New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-11
HEINE'S LAST YEARS.


Alfred MeissDer brings to close bis series OF arti
clas entitled Last Memories of Heinrich Heine."
The yalue of these articles is increased by the lact
that they are compiled from letters written Dy
Meissner to relativesi Germany at the time OF the
events and conversations they describe. Inc ac-
counts ne gives of the poets surroundings ana taiKs
have therefore. an accuracy which tney couio NV
possibly possess If written from recollection aier
the lapse of more than twenty years. They are SIN
gularly fresh and vivid.
After the revolution Of 194S Meissner returheo ~
Paris. A throne had been overturned battles hau
been fought, civil war had ragged within tho walls
Of the French capital The turmoil and STRIFE pens
followed by powerful reaction, had ended IN
profoupd lassitude Louis Bonaparte had taken
the place of Louis Philippe An unnatural, oppres-
siye stilIness reigned. Meissner found Helne IN
small dwelling in the Rue PAmsterdam IL was
the 21st of January, 1949. He received pewerIui
sensation of surprise and sorrow as he pressed inc
male thin hand of his friend and found that he was
almost blind and had long been unable to leave MS
bed.
r, was evening az entered. On the mautel over inc
little fireplace lamp burned low screen ols4ea t sre
smell room into two parts ana IN the 6arHSr pII
name and approached. slender hand reached oot TO-
ward hand that SIN see II n9d become sort 80 O Of
yke substance sought 10 vain ior wo dt coS
silence ensned broken only SS Ie ~ Mans eToss the
ceuryard Heine spoke al last of the frghtful pro-
Nv dear friend he said sadly but with the old iron
teal smile which never quite eft hm even 10 Of tse
adSe so% esOso %e I'D Bohemian sans dd
not imagine then that your friend w01a Sp ssr now Hal
am an Atlantic For more than year nave NOT GA"
WIZ He rosed himself upon his pillow and spoke OF the
manner in which he had passed the time since we
Uninterrupted pain which he suffered no and OF
his utter helpessness. He said he had become Pee me,
Between world and the next and looking down upon
his broken tortured 9ody lie Seq onv cue 10 s
Wrife-to still create, but mis- blind eye, his unsteady
efofts He pictared his suffering nights, when sugges
lions OF suicide crept around nm anti ne S
that ne s wanted to complete in his literary Work 20
drive them away Then with terrible earnessSssS me
Burger. Heinrich Won Kleist, H6lderin. the unhappy
Lenau-a curse Is upon the German poets'
PHYSICAL AND MATERIAL ILLS.
Heine's bodily suherings had made him as helpless
as a child Not day passed that he was not tor
mented with intense physical agony. To make his
situation still more lamentabe his material circum-
stances had undergone change for the worse.
Everything showed ths-the dwelling with only
two windows upon the street; the service whleh
was performed by an old mulatto woman who was
at the same time cook and nurse the scanty house
hold comforts. After 1887 Heine had received an
annual pension of $500 francs from the Ministry OF
Foreign Affairs, but this income which for ten years
had enabled him to live in comfort, was cut on Dy
the fall of the Guizot Ministry, and the overthrow
Of the July monarchy In 1S4S destroyed all hopes
Of it's restoration. Nowadays there would be
Thought to be something unpatrotc and almost
iishonorable in the receipt of French money by
German author, but at that time national preudl-
ces had been largely broken down by long era
OF peace and France stood the representative OF
liberal ideas in Europe. Hundreds OF foreigners
who had compromised themselves at home by their
advocacy of tho July Revolution accepted the
bounty of Louis Phippes Government Heines
e.ers TO the Aqeeine ZeitunO showed that his PEN
sion did not have the effect of restraining MN from
frank criticism of the acts of that Government
when IL failed to keep its promises to the people.
A dismal time had now begun for Heine. De-
prived of the chief part of his income, his literary
efforts limited by his disease, the spirit which
preyailed in the literary world at odds with all his
mast thought and work, assailed by old enemies
emboldcned by his helpless condition, deserted by
nearly all his friends the contrast of his miserable
situation with his sunny careless, joyous past
must have oppressed the sick man with terrible
force Perhaps the most severe of his Affections
was to SEQ tho best achievements OF regarded
ma folly or insanity. The works that had been
nraisod 80 highly we're now condemned on all sides.
Nor was he FREQ from malicious and venomous per-
sonal attacks. Says Meissner:
He was pictured as O harlequin, obliged to throw
away bis wooden sword and grasp at ners n
down exhaustion brought on by his own excesses
The sickness from nnS wG n ne Nemesis invoked BY his
own profligate life. complaint wnicn i, ml ug,
havs attacked him had he been the most respect aoe c
zen of the NEST respectable German town. was declared
10 be the result OF wild life and mad pursuit OF the
have lived than most Of the p ''I who
Of immortality Never n my Whole de nave
be unfaithful Is not TINT rcmarkablei Can many
yes !. is traeS Then in his customary
leaving an earnest expression enveloped 10 an lronca
70 make 70 myself In the evening Of my life never be
frayed deserted maid was never the nrst love-
DESERTED BY HIS FRIENDS.
Meissner left Paris in 1850. after spending many
,v.eks Mt tho bedside of his friend, anC
did not return until 1854. when the wist
"a see Heine once moro was the chief cause OF hi
tourney. He found the poet still living in the ole
cramped quarters at No. so Rue dAmsterdam, il
the same dismal little room with its outlook on tn
narrow court. The only furniture was bed ia
bIe aud two chairs. The sound of the piano from
a neighborng dwelling came in at the window
before. brit the player who was then practising ne
nenles had now advanced to more difficult exercises
She had arrived at her present degree of dexterit
by practising upon the senstlYe nerves OF ts- sci
man all those four years as wen as upon Ihe ; .
the instrument. Nothing showed the presence Of ;
friendly hand in the chamber. -Four bare wall
stared at the invalid, There was not pictnr,
or piece of sculpture to show that tn
voat had for years been the companion
Of artists and had often aided them In their G9D
ts3rned in and out occasionally but spent most o
her fime elsewhere aud left the of he husband
entirely TO the paid nurse Hcine's Paris friends o
other Iaya came once in six months. perhaps, t
make a c1nscence-call. 1t seemed to him as If hi
long sickness had made his very existence Rn annoy
snrc 70 them, and he took little pleasure III Ilei
Tisits Senffert who was really attached TO him
had married aud gone TO Venice. where he die'
eho,tly after unhappy and forgotten: There was
sort az cabinet sunk in The wall of Heines room
which contained his manuscripts and the remain
Of his librafyfve or six shelves OF books. in wi'
d;sorier Fiom this cabinet Messner brought, y
Isi.aia raonlxf his latest eIaZarus POems.n