The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-14 00:00:00

example of what may be called the horrors of war
should ride, as I did yesterday for the 20th time,
through the solitude which was till a month s go the
village of Dybbol. Dybbol, to judge of it from the
appearance it bore even in deep winter, must have
been a kind of Danish " Sweet Auburn." Two or
three scores of thriving and substantial farm-houses,
scattered on little more than an English square
mile of the richest land, on the broad undulating
skirts of a hill about 120 feet high, with glimpses of
glittering sheets of water both on the Sound and on
the Nybbol Norside, constitute a landscape of rural
beauty not the less to be valued and cherished be-.
cause it is the common boast of most of the localities
of the eastern coast of this happy Cimbrian penin-
sula. The style of building even of the meanest
peasant dwellings is a perfect marvel to the behol-
der. The people's love for a thatch, as the best
shelter in their opinion both for winter and sum-
mer, their preference for high slanting roofs, quaint
gables, vanes and chimney stacks, do not detract
from the solidity of the masonry, from the neatness
and elegance of the design of even the most unpre-
tending abode. There is no such thing as a hut or
hovel in the whole land, not an ill-fitting or shat-
tered door, not one broken pane of glass in the small,
low casements. Tidiness and comfort, most fasti-
dious cleanliness in barn, stable, and dairy, flower
pots behind the window, and bird-cages hanging
from the ceiling, all that can go towards making
a mere house a home, was contrived here. The
subduing influence of a severe climate seems to
have a softening effect on man and beast. There is
hardly a horse here but seems to be born thoroughly
broken ; you can scarcely fall in with a snarling dog,
hardly with one that will bark even in fan. There
is a friendliness, a good nature, a thorough sterling
honesty which bind all living creatures, and reader
them fair and considerate towards each other, happy
and well pleased with each other. It is not a little
to be said in favour of Denmark, that war can be
waged here without marauders, camp followers, or
other bad characters; without the price of a single
article being enhanced by the sudden and exten-
sive demand. The closer I come into contact with
it, the more intimate I become with it, the stronger
grows my sympathy with this plain and unpre-
tending, but real and well grounded Danish civiliza-
tion. You meet hardly a man here but seems to be
contented, and deserving to be so, and desirous, as
far as in him lies, to contribute to yours and every-
body's contentment. Whatever may be said about
the force of climate, however much I may myself
feel inclined to ascribe to it, it is evident that much
of this universal well-being must be owing to the
discipline of wide-spread education, and good, pro-
vident, liberal government. No matter what Ham-
let may say of the Danes of his own time, it is a
fact that I never have, in seven weeks, seen a single
tipsy soldier in the Danish army. The public-
houses, or kros, in Alsen or Sandewitt, or for that
matter in all Schleswig, are all set down in the
map—a proof of the small extent to which they
are allowed to flourish. Such of them as I have
visited are a mere shelter for travellers, not a
lounging place for loafers. The Danish beer is
thin and wholesome, and their schnaps hardly fill
the tiniest thimble-like glasses. The Danish boor
is fond of home, and finds in the bosom of his read•
ing family sufficient resources against the weariness
of long winter evenings. The Lutheran religion,
free from wrangling dissent, sits easy on this earnest
single-minded people ; each village forms but one
one'congregation, one community, The Church is
the bond of union; the clergymen is the common
father, teacher, and friend. A Prestegaard, or
Priest's Court, is but a model farm ; the clergyman
is but one small degree removed above the common
hinds that constitute his flock: No doubt such in-
stitutions are the offspring of paternal despotism in
olden times; but such results are not the less bliss-
ful for the present, no less compatible with the
exigencies of modern freedom and the tendencies of
perpetual progress. And no trifling proof of the
real happiness of these Danes lies in their very un-
consciousness of its inestimable value, in their
readiness to take it for granted that they are no
better off than other people, their willingnesss to be-
lieve that their quiet enjoyment of existence is the
common lot of all mortals.
But I perceive that while thus tempted to give
you an idyl about a living Danish village I was
losing sight of my object, which was to write an
elegy on a dead one. Dybbol was all I have been
describing up to the Bth of February; but Dybbol
is no more. The inhabitants have migrated en
»lasse, I know not whither. The door of every
cottage is wide open ; the straw lies, a blackened
litter, upon every threshold. Many of the houses
are still standing, the thatch has in most instances
escaped the fire that has wilfully or accidentally
been set to it here and there. But the silence and
desolation are the more eloquent from that very
absence of dilapidation which tells of violent ruin or
natural decay. The Danish soldiers have neither
wantonly destroyed nor profaned the humble dwel-
lings ; the Prussians, who were only for a few
hours in possession of the place, have had no lei-
sure for much mischief ; but chill and squalor seem
immediately to set in in the home from which man,
its soul, has departed. A few minutes leisurely ride
through the lanes and alleys of the dead village
took me to the church, now, like msst ecclesias-
tical edifices in Alsen and Sandewitt, turned into
barracks, and I stepped into the churchyard, where
soldiers were busy digging riflo pits and rearing
small trenches out of the very mounds under which
the forefathers of the hamlet slept. Dybbol church
is a large, strong edifice, and its churchyard has
a commanding aspect; it answers the purposes of
an excellent outwork to the Dybbol-hill bastions.
It is sure to be a hotly contested spot, and the brave
men that were turning the sod were, perhaps, only
preparing the graves on which they might fall never
to rise. I had no sooner set my foot on the dese-
crated " God's-acre " than an angry voice warned
me that the Prussians were lurking about hardly
300 paces from the spot, and that no man could
stand erect on the sward without being made a tar-
get to their cursed rifle balls. The scene outside the
village is even sadder than in the thick of its habi-
tations. Not a tree is left standing ; not a hedge,
not a garden, not a field, has escaped the trampling
hoofs, the deep cutting wheels, the wear and tear
of ruthless, remorseless war. A short month of
military occupation, even by friendly troops, hes
turned Dybbol into a wilderness ; it will take many
years of unbroken prosperity to restore it to its
former bloom. So much for those who make a cock-
pit their residence, who choose their home on a
battle-field !

Yesterday was election day for Denmark, and also
for all of Schleswig that still remains to Denmark—
i.e., for the island of Alsen. We have two electoral
districts, or " circles," here—one consisting of the
two boroughs of Nordborg and Sonderborg, having
its hustings and polling-place at the Mansion- house
in the latter place; the other assembling all the
country voters at Augustenburg. Placed as they
are in all the throes of a war which is to decide their
fate, busy with the accommodation of an army out-
numbering their population, turned out of house
and home from anxiety for their own safety, the
Alsenera took, it must be avowed, no very strong
interest in the choice of their representatives at the
Copenhagen Rigsraad. About 60 or 70 electors met,
a;11 a.m., at the Sonderborg Town-hall. The B urgo •
master of the city was presented by one of the
citizens as a" fit and proper" gentleman to support
the interests of the borough. An avocat Some•
body was ushered in on the other side as a no less
" highly-qualified" candidate. The two competitors
belonged to the same political party and were ready
to vote for each other. Both of them addressed the
meeting—the office-holder in a few manly words,
the man of law at intolerable length. A show of
hands was then called, when all persons present,
with the exception of four, stood up in favour of
the Burgomaster. The advocate dnlared himself
satisfied, and the victorious candidate was declared
to be duly elected. At Augustenburg only one
gentleman selected the people's suffrages, and
got
them without opposition.

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