The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-11-24

y =
of fear and of reason. There is but
one man in England whom can
truly reverence, and his name is
Herr Carlyle" !"
"Mr. Carlyle, why he is an old
friend of mine 1 saw him the last
time I was in England. Pm glad
you admire him."
did you, mein Herr2 did you re-
ally2" says the old man, with un-
mistakable interest. "Tell me all
Iabout him, I beseech you; he is a
lgreat man-worthy to have been
born Germanw
And for nearly twelve minutes we
sit IN judgment upon the biography
lof Frederick the Great, till the
strokes of seven, booming from the
town below, warn the professor that
lit is time to be going home.
"You must come with me, mein
Herr," says he, rising from his seat;
mo excuses, I beg of you. 1t shall
never be said that Justus Weisen-
Ibart met friend of the Herr CARLYLE
without making him welcome. And,
besides, l have got something to
show you which I think will interest
you"
The old mans hearty manner was
not to be resisted; and a quarter of
an hour late ! stood before the door
of tall, prim looking stone house at
the corner of the Market Platz, the
curiously carved front of which
showed that it had seen more than
one century. But il its outside was
stern and unpromising, its inside
was comfortable in the highest de-
gree, and so l thought when Ifound
myself seated over a substantial
German supper in the professors
little snuggery, and hearing the old
mans CHEEKY voice bidding me "fall
to and spare nothing"
While eating 1 found time to
glance round the room, which, save
for its antique furniture and heavy
cross beams of dark oak, differed
but little from the countless other
laboratories that l had seen in various
towns of Southern Germany; but
one object arrested my attentions
human skeleton planted upright in
a corner, presenting a pistol menac-
ingly with its feshless hand. The
professor noticed the direction of
my eyes and smiled significantly.
"That is the curiosity 1 was speak.
ing Of" he said. at has history
of its own worth hearing. When
we have finished supper I will tell it
to you"
And sccordingly, as soon as our
meal was ended Herr Weissenbart
settled himself comfortably in his
great easy chair, lighted an enor-
nous German pipe, which the most
seasoned "fox" in the university |
would have found it hard to smoke
out, and began as follows:
"At the time that 1 bought this
house, mein Herr, had Just entered !
upon the happiest period of my
whole life. 1 had at length obtained |
the modest competence for which 1 /
had long labored in vain, and could
say to myself when 1 sat down in
my easy chair in the evening and lit
my pipe: Now Justice Weissenbart,
thou hast done all that the earthly
and corporal part of thee demands
for Its sustenance; henceforth thou
art fee to serve the cause of science,
and, it may be, even to add little
grain of knowledge to the sum of
human learning I went to work
with all earnestness. 1 filed my
house with rare plants, rare fossils, |
rare minerals. l paid high for Gu
riosities of every kind. Once l paid !
handful of thalers for the carcass
of a donkey which exhibited sin
gular malformation of the che spinal |
column. Its dissection led me to |
one of the most curious discoveries
which 1 have ever made. An, mein
Herr, who are a man of amusement |
and adventure, cannot fathom the
delight I felt in cutting up that glo-
rious donkey! But once before in
my whole life did / experience the
same pleasure, and that was when |
was called in, little while after
first came here, to treat a patient
whose case exhibited some very un-
usual and perplexing symptoms. II
examined him; I reflected; the truth
flashed upon me. ] flung my hat on |
the ground, and embracing the sick !
man with rapture, cried out: i con
gratulate you my friend You have
received a disease which has been
unknown for the last six centuries p"
The idea of such consolation ad-
ministered to an invalid was too
much for my gravity. In spite ofall
my efforts to compose myself, 1
laughed till I was fairly exhausted;
and Herr Weissenbart very good hu-
moredly joined in the merriment,
though evidently without the least
suspicion of having given any cause
for it.
well mien lieber Herr" he con-
tinued, "you will doubtless have re-
marked it is singular law of ma
ture that whenever man lives all by
himself, in a particularly old and
shabby looking house, he invariably
acquires the reputation of being i'm
imensely rich. Perhaps my paying
so high for fossils and skeletons gave
some color to the myth in my case;
but at any rate l was soon known in
Heidelberg as the rich Prof. Weis-
serbart, and my friends began to
warn me that if I did not take care,
1 might some day chance to get
robbed.
Now, at the time l had but one
servant, who had been with me many
years, and was beginning to get old
and feeble. Every one said he was
not enough to take care of the house
himself, and that 1 had better have
younger man to help him, but l
didn't like to vex poor old Johann
by seeming to think him past work,
SO l just let things go on as they
were. He was a capital servant, and
did his work as well as a man could
do; but he had one falling. Every
now and then, when the chance Of
fered, he would"-a significant ges-
tuIe of the professors hand, as if
lifting a glass to his lips, completed
the sentence.