The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-10-23
MODERN BAYREUTH.
A sleepy Bavsrian Town That owes As
Notoriety to Wagner.

Notoriety to Wagner.
Acentury ago Bayreuth was rich ana
famous as the seat Of the B~randenburS
m~argraves, whose palaces and pleasure
grounds still adorn the town and its
neighborhood. But its eighteenth
century grandeur had faded away for
ever, and in this democratic and indus
trial age it had settled down into a sort
of comfortable, dignitied, dowager-llke
genteel obscurity, with no possible
future, apparently, before it but re-
spectacle dullness. When ten years
ago it sprung into a new and IN
dreamed.of notoriety, 40 one was more
taken aback. more put out by the hon
or than Bayreuth itself. Well VIC re-
member, when the city was first invad-
ed by the stream of tourists, how slow
it was to awake to the greatness thus
thrust upon it, and TO grasp and act
upon the fact that a sudden influx OF
some two thousand souls call for some
extra provision. For the visitors SOUL
indeed, a rich feast of music was un-
questionably prepared, but for his bod
ily requirements little or no thought
had been taken beforehand by the
town, and everybody was at his wits
end to provide for the emergency that
very naturally arose. In the first days
the singers themselves ran some risk
of being famishcd, While the traveller
rayished with their song, had to earn
not even to dream Of supper. 1t Is
needless to say that in ten years Bay
reuth has become used to its popnlarl-
ty, and learned how to turn it to COM
mercial account. No stranger now
there abiding need want for any need
full thing. 1t has accepted ia strange
new lot as a modern shrine of pilgrim
age. 1t has accepted Wagner as a
ruling divinity. 1t is the only town in
Germany where you are allowed
awhile to forget Bismarck and the En-
peror, nay, even Goethe and Schiller.
Wagner here overshadows all; his
stamp is everywhere and on every
thing. The very post cards here sold
bear his ehigy or a sketch OF his theater
on the hill. The note-paper you buy
has for a superscription the ''scarf
motif" from Christian or the Glover
mai1ens' motif from "Parsifal," His
bust, his photograph, picture scenes
from his operas and art mementos OF
like descriptions supply materials fora
complete branch of trade. upon which
the Bayreuth shop-keepers ~thrive-not
to mention the enormous flood of Wag-
ner literature, continually on the in.
crease. The first morning pilgrimage
made by every visitor who comes hith-
er is to the grave of the man VINO has
conferred this singular kind of emf
nence on the town. We stroll into the
gardens-now Il public promenade-of
the former palace of the Margrave of
Brandenhurg and of his wife, Freder.
lex the Greats sister. but it is neither
Of the sprightly Wilhelmine nor even
of the illustrious Fritz that we are
thinking Of as we tread the shady, park.
like retreat. with its stately n OF
ash trees and long strips of water over.
shadowed by thick boughs, the whole
not too carefully kept, and inviting
pleasantly to rest and meditation.
From one of the side avenues a gate
communicates with the consecrated
piece of ground, behind the gardens of
Wagner's villa. which he set apart dur
ing his lifetime as a burying place for
himself. The approach is through a
thick little grove of expresses and
spruce frs, the pathway leading to a
railed-off inclosure planted round with
sycamores and beeches. In their midst
the tomb-a vast, low-lying gray mar.
BILE slab without inscription, setin a wide
frame of luxuriant ivy. What more
natural than that he should desire to
rest here, almost in the shadow Of the
dwelling place where he had passed
the last ten years of his life, the years
during which he had seen the attain
ment Of those objects long secuted by
the world as visionary, but to whose
fulfillment he had strenuously devoted
his whole existence. london Society.
Clean Out the Cellar.