Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, July 11, 1880, Page 11

, : mA ioekr gas Sawieh -Germdn Gram- f ” the“ mar.” ' On lds While Tramping in Enrope, Un- dertakes to Study German by ae . Book. - Be its’ Leet in the Genders; and Ghoked A by the Length of Words. : -pecullag Construction of Sentences—Proposed Reforms of the Teutonic Tongue. From Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad.” « A little learning makes the whole world kin.” Proverbs, cil, 7 : : went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day J surprised the keeper of it with my German. spoke entirely in that language. _He was tly interested; and after I had talked awhile he said my German was very rare, ssiblya “unique;? and wanted to add it to his museuln. ifhehad known .what it had cost me to acquire my art, he would also have known that it would break any collector to, buy it, Parris and I, had been hard at work on our German. during several weeks at that time, and, although we had made good progress, it ‘nsd been accomplished under great difliculty and annoyance, for three of our téachers had diedin the meantime. A person who has got studied German can form no idea of qhat a perplexg language it is. Surely there is not another language that is g0 slip-shod and systemless, and so slippery andelusive to the grasp. One is washed bout init, Hither and thither, in the“ most. helpless way; and, when at last he thinks he pas captured a rule which offers firm ground * totakea rest on amid the seyeral age and tamioil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, “ Let the pupilmake careful note of the- following exceptions.” Heruns hiseye down, and finds that there gre more exceptions to the rule than in- stances of it. Sv,overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and. tind another quicksand. Such has been, and continues tobe, my experience. Every time I think I haye got one of these four confusing “cases” srhere Lam master of it, a seemingly insie- nificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsus- ted power, and crumbles the ground from underme. For instance, my book inquires afteracertain bird—(it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of canse- quence to anybody); ** Where is the bird 2” “Now the answer to tifis question,—according tothe book, —is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain, Of course no bird would do that, but then rou muststick to the book. Very well, [begin tocipher out the German for that answer. I Degin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that istheGerman idea.- Tsay to myself, “Re- gen (rain) is masculine—or maybe it is fenininé—or possibly neuter—it is too much trouble to look, now. ‘Therefore, it is either der (the) Regen, or die (the) Regen, or das (the) Regen, according to which gender jt may turn out to be when Tlook. In the in- terestof science I will cipher it out -on the hypothesis that it isaasculine: Very wel— then the rain. is der Regen, it is simply in the quiescent state of being _men- tioned, without enlargement or discus- sion—nominative case; but this tain is lying around, ina, kind of a general wayon thé ground, it is then definitly lo- cated, it is doing something,—that is, resting: -(which is one of the German grammar’s ideas of doing sumething), aud this throws the rain into the dative case, and makes it dem Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something actively,—it fs falling, —to interfere with the-bird, likely,—and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the _ accusative case and ‘changing dem Regen into den Regen.” aving completed the grammatical boroscope of this matter, I answer up con- fidently and state in German that the bird is staying in thé blacksmith shop ‘wegen (on account of)'den Regen.” -dets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word “wegen” drops into a sentence, it alicuys throws that subject, into the genitive regardléss of conse- quenves,—and that, therefore, this bird staid in the blacksmith shop “ wegen des Regens.” N. B.—1 was informed later, by a higher authority, that there was an “exception”? - which permits one to say “wegen den Regen” in certain peeuliar and complex circum- stances, but that this exception is not éx- tended to anything but rain. ‘There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime im- pressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a «column; it contains all “the ten parts of speech—not in regular order, but mixed; it @ built mainly of compouitd words con- jtructed by the writer.on tife spot, and not to e found in any dictionary—six or seven ~ords compacted into one, without joint or seam—that is, without hyphens;:it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each Anclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with aere and there extra parentheses which re- tnelose three or four of -the minor wirentheses, ‘making. pens within pens; Gnally, ail — the parentheses * an reparenthéses are massed together between 4 coupléof king-parentheses, une of which is placed in the trst line of the majestic sen- tence and the other in the middle of the last line of it—after which comes the verb, and you find out for the first time what the man as been talking about; and after the verb— merely by way of ornament, as far as I can muke out—the writer shovels: in “haben. sind gewesen ychabt haben geworden sein,” ce Words to that effect, and the monuuient is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah isin the nature of the flourish to 2 man’s signature—not necessary, but pietty. Ger- man books are easy enough to read when you hold. them-betore the lovking-glass ‘or standon your head,—sd as to reverse the sonstruction —but I think that to learn to x at Lae ean a Sorina newspaper is Which which must always: rem: Impossibility to B foreigner. ae teen even ‘erman books are not entire- Iy tree from attacks of the Parenthesis dis- Tabet thought they are usually so mild as & cover only a few lines, and therefore when You atlast get down to the verb it carries eye meaning g to your asin because you ate ember a g s eune before “a goud deal of what has Now here is a sentence from 4 popular and reel nt Germ novel,—with Relist par- fithesis in it. J will make'x perfectly Jiteral = nel tion, and throw in’ the parenthesis- one and some hyphens forthe assistance: ore le redder,—though in the original there Bo ea siete mate or by hens, and eft to flounder through to the mero verb the best way he can: = - mi ut when he, upon the street, the (in- ai in-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrain- ly-after-the-newest-fashion-iressed) Guv- erent Oounselor’s wife met,” et by chat is from “fhe Old Mauselle’s Secret,” Hee rs. Marlitt, “And that sentence is con- a icled upon the most approved German i del. You observe how far that verb is e rns the reader's base of operations; well, in awarman newspaper they put their verb in ‘ay over on the next page; and I have re that sometimes x stringing along ‘on exciting preliminaries and parentheses for jcaitunn or two,’ get in a hurry and "eto go to press Withuut getting to the- EB 1 at all. Of course, then, the reader is pinay ry exhausta i ignorant state, ¢ have the Parenthesis di in our lit erature, too: and gone may see ses of it ev- Then the teacher / ery tl: with n our books and, ne rors cloudy intellect, where ba ith the Germans it is doubtless the mark = Sign of @ practiced pen and of the pres- ice of that sort of luminous intellectual for ‘ ich stan s for clearness among these peo- hen For surely itis not ¢clearness,—it nec- Qatily cant be clearness, Even a jury ould have penetration shougt to ‘discover ane A writer's ideas. must be a good deal confused, a good deal: out of line and feuence, when ‘he sterts- out to say thata hte met