffee and ate _Streuselkuchen_ out of doors +in the shadow of the cathedral and Gutenberg's statue. A +pleasant-faced Gretchen brought us miniature Mont Blancs of whipped +cream on small glass plates, and loitered near us ostensibly +rearranging a table, but in reality studying our gowns and hats. +Before we paid our Rechnung, the Haushälterin and Frau Rittergutsbesitzer +turned up hot and rather cross, having spent their time since we +parted in futile attempts to match Schleswig-Holstein ribbons with +those of the sunny Rhineland. + + + + + SCHLANGENBAD. + + GREEN HILLS AND BLUE WATERS. + + +Schlangenbad, although a charmingly pretty spot, is not one to +fascinate a painter. The landscape is unvaryingly green, and that +green is too monotonous in tone for effect in a picture. Moreover, it +lies shut in by hills, and there is no distant horizon to give the +value of foreground and middle distance. But less critical eyes find +much to admire in Schlangenbad. The great wide road leading to it from +Eltville testifies to its former popularity in the days of family +coaches and postilions. Nowadays an ugly steam tram transports the +traveller from the Rhine to the "Serpent's Bath," and nearly poisons +and chokes him _en route_ with the horrible smoke it emits. Half of +the tram is open to the air at the sides, like a char-a-banc; and when +we travelled by it a little party of Germans were enjoying an +_Ausflug_, each man with one eye cocked on the scenery and the other +on the look-out for a _Bier-garten_. + +Next to me sat a student, whose face was so slashed and gashed that it +reminded one of "Amtshauptmann Weber" (in Reuter's delightful book), +whose "face looked as if he had sat down upon it on a cane-bottomed +chair." Opposite the student was a middle-aged fat "Assessor," with a +small girl in long frilled drawers and short petticoats; and on the +other side of the gangway were two homely-looking women in +lead-coloured garments. As we passed through Altdorf the child drew +her father's attention to a fat goose which waddled away as the tram +approached. "_Sieh mal, Vater_," said she, "_die schöne Gans_." +("Look, father, at the beautiful goose.") "O! _die Gans_," said her +practical and prosaic parent, "_wird viel schöner sein, mein Kind, +wenn sie gebraten ist_." ("The goose will be much more beautiful, my +child, when it is roast.") "And has an accompaniment of sage-stuffing +and apple-sauce," I added, to which he in all serious conviction bowed +an assent. + +The valley up which we journeyed was green and pleasant. There were no +walls or fences on either side of the road, but trees shaded the +wayfarer, and his outlook on gardens, bean-poles, orchards, and vines +was agreeable enough. If he chose to look further afield a silvery +streak called the Rhine was visible, and beyond that again low blue +hills stretched away until their cobalt and that of the sky got mixed +on the palette of Nature. From this valley comes the famous +Rauen-thaler wine. Most of the hills, indeed, are covered with vines, +and the village houses showed grapes hanging from their eaves and +peeping in at their windows. + +At Neudorf we paused to pick up a _Barmherzige Schwester_; and as our +halt was exactly in front of the village shop I amused myself by +making a mental inventory of its contents. The window--an ordinary +one--had wooden shelves nailed across it; and on these were displayed +soap, slates and slate-pencils, bottles of peppermint lozenges, +hearthstone, flannel, lemon-drops, gingham, sausages, and gingerbread. + +The houses of the village were covered with rough stucco, and white or +yellow-wash was swished liberally over them. Under their deep eaves an +occasional small image of _Die Mutter Gottes_ was to be seen. Many +were covered with grape-vines, and all had clean muslin blinds at +their windows, and often pots of geraniums and fuchsias outside. +Sunflowers, dahlias, and roses grew in the little patches of garden by +the road; and all was charming and primitive, save for the discordant +electric fittings which hung midway on the telegraph-posts, and the +anomaly of a brand new brick _Brod-fabrik_ just outside the village. + +All the way up the "cane-bottomed chair" and the "Assessor" smoked +stolidly, while their women-folk cackled like human geese. "_Wie +schön!_" "_Colossal!_" "_Entzückend!_" "_Reizend!