Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-07-27
THE LEGEND OF THE PIED PIPER.

! Hi LEGEND Ut ifiE PltU PlPEh
Everybody is familiar with Robert
Browning's poem, The Pied Piper OF
Hamelin," but | doubt if very many
people save those who delve in German
folk-lore really give very much thought
to the legend and will know that
July the 22d, was the anniversary
of tho date ON which the Pied Piper
lured the children of Hameiin town
out of the village up into the noun
tains.
Today one sees the old organ-grinder
with his Enthusiastically dressed monkey
going through the streets, followed by
crowds of little urchins dancing mer-
rily, mystified and charmed by his
music. Tho legend goes that the vii
lage Of Hamelin, Brunswick, was so
over-run with vermin that the people
were in sorrow, and in 1876, appeared
a Piper, poorly dressed, with queer
long coat, half of yellow and half of
red, sharp blue eyes, light loose hair,
swarthy skin, who advanced to the
Council table before the lord mayor
and offered to free the town of rats. In
the words of Browning he said:
Poor piper as ] am
Last June from its huge swarm of gnats.
| eased in Asia the NiZam
OF monstrous brood OF vampire bats.
And as for what your brain bewilders,
If | can rid your town of rats,
Will yon give me thousand guilders?
So delighted were the people at the
hopes of being rid of their pest that
they offered to pay him 80, guilders.
So the poor piper started on through
the streets, blowing through his shrill
PIPE, and as if by magic an army of
rats commenced to move from out
under walls, cellars, alleys and garrets,
all kinds OF rats, brown, black and gray
| ones, and step by step they followed
the piper through the streets until they
came to the River Weser, where in they
all plunged and were drowned: The
Hamelin people we're so delighted they
would have made hero of the Pied
Piper. The bells of the town were all
set ringing and IL great fete day was
appointed, but the Pied Piper de-
manded his fee, the guilders that had
been promised him. The mayor and
the people then told him that the feat
had seemed SO easy that the pay seemed
| too high, and refused to give him but
| half of the amount, whereupon the Pied
Piper, in Just anger, threatened to take
| his revenge in a way he best knew
how. Tho mayor defied him to do his
best, or, as Browning puts it, do
your worst, and blow your pipe until
you burst" Out he goes into the
street again, and blows from his pipe
| three such soft notes as never had been
| heard before, and from all the houses
in the village, the open squares and
little cots and rocking cradles, came
the little boys and girls and babies
| just beginning to walk. With sparkling
eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, they ran merrily
| after,
The wonderful music with shouting and
| laughter.
The lord mayor and the people stood
dumb with amazement, unable to move,
and watched the children merrily skip
by. The mothers called to the little ones,
but in vain. With dancing feet and
sparkling eyes they followed the piers
merry music. Up the main street and up
Koppleberg HILL, up, up the steep paths
of the mountains, the little army went
merrily on. When they reached the
| top of the mountain, the legend says
that wondrous portal opened and the
children and the piper went in the
mountain, after which the door shut
fast, and though for years search was
made and thousands of guilders spent,
no trace could ever be found of the
opening in the mountain side, and the
women and men wept. The legend is
painted on a great church window in
Hamelin town today, and it is said
that no document was considered legal
that did not have after the date these
words inscribed;
And so long after what happened here
On the twenty-second of July
Thirteen hundred and seyenty-six.
This folklore of the German province
has been made the subject of poems
and of drama. 1t was represented in
Philadelphia some years ago by we'll
known company.
The folklore of modern and Northern
nations possesses, as does this German
tale, sombre character as compared
with the lightness and folklore of the
Southern lands. Generally it teaches
great lessons of truth, and Browning
has deducted from the legend of the
"Pied Piper of Hamelin the lesson thai
tells of penalty for broken promise,
and also the uselessness of money tt
gain everything in life, for he says:
| lhtTt Chiho ihlp a DuTButE pult
A text which says that heavens gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate
As the needles eye takes the camel in.
We see lessons through all the folk
lore of this German race. the remors,
of Queen Guineyere, the moral self
destruction of Tristram and Iseult,
and the tremendous tragedies of thu
Nibelupgenlied. They are all typica
of the country Of peoples from which
they are taken.
As the blind street fiddler, or the
bright.eyed, gaily dressed Italian with
his harp, walks down the street today
followed by the little groups of dancing
children, there will como into thu
minds of the thoughtful. looking on,
tho story of the Pied Piper and the
spiriting away OF the children o.
Hamelin town. Portia.