a counselor's wife in the street, i a then tisht in the midst of this so simple a lertakinye halts these approaching peuple , nt 1 Makes them staud still until he jois down inn entory of the woman’s dress. That is he ifestly absurd: It reminds a person of bres, der is Who secure your instant and | computiles erestin 2 tooth by faking a erip itwith the forceps, and then stand there and drawl through a tedious anecdote before jerk, Parentheses in wey give the dreaded terature and denti: Germans ha’ int is, which they é by split! a“ Wo and pitting half of it at the beginning &2 exciting chapter and the other half at THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE:“SUNDAY,” JULY “11,~1880—SIXTEEN” PAGES, the end of it, Can any one conceive of any- thitg “more confusing than that? ‘These things are called * separable verbs.” ‘Tho German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and .the. wider. the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the beiter tha. author of he crime is pleased with his -performance. A favorit one is reiste ab,—which means, de- parted. Here is an example. whieh I culled trom a novel and reduced to English: |” <The trunks being now ready,jhe DE- after kissing -his mother and ‘sisters, and -once more pressing to his: bosom, his adored Gretchen, ‘who, dressed in .simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown ir, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the ‘past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet onee again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself, PARTED.” However, it is not well to dweli-too. much on the separable verbs. One is sure to lose lis temper early; and if he sticks to the sub- ject, and will not be warned, it will _at last either soften his brain or petrify it, Person- al pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language, and should have been leftout. For instaiice, the same sound, sie, means you, and it means: she, and it means hier, and it means it, and it means they, and it méans them: ‘Think of the ragged poverty of a language, which has to unuke one word do- the work of s and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that, But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of thesé meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person says sie to me,I generally try to kill hin, if a stranger. + Now observe’ the adjective. Here was a ca advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it allhe could. When we wish to speak of our “good friend or friends,” in our enlightened tongue, we stick to the one form and have no trouble or hard feeling about; but with the German tongue it is different. When a Ger- man gets his hands‘on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining ‘it until the com- mon sense Is all declined out of it. It -is as bad as Latin. He says, for instance: SINGULAR. a sacle guter Freund, my good .Genitive—Meines guten Freundes, of my good fiend. Dative—Meinem guten Freund, to my good riend. ; Accusative—Meinen guten Freund, my good friend. PLURAL. —Netne guten Freunde, my good friends. einer guten Freunde, of my good friends. einen guten Freunden, to my good feine guten Freunde, my good friends. Now let the candidate for the asylum try -to memorize those variations, and see how goon he willbe elected. One might better go Without friends in Germany than take all this tronble about them. Ihave shown what a bother it is to decline a good (male) friend; well, this is only a third of the work, for there is a variety of new distortions of the adjective to be learned when the object is feminine, andstill another when the object is neuter. Now, thereure more adjectives inthis language than there are black eats in Switzerland, and the} must all be as elaborately déclined as the examples above suggested. — Difficult 2— troublesome ?—these words cannot describe it. [heard a Californian stuaent in Heidel- berg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective. The inventor of the languege seems to have taken pleasure in. complicating it in every way he could think ot. For instance, if one is casually referring toa house, Haus, ora horse, Pferd, or a dog, Hund, he spells these words as I have indicated; but if he is referring to them in the da- tive case, he sticks on. a_foolish ‘and unnecessary e, and spells them Hause, Pferde, Hunde. So, as an added ¢ often si;pifies the plural, asthe s does with us, the new student is likely to go on for a month ma ing twins out of a dative dog before he dis- covers his mistake; and, on the other hand. many a new student who could ill afford Joss, has bought and paid for two dogs and only got ons of them, because he ignorantly bought that dog-ih the dative singular when he really supposed he was talking plural,— . which left the law on the seller’s side, of course, by the strict rules of grammar, and therefore a suit for recovery could not lie. In German, all the nouns begin with 2 cap- ital letter. Now thatis a good idea; and a good idea, in this Ianguage, {s necessarily conspicuous for its Jonesomeuess. I consid- er this capitalizing of nouns a good idea, be- cause byteason of it you are almostalwaysable to tellanoun the min ute yousee it. Youdfill into error Secasionally. ecause you mistake the name of a person for.the name of a thing, and waste a good deal of time trying to diga meaning out of it. German names almost always do mean something, and this helps to deceive the student. I translated a passage one day, which said that“ the infuriated tigress broke loose and utterly ate up the unfortunate’ fir-forest”* (Tannenwwatld). When I was girding up my loins ‘to doubt this, [found -out that Tannenwald, in this instance, was a man’s name. Every noun ‘has a gender, and_ there is no sense or systém inthe distribution; so the gender of each must_be Iearned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have _a memory like a memorandum-book. In German | a young lady has no sex, while a tur- nip has. | Think what averwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. how it looks in print,—I_ transkite this.from a conversation in one of the best of the Ger- man Sunday-school books: Gretchen—Wilbelm, where is the turnip? Withelm—She bus gone to tho kitchen. ~ Gretchen—Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden? Withelm—It has gone to the opera. ‘+ To continue with the German gende: tree is male, its buds are female, its 1 are neuter; hotses are sexless, dogs are male, cats are female,—Tom-cats included, of course: a person's mouth, neck, bosom, elbows, fingers, nalls, feet, and body, are f the male sex, and his head is male 01 or neuter according to the word se- lected to signify: it, and not accord- ing to the | se: f the individual +01 who wears it,—for in Germany all the women wear either male heads or sexless ones; erson’s nose, lips, shoulders, breast, hands, hips, aud toes, are of the female sex; and his hair, ears, eyes, chin, legs, knees, heart, ‘and conscience, haven't any sexcat all. ‘Lhe in- yentor of the language probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay. Now, by the above: dissection, the reader will see that in Germany aman may think he is aman, but when he comes to look into the matter ‘closely, he’ is bound to have | his doubts; he finds that in sober truth he is a most Yidiculous’ mixture; and “if he ends by trying to comfort * himself with the thought that he can at least depend on a third of this me: and masculine, the humili thought will quickly remind him that in this respect he is no_ better off than any woman or cow inthe Iand, | _In the German it is true that by, some over- sight of the inventor of the language, a Woman is a female; but a Wife (ici), is not,—which is unfortunate. A Wife, here, has no sex; she i: euter; so, according to the graunmar, a fish is he, his scales are she, but a fishwife is neither. ‘fo: describe as Sex. may be: called underdeseription; that is bad enough, but ovérdeseription is surely worse, A German speaks of an En- glishnan as the Englander; to change the sex he adds inn, and that stands for Euglish- woman—Englanderiun. That seems de- scriptive enough, but still it is not exact enough for a German; so “he precedes the word with that article -which indicates that the creature to follow is feminine, and writes it down thus: “die Englanderinn,”—whieh means “the skeEnglishwoman.? 