Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-13
THIS TOWN IS IN PAWN.
Sweden Pledged Wismar to Germany for $28, ,OOO, ,00O-Time to Redeem
 It Comes in June.

A l1DreUt1SU In SedTCn OI d plOU IoA 8 comic opera might do worse than use the present situation of the little North-German city of Wismar as ba- sis for one.
 This city, with it's 17,ooo inhabitants, its splendid harbor and it's 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 em pire. In theory, however, according to the New York Sun, it is Swedish possession held in pawn by the grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and re- deemable by the king of Sweden on June 26, 1903, for the sum of $26 ,ooo, ,ooo.
 A tempest in teapot has been aroused by the approach of the date set for the redemption of this pawned town, although it might seem that ex' citement was wasted in 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 reicltstag against the idea that one inch of German soil should be ceded to foreign power. The good burghers of Wismar have de- clared officially and unofficially that never, never, will they submit to be- come Swedes again. And member of the Swedish riksdag has interpel- 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- ple 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. Whats 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 few friendly notes next summer, agree. ing to regard the incident as closed with the failure of Sweden to offer pay ment and it's subsequent relinQuish ment of all pretensions to sovereignty over Wismar.
 The pretty little town will go on esr, passed out of the hands of Sweden, and probably it will get the naval sta tion 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- burg-Schwerin for the sum of 1,25O,0O0 Hamburg thalers, or less than the cost of fair-sized Broadway office build ing. It became 8 Swedish possession in 164s through the peace that closed the 3o-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 a prosperity which was evidenced by the existence within it of not fewer than 200 breweries.
 But from 1881 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 25,oo0 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. E
 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 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