Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-20
SEAPORT TOWN IN PAWN.
Sweden Pledged Wismar to Germany
 and Must Pay.

and Must Pay.
 A librettist in search for a plot for a comic opera might do worse than use the present situation of the little orth-German city of Wismar as ba- SIS for one. This city, with it's IT, OOO inhabitants It's splendid harbor and it's half dozen old churches dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is generally supposed to be an integral part of the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-S -Schwerin however, it Is a Swedish possession held in pawn by the grand duke of Mecklenburg- Schwerin and redeemable by the king of Sweden on June 26, 1903. for the sum of $26,O0O.O0O.
 A tempest in q teapot has been aroused by the approach of the date set for the redemption of this pawn ed town, although 1t might seem that excitement was wasted in a case where one of the contracting parties is equally unable to enforce it's claim against the superior power of the oth- CT and to raise the sum needed to es- tablish the right. Learned German jurists have, nevertheless, written bulky volumes on the legal, moral and practical aspects on the problem all or them arriving at the conclusion that Wlsmar can never again cease to be German.
 Silver-tongued orators have declaim- ed i'll the reichstag against the idea that one inch of German soil should be ceded to q foreign power. The good burghers of Wismar have declar- ed officially and unof1ciaIly that never never will they submit to become Swedes again. And n member of the Swedish rfgsdag has interpellated the minister of foreign affairs to find out what the government intends to do in order to get out of the dilemma decently.
 In the meantime the Swedish peo- pie are rather amused over the matter.
 What is gone is gone,' is the re- frain of the Swedish press. .'The old days and their dcar-bought glory can never come back. Whats the use of making ourselves ridiculous by asking for something we can't haye?"
 The likelihood is. that the two gov ernments concerned may exchange q few friendly notes next summer, agree ing to regard the incident as closed with the fai1ure Of Sweden to offer payment and its full subsequent re- linquishment of all pretensions to sovereignty over Wismar. The pretty little town will go on prospering as it has done ever since it passed out of the hands of Sweden, and probably it will get the, naval station and harbor Notifications that could not be estab- Iished as long as it remained in pawn.
 The history of Wismar was an ex- citing lone up to the time when Gus tavus Adolphus " of Sweden, pledg- ed it to his cousin, the duke of Meek lenburg- Schwerin for the sum of l. 250,00O Hamburg thalers, or less than the cost Of fair-sized Broadway of flee building. + became a Swedish possession i'll .1648 through the peace that closed thefthirty years war.
 The highest court for Sweden's Ger man possessions was soon afterWard established at Wimar and for few decades 1the city continued to enjoy prosperity which was evidenced by the existence within 1t of not fewer than 200 breweries. But from 16Sl to 1903 the city was conquered and re- conquered so many times that both the prosperity and the breweries who'll ly disappeared and the population de creased from 10000 to less than G,OOO. s"
 One year the city was Danish, an- other year the Prussians held IL, the third year the SWedes came back, and then the rotation in. ownership be gan over again. When the paWning took place the city was not really worth much more than the Swedish king got for it and it's value to Swe- den was still further diminished by the fact that most of the other Swe- ish possessions on the southern shore of the Baltic had been taken away long before without any recompense at all.
 June 26, 1903. will probably be cele- brated at Wismar with much patri- otic speechmaking and beer-drinking, not because the day means anything at all either to Germany or to SWe- den, but because such an excellent oc- casion for feasting and merrymaklng aoaroI 1o "gpa sSpd over New York