1 sider that that person is over-describ Well, after the student has Jearn ofa great number of nouns, he is sti difticulty, because he finds it impossible to persuade bis tongue to refer to things as “he? and “she? and “him and “her,” which it has been ‘always accustomed ‘to refertoas “it? “When he eyen frames a German sentence in his niind, with-the hims and hers in the right places, and then works up his.courage to the utterance-point, it is ho use,—the moment he begins to speak his tongne flies the track and al! those labored inales and females come out as “its.” And even when he is reading German to himself, he always calls those things ‘it”; whercas he ought to read in this way: s, TALY OF THE FISHWIFE AND ITS SAD FATE.* it isa bleak Day. Henr the Rain, how he pours, and the Fizfl,-how he rattles; and see the Snow, how he drifts long, and ob, the Mud. how Gecp be is! Ah! the poor Fishwife, it is stuck fast in the mire; it has dropped its Basket of ‘ishes; and its bands bnve been cut. by. the Scales as it seized some of the fulling Creatures; and one Scale has evén got ‘into its Eye, and cannot get her out. “It opens its Mouth’ to for Help: but if ‘ny sound comes out of bi alus he is drowned by the raging of the Storm. And now a Tomé¢at has gotone of the Fishes and she will surely escape with him. No, she bites off a Fin, she holds her in her Mouth;—will she * T capitalize the nouns, in the German fand ancient English) fashion. e where simplicity would have been an . See: swallow her? No, the Fishwife’s brava; Mother~ 1e yas his Reward.” wk the Fishb: sil y y ongue; now she atlicks the helpless Fishwife's Foot— she burns him up, all bur the big Toe and even she is partly consumed; und still she spreads, st she waves her ery Tongues; she attacks the Fishwife's Leg and destroys it; she attucks its Hand and destroys her; she attacks its poor worn . ey nso; she attacks its Body and consumes him; she -wreatnes herself about its Heart und it is ‘consumed; next about its Breast, and-in « Moment she is u Cinder; now she renches its Neck,—he goes; now its Chin,—it goes} now its Nose,—she goes. In an- other Moment, except Help come, the Fishwife will be no more. Tine p: es.—is there none to succor etid suve? Yes! Joy. joy, with tying the sne-Enghshwomin comes! But alas, yencrous she-Ferile is tou late: where now is the fated Fishwite? It bns ceased ftom its Suf- ferings, it ins gone to.a better Land; all that is lett.of it for its toved Ones to lament over, is this poor smoldering Ash-heap. Ah, woful, woful Asb-heap! Let us ike him up -tenderly, reyorently, upon the lowly Shovel, and bear hin to-his long Rest, with the Prayer that when he rises again it willbe ina Realm where he will have one good square responsible Sex, and bave it all tw himself, insted of baving vw mangy lot of assorted Sexes scattered all over him in Spots. There, now, the reader can see for himself that this pronoun-businessis avery awkward thing for the unaccustomed tongue, £suppose that in all languages the siini- larities of look and sound between’ words which have no similarity in meaning are a fruitful source of porplexity te the foreigner, It isso in our tongue, and it is ‘notably the ease in, the. German. Now, there is. that troublesome word vermahit: to me it has so close a resemblance—either real or fancied— to three or “four other words, that- I never Imow whether it means des! ainted, suspected, or miuried; unt wok in the stan ary. and then I find it mreans the There are lots ef, such words, and they aré a great torment. To in- crease the difiéulty there are words which seem to resemble each other, and yet do not} but they make just as much trouble asif they: did. For instance, there is the word vérmic- then (to let, to lease, to hire); and the word verheirathen, (another way of saying to marry)... I heard of an. En- lishman who, knocked at a man’s door in Ieilelberg and proposed, in the best German he could command, to “ver- heirathen” that hause. Then there are some words which mean one thifg when you em- phasize the first syllable, but mean something very different if you throw the emphasis on ttie last syllable. For instance, there is a word which means a runaway, or the act of flancing through a bovk, according to the placing of the emphasis; and another word which signifies to associate with a man, or to avoid him, ac- cording to where you put the emphasis,—and you can generally depend on putting it in the wrong place and.getting into trouble. ‘There are some exceedingly useful words in this language. Schlag, for example; and: Zug. ‘There are three-quartets of a column of Schlags in the dictionary, and a column and a half of Zugs. The word Schlag means Blow, Stroke, Dash, Hit, Shock, Clap, Slap, ‘Time, Bar, Coin, Stamp, Kind, Sort, Manner, Way, Apoplexyy Wood-Cutting, Enclosure, Field, Forest-Clearing, This 13 its simple and exact meanivg.—that is to say, its re- stricted, its fettered ineaning; but there are ways by which you can set it free, so that it can soar away, as on the wings of the morn- ing, and never be at rest. You can hang any word you please to its tail, and make it mean anything you want to, - You can begin with Schlag-ader, which means artery, and you can hang on the whole dictionary, word by word, clear through the alphabet to Schlag- qwasser, Which .means bilge-water,—and in- eluding Schlag-mutter, which means moth- er-in-law. Just the same with Zug. Strictly _speak- ing, Zug means Pull, Tug, Draught, Proces- sion, March, Progress, Flight, Direction, Ex- pedition. “Train, Caravan, Passuge, Stroke, ‘Touch, Line, Flourish, Trait of Character, -Feature, Lineament, Chess move, Organ- stop, Team, Whiff, Bias, Drawer, Propensi- ty, Inhalation, Disposition: but thing which it does not mean,—when all its legiti- mate pendants have been hung on, lias not been discovered yet. One cannot overestimate the usefulness of Sclilag and Zug. Armed just with these ‘two, and the werd itso, what cannot the foreigner on German soil accomplish ? The German word «lso is the equivalent of the English phrise-“‘ You know,” and does net mean anything at all,—in talk, though it (sometimes does in print. Every time a:Ger- man opens his mouth an Also falis out; and every time he shuts it he bites one in two that was trying to get out. : ‘Now, the foreigner, equipped with these three noble words, is master of the situation. Let-him talk right along, fearlessly; let him pour his indifferent German forth, and when he lacks for a word, let him heave a Schlag into the vacuum; all the chances are, that it fits it like a plug; but if it doesn’t, let him promptly heave a Zug after it; the two to- gether can hardly fail to bung the hole; but if, by a miracle, they should. fail, let-him _simply say Also! and this will give him a moment's chance to think ‘of the needtul word. In Germany, when you lowd your conversational gun it is always best to throw in a Schlag or two and a Zug or two; be- cause it doesn’t make any ditference how much the rest of thechange may scatter, you are bound to bag something with trem. Then you blandly say Also, and load up again. Nothing gives such an air of grace and elegance and unconstraint to a German oran English conversation as to scatter it full of “ Also’s ” or “ You knows.” In my notebook I find, this entry: July 1.