The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-08-25
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.
SOCIAL LIFE IN GERMANY.
FRANKFoRT, July Is, 1870.

5. FRANKFORT, July Is, 1870.
70 the E.lido,' Of the 7sysgnaa1h: apAe ad1
Strange as it may appear, among peo-
pie whose lower and middle classes are
composed of men not refined in manners,
and made up of rough organic material,
there should be such love for music and
the fine arts. And when I speak of men
not refined in manners do not mean
that they are lacking in goodness of heart,
and kindly feelings to all. These are
among their predominant virtues. But l
wish to be understood that as they have
been brought up to toll and hard work,
with scanty living particularly the
mothers, thus acquiring strong muscles
and a hardy fibre, lacking the polish
that always characterizes the Frenchman
and the Italian, it is rather singular as /
have said before, that the Teuton, partic
ularly among the lower classes, should
have such marked taste for not only
music, but all the fine arts Painting,
statuary, poetry, and the drama is his
great delight. He will work hard for
half form o day, and half of this he
spends for cheap seat to hear a favorite
opera in the evening.
Very few of the lower classes, and it
increases with the ascending strata, but
what have in Germany their rooms, even
the most common, hung with paintings,
In the gardens, on bridges, public build
ings, on the promenades, every where, is
seen statuary. 1t is rare that the travel
Ter finds objects Of this kind out of place
and in bad taste--thato ise to th pse who
view such objects from tpruper stand
point. A few weeksago while travelling,
I saw two pieces of statuary, one it oc-
cured to me sadly out Of place, and the
other just in the right place. Very pos
.sibly had talked with some of the Ger
mans, they might have thought had not
good taste, but to me there is "a fitness
of things not only in the common af-
fairs of life, but even in art
think it was in the old city of Wurz-
burg, one day while | was sight seeing,
my attention was arrested by what ap
peared to me very novel spectacle. A
brewer grown rich as all brewers do in
all countries, had torn down the old
structure anG built new one, in STYLE
hardly inferior to many of the public
buildings of the present day, such as col
leges and other institutions of learning.
But the ornamental part was in front
There was a ponderous gateway few
rods in front, under which was passage
tor teams and carriages to the main en-
trance. This arching was sort of init
alton of the great arch Of Constantine of
Rome or perhaps more modern structure,
that of the Brandenburg gate that leads
from Berlin to Pottsdam, Of the far
famed Linden Strasse.s Upon this lofty
and splendid structure, high in the air,
is seated Victory drawn in her car
by four horses, modelled after the cele-
brated bronze horses in front of the
cathedral of San Marco in Venice And
what device do you think this brewer
had selected to adorn his archway As
a yankee would say "guess" thousand
times and then you would not hit it. It
was no less than colossal piece of statu-
airy representing the crucifxion of the
Saviour! This design is always repre-
sented in an upright position, but in the
present instance it was recumbent. What
possible connection there could be be-
tween "Christ and Him Crucifed" and
this institution, particularly in that posi-
ton, leave it for artists and the lovers
of lager beer to determine But I left,
among other reflections with this, that I
had rather have that brewers income an
nually, than that Of any of the dukes of
he many little petty prircipslities that
chequers the map of Europe, after the
payment of his debts. sn
In one of the gambling salons of Weis-
baden, saw u piece of marble statuary
that attracted my attention. It was that
of very beautiful lady of fapltIess form.
To see such divinity of form one could
not but expect to see nothing less than
face divine. But alas, that face was
yelled, and no human eyes could see her
features. There were even two and both