The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-05-22
A May Greeting.
Letter from Berthoid Auerbach, fhe Great
German Author, 10 his Countrymen in
America.

the occasion of the opening of the
Vienna Exhibition: A May greeting
sent to the New World from Gersnbach,
in the Black Forest, by Berthold Auer-
bach What will be your feelings, my
beloved countrymen, when, tins sum-
mer, you will come again to Germany
to see the Exhibition? Germany IS
your fatherland; America is your chill
dren's land. You come back like sons
and daughters married abroad, to visit
their fathers house; you are lndepen-
dent and free, but within your hearts |
there dwells faithful memory, and |
YOU will find the old home still beauti-
full. and you will carry back refreshed
souls into the New World. Welcome !
But [ am prevented from mingling
with the crowd and hustle there, and
what would single voice signify there?
SO much the more happy do feel to be
permitted to send message from
verdant valley of my home.
All rivulets on earth
Have their course.
they sing on the street. Under my
window rushes the beautiful Murch
(river), driving mills and carrying RATS;
she flows into the German Rhine, the
Rhine into the ocean. But the Ocean
of Thought, into which to-day all is
floating-that is, the Exhibition IN
Vienna!
"Cuckoo!' calls the bird Of spring
from the shadowy hills, and, "Look,
look!" it means when spring awakes and
all germs are budding. Thus, yonder,
therein the Exhibition, all germs of the
human mind are developed, and 'Look!
/ I. =. l. R11t
thyself, and realize that this is no out
side voice-thisis the voice within thee.
Try and lay thy finger on the pulse OF
the present!
To the great international Exhibition
the Black Forest has also contributed
virtual proofs of its industry, science
and art !; but how little it seems in that
grand universal collection! Yet it IS
one sound, one note of the great sym
phony. For all that whistling of steam,
that digging, boring, hammering, chisel-
ling, down to the hardly audible move
ment of the painters brush, all is one
complete symphony-called labor. 1t
renews and embelishes the world! The
old legends appear new.
The Argonauts Yonder, upon the
"beautiful blue Danube. float swim
ming mansions from Ulm to Vienna
they carry hundreds-not of warriors,
but of workmen-and they bring back,
not the Golden Fleece, but:the inalien,
able treasure of rich sights and new
energy.s
And another one still! Once upon 6
time there were three princesses two
of them were highly honored, shining
in a resplendent palace and surrounded
by brilliant suitors, while the third ha6
to work for the necessities of life, sit
ting on the domestic hearth. The Gin
: derella of the Old World was Labor
her brilliant sisters were Science anC
= Art. But Cinderella Labor was Sc
upon the thrown, and the princes an(
l leaders of nations come and bow anC
! salute her. Bat to-day, at her grant
| festival, she unites with her the siste
e Beauty and the sister Wisdom. The,
} are no longer eparated-their union i
= already pronounced by the words sin
l.; dustry of art" (KunSt-Iodustrie).
3 Still Science is and will remain mas
e ter The shining glories of humanit
a will henceforward be free. Science an
D Art though not directly serving tn
!. ends of utility, they are, nevertheless
e sufficient unto themselves. They al
: the wings that carry Pegasus into tn
a empyrean but through them a breat
C of the higher world pervadas all lii
}, chained to the earth. Physical powe
e is measurable by horse power, but th
a flight of genius is unreasonable. 1t
e immeasureable because only the unde
n standing of master spirits of its tin
+ can furnish the measure, which lat'
u generations only learn to apply whe
d the ashes of the inventor have bee
:, long in the grave.
e Imagine that on this 1st day of Ma,
II at early dawn, even before living so
e has appeared, man is walking throue
those halls replete with labor on ii
banks of the Danube ; a man who b
longs to Europe as well as to Americ
He was a disciple of the German ma
j. ,, ter Gutenberg, rbut also, in the life
" his mind, q genuine "self-made man
g Dare L undertake to recall Benjam
- Franklin Nearly q century befo
:, this day he was to meet the Emper
II Francis Joseph of Austria. "Josel
= and Benjamin were brothers," sons
y one mother, Humanity. Benjam
~ Franklin, walking through this giga
i tic collection of labor, thoughtful
e but with a beaming countenance,
g stops in front of that apparatus whi
10 has made lightning speak, which h
=, - caught lightning and made it harmless
- - sweep past the habitations of men, al
- now it speaks over continents al
? through oceans.
> That is science, that is labor, viii
: nowadays are working miracles. Sin
y y this has happened the idea of supt
u natural miracles has become obsole
le le Onward he PAGES, and a new devotio
W 70 as it were, speaks from his mild fl
q lures. Here is the age of power &C
g centrated, where striving and dari
y lead to the elevation of life. WI
would the Olympian games be co
hs pared with this ?
ns How many years of labor, of gu
Nv thought, of devoted energy, are he
ry united before the forum of humanit
ed And here all nations are measured a
a. judged by the mental labor they ha
q. accomplished, by their visible VIC
ry done to liberate, to elevate, and to e
en- bellish existence. Here is the worl
a soul visible to the eye,
of 1t is o wonderful greeting to
he workman, the presence of all this
ne ished work. The soul of the origina
ed speaks to the admirer, not only fir
H. the written word nay, also out of
re hewn stone, out of iron and wood {
m all materials.
in Onward walks Franklin, and will
: faalinu of infanSa iOV lie cOntemOla