—In the hospital yosterday u word of thirteen syllables was ‘successfully removed froma patient,—a North German from near Hamburg; but as most unfortunately the sur- geons had opened him in the wrong place, under: the jm pression that he contained u panorama, he died. The sad cvent has cast a, gloom over the whole communi it ‘That paragraph futnishes a text for a few remarks.about one of the most curious and notable features of my subject,—the length of German words. Some German words are so long that they have.a yperspective. Ob- serve these examples: es Freundschattsbezei, m,* Dilletantenaufdringlichkeiten. Stadtverurdactenversaminlungen. These things are not words; they are alphabetical processions, And they are not rare; owe can open o Gerinan new paper any time and see them ma ing majestically across the page,—and he has any imagination he ‘caiy see the ban- ners ayd hear the music, too. They impart a martizd thrill to the meckest Subject. 1 take a great interest in these curiosities. When- ever I come across a good one, 1 stuff it and put it in my museun. In this way [have inade quite a-valuable collection. When I wet duplicates, I exchange with other col- Tectors, and thus increase the variety of my stock. Here are -some specimens which lately bought at an auction sale of the effects of a bankrupt bric-a-brac hunter: Generalstantsv' versammlungen. erthumsvwisse: = Weiderherstellungsbestrebunyen. Wavfenstilistandsunterhandlung¢n. Of course when one of these grand mount- ain ranges goes stretching across the printed page, it adorms and ennobles that literary lundseape,—but at the same time is is a great distress to the new student, for it blocks up his way; he cannot. crawl under it, orciimb over It, or tunnel through it. So he resorts to the dictionary for help; but there is no help thete, ‘The ‘ipnary inust draw. the line somewhere,—so. if leaves this sort of words out. And it is right, because these long things are hardly legitimate words, but are rather Combinations of words, and the inventor of thém ought to, have. been killed. Vhey are compound words, with the hyphens left out.. ‘Phe various words used in building them are in the dictionary, but in a very scattered condition; so'you can sunt the materials out. one by one, -and geb. at tie meaning at last, but it isa tedious aud harassing business. I have tried.this procees upon soiné of the above examples, “ Preund- schaftsbezeigangen” seems to be “ Friend- shipdemonstzations,” which is only a foolish denions! aun “Way of saying. L s of friendsiip.? “ Unabhaengigkeitsklaer- ungen” seeins to be “ Independencedech: tions,” which is no improvement on“ Decla- rations of Independence,” as far as Lean set “Generalstaatsverordnetenversammiunger seems to be * Generalstatesrepresentati meeting,” as nearly as I cu get at it, mere hythinical, gushy ephuisin for * mect- ings of the Legislature,” I judge. We used, tohave a guod deal of this sort of crime in our literature, but it has gone out now. We used to speak of a thing asa ‘“* never-to-be-for- otten? circumstance, Instead of cramping it mto the simple amd sufticient word * mem- orable ? and then going cally about our business as if nothing had happened. In those days we were not content to embalm the thing and bury it decently, sve wanted to build a monument over it. + Butin our newspapers the compounding- use lingors 2 little to the present day, but tit the hyphens lefé ‘out, in the German ‘This is the shape it-takes: instead “Mr. Simmons, Clerk of the Coun- istricl Courts, was in town, yester- witht fashion. of sayin ty and “ . day,” the new form puts it thus: ‘ Clerk of | the County and District Court Simnions was in town yesterday.” This saves neither time nor ink, and hes an awkward-: sound besides.” One often. stes a remark ] this’ in, our papers; “on Assistant Distviet-Attorney JotMson turned to her city residence yesterd: for the season.” ‘That is a.case of teally un- | justifiable compounding; because it not only saves no time- or. trouble, but confers:a title on Mrs, Johnson which she has no right: to; But these instances are trifles. indeed, con- trasted with the ponderous and dismal Ger- juan system of . piling. jumbled compounds together, I. wish to submit the following local item, from a Mannheim journal, by way of illustration: In the daybeforeyesterdayshortlyaftereleven- o'clock Night, tne imthistownstandingtavern eailed “The Wagoner“ was downburnt. When the fire to the onthedownburninghotiseresting Stork’s Nest reached, tlew the parent Storks away, But when the bytheraging, firesurrounded Nest “self caught Fire, straightway plunged the pning. Mother-Stork into the Flames i, her Wings over her young ones out- spread.”” f Even the cumbersome German is not able ‘o take the pathos out of that picture,—in- dead, it somehow seems to strengthen it, ‘This item is dated away back yonder months ago. Teould have used it sooner, but I was ‘aiting to hear from the Father-Stork. Iam still waiting. * Also P? If I have not shown that the German is a difficult language, Ihave at least intended to do it. Ihave heard of an Amer- jean student who was asked how he was getting along with his German, and who an- swere: prompily “T am not getting along at all. I have worked at it Nard for three level months, and ail I have got to show for it is one soiitary German phrase,— ‘Zwei glas’?” (two glasses of beer). ite paused amoment, reflectively, then ‘added with feeling, “ But I’ve got that solid !? And if I have not also shown that German is a harassing and infuriating study, my ex- ecution has been at fault, and not my intent. I. heard lately of a worn and sorely tried ‘American student who used to fly to a cer- tain German word for relief when he could bear up under his aggravations no longer,—. iy the only word in the whole language wilose sound was sweet and precious to_ his ear and. healing to his lacerated spirit. ‘This was the word Damit. It was only the sound that helped hhn, not the meaning*; andso, at Inst, when he learned that the emphasis was not on the first syllable, his only stay and sup- port was gone, and he faded away and died. I think that a description of any loud, stirring, tumultuous episode must be tamer in German than in English, Our deserip- tive words of this character have such a deep,- strong, resonant sound, while their German equivalents do seem so thin, and mild, and energyless., Boom, burst, erash, roar, storm, bellow, blow, thunder, explo- sion, howl, ery, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. These are magnificent words; they haye a force and magnitude of sound be- fitting the things which they describe. But their German equivalents would be ever so nice to sing the children to sleep with, or else my awe-inspiring ears were made for display and not for superior use- fulness in analyzing sounds, Would any man want to die in a battle which was called by so tame a term as a Schlucht? Or would not aconsumptive feel too much bundled up, who was about to go out, in ashirt collar and a seal ring, into a storm which the bird- song word Gewitter was employed to describe? And observe the strongest of the several German equivalents for explosion: ‘Ausbruch, Our word Toothbrush is more poiverful than that. It seems to me that.the Germans could do worse than inport it into their language to describe particularly tre- mendous. explosions with, The German word for hell—Holle—sounds more like helly than anything else; therefore, how necessa- rily chipper, frivolous, aud unimpressive it is. Ifaman were told in German to go there, could he.really rise tothe dignity of feeling insulted? ; There are some German words which are singularly and powerfully etfective. For in- those which deseribe towly, peaceful, and affectionate home life; those which dea: with love, in any and all forms, from mere kindly feeling and honest good-will toward the passing stranger, clear up to courtship; those which deal with outdoor Nature, in its softest and loveliest aspects.