The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-09-14
MARTNsBURG WEST VIRGINIA. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER A. 1865

ttCVOIS, ttiltl UdHC6TS, dIlu SluHcrS, anu nO.
oilers; his harem, with its Inhabitants !;
his diamondsand duchies for these latter !;
his enormous festivities, his gaming
banquets lasting week long, for which
the poor wretches had it, with their
bodies and very blood when they had
none; being sold in thousands by their
lords and masters, who gaily dealt in
soldiers, staked a regiment upon the red
at the gambling table; snapped a batta-
lion against dancing-girl's diamond
necklace and, as itwere, pocketed their
people.
AS one views Europe through contem-
porary books of travel in the early part
OF last century, the landscape is awful
Wretched wastes, beggarly and plumber
ed; halfburned cottages and trembling
peasants gathering piteous harvests -
gangs of such tramping along with bay
Onets behind them, and cOrpOrAls with
canes and cats-of-nine-tails to fog them
to the barracks. BY these passes my
lords gilt carriage laundering through
the ruts, and he swears at the Positions,
and tolls ON to the Residenz. Hard by,
but away from the noise and bfawli1R
Of the citizens and buyers, Is Wilhelm
slut, or Ludwigsruhe, or Mobljou, or
Versailles scarcely matters which
near to the city, shut out by woods nom
the beggared country, the enormous,
hideous, gilded, marble palace, where
the prince Is, and the Court, and the trim
gardens, and huge fountains, and the
forest where the ragged peasants are
beating the game In it Is death to them
to touch feather;) and the Jolly hunt
sweeps by with its uniform Of crimson
and gold and the prince gallops ahead
pufhng his royal horn; and his lords and
mistress ride after him and the stag b
pulled down; and the grand huntsman
gives the knife In the midst of a chorus
Of bugles, and tits time the Court gohome
to dinner; and our noble traveller, it
may be the Baron of Pollnitz, or the
Count de Konigsmarck, or the excellent
Chevalier de Seingalt, sees the procession
cleaning through the trim avenues OF
the wood, and hastens to the inn, and
sends his noble name to the marshal of
the Court. Then our nObleman arrays
himself in green and gold, or pink and
silver, in the richest Paris mode, and is
introduced by the chamberlain, and
makes his bow to the jolly prince and
the gracious princess; is presented to the
chief lords and ladies, and then come sup
per and bank at Faro, whenhe losesOr
wins thousand pieces by daylight. If
1t is a German court, you may add not a
little drunkenness to his picture of high
life; but German, or French, or Spanish,
If you can eout of your palace -windows
beyond the trim-cut forest vistas, misery
is lying outside; hunger isstalking about
the bare villages, listlessly following pre-
carious husbandry; blowing stony fields
with starved cattle; or fearfully taking
in scanty harvests. Augustus Is fat and
jolly on his throne; he can knock down
an OK, and eat one almost; his mistress,
Aurora Won Konigsmarck, is the lowell
est, the wittiest creature his diamonds
are the biggest and most brilliant in the
world, and his feasts as splendid as those
of Versailles. AS for Louis the Great,
he is more than mortal. Lift up your
glances respectfully, and mark him eye
ing Madame de FOntanges or Madame
de Montespan from under his sublime
periWig, as he passes through the great
gallery where Villars, and VendOme, and
Berwick, and BOsseut, and Massilon are
waiting. Can court be more splendid
mobiles and knights more gallant and SUI
perb; ladies more lovely? A grander
or q more miserable, starved
wretch than the peasant, his subject, YOU
can not look on. Let us bear both these
types in mind, if we wish to estimate the
old society properly. Remember the
glory and the chivalry? Yes! Remem-
Der the grace and beauty, the splendor
and lofty politeness; the gallant courtesy
Of Fountenoy, where the French line
bids the gentlemen Of the English guard
to fire first; the noble constancy Of the
Old King and Villar, his general, who
fits out the last army with the last crown
piece from the treasury, and goes to meet
the enemy and die or conquer for France
at Domain. But round all that royal
splendor lies a nation enslaved and ruin
ed; there are people robbed of their
rights; communities laid waste; faith,
justice, commerce trampled upon, and
well-nigh destroyed; nay, in the very
centre of royalty itself, what horrible
stains, and meanness, crime and shame!
1t is but to silly harlot that some of the
noblestg gentlemen, and some THE proud
est women In the world, are bowling
down; it Is the price Of a miserable
province that the King ties in diamonds
round his mistress's white neck. In the
first half Of the last century, say, this is
going on all Europe over. Gax0ny Il =
waste as well as p1cAry3v o. zAftOfa. and