Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-09-11
RETURNED FROM GERMANY.

PROFESSORS HANIER AND EIsENBERG AND
THEIR FAMILIES AT HOME AGAIN.
Prof. +. w. Hamer and wife, and Miss
Charlotte Jaffe, and Prof. G. f. w. Eisen-
berg and wife-the former of whom arrived
on Friday morning last, preceded by the
latter couple a few days-are home from
their summer vacation in Germany. Prof.
Eisenberg came week sooner that his wife
might have the opportunity of stopping to
see her parents i'll Loudoun on the way to
Staunton. A representative Of the VINDI-
GATOR called on Prof. Hamer for some ac-
count Of their vacation and especially of
the great Wagnerian operatic festival at
Bayreuth, which he was known to have at
tended.
'We left New Y ork on June 9th, on the
ENNIS" said Prof. Hamer, and had a toll
erably rough trip. For two days and a half
there were heavy storms. Everybody was
sick, except Prof. Eisenberg, who is not
subject to sea sickness. When it was not
storming there was heavy fog, and on the
whole we had very few nice days until we
got to Southampton, England. From there
we sailed to Bremen. Miss Jaffe there left
the party and went to Hamburg where her
mother lives and where she spent her vaca-
ton. The rest of our party went to
Cassel, where my wife was Born and where
[ once taught. Mrs. Hamer's mother and
several of her sisters are living there.
That city we made our headquarters and
from there Prof. Eisenberg and and our
wives made some summer excursions to
other cities. We went among others to
Dresden and Baden. At Dresden we met
Mr.. J. III. Bader of the Staunton High
School. He was summering there attend
ing course of lectures and perfecting
himself in the German language. He was
delightfully."- situated, having secured board
in the family of the widow of an army Off
Ger, nobleman, whose social position gave
him admission to a very desirable circle
1t is one OF those happy locations one can
not get without the best letters of intro
duction. From Dresden we went to Leip-
sic and other cities.
''And heard some fine operasp'' sugges-
ted the representative.
wv ell, no; one does not hear many fine
operas in Germany at this time Of the year.
The opera houses have two months vaca-
ton and are closed during the months OF
July and August. But the picture gale
ries of the large cities will afford you plen-
ty of amusement. In Berlin and Dresden
nd iaJ,- ocnonio1lyy IL,
will find the greatest pleasure in visiting
the picture galleries. y
GLOW many of your party went to the
Wagnerian festival at Bayreuth?n
ut was very difficult to get tickets and
only I got there. Directly [ got to Ger1na-
ny, six OIL seven weeks before the perform
ance at Bayreuth was to begin, l COM
menced telegraphing to get tickets of adj
mission. [ could only get two. There are
twenty performances given at Bayreuth,
Torrance. The three of Wagner's works
given were "Tannhauser, !" "Parsifal, y
and Christian and Isolde" AS my wife
did not want to go [ used both of our tick
cts. Bayreuth is an out of the way place
to get to, that is to say it is not on any
main line and you have to go over several
branch roads to reach it. The theatre,
which was built by Wagner and under his
supervision, is nearly two miles out of the
town. You can reach it by vehicle OF
afoot, but there is no street car line to it..
1t is very interesting to see the crowd that
is gathered there. They are from all quar-
tiers OF the world and almost every language
is represented. Among those from abroad
the Americans, English and French pre-
dominate. The theatre holds about 1,500
people, that is there are seats for over l, 800
and the rest are in the loges for the royal
persons and nobility. The orchestra is To-
Gated SO far below the audience that moth
ing of it is seen, not even the leader head.
This gives the music a beautiful effect,
which l appreciated especially in Parsifal.
The drop curtain does not drop as with us,
but when the opera is to begin is drawn
apart as we do a pOrtiere. Some OF the
scenery is shifted as with us, and some of
it is drawn up to the ceiling. The scenery
is magnificent and of itself is worth the
| five dollars admission. In Parsifal the
change from the magic garden filled with
dancers, to the sombre castle of the Holy
Grail was wonderful. The operatic per-
Winkelman whom I had seen in Richmond
| when they were in this country, and
among the other singers was Alvary, the
tenor, who made such a sensation in New
York. The performance Of an opera be-
gins at o'clock in the afternoon and is
over at 10 O'Clock at night. There are in
termissions between the acts, one being so
long as an hour for dinner
In our excursions we went to Munich,
where we had very pleasant sight seeing.
l was most impressed by the castle of the
King which [ went through. 1t is as large
as whole square here. What is called the
Prince S apartment in it is splendid. The
bedstead in it with ghobelin tapestry work
in gold filagree cost, they told me, 100000
marks OF 100000. 1t took forty persons
twenty years, SO the story goes, to make it.
Tho room has not been occupied by any one
since Napoleon LIST slept there.
Els the apprehended war much talked OF
among the mass of the German people?7
No, heard no talk about war. That
talk has arisen since l started for home /
suppose, if the people are talking about it at
all. But the people were gloomy on anoth-
Ell subject as bad in some respects as war
the bad crops. The cold rains had done
great damage. The rye crop, the most i'm
portant in Germany, had been almost a
failure. The early winter was SO severe
that they had to pillow under the first crop
of rye and SOW again. When the second