—with ineadows, and forests, and ‘birds, and flowers, the fra- gvance and sunshine of summer, ‘and the moonlight of peaceful winter nights; in a word, those which deal with any and all foryss of. rest, repose, and peace; those also which deal with the creatures and marvels of fairyland; and, lastly, and chiefly, in those words which ress pathos, is the. . lazuage surpassingly rich and .. effective, There re German songs which can make.a stranger to the lan- guage cry. That. sows that the sownd of the words is correct,—it' interprets the nenn- ings with truth and with “exactness; and so ie ae is informed, and. through the ear the’ heart, The Germans do nat seem tobe afraid to repeat a word when it is the right ones ‘They repeat it several times, if they choose. That is wise. But in English, when we have used a word 2 couple of times in a parartaplt, we" -imagine we are growing tautological, and so we are weak enough to exchange it for some other word, which only approximates exact- ness, to escape What we wrongly fancy is a_ greater blemish. Repetition may be bad, but. surely inexactness is worse. ¢ : There are people in the world who will’ take a great deal of trouble to point out the faults in a religion or a language, and.then go blandly about their business without sug- gesting any remedy. Iam not that kind of a person. I have shown that the German Janguage needs reforming. Very well, Lam ready to reform it, Atleast Iam ready: to make the proper suggestions. Such x course as this might be immodest in another; but I have devoted upwards of nine full weeks, first and Jast, toa careful and critical study of this tongue, and thus have acquired a con- fidence in my ability to reform it which no mere superticial culture could have conferred upon mu. In the first place, I would leave out the dative case. It confuses the plurals; and, besides, nobody ever knows when he -is in the dative case, except he discover it by ac- cident,—and then he does not-know when or where it was that he got into it, or how long he has been in it, or how he is ever going to get out of it again. The dative case is but nn ornamental folly,—it is better to discard it. : ~ In the next: place, 1 wonld move the verb further up to the front. You may load “up with ever so goud a verb; but 1 notice that -you never really bring down a subject with it at the present German range,—you only i i 5 important forward to a po: the naked eye. P Thirdly, Lweuld import some strong words frontihe’ English tongue,—to swear with, and also to use in describing all sorts of vig- orous things in-a vigorous way. ° Fourthly, I woul reorganize the sexes, and distribute them according to the will 0 the Creator. ‘This asa ttibute of respect, if nothing else. - + : zs Fitthly, I would do.away with those great compounded words; or require the to deliver them in sections, with in- ssions for refreshments. ‘Io wholly co away with thei would be best, for ideas’ are inore easily received and digested when they come in bik. Intellectual food 1s “like any othe: is pleasanter and more benciicigl to 4 ith a spoon than with a shovel. I would require a speaker. to stop is done, aud not hang‘ string of bv xthly, when he those useless “haben sind gewesen gehabt haben tion. goworden seins” to the end of his ora- ‘This sort. of gewgaws undignify a id of adding agrace. They are e ‘aise, and should bed Seventhly, I would di the Also the re-parenthesis, the re-re-paren- is, und. the re-re-re-re-re-re-parentheses, d likewise the final, wide-reaching, all-en- ciosing: parenthesis. I would require every individual, be he high or low, to un- fold'a plain, straightforward tale, or else coil it and sit on it and hold his.peace, Infrac- tions of. this law should be punishable with being formally employed by the Governmént | in the work of reforming the language. logical studies have sati: ;; ‘ted person ought to le: (barring spelling and pronouneing), in thirty, hours, Frénch- in thirty days, and’ Geman in thirty years. It seems- manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is remain as it is, it ought #0 be gently and reverently: sat aside among the dead languages, for o: a have time to k ee oe py ine dead earn it, SCENES IN PARLIAMENT. Interesting Reminiscences of Mem- orable Occasions in the History of the British Cominons and the House of Lords. London Paper. = Bs ‘udging frota the seenés which have taken place already, the new Parliament is likely to bea sensational one.- The Home-Rulers have been largely reinforced, and their tac- ties during the Jast Parliament were so thoroughly to the liking of. their constitu- ents that it may be presumed they “will pur- sue they with fresh enthusiasm in this Hotise. Moreover, although Walley, Onslow, and Dr. Kenealy are gone, there is an ex- -ceptionally large number of members who are possessed by missions or who possess hobbies. . There are atheists, Ultramon- tanes, Orangemen, extreme Radicals, high Tories, rabid Dissentérs, Fenians, and Jingoes, and the legislation to which many of them are committed is of the “extra hazardous” class. It is safe to say, however, that whatever may occur, Sir Erskine-May, the Clerk of the House, and -pertiaps the greatest of Parliamentary writers, will be able to find a precedent for it, and for its treatment also, although Mr. Gladstone -has contrived au unprecedented method for sup- preading Mr. O'Donnell. Should that Home- uler beeome intolerable, however, there is the case of Hemming, a Wiltshire member, in 1570, Grafton, in his “Chronicles,” says this honorable gentleman “in the Parliament Hous (beynug sobere) did spreade abroade lewde and sedicivus conversatione, and being thereof detected, le was sett on the pillory in Chepesyde in London”—a base and Saxon method for suppressing free speech which the member for Dungarvan would not relish, Should Mr. Bradlaugh and the Radicals attempt to cut down the Queen’s privy purse and deprive the poor Gennan ‘Princes of their allowances, there is the case of Queen Henrietta, Charles I.’s consort, who, under somewhat similar circumstances, instructed the Attorney-General to go to ‘the House “and pull the rogues who scoffed at Royalty out by the ears.” Pepys describes scenes not likely to be paralleled in the present Parliament, with all its turbulent elements. Here is one under date of the 19th ot December, 1766: “ My Lord Buckingham was leaning rudely over my Lord Marquis Dorchester, when my Lord Dorchester removed his elbow. The Duke of Buckingham asked whether he was un- easy. Dorchester replied that he durst not do that anywhere else. Buckingham said he durst and that he was -a better man than Dor¢hester. Dorchester said that he jyed. With this, Buckingham struck off his hat and took him by his periwig and pulled it aside and held him.” Both were sent,to the ‘Tower for this breach of the peace: but their conduct was not so unpleasant as that of Sir Allen Brodericke and Sir Allen Aps- ley, who,’ says Pepys, “‘did come drunke the other day into the ffouse; and did both speak for half an hour together, and could not be either laughed or pulled.or bid to sit down and hold their peace.” There wasa dreadful row in 1675 over a division on the recall of the English regiments with the French army. ‘The tellers were’ charged with fraud, and members mounted the benches and hurled epithets of insult and threats of defiance at oné another. ‘This lasted half an hour, when Mr. Speaker restored order and a motion was passed pledging the members to secrecy. In those days’ the opponents: of Imperial- ism were in iinminent peril. .John Coke, the member for Derby, protested against the ar -bitrary conduct ot James 11.’s Ministers and was. met with cries of “Take down his words!’ “'To the Tower!” etc., and to the Tower he was sent. ; : Collisions between the two Houses were of frequentyoccurrence. In 1772 Burke com- plained tat he had’ been kept three hours waiting at. the door of the Lords with’a bill sent up from the Commons. ‘The Commons were so indignant that: shortly ‘afterwards when a dill was brought down from the Lords to. impose a, bounty on corn they re- jected it by a. unanimous vote; Mr. Sycaker tossed it across the tableon vor, and the members rushed forward and kicked it out of the Chamber, almost rivaling the fierce scorn with which Mr. Bronson Alcott prodded with his umbrella the volume which Mr. Joseph, Cook had cast upon the floor. ‘Lhe rules which existed in the reign of. James L eainst abusing freedom of speech.were in- tolerably severe. Mr. Floyde, an English member, for scofling at the King’s relatives in language muth more circumspect than Sir Charles Dilke used a year ago in discuss- ing the Royal Princes, was deprivetl of his civil rights, fined £5,000, whipped at the cart’s tail, pilloried, and sent to-Newgate. Willian Cobbett was probably the first ob- strnctionist. He delivered his maiden speech in January, 1883; and in the opening sentence declared that he had heard “a great deal of yain, ridieulous,, and unprofitable talk.” Thenceforth he was a marked man, and ‘whenever he rose the Chamber resounded with shours of * Question” and * Order,” but he always warned them that if they would nrot-hear him then he would speak the next day, or the day after that, and his tormentors gave up in despair. Another hard man to put down was Mr. Duncombe, the member for Pontefract. One day he denounced ‘a certain speech as a “base and wicked cal- aumny,” and refused to retract. On another ‘occasion he offered to fight the House single- handed, and in 2. committee-room hurled an inkstand at the Chairman, who lad accused him of being *nogentleman.” 3fr, Plunket, S arenow on the Tory side, ‘another. irrepressible. Upon some one the Speaker to tuke down his words, “Stop, Mr. Speaker, aid you ave something more to take down”; and then followed a torrent of vehement and indignant description of the wrongs of Ire- and. ts 5 a ‘The worst persecuted man that ever sat in Parliament. was Jolin Pym, the popular champion in the reign of Charles . The Cavaliers sought to kill him, and hired bands of cntthroats to follow him home, but the Roundheads always furnished him with an ‘Atlength they hit upon a plan of ingenuity. A messenger handed the Arms 2 letter addressed to.Pym., pened it a piece of cloth dropper fe read a few words, and then k’s. asaistant with the hada right to hear members, were libeled. -The Clerk read aloud its abuse of the great tribune, but when he vame_néar the end Stopped and de- came much agitated. The cone! uding lines out of it, handed it te the Cle remark that the House how explained what had dropped from the note. it was a reg that hatl come froma plague- \vound, sent in the hope that the infection might be coumunieated to Pym, Lord Ten- ferden’s hobby was his hatred of the popular yoice, and_when the Reform bill of 1832 passed the Lards he yowed that he would never again sit in the Louse, and kept his vord, >. ci Withee was a terrible scene in, the Lords during the Regency debate in 1738. Thurlow, who up to that time had cultivated the peo- ple and posed as a Democrat, suddenly con- cluded that his; interest Iay on the King’s side and made u superloyal speech, winding up with the words, “And when I forget my King may my God forget me.” There was a shout of exceralion rout th ridors, an i » WhO, one, ed, *Forget you! Hew cae ne Burke, with equal. at “The see you —— ‘and with no_ profaneness, mutteretl, best thing that can happen to you i even the lords in the. Chamber cried out, death, ‘ t . -And eighthly .and lastly, I would retain Zug and Schlag, with their pendants, and discard the ‘rest of the-vocabulary. This would simplify the language. A LT have now named what 1 regard as the most necessary and importantchanges. These ave pefhaps all I could be expected to naine for nothing; but there are other sug-. gestions which Ian and will make in case my proposed application shall result in my It merelf: means, in its gencral sense, “here- with.’ +“ Verdammt.” and its variations aud cniurge- ments. are words which have plenty of gocaning, but the sounds are 30. mild: and inetfectual that (German ladies can use them without. sin. Gerr man ladies who could not be persuaded to con mit a sin by awy persuasion.or -compulsit promptiy rip out one of these harmless fit words when they tear their dresses or don't Hike bout ws. wicked as our the soup. sonnds: “My gnyious.”. Germzn ladies -are constantly suying, hn! Gott!” “Meint Gott! “Gott in. Himmel!” “terr Gott!” Der Herr Jesus” ete. They think our ladies bave thé same custom, perhaps, for 1 once heard agentic and lovely old German lady say to a sweet young ineriean girl, “The two languages are so alike—! pleusant that is; we say ‘Ach! Gott:’ you say “Oh, what -a.rascal!? Wilkes told the Stoker privately one day that he had a peti- tion tq present trom a set of the greatest scoundrels and miscreants upon earth, but when called upon in the House to present it he said with the gravest possible face, “ Sir, Thold in my hand a petition from a most in- telligent, independent, and enlightened body ‘of men.” ‘The debate on the Corn laws was an acrimonious one, but under Peel, Pale merston, and Derby, slinee reat parliainenta- ‘ians, members were tausi proceedings With -dignity and decorum, and there were no more Violent scenes until Mr. Parnell and his associates of the “third party ? appeared in the Chamber. _—— CAPRICE. For The Chictgo Tribune. A sunbeam, tatlitic. sed dt rose. ~ iThe proud rose blushed aud sighed, But nothing satd; ‘And so tne sunbeam fled. Rut, when the rose hail died, ‘And all the petals fellapart, . ~ hey foimd the sunbeam's kiss Uponherbesrt. , ERNA. —_ , Knowles’ Insect Powder Gun is by farthe' pest. 3 and" ht to conduct the: MUSIC. —.- Close of the Musical Season, - and Vacation of the Musicians. The Mapleson Operatic Program for Next Season. re Interesting Musical News and - Gossip at Home and “Abroad. i The musical season, which closes later than ever before, is now at anend, and the musicians are off for their vacations. Our news this week, therefore, is necessarily linited to the few following announcenients: ‘ LOCAL MUSICAL NOTES, Mrs. W. A. Sherwood gives another piano recital at Hershey Hall next Thursday even- ing. + Mrs, Clara D. Stacy sang.with Remenyi at South Benda few evenings since with great success.. * Miss Lillian E. Smythe, a well-known vocalist, leaves tie -city this week.to spend her vacation with friends at Sterling, [IL The second, chamber-concert of the Hershey-School normal course wilbbe given by Messrs. Eddy, Lewis, and Eichbeim next ‘riday afternoon. Mr. L. A. Phelps, of the Chicago Musical College, assisted _by Mrs. Ida M. Pryce, Miss Gross, and Miss Neilie Wolcott, contemplates giving concerts in Iowa in September, Mr. A. F. McCarrell will give an organ re- cital in the Hershey School normal course next Tuesday afternoon. The vocal num- bers will be given by Miss Jennie Dutton. _ Miss May Pheenix will give asong recital in the Hershey-School normal course next Monday afternoon at$ o’élock. She will be. assis’ by Mr. Harrison M. Wild, who will play several organ numbers. The session of the National Normal Musical Institute for this summer commences to-mor- row at Jamestown (Chautauqua Lake), N. Y. Dr. Geores F. Root and Mr. F, W. Root, of the Faculty; left for that place the last of-the week, and Mr. Liebling