New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-09-15

|
Lessmann. who. receiving copy of the orig
! inaI from a friend in New-York reprinted it in
full in his journal. Herr Iessmann is one of
! the shining lights of the Wasnerian congrega-
| ton in Berlin. and has published q volume OF
letters written by Wagner Extracts from this
! letter appear in Herr Clasenapp's book. but
hint of the fact that few months after mis-
dramatic courtship and marriage Wagner had
already come to look upon his wife hin
drance to his artistic progress To ali familiar
with Wagner's domestic life there was never a
charge brought against his unhappy wife more
serious than that she could not comprehend mis-
genius stimulate his creative activity.
| Much of the padding in the book IS diverting
| in the evidence it affords of the authors SJreuu
Gus efforts to gather nimbus around the head
of his hero Here, for instance. is the stout
prop upon which his intense Teutonism is made
! to rest. it being borne in mind that several OF
Wagner's ancestors We're schcolmasters:
When men begin to group themselves into
| communities and distinctive names Of families
| arise in the very name of Wagner we have a
hint of the old Aryan. the un-tiern2nic occu-
patton of its earliest bearer. And wren the
hero of the German Reformation. a son OF miner
| and peasant folk claims from he 1Cbles OF the
German nation. the dgcitaries cf every Ger
man city. the teaching OF the poor, neglecteu
! people, the founding .: schools and churches
in town and country TO eierrah men "a me
| opens out a wide field f0- struggle anG e:i-
| deavor However insignificant its outward as
| pect this struggle is veritable fight with
| dragons housed - the caves of Ignorance ahd
superstition. The village schOOlmaster becomes
| the actual guide and az. educator OF me
| Folk: a notable and tyn!c figure IN seventeenth
| century Germany dow, - it's tiHest hamlet;
| for the most part cantor orgaHlst, nay Sac:.S-
tan in one and witEal the friend and counselor
OF the whole countryside, he Ink between l!ie
| populace and culture Of his time; nay. more
| the only prop of "DeutschthuHc against me
| Overbearirg it0Manism OF courts anu hiih So
| ciety.
| This seems far fetched enough. but it is sur
passed in a footnote quoted from Hans Won
| WoIzogen who digs Wagner wainwright and
| Weber (veaver) out of the ancient Aryan
tumui. and is all but moved To tears to see
the earliest handicrafts of our forefathers Civ
| ing their names to those families whence me
| Germanest masters Of the most German art
were later to arise-families of calling from out
the primal family of blood" But there We're
ost-Aryan auguries also which foretold that
Wagner was to be composer. and would
choose the legends of his people for operate
subjects His first discoverable ancestor vas
Samuel Wagner who was born in 1913. He
was the ereat-great great srandfather of Rich
ard and was schoolmasteT OF Thamuenh>tln'
near Wurzen. in the Leipsic circuit. hard by
the present Prussan boundary. but then II tAe
very heart of Saxony.' Now. this name Than
menhain has been interpreted as 'DaTnt-AS
Grove" but a little matter of 40 years ago IL
appears the form OF 'IarneHEdlh- OF III
Grove 50 that our hero's oldest ancestor rre-
SCENTS himself as a genuine Tann-hiusar-" More
than that Wagner's great sreat-esra ndfafher.
an assistant schoo'master sang in church on
ST Johns Day 1127, TO the satisfaction Of the
Herr Pastor and assembled congregation And
thus YOU prove that the singers Sreat-Sre;tt-
grandson was predestined TO compose Dle
Neistersinger." Shall the augUres be multi
Piled? The poet-composer's grandfather matric-
ulated as student of theology at the LepSic Uni
versty in 1893 the year of the battle Of
Kunersdorf Of Schiller's birth and the death OF
EwaId Won KIeist'' and his father was born the
same year with Beethoven. Moreover Dame
Nature herself experimental long and put forth
a final effort of vast puissance before producing
Herr Glasenapps hero Read, read and bow
the head:
If we examine the progeny of Friedrich and
Johanna Wagner from the point of View of the
conditions antectdent To the birth OF genius, We
are struck by the fact that il was at the end OF
"a long series, il We're, of preliminary at
tenpts on the part of Nature that the subject on
our biography was born 1Sl;0; also that he was
preceded since 1Sui 10y none but sisters. as II
Nature had been outstanding her Vlrlle force Tor
one in whose temperament Il was To be So
strongly manifested, just as in the case OF
Schiller Mozart. Goethe. SchOpenhaueT and
others We find that they had sisters. indeed.
but either no brothers at all or merely weak
linss, whom death soon claimed
Ii is a vast pity that a work bearing such