_" Nothing but +incessant and weary adjectives! I turned with relief to the +"Barmherzige Schwester," a prim and silent little figure in neat blue +cotton gown, black apron, and white kerchief pinned over her shining +hair. + +The tram stopped at last before the village church, and we all got +out. To our left, as we faced the Kurhaus, straggled a long line of +houses with deep verandahs and balconies, to our right shady walks and +bath-houses and beautiful woods. Here and there amid the hotels and +villas was a shop, and we knew that Schlangenbad marched with the +times when we saw the word "_Schamponieren_" and a bunch of Empire +curls exhibited as a modern trophy. We stopped at a shop and examined +its wares, which, indeed, hung chiefly on the shutters. There were +Swiss embroidered gowns and blouses to be bought, edelweiss penwipers, +wooden paper-cutters, and clocks with chamois climbing wooden rocks. +Nothing apparently in that shop had been "made in Germany." When we +reached the verandah of the "Nassauer Hof" we were gladdened by bows +from the "Assessor" and the student, who with the "cackling geese" +were seated at a long table consuming piles of Apfelkuchen, +Streuselkuchen, and Napfkuchen to an accompaniment of steaming coffee. + +As for dull, useful information Schlangenbad, of course, was known to +the Romans, and they bathed in its waters. The Middle Ages seem to +have neglected Spas generally, and to have been dead to the joys of a +bath. At all events, nothing more was heard about Schlangenbad or its +springs until in 1687 a wooden hut was put over what was known as the +"Römer Bad." Next the Landgraf of Hesse awoke to the virtues of its +waters, and caused the "Oberes Kurhaus" to be built. Five years +later, the "Nassauer Hof" was erected, and a time of prosperity and +fashion set in for Schlangenbad. The waters have always had a great +reputation for beautifying the skin and healing wounds and sores. It +is on record that Frederick the First of Sweden ordered four thousand +bottles of Schlangenbad water a year as _eau de toilette_, and another +and still vainer sovereign three hundred a week. After this who shall +dare say that women have the monopoly of vanity? + +Besides embellishing, the Schlangenbad waters are good in nervous +disorders, rheumatism, and asthma. They are of an exquisite light-blue +colour, and when bathing in them one's limbs have the appearance of +marble. That the Schlangenbad people think highly of their "cure" is +obvious. I bought a map of the district (manufactured in the place) +and found the word Schlangenbad printed in huge letters, while the +neighbouring town of Wiesbaden was in such small ones that it looked +as if scarcely worth mentioning at all. + + + + + LIEBENSTEIN. + + +Here in the Thuringian Forest, aloof from the stir and roar of life, +lies a Kur-Ort little known to the English world. Its waters are +analogous to those of Schwalbach, its air is as pure, its scenery more +beautiful, and its prices half those of the Taunus Wald. Its people +still retain their primitive charm, unspoilt as yet by the +potentialities of South African or American money-bags. Within easy +reach of such interesting towns as Eisenach, Weimar, Erfurt, Gotha, +and Coburg, it offers many alluring baits to the sightseer; yet to the +coming and going of tourists is it altogether unaccustomed. +Liebenstein lies in a green and beautiful valley, and the hills which +surround it are covered for the most part with great black forests. +Patches of wheat and rye vibrate in the winds which sweep up the +valleys, and the fields of potatoes alternate on the low grounds with +pasturage and orchards. Under the great limestone rocks, which near +Liebenstein rise sheer out of the plain, nestle charming villages, and +long avenues of poplars conduct you where you would go along the high +roads. By the roadside a wealth of flowers is yours for the +picking--wild thyme and asparagus and mallow, periwinkles, and the +picturesque dock and crowfoot. The woods are starred with flowers, and +the perfume of the pines is a revelation. + +The humbler houses of Liebenstein (for the greater part timber-framed +and red-tiled) straggle up the immediate hills which surround it. +Those of more pretention and inevitable ugliness range themselves +decently and in order along two parallel roads. Aloof as this village +is from "the madding crowd's ignoble strife," it has yet been touched +to its undoing by the ruthless finger of conventionality. The +inevitable Kur-Haus and bandstand and Anlagen are here; worst of all, +a Trink-Halle! The Trink-Halle stands a mute and awful warning to the +vaulting ambition which overleaps itself, since a classic temple in +the heart of Liebenstein is surely as much out of place as a tiara +would be on the head of the peasant woman who hands you your daily +portion of Stahlwasser. Even the spring it originally sheltered has +revolted against its sham marble pillars and grotesque entablature, +and betaken itself elsewhere! Nowadays the paint and plaster are +peeling off the columns, and its door is padlocked. Happily--although +a melancholy warning to the educated--it remains a source of pride to +the peasant, who loves his shabby temple as the Romans do the marble +glories of their Vesta. + +Immediately behind the temple are the springs of Georg and Kasimir, at +which stand two charming maidens ready to fill your glasses. No +conventional and