some days earlier. ard Mr. H. Clarence Eddy will give his second organ recital next Wednesday at 3 p.m. The program will embrace some of the greatest works ever written for the organ, and among others the immensely dificult Etude by Chopin {iC sharp minor), arranged for the organ by Haupt... * tose _Mr. Mathews* normal course in music opens at .Eyanston on Wednesday. The at- tendance promises. to be large. Prof. W. B. Chamberlain will give a song recital Thurs- day evening, and Miss LydiaS. Harrisa piano- recital on Friday afternoon. Miss Harris will play Beethoven’s “ Sonata Appassion- ata.” Mendelssohy’s ‘* Rondo Capriccioso,”” Sohumann’s. ‘f Aufschwung,” “ Warum,” and “Ende vom. Lied’? from op. 12. Cho- pin’s Nocturne in G major, op. 37, and the solierae ‘in D flat, and Liszt’s Concerto in E at. In the notice of Mrs. C. A. Beecher’s mu- sical a week ago, there wrs an error. Miss Helen M- Bassett, voea Mr. Henry A. Weyl, violinist, and Mr. Dempsey, elocu- tionist, are not pupils of Mrs. Beecher’s, al- though they assisted in the entertainment. Miss Bassett has a deep contralto voice, of rare quality, and her singing was marked by. depth of feeling, power, and clear enuncia- tion. Mir. Weyl, the young violinist, well known in‘ musical -cyrdles, was heartily re _Of Mr. C. J. Dempsey, the eloct s only necessary to say he was en- th ‘ically encored. ‘The pupils gave evidence of careful training on the part of their teacher, ant Mrs. Beecher is to be con- Rratulated on the success of her entertain- meni 7A Mrs. William H. Sherwood, of Boston, pianists made her first appearance in Chicago last Thursday afternoon in a piano. recital before the’ pupils of the Hershey Schoo! nor- inal course.» Her program was made up of selections from the works of Bach, Beetho- yen, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt, which were given Ina manner which proved her complete inastery of the instru- went. Especially charming-in its delicacy and-poetic conception was us. Sherwood’s rendition of the Beethoven Sonata in E flat op. 27, No. 1, which we have rarely heard given in so satisfactory a manner. In Liszt’s Concert Etude, ‘‘Gnomen Reigen,” the lady proved her possession of a finished technique combined with considerable strength of fin- ger. Mrs. ‘Sherwood gives her second re-- cital next Thursday afternoon at 3° o’clock. THE MAPLESON OPERA SEASON JN THIg COUNTRY. . é The London-correspondent of the New York Musical Review write: ‘Tho New York. season .will open ori Monday, Nov. 1, Mr. Mupleson thuS escaping the excite- ment of the Presidential election. Engugements have been or about to be concluded with the following artists: Sopranos, -Mme. Etelka Ger- ster, Mine. Marie B6ze, Mile. Minnie Hauck, Mile. Lilli Lehmann and Mme. Marie L. Swift; coutraltos, Sle. Tremelli, and Mme. Lublache; tenors, Signor Campauini, Mr. Candidus, Signor Frapolli, and Signor Fancelli.(?);_ buritones, Siz- nor Gallassi, Signor Pantaleoni, Signor’ del Puente; basso, Signor, Naunetti, with Signor ‘Arditi as conductor. Arrangements are also. in rogrbss for the engagemcat of Mme. Christine ‘Nilsson, but as her engagement is now doubtful, , her nameis not included in the list of probable artiste. Z It is intended thnt the chief novelty of the New York seuson .shall be- Signor Boito’s “Mefistofele,” which is now in preparation at Her Majesty's Theatre, with scenery and costumes by the same eminent individuals who mounted “aida” last” scason. Signor Cam- panini willbe Faust, and Signor Naunetti 3fe- is es, while if, Mme.* Nilsson enesses the ‘Atlantic, sho will, of cuurse, be the Margherita. Of the artists not heard in New Yerx during the past two sersons whom Mr. Mupleson will introduce to the American public those claim- ing most attention are Miles. Lehmann and Tremellf and Messrs. Candidus ond Nannetti. Mile. Lehmann is 2 Germun light soprano, with a flexible voice of good quality and a fuir if not very powerful actreas.. She first came prominentiy before the public in the part of the Rhine Daughter, Mlowhide, in the * Niebelunge Ring” at the Festival performances af Ba: in, where. he reuth. She has since sung at_Be rivaled Lucca and Minnie Hu Mile. > melli (Fraulein Tremet) is an Austrian, . with contralto voice of the loveliest possible descrip- that. She isnot an sccomplished singer, while her acting is somewhat pronounced: and exag- erated. Mr. Candidus, the brother-in-law of fr, William “Stelnway,. the pianoforte umu- facturer you know in New Xork. He declines to sing in Ttatian operas of the old school, and at present the only operas in which he has ap- maredare * Lohengrin,” * Fidelio,” and “Der Preischiitz.” He was the tenor of the recent Richter concerts. Signor Nunnetti is engaged almost solely to play the réle of Mefistofele. ‘The rest of the artists RB famiiiar to ame i il ghe forma.” Mme. Gerster will keep to such as Lucia, Eleira in “1. Puri- bably ght rales, tet Se simina in. “La Sopnambula,” Violeta in “Ta Traviata.” and Linda, Mme. “Marie. Rove will play the dramatic réles such as_Leonora in “U1 ftrovatore,” Donna Anna, the Countess. in “Le Nowe di Figure,” ete. Miss Minnte Hauck will,of course, play Carmen, and if Mme. Nils+ gon be not'engaged, it is likely she will appear ns Margherita. in “Metistofele,” and in Lohengrin.” MUSICAL NOTES. - . Miss Alice Oates has decided to forsake the operatic stage. ‘Thanks. = m Mme. Rivé-King is organizing a large and powerful concert company for next season. The Flora E.. Barry opera company is an- nounced among the combinations for next season. ns Young Lichtenberg, the’ protégé of Win- easki, is among the solo violinists who are to upper next season. i “ Miss Adelaide Phillips will pass the sum- merin Europe, and will rejoin the Boston Ideal Opera Company in the fall. J. F. Barnett, an English composer, nas just written for the Leeds festival a cantata Younded on Longfeilow’s “Building .of the Ship.? It contains fitteen numbers. ; The most distinguished’ names upon the Yale’ list of honorary degrees are_those of Presiden Hayes, who- is made a Doctor of ‘Laws, and Theodore Thoms, who -receives the degree of Doctor of Music. - “Somebody met ‘Col. 3faplesan in London and asked him how the rehearsals of “ Lohen- wrin” under Herr Richter, were getting on. a Splendid}y, my dear, hoy?” answered the “Vifty-three mistakes on one page+ American papers are saying that the recent aéout in London.ot Herbert Reeves: fon see wae tun authors asthe London Athena * first appearance a “decided. ve is a light tenor, but has d, is “very pleasing, | Jently antagoni Tl and, though deficient in power in p notes, is in parts like his father’s, tha ts anya ot Singing, method ot producing his voice, ani “2 at times ely minded the hearer of his fate ee ot , Werr August Wilhelmj called on Mr. Will- iam Sherwood a few days since ahd Tavieed himona concert tour around the world. However tempting the offer, it had to be de ee as. ait, Sherwood sepogemanlates mals extendes tour rough + te States himseif nextseason.. |. ates Among the soloists already engaged for the festival at Worcester, Mass.; in Seuteme ber, are Mrs. J. M. Osgood (who makes the trip home forthissingfe engagement), Myron W. Whitney, W. C. ‘Tower, Mr. George’ Hen- schél, of London, Afiss Lillian Bailey, vocal- ists, and Timothie Adamowski, the: Polish violinist, Mr. Carl Zerrahn wi of course, be the conductor. According to the London Figaro, Arthus Sullivan’s reason for giving up the writing of an oratoriqg on David and Jonathan was “the consciousness that words from the sacred book require a certain amount of con- ventional treatment somewhat limiting the composer’s ideas.” To find better language than the Bible affords, therefore, he has gone to W.S. Gilbert fora libretto on Deah Mil- man’s poem, “The Martyr of Antioch.’ Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan are two modest * gentlemen, and are doubtless persuaded that Handel and Mendelssohn were two moss- cavered old fogies who are greatly to be itied for adopting the language of Scripture in their oratorio rather than the classi of some such poet as Mr. Gilbert. Mons. de Beauplan. and his wife, Mme. Emilie Ambré, have secured $36,000 as a sub- seription for 2 term of French opera in New Orleans, and propose to begin in November withthe tenor Tournea, M. Jordan, 3 Mme. Lablache, contralto; Mile. Lablache, secunda donna; and -Mme.. Ambré, prima. donna. The répertoire will include “The Jewess,” -* Faust,” * William Tell.” “Trova tore,” “Norma,” “Afri 2? “Mignon,” ic Versa =] J -" Rigoletto,” “Favorita,” ‘The Barber of Seville” “Charles VI.” “The Prophet,” “ Hamlet,” “Lucia,” “Don Juan,” “Jerusa- lem,” “Oberon,” ‘The Queen of Cyvrns,”? “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” |‘ Frei- schutz,” “Don Pasquale,” “L’Etoile du Nord,” “Romeo and Jutiet,” “ Aida,’ “Car- men,” and “ Paul and Virginin.” NEW MUsrc. ly; “Reseda,” for piano, by He Lichner; “Forever here, my rest shail be," by HP, Danks; “ Marzuret’s Wnitz,” for tenor or soprano, by Clementine Batta; * Doctor's Song,” from “The Doctor of» Alcantara,” by Eich- berg; “There Bloomed on the Villuge Greet song, by C. B, Czapik; “My Love's a bi Fisher “Muid,” i Berthold Te 3; ‘Ballet of the Syiphs.” from Bezlioz’s “1s 1- nation of Faust’; by J. H. McKeever; “ Idytie,” by Joseffy;. “Tres Jolie Waltz,” by Emile Waldteuifel. ITALY. The Triumph of the Clerical Party in the Municipal Elettion at Rome. Dispatch to London Times. Rose, June 2i.—The triumph of the Clerical party in the administrative elections ycsterany exceeded their highest expectations. Towards filling the fourteen vacancies in the Municipul Council they succeeded in returning thirteen of their cundidates, twelve with the assistance of the Constitutional party of tho Right, and one, the Duke Salviat; by’ their “own. uanided strength, this latter polling 4,776 votes, while Dr, Baccelli, the only candidate of the Liberallist returned, received but 4,912. At the bead of the - list ot the defeated are Don Emanuelle Ruspoli, with 4,683 votes; Count Amadei, Secretary- General to the Ministry of Agriculture and Com- merce, with 4,514 votes; and next comes Signor ‘Tosl, the only. Clerical candidate defeated, with 4419. ‘The defeat of Don Emarucie Ruspoli it altogether unexpected. -He had the united sup- port of all sections of the-Liberal party, and, being Syndic, his reGicction on to the Municipa: Council, required by his having sut for the regu- lation term, tive years, was considered a mere formality. “The Copncil consists of sixty mem- bers, twelve gommz out in yenrly rotation. The severity of the contest-is altogether unprece- dented. The voters numbered 10,90), being 12d - in excess of any previous year, and 7,50) more than those who went tothe poll in 1870, when ni tial tables of many of the voting sections, side by side with Constitutionalists, Progressists, and Radicals of most pronounced type, who. are es- pecially active on these occasions, xl busily ens gaged in the work of supervision. ~ ‘the Presidents. Seeretarivé, and Scrutincers at each section are elected from among the first fifty voters who aszemble. hore is generally a rush to gain possession of this Hourd of Control, and on tho present occhsion many ecclesiastics. were amon# the tirstin the fleid. Tho highest number of votes polled by 2 Clerieal was given to Dr. Gatti, and as regurds toe relative strength of the puriies it is uotewortby that while the Clericaly unassisted obtained 4.776 ang 4,419 votés respectively for Duke Salviati and Signor Tosi, the whole Liberal purty united in yoting only’ for Ruspoli, could poll no more than, 4,683 forhim. The Progressist party, unaided, lie 4,100 for their highest candidate, Signor ctroni, end 2,110 for the lowest of the ‘four, to whom the Popolo Romany denied its support. Gen. Garibaldi, who was nomindted by ull tho Liberal papers excepting the Fanfula, policed 3,496. ‘The Liberals ussurt that a lurge propor- tion of their purty abstgined from voting, and no doubt many were ilike deterred by the.Cler- jeul element on the Constitutional list and the Radieaf character of 2 portion of the Progress- ists’ list. There !s, of course, much retrimink- tion, and it appears thut a joint Liberal list would huve been agreed on but for the exorbi- tant pretensions of the Right. Since the Inst elections they count at. most one-third of the Chamber, but they claim equal representation with the Left, and in these elections they have followed exactly the sam2 fruitless if not de- structive tactics they carry out in Parliament. Professing to be horrified at tho Republican cle- ment, because its members entertain opinions antagonistic to the established order of things, they insisted that Signor Petroni and Signor Al- esisandro Castellani, the well-known antiquary, oth Republicans, but of no political influence, should be excluded, and that the list of candi- dates should. be formed of an equal number of men of the Right and of the Left, On the: Lett not agrecing to this, they joined forces with the Radical party, who are certainly as antagonistic to the established order of things us tho doctrin- aire Republicans, and infaitly more daagerous, The Cicrical leaders, on the other hand, compiled. their Hst with consummate skill and astute- ness. Thoy chose five of tho Roman nobles, Prince Mario Chigi, Marshal of the Conclave, and Duke Salviati, of their own purty, and Princu ‘Teano, Prince John Andrew Doria, and Marquise Lavaggi, who, while being Liberals, ure not vio- to them: and sclecting alse such of the rotiring members of the Council wa * had been most favorable to thefr interest, they formed a list composed of tive Moderate Libere als, three who muy be called Clerscet Liperals, and six pronounced Clericals. Of th vincial Councilors, the Clericals have +u turning four, one being Prince Marc Borghese. Itis expected that the defeat Syndic Don Emanuele Ruspoli, combined with the general result of the elections, will precipl- - tate 0 municipal crisis. - ——— KATHLEEN, = For The Chicago Tribune, Pretty Kathleen, when I found ber {t wus at the faintest dawn, . With a scurlet mantie round her, In the dewy flelds ulone. And I asked. “ Why rove thns carly? ‘Scarce the birds are up, I ween, And tho Eastern portal pearly ‘Hus not yet the sturs shut in.” Oh!” she answered—and her dark eyes . . Opened wide with wondrous light— + “Ecome onttosce the lark rise While.the Morning greets the Night. “T come ont to softly listen Fs ‘To the dewdrops in their play: can Scurcely sce them glisten, ~ But [hear them hide atvey.” “But,” I said, “my little maiden, It is very lonely here, . And the mountain-breeze isinden ‘With a dampness thou shouldst fear.’ Answered she, with pretty gesture, __ “I don’t mind the mountain-brecze; © “It just stirg enough the yesture Of the silent furest-trecs.”” «But, Kathleen, they say that there [3 “Bayon to fear trot ‘eoodiand sprite, Al from mischief-lovi fuirie nd fromm, ia the fields by night, +“ Wenving spells for those who wander ‘Enrliest in the dewy grass— ‘Tangled webs to drag them under, - - ~All unconscious as they pass.’ . How tho little matden’s laughter -* “tang upon the misty airt * And how echo shouted after, - Starting up from everyyhero! Just that moment crimson flasbes Shot athwart the mountain's crest:- Inn instant golden dashes | Leapt the sky from East to West. _ Pretty Kathleen’s'Iaughter vanished.” ‘As she rnised her gloriouseyes— | * + (Alfacy merriment is banished “By the power which in them les): «Ask me why-I wander early?” ‘And her voice grew reverent-low—- Fe einen ‘they lift the portal pearly, . er i . ‘Mas. EDWin S..MmrCALy, ;