CHAPTER VI. Letters from the Old Country-Bendorf Comes under the Dominion of the Murdering Margrave of Anspach. It is before me as I write-this old letter-a little torn in places, and tanned by time to the color of old gold; yet, in a good state of preservation, and the penmanship almost like copyplate in excellence. Its writer, Johannes Georg Hager, was an "Evangelical Præceptor," (teacher of a Latin school), and clerk of the Bendorf church; such a person in a German village being second only to the pastor and burgomaster. The parish register, in speaking of his death, in 1775, in his sixty-first year, records that he had been active for thirty-four years in his church and school duties. This letter served as his first introduction to Johannes' immediate family, as, in 1744, the preceptor had married Magdalena Christina Catharina Antonetta, the twenty-year-old daughter of Georg Peter Otto, whose wife, Veronica Gerdrutta, was the sister of Mariah Katrina. The communication is interesting, not only on account of the news it gives of the middle of the last century, but because of the piety evinced in its solemn invocation and benediction, and also as showing the stately and courteous style of writing at that time. BENDORFF, June, 1745. Corner torn off. MR. COUSIN CHILDREN. -dear friend with all my heart sympathy [torn] all wish extraordinary joy by the long [torn] expected wish from the foundation of [torn] the heart that the Almighty [torn] continually bless you also for the future and all your acts [torn] and that although in a foreign country our friendship may get cultivated and grow stronger, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen! You may perhaps think what a new cousin I may be, wherefore I commence by informing you that after the death of Mr. [torn] pold in 1742 I was called here as preceptor and was married last Fall, 1744, with Magdalena Catharina, the only daughter of your brother-in-law, Otto, which accounts for our new relationship. To our all desolation our Lord has taken from us in 1741 my mother-in-law, in consequence of a fever—the same sickness which caused the death of young Mrs. Giegmann and many others. [torn] On 31 Jan., we had a calamity here as you will perhaps be aware already, whereby 75 houses were burned down. The fire commenced at the Forsten house, near the Steingate, but how it originated has not been ascertained, so far, and from there everything burned down to the Herrschafts Keller House, touching also my school house; the principal street burned down as far as Cæsar's house, and on the other side down to the pastor's house. So that between the Stein-gate and the Bach-gate there was not a single building remaining, and as you are acquainted yet with the locality you may judge for yourselves who are the people who are burned out, and if you had been present yet you would have been a sufferer too. The misery was terrible for these poor people, to see their fruits and corn a prey of the flames, and the whole was done so remarkably quick that in half an hour's time all the buildings, actually burned down, stood in full flames. It was lucky that it happened in day-time and not during the night, as otherwise many a life would have been lost; but thousand times thanks to our Lord there was no accident of the kind. On a conflagration which came so suddenly scarcely nothing of personal property could be saved; many of them have commenced rebuilding like [several names torn out,] cousin Andreas Kirgerber, who sends thousand greetings, and many others. As we are now under a different "regime," that of the Landgraf of Anspach, which is near Nuremberg, many things are changed here, the town having formerly been under the dominion of Hackenburg, but now in consequence of an exchange we belong to the margrave alone, whereby changes in the manner of building are to be observed which cause many expenses, and no one can build up his house again on the spot it formerly stood on, but had to build in conformity with certain street regulations. The fire made many people poor, and the loss of the 1740 barrels of wine and vineyards, during the late war, reduced the inhabitants so much that I am afraid that Bendorff will never be again what it was before-commerce and trade in general being in poor condition. Amongst other news I may mention that Pastor Schmitt and his wife are dead, also Knobels, and your cousin, Mrs. Ruckert, away from seven children. Of your four letters we have not received one, except the first one, whereupon we wrote again immediately and would have written oftener since, if we had known of an opportunity available. I am very much surprised that cousin Henry in Hochstenbach, did not write to you through the opportunity which was offered to him. It seems, however, as if your sister dear, our cousin, had died, some information of the kind having reached us at the time my mother-in-law was still living. Her loss was very much lamented by my mother-in-law and all the friends, and they all wished she would live yet. * * * As regards her succession cousin Anton Kirberger has been curator over it, and was trying to get something out yet, but the matter was treated so copiously that the lawyers made the most of it. Although he took the matter at heart more than a brother, he could not attain his purpose to have bankruptcy declared, in which case everything would have been divided honestly. * * Our Lord the Almighty restitute it to you 1000 times, and bestow upon you good health and a long life; 1000 greetings to all relations and friends whatever THE GERMANY OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY. 67 their names may be, and that they all may prosper. I would most obediently request that you may avail yourself of the first opportunity offering to write again, and we shall surely answer by returning opportunity. You would at the same time do us a favor to write us something about the customs of the country, the description of houses, mills, furniture, gardening, vegetables and what the difference is between those we have in Germany, and about iron for the mechanics, and cloth, and anything connected with husbandry and agriculture? And now I leave you all to the mercy and providence of our Lord, recommending myself to your continued remembrance, and remain with our best salutations and much esteem, Your all, sincerest friend and servant, JOH. GEO. HAGER, Præceptor. "On the human imagination events produce the effect of time." I am indebted to Cooper for this idea-No! not for the idea, but for