Washington sentinel., 1854-04-27

" T. q r 4 ~
DRAMATIC AUTHORS AND THEIR HEROES
Kct1ebue--The Stranger.--It has been q COM
mon error to suppose that Kozebue was o Ger
man poet, and that the Stranger and Mrs. Hal
Ter were husband and wife, and people of high
degree in "Vater Landt" This is all a mis-
take; and, as veritable chroniclers Of the alb
stract and brief items Of the times, we feel call
ed upon to set it right. The true history of the
matteris as follows:
Kotzebue was lop-eared fellow, who kepta
lager-bier saloon down on Fells Point, where,
from crediting out an unusual quantity of
drinks to the chaps who loafed about there on
Sunday, he soon became fiat broke,n and con-
sequently fell into melancholy, and thence
very naturally subsidized into writing for the
stage.
Mr.. and Mrs. Haler also emigrated to these
parts about this time and set up shop, each on
his and her individual hook-Mrs. Haller as o
cake and candy woman, and the masculine
Haller as an opener of oysters. One day Mrs.
Haller was observed to make rather free with
some of the fire boys about there, whereupon
Mr. Haller flew into rage, and general muss
was kicked up They agreed to play quits, and
Mr.. Haller having gone one way, Mrs. Haller
went the other way, and thus, one having gone
to the ea 81 and the other to the west, like Abra
ham and Lei, there was peace as well as dis
tance between them. fls %s M s4.ft4s#
With these slight incidents in this domestic
drama, Kotzebue, under the influence Of an ex-
ira pot of beer, took up the subject, and when
facts were wanting, he eked out the plot with
fancy. With slanderous predisposition, pc
culiar to small-beer poets, he represented Mrs.
Haller as having run away with some scurvy
individual, taking with her the two chilrden.of
her unhappy union with the unfortunate and
ruined Haller. Haller himself was represented
as retiring to neck of fwoods close by, where,
with book under his arm, he whiled away the
hours in state Of hopeless melancholy.
The dramatist proceeds to represent that the
fellow who ran away with Mrs. Haller, becom-
ing Disguised with her, and entertaining wish
to "graze in fresh pastures" left her to shift
for herself-her and Haller's two little chill
dren. But this is all mere stuff The truth is
as follows: She didn't know exactly what to do
at first, but at last, putting a bold face on the
matter, she advertised in one of the papers for
a situation as chambermaid. Her advertise
ment was answered by very respectable sort
of woman, named Mrs. Winterston, who had
husband Of the same name, and whom the dra-
matist has dignifed by calling them the Count
and Countess Winterston. 1t is needless to say
that she got the situation and entered upon her
new vocation. 1t Is represented in the play
that Mrs. Haller had a good deal Of money,
and was in the habit of giving it away like
dirt; but this is all CANNON. It's clear case
that she hadn't the first red cent-her husband
having run away with every copper of it.
Mrs. Haller continued in her situation, and
things went on in this way for about month,
when one day, happening to be walking about
in the suburbs, she encountered Mr.. Haller
(the Strangely sting on a log, and signing, as
she expressed it eft to bust" This was too
much for the too sensitive heart of Mrs. Hal
ler, and approaching the Stranger, with
frantic air, she exclaimed: 2Jimmy, is ityouw
"Is it jist,n said the Stranger, and they went
into each others arms with perfect rush. The
upshot was, that the twain agreed to say moth
ing more about what had happened, and they
are both now living in extreme domestic felicity
at Fells Point as aforesaid.
AS for Kotzebue, he was so ashamed Of
having written such a scurvy play as the one
above illuminated, that he retired into obscu,
rity and hasn't been heard of since
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