Omaha daily bee., 1891-12-06


A prince is not to us what he is to a Euro
pean, of course. We have not been taught to
regard him as a god, and so one gcod look at
MIN Is likely to so nearly appease our Curl
osity as to make him an object of no great in
terest next time. We want a fresh ono. But
it is not so with the European, l am quite
sure of it. The same old one will answer;
he pe1er stales. Eighteen years ago | was
in London, aud | called at an E~nglishman's
house on q bleak and foggy and dismal
December afternoon to visit his wife and
married dau liter. by appointment. WAITED
half an hour, and then they arrived, frozen.
They explained that they had been delayed
by an unlooked-for circumstance while pass
ing in tho neighOorhood of Marlborough house
thev saw n crowd gathering. and were told
that the prince of Wales was about to drive
out, so they stopped to get a sight of him.
They had waited a half hour on the sidewalk.
freealng with the crowd, but were disap-
pointed at aSt-the prince had changed his
mind. | said, with a good deal or surprise;
rs 1t possible that you two have lived in
London all your lives and have never seen
the prince of Wales" .a"f
Apparently it was tnelr turn to be sur.
priscd. for they exclaimed:
What an idea! Why, we have seen HIM
hundreds of tines
They had seen him hundreds Of times, yet
they had waited half an hour in the gloom
and the bitter cold, in the midst of a jam of
patients from the same asylum on the chance
of seeing him again. 1t was q SIMPLIFYING
statement, but one is obliged to believe the
English, even when they say a thing like
that. l fumbled around for a remark, and
got OUT this one:
81 can't understand it at all. If tad never
seen General Grant, | doubt if | would do
that over to get a sight Of him." with u
slight emphasis on the last word.
Their blank faces showed that they Won
dered where the parallel came in. Then they
said blandly:
'Of course not. He is only n president"
II is doubtless a fact that a prince is = per-
manent interest, an interest not subject TO
deterioration. The general who was never
defeated, the general VINO never held II coun-
Gil of war, the only general VINO ever COM
manded Il connected battle front l,2O0
miles long, the smith who welded to-
gether The broken parts of a great republic
and rc-cstablished it whore 1t is quite likely
to outlast all the monarchies present aud to
come, was really a person of no serious con-
sequence to these people. To them, WITH
their training, my general was onli u man
after NIL, while their prince was clearly much
moro than that, a being of IA wholly unsimi-
lar construction and con stitution, Il being of
no move blood and kinship with men than are
the serene eternal lights of Tho armament
with the poordull tallow candles OF
that sputter ana die and leave nothing behind
but II pinch of ashes and a stink.
saw the last act of "Tannhau SER" sat
IN the gloom and the deep stiffness waiting
one minute, two minutes, | do not know eX-
actly now tOnp-theu the SOtt music OF the
hidden orchestra began TO breathe its rich,
long signs out from under the distant stage,
and by and by the drop curtain pa rtrd in the
middle and was drawn slowly aside, disclos-
ing a twilighted wood and a wayside shrine,
with a white robed girl praying and a man
standing near. Presently that noble chorus
of mems voices was beard approaching, and
from that moment until the closing of the cur
tain IL was music, just music music TO make
ono drunk with pleasure, music to make one
fnlgn EfspI and Gtntf md hnn hiG Nyn YtnnnH
the globe to hear IL.
To such as are intending to come here IN
the Wagner season next year l wish to say,
bring your dinner pail with you. Ii you do,
you will never cease to DO thankful. If you
do not, YOU will find IL a hard light to save
yourself from furnishing in B%ayreuth. Bay
reuth is merely u large village aud has no
very large hotels or eating houses. The
principal inns are the Golden Anchor and tho
Sun. 1t either OF these places you can get
an excellent meal-no, L mean you can go
there and see other people get it. There is
no charge for this. The own Is Uttered with
restaurants, but they are small and bad, and
they are overdrlven With custom. 1ou must
secure n table hours beforehand, and often
when you arrive you will find somebody oc-
cupying 1t. We have had this OK perience. We
have had n daily scramble for life, and when
l say we, l include shoals of people, | have
the impression that tho only people who do
not have to scramble are tho veterans
the disciples who have been here before aud
know the ropes. | think they arrive about q
week before the first opera and engage all
the tables for the season.. My trioe have
tried all kinds OF places-some outside OF the
town a mile or two-and have captured only
nibblings and odds and ends, never in any in
stance a complete and satisfying meal. Di-
Resti6lei No, the reverse. These odds and
ends are going TO serve as souvenirs OF Ray
reuth, and In that regard their value is not TO
be oversstimated. Photogr aphs fade, bric-a-
qrac gets lost, busts of Wagner get broken,
but once you absorb a Bayreuth restaurant
meal 1t Is your possession and your property
until tho time comes to embalm the rest OF