hideous hat or bonnet disfigures the neat outline of +their heads. No travesty of Berlin or Paris fashion burlesques their +sturdy figures. Theirs the traditional costume of the Thuringian +female peasant--a dark skirt, and white, short-sleeved chemisette, a +blue apron and the daintiest of white silk kerchiefs, fringed sparsely +and brocaded abundantly with red roses. Albeit their arms are red and +coarse with the combined effect of iron-water, hot sun, and exposure +to the air, their faces make ample amends in their innocent, +good-tempered comeliness. They greet you with a kindly "Guten Tag" or +"Guten Abend," and, in the case of a lady, seldom omit the pretty +"Gnädige Frau," for which our "Ma'am" is but a poor correlative. + +Wandering through the streets of Liebenstein, one is struck by the +intensely picturesque sights of its older and original part. The +little houses are timber-framed and whitewashed, with deep projecting +eaves and often many gables. Their windows are made gay outside by +boxes filled with geraniums, nasturtiums, and fuchsias. Beneath the +windows lie small gardens, in which bloom roses and single dahlias, +while scarlet runners send their tendrils climbing over the palings +which separate road and garden. Many of the little houses have +projecting signs, on which one reads such legends as "_Tabak, +Cigarren, Cigaretten_;" "Adolf Schmidt, _Herren kleidermacher_;" +"_Weinhandlung Naturreinheit garantirt_;" or the very indispensable +"_Bäckerei_." One house bears a tablet announcing to an admiring world +that "_Herzoglich. Sachsen-Meiningen Stadtesbeamter_" lives within. +Cocks and hens, dogs and children, make common playground of these +narrow streets, and one sees in them pretty well every form of animal +life represented, except horses. Now a long cart, drawn by oxen and +well filled, toils up the hill, and not long after follows one drawn +by a big dog. At a pump two tiny girls are busily employed filling +stone jars, which by the beauty and purity of their outlines might +have been Etruscan. Mothers beat mats at their cottage doors, and +shrilly scream at their children to get out of the way of the passing +carts; and the world in this remote village goes on pretty much as it +does elsewhere. + +But the fashionable life of Liebenstein does not concern itself with +such mean sights and bucolic sounds as oxen-carts and crowing of +cocks. It takes its pleasure up and down the long avenues of beech +trees which lie between the Kur-Haus and the Hôtel Bellevue. It +rallies round the bandstand, and makes great show of studying the +programmes of the daily concert. It chatters glibly over the previous +evening's illuminations, and describes them as "_colossal!_" and +"_wunderschön_." Beauty is not in vogue at Liebenstein, judging by the +middle-class Kur guests who haunt the shade of the beech trees. +Indeed, if anywhere in the world an Englishman might be forgiven for +thanking God that he is not as other men are, it would be here among +the "_Ober-Lieutenants_" and "Herr Professors" and their mates. +Figures, both male and female, seem to be of the switchback +order--faces rudimentary in their modelling, and uncompromising in +their plainness, dressing of the ugliest. Yet, _Gott sei Dank!_ Hans +thinks his Gretchen perfection, and it would never enter into innocent +Gretchen's head, as it does mine, to bestow upon Hans the carping +criticism of Portia upon Monsieur Le Bon: "God made him, and therefore +let him pass for a man." + + + + + TRÈVES + + +The dominant glory of the Moselle region is Trèves. No town or city +near has the smallest affinity with its peculiar character, and all +seem modern and prosaic compared with its well-preserved tale of +antiquity. "Nowhere north of the Alps," we are told in weary +iteration, "exist such magnificent Roman remains." It is generally on +the obvious that the unimaginative English parson takes upon himself +to comment. We listen submissively to much school-book lore as to +"Claudius" and the "fourth century" and the "residence of Roman +Emperors," but when it rains Bishops and Archbishops and Electors we +fly before them. For, after all, what signifies the paltry learning of +a dry-as-dust dominie compared with the vivid tales these grand old +ruins tell if suffered to speak for themselves? In Trèves people need +to absorb silently, and then assimilate undisturbed by weary chatter. +One looks at the tender turquoise sky, flecked with luminous clouds; +at the fine horizontal distance, with its sense of breadth and +breathing-space; at the low hills covered with vines; at the +cornfields, and orchards, and river--and we wonder what the old Romans +thought of it all, and reflect on the strangeness of life that a +people so remote from our times should have lived and loved and died, +as we live and love and die to-day. Whether Trèves lie on the right or +left bank of the Moselle is