the words expressing it; for no one discourses more eloquently, than does this novelist, of the links of recollection that bring back to the mind the innumerable changes in a comparatively short period, which causes a recent date to appear as remote as the days of dark antiquity. A. D. 1745 is not a long time ago; the span of existence of but few lives would bring us back to that year; but yet, when one contemplates the astounding alterations that have taken place in the map of Europe since that date, events seem to mark a far greater lapse of time than do the intervening years. When the writer of this old letter was rounding his sentences, Germany was composed of hundreds of separate kingdoms and principalities, each with conflicting interests, their rulers at all times ready to pounce on each others' territory in defence of real or imaginary rights, or in vengeance for fancied wrongs. Prussia was still in the throes of its birth; Frederick, not yet the Great, was in his direst stress, and in imminent danger of having to abandon to Maria Theresa, that Silesia which he had bought with so much blood and treasure. But, two days after this letter was written, he was saved from that humiliation by the battle of Hohenfriedberg, once of worldwide renown, now almost forgotten. It is when the mind reverts to the altered conditions of the political and personal relations between ruler and subject in Germany, and the great strides taken on the Continent in the advancement of individual rights, that one recognizes how different, as affecting the daily lives and destinies of mankind, is the world of yesterday from that of to-day. In the preceptor's letter there is no sentence weighted with such meaning as the few words announcing the transfer of Bendorf from the sovereignty of Hackenberg to that of Anspach. Late in the seventeenth century Bendorf was included in the county of Sayn-Altenkirchen, which also comprised the districts of Friedewald, Freusburg and Altenkirchen. It was probably known to the Herr Præceptor as the sovereignty of Hackenberg because of the records having been preserved in that town. This territory was the personal estate of Johannetta, wife of the Duke Joh. George I., of Sachsen-Eisenach. By her will of the thirtieth of November, 1685, it was to descend, under the rule of primogeniture, in the line of her eldest son. In 1741, the male line having become extinct, it passed to the descendants of her daughter, Eleonora Sophie, wife of the Margrave Johann. Fredrick of Brandenburg-Anspach, and consequently fell to her grandson, the Margrave Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, of Anspach, who reigned from 1729 to 1757. I have already spoken of the despotic power of petty German princes in the eighteenth century. They ruled over dominions often no larger than one of our counties, and outside of the boundaries of Prussia and Austria, Germany was a patchwork of-when you include free cities and the estates of imperial knights-hundreds of large and small governments. Nor were they compact, as their several possessions were frequently at detached distances, as we see by this letter was the case in the margrave of Anspach acquiring Bendorf. All these princes maintained courts and armies, and their poor subjects were taxed and oppressed to support the luxury and state of the rulers and privileged classes. The peasants were not much better off than serfs, and hordes of officials levied tribute on even the middle and better classes occupying the towns and cities. In some localities sumptuary laws regulated the dress and the food of the people. As Frederick of Prussia grew stronger in his government, matters in this regard were much improved, his example having a beneficial effect on the better class of sovereigns, inducing them to have some respect for the rights of their people; but yet, freedom of the individual, such as was at that time known and enjoyed in the American colonies, had no holding or understanding in the average German mind. When Johannes read this letter, if he knew anything of BENDORF'S WICKED RULER. 69 the character of the margrave of Anspach, he had good cause for devoutly thanking God that he and those dear to him were no longer citizens of Bendorf, and, consequently, subject to the will and caprice of a ruler who was entirely without sympathy for the rights and wrongs of his people, and who himself was governed by impulse and prejudice, rather than by a knowledge of justice, and an intuitive sense of what was due a community over which the chance of birth had placed him. Like all men controlled by their impulses, he could, at times, be generosity itself, but, nevertheless, his subjects preferred to give him a wide berth, acting as had done those of the previous king of PrussiaFrederick the Great's father-who used to fly around corners on the approach of their doughty monarch, fearing to be whacked over their shoulders by his stout cane. But, when the margrave was in a bad temper, and his judgment distorted by passion, his cruelties were apt to be of the most atrocious character. This was rendered more deplorable by the power he wielded over the destinies of the people he ruled; at such a time woe betide the noble, burgher or peasant upon whom he set his malignant eye in anger. Numerous instances are given of the severity and excesses of this prince. In 1740 he imprisoned for life one Christopher Wilhelm Von Rauser, who was merely suspected or accused of posting up caricatures of the court. Once, on hearing that his dogs were not well fed, he rode to the house of the man who had them in charge and shot him dead on his own doorstep. In 1747 he hanged, without trial, a poor servant girl, who was accused of helping a soldier to desert. As the margrave was riding out of his castle one day, he asked the sentinel on guard, who happened not to be a regular soldier, for his musket; the unfortunate fellow, recognizing his prince and not daring to disobey, unhesitatingly gave up his piece, whereupon the margrave called him a coward and no soldier, and had two hussars drag him through the mill-pond; of which treatment he died. It is not my purpose to continue the recountal of the idiosyncracies and wickednesses of this murdering prince. The personality of such a ruler could not but have a far-reaching influence for evil on all his representatives, and the citizens of distant Bendorf had to bear their proportion of the sorrows occasioned by such a government. Nor was escape by emigration any longer an easy matter, as |