New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-27

In lSiS Won TIulow matricYlated al the Leip-
sic University ana made his home with his
uncle. FrcSc. one of the ladies Of the house
hold. Iivia Frcge. wife of his cousin. sang well
and enjoyed the friendship of Mendc.ssohn who
dedicated some songs to her Young Won
Bulow followed his example. but she vexcd him
by her Indifference toward them and the family
/ tried his revolutionary soul hy their corserva-
tsm. Young Hans had developed into a re-
former like his idol Wagner. who soon after was
in the thick of the political struggle So h. had
Il period of unhappincss Of which he made a
dutiful report To his mother on May Z. 1919
he wrote:
Studying and practising are just now abso-
lutely impossible to me. l wish | were not n
man. but poor unreasoning brute. that |
might not feel the sensations | do. How happy
among our comrades is he who yesterday
struck down by a cannon bah in Dresden If
Only YOU in Dresden are not suffering, !
anxious about YOU although you are pretty far
away from III" scene of action. If only could
come to you To hear few friendly, tolerant
words If only Wagner does not get shot.
Beautiful Dresden. To think that so lately |
was Giorying in the many art works in her
picture galleries. and that only few weeks ago
1 was hearing the grandeSt of all music in her
opera house! And now the one is given up To
the hames and the other is the scene of the
most horrible murder. Heaven grant that the
seed sown in blood may blossom into something
beautiful. everlasting and divine,
There We're many incidents in Won Buiow's
later career which proved that his political opin-
ions. though formed early and probably in
spiTed in the first instance by Wagner. adj
hercd to To the end. He in his personal
conduct an aristocratic democrat. but a demo
crat all the same and can imagine that it
was with something like thrill Of the old
spirit of 1919 that he retalatcd the Prussian
Court for Withdrawing his title of Court Plan
list. 10y printing on his cards Pianist to the
People" In 1851 his father wrote to Ernst Won
Bulow:
Let me disabUSe your mind of one other error
You, good PruSsian. Will naturally have
been anxious, like myself lest Hans should be
through and through republica niZed by Wag-
ner. and brought up arch traitor Therefore
only bitten by the political mania while he
was WaVering between two professions as he
was in Berlin. once fixed in his true calling as
he is ROW, and he thinks and dreams of moth
ing else but music.
This letter written early in lS5l but il
reflected only an outward quiescence on the part
of the young man, not the inward conviction
To his real feelings he gave vent in a letter to
is sister, in which he says:
Then began those unlucky politics AS a man
of feeling and intelligence. 1 could not ge,
away from my inward revolt, and that day on
which l did not so with them Dresden still
seems to me the most ignominious of my life
l often think how much better il would have
been If I had followed the insignificant but at
that time noble and effective calling of loading
the cannon,
In the letter from which the last extract was
made he is defending the step which he took
in defiance Of his mothers wishes when ne aban-
doned the study of law and decided to become
a musician in