The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-05-21
johanna SebuS.

THE poet Goethe tells q sad and beau
tiful st0ry-and it is the more sad ana
beautiful because it is true-of young !
girl, Johanna Sebus, who, in the year
1909, when the sea broke down the dykes
and overfowed her native village, proved
herself worthy of great poets song.
Johanna, or Joanna, as we would call
her, was only seventeen years old, but no
one in the village had the noble spirit
and quiet courage of this strong, true
hearted girl.
When the waters rose around the
houses, and the waves washed up to the
very door-steps, Johanna knew that there
was no longer safety excepting on the
high grounds near the village. But how
were they to reach those high grounds?
The water was nearly knee.deep and ris.
ing every moment. The roaring and
surging of the waves and the wind were
heard in every direction, and the dyke
was giving way, piece by piece, before the
rushing flood. Every moment the dan
ger increased. There was no time to
hesitate.
Johanna's mother, an aged woman,
could not force her way through those
raging waves. But Johanna was tall and
strong. She took her old mother in her
arms and stepped boldly into the water.
The waves dashed against her, but she
pressed on. Her neighbors, q mother
and three children, seeing her leave them,
were seized with sudden terror. Not
| until this moment did they know how
much they depended on the brave Johan.
ma, the only person to whom they could
look for counsel or help in this hour OF
peril.
| Ateo, ~vvrrJ -, %,ro oF oro,,,ro~ or,ouI
to her mother, who trembled as she saw
the waters boiling beneath her-so terri
bly, near to her-JOhanna turned to hel
neighbors and called to them to fly to the
hill close by, which was yet dry, and
assured them that she would return to
them as soon as she had placed hel
mother on the high ground. sand my
poor goat" she cried, al she heard hel
favorite bleating after her; stake him
with you. Don't leave him to die"
| As soon as she reached place of safety
Johanna set her mother upon the ground
| and, without q moments pause, turned
around to hurry back through the ever.
deepening water. Her old mother cried
out:
ooh! where are you going? The path
is washed away! Oh, my daughter! will
you go into that dreadful flood agains"
mother, they must be saved" said
Johanna, as she plunged into the water,
by this time more than knee-deep.
The dyke was now on the point of Civ
ing away entirely. Ahill of water seemed
roaring and fOaming toward the village.
But Johanna pressed on over the path
which she knew so we'll, although it was
now covered with water. The waves
dashed against her, almost knocking her
down, and drenching her from head to
foot. At last she reached the little hill
where she had left her neighbors. But
almost at this moment the dyke gave
way; a mad deluge rushed IN, sweeping
over everything before it, and around the
little hill soon boiled turbulent sea, ris-
ing above its highest point.
As the great waves roll over the ground
on which they stand, clinging in terror to
each other, Johanna's poor neighbor and
her children cannot keep their foothold.
They are washed away, and disappear
beneath the raging food. As they sink,
one of the children seizes the goat by one
horn and dnags him down. Thus, all but
Johanna are lost.
Johanna stands alone, still firm and
strong, but the waters are rising around
her.
Who Is there now to save this noble
girl? She has many friends and many
lovers, but no one of them comes to hel
now. Nothing comes to her but the salt
angry waves. Nowhere can she see even
boat.
She casts one look up to heaven, and
then the waters surge fiercely against her
and she is gone!
Now nothing is to be seen where the
village stood but wild waste of waters,
with here and there a steeple or a tree
rising up above the flood.
But as the survivors gaze upon the
widespread desolation the thought of
the brave and beautiful girl who gave her
life for others throws deeper gloom
upon the mournful scene.
And even when the waters subside and
the land reappears no one who knew
Johanna can be glad. They weep for
her and cannot forget her.
This is sad story of a noble girl.
Only those who have read it as Goethe so
tenderly and dramatically tells it in his
poem, johanna Sebus," Can appreciate
its true pathos and force.-John Lesoees,
in st. Nicholas for May.