The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-02-27
THIS TOWN IS IN PAWN.
Sweden Pledged Wismar to Germany
for see, OOO, OOO-Time to Redeem
1t Comes in June.

A librettist in search of a plot for
a comic opera might do worse than
use the present situation of the little
North-German city of Wismar as ba-
ais for one.
This city, with it's 1900 inhabitants,
its splendid harbor and its half-dozen
old churches dating back to the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries, is
generally supposed to be an integral
part of the grand duchy of Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin and of the German en-
pire. In theory, however, according
to the New York Sun, it is Swedish
possession held in pawn by the grand
duke of Mecklenburg-Schw and re-
Geemable by the king of Sweden on
June 26, 1903, for the sum of SGT, 100000.
A tempest in a teapot has been
aroused by the approach of the date
set for the redemption of this pawned
town, although it might seem that ex-
element was wasted ia a case where
one of the contracting parties is
equally unable to enforce its claim
against the superior power of the
other and to raise the sum needed to
establish the right.
Learned German jurists have, new
, ertheless, written bulky volumes on
the legal, moral and practical aspects
of the problem, all of them arriving
at the conclusion that Wismar can
/ never again cease to be German.
Silver-tongued orators have de-
claimed in the reichstag against the
idea that one inch of German soil
should be coded to a foreign power.
The good burghers of Wismar have de-
clared officially and unoflicially that
never, never, will they submit to be-
come Swedes again. And member
of the Swedish rifsdag has interpret
lated the minister of foreign affairs
to find out what the government in
tends to do in order to get out of the
dilemma decently.
In the meantime the Swedish peo-
| pie are rather aroused over the mat
| ter.
"What is gone is gone" is the refrain
of the Swedish press. ''The old days
and their dear-bought glory can never
come back. What's the use of making
ourselves ridiculous by asking for
something we can't have?
The likelihood is that the two gov
| ernments concerned may exchange a
| few friendly notes next summer, agree
| ing to regard the incident as closed
with the failure of Sweden t o offer pay
ment and it's subsequent relinquish-
ment of all pretensions to sovereignty
over Wismar.
| The pretty little town will GO on
prospecting as it has done ever since it
passed out of the hands of Sweden,
and probably it will get the naval sta
ton and harbor Notifications which
could not be established as long as
it remained in pawn.
The history of Wismar was an ex-
citing one up to the time when Gus
tavus Adolphus ". of Sweden pledged
it to his cousin, the duke of Mecklen-
| urg-Schwerin for the sum of 100000
Hamburg thalers, or less than the cost
| of fair-sized Broadway office build
ing. 1t became a Swedish possession
| III lO1O I'LL VIC PSaSC IhdU SloSSb
| the 30-years' war.
| The highest court for Sweden's
| German possessions was soon after
ward established at Wismar, and for a
few decades the city continued to en-
| joy prosperity which was evidenced
by the existence within it of not fewer
| than 200 breweries.
But from 1851 to 1903 the city was
conquered and reconquered so many
times that both the prosperity and the
breweries wholly disappeared, and the
| population decreased from $4,000 to
| less than 600.
One year the city was Danish, an
other year the Prussians held it, the
| third year the Swedes came back, and
then the rotation in ownership began
over again.
When the pawning took place the
city was really not worth much more
than the Swedish king got for it, and
| its value to Sweden was still further
diminished by the fact that most of
the other Swedish 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 patriotic
speechmaking and beer drinking, not
because the day means anything at all
either to Germany or to Sweden. but
because such an excellent occasion for
feasting and merrymaking cannot be
| passed over.
| Not Good Enough.
| An American actor tells a story