The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-22

and genuinely devoted to him, lives apart
from him in Dresden with her children
except for a few weeks in midsummer,
when they all go to the country together.
AS a child H%auptmann acquired the rep
utation of extreme dullness. So stupid"
was he that the schoolmaster of his native
town decided he could do nothing with the
boy. So little Gerhardt was sent to a
boarding school. only TO be dismissed after
a while for lsziness. Next he was turned
over to the gentle care OF some Herren-
huters. with whom he remained two years.
His Berlin home is entirely modern, very
rich, but also very plain; no books any
where, only an occasional copy of a high
class magazine. On his desk, though. is
always some work of Goethe. Hauptmann
told Loeher that his works are conceived
and born with intense sufferings. "I suf-
fer with my characters" he said. Day and
night he has a stenographer on hand. for
he never knows when the fury for work.
may take hold of him. His only passion"
is coffee, the strongest and best that
grows. He INDUCES In 1t immoderately.
OF late he gave up bicycling, of which he
was once fond; walking is now his hobby.
Loeher modelled Hauptmann in his study
while at work, for the artist believes in
observing a man engaged in intellectual
pursuit. But the poet was not easily per
suadcd to continue on his manuscript, for
he became so with sculpture
that he could hardly await the time when
he himself might try his hand on a bust
of one of his children He afterwards set
to work modelling his eldest boy, but gave
it up in despair for his execution is as
faulty as his love of art is strong.
The poet has an old housekeeper, who
watches over him as a mother would over
a SON.; in fact, all his servants worship
their kind and considerate master.
Hauptmann admits that pessimism is the
keynote of much of his work. OF his
dramas, he prefers "Hannele,' mystic and
p~ietistic. showing the influence he was UNI
der in his youth.
That the Kaiser is bitterly opposed to
MIN, bothers him not. True, his Majesty
withheld from him the Schiller prize that
was his by right, but the public made good
his loss ten-fold.
ERNEST Won WILDENBRCCH.
Wildenbruch is the Hohenzollern poet in
truth; he has not only glorifed that royal
family in many popular dramas and like
wise collaborated with the Kaiser, but he
himself has Hohenzollern blood in him. be-
ing the grandson of a Prussian prince and
a commoner. He is about sixty years old,
a cousin of. the Kaiser; fought in the cam
paigns OF 1866 and 1870. studied law in Ber-
lin, and was until recently a counselor of
legation in the Berlin Foreign Office. He
is a broad-shouldered man, anything but
an Adonis, about five feet seven inches tall,
very near-sighted, wears spectacles, and
has a habit Of looking at everybody from
the corner of his eyes.
He married the beautiful granddaughter
of Carl Maria Won Weber, the composer Of
"Freischutz" and "Oberon," and is a good
hearted man who, in his own house. scarce
ly is an unassertive person. His wife in
variably accompanies him on his way to
business and fetches him home again.
Like S~udermann. Won wildenbruch
smokes cigarettes necessarily. and I'm con-
sequence suffers much from a weak heart.
Bismarck and Schiller are his ideals on poll
tics and literature. Now that he has re-
tired from the service of the state, he saws
he wishes TO visit America. the land Of
the future. which has nothing old TO for
get"
Mr.. and Mrs. Loeher cherish the kindest
remembrance OF this royal" poet, who
delighted in their society after escaping
from his native dollhouse. where plants and
flowers are raised under steam pressure. ="
The quondam Milwaukee girl often sang
for him. and in his turn he rewarded Mrs.
Loeher with a set OF his collected works.
beautifully bound. The dedication reads as
follows: GTranslation.l There is an hour
in every mans life when no one. save the
woman that Fate threw in his way. can
| save him. To Mrs. Hans Loeher. Ernest
Won Wildenbruch."
HENRY W. FISCHER