immaterial except to the tiresomely +precise or to those who pin their faith to guide-books and such +shallow teachers. There is a more valuable lesson to be learnt of the +place than that of its exact situation; and no Baedeker or Murray can +help you to appreciate Trèves as quiet communings with your own +intelligence will. If it so happens that you have none to commune +with, then God help you--and yours! + +In Trèves you have not far to go in search of the Romans. Their +_magnum opus_ confronts you boldly at the very threshold of the town. +Solid and massive and symmetrical, it stands a pregnant lesson to the +jerry-builders of to-day. There is little affinity indeed between the +building methods of the ancient Romans and those of their trade whose +sorry, pitiable record exists in the Quartiere Nuovo of Rome. About +the Porta Nigra is no trace of stucco or rubble. The huge blocks of +which it is built stand one upon the other clean-hewn and square. No +signs of mortar are left, but we see marks of iron or brass clamps. +Its colour is a warm, deep red, softened here and there by streaks of +green. + +The Porta Nigra has passed through strange phases since first it +started in life as a city gate. Obviously built for purposes of +fortification, and equipped with towers of defence, its second phase +was an ecclesiastical one, and the "spears" were indeed turned into +"pruning-hooks" when the bellicose propugnaculum found itself +transformed into a church. + + "Last scene of all, + That ends this strange, eventful history." + +The gate was in 1876 finally cleared of priests and altars, and +allowed to revert to its original form. + +Not far from the Porta Nigra stands the Cathedral, one of the oldest +in Germany, archæologically interesting, inasmuch as it owes its +inception to the Romans. The Basilica, built by Valentinian as a court +of law, is clearly traceable in the present cathedral, and one reads a +strange tale of Romans and Franks in the sandstone and limestone and +brick of its walls. Here is treasured the famous Heilige Rock, or holy +coat worn by our Saviour when a boy. At rare intervals this garment is +exhibited to the faithful, who come from all countries to gaze +reverently upon it. Who that has seen can forget the last exposition +in 1891? Never before or since has there been anything more pathetic +than the sight of the long rows of tired, haggard, perspiring, praying +pilgrims, who stood patiently for hours in the broiling August sun, +moving only when permitted, and then at a snail's pace, towards their +Mecca. Plebeian though the majority of faces were, their devotional, +solemn, rapt expressions for the time being ennobled and beautified +them. + +Trèves during that time, however, was by no means the reposeful, +dignified city it is to-day. Its buildings were defaced with flags and +banners, its streets blocked with pilgrims, and the road leading from +the station to the town was lined with booths, whose owners disposed +quickly of such delicacies as Napfkuchen, Streusel-Kuchen, and +Apfelwein. Piety and profit went everywhere hand-in-hand, and a +roaring trade was done in rosaries and bénitiers, the last made of the +blue pottery of the country, and stamped with a representation of Leo +XIII. against a background of Domkirche. + +But to be thoroughly in harmony with Trèves one must be Pagan and +Roman rather than Christian and German. Indeed, one feels in sympathy +with the Isle of Wight farmer who after he had found a Roman villa on +his farm gave up the bucolic and inglorious occupation of growing +turnips and potatoes, and could talk of nothing meaner than hypocausts +and thermae. So we, like the farmer, slight the really beautiful Early +Gothic "Liebfrauenkirche" and roam and muse for hours about the ruins +of the Amphitheatre, the Roman Baths, the Roman Palace and the +Basilica. + + LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, DUKE STREET, + STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W. + + + + + TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +page 23--inserted a missing closing quote after 'Dank!' +page 36--inserted a missing period after 'Burns' +page 61--inserted a missing closing quote after 'France' +page 82--typo fixed: changed a comma into a period after 'pavement' +page 83--typo fixed: changed a comma into a period after 'Electors' +page 93--spelling normalized: changed the position of semi-colon and + a quote after 'Cigaretten' + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A War-time Journal, Germany 1914 and +German Travel Notes, by Harriet Julia Jephson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WAR-TIME JOURNAL, GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 23533-8.txt or 23533-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/3/23533/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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