New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-17
LENT At COURT.
Continued from third page.


court OF Berlin the Kaiser, who is, like the Car,
q very religious man. makes point of fasting |
the eve Of those days of the year which |
he takes the sacraments a custom in which he |
fs Joined by his consort. Moreover, he has been |
fp the habit since his accession Of withdrawing |
every year for a period of two or three days |
to the Wartburg, hallowed in his eyes and in |
those of all other German Protestants, by having |
been the refuge Of Luther and the scene of his |
labors- The Emperor goes there almost wholly |
alone and, shut off from all contact with the |
outer world gives himself up to meditation-in |
one word, goes into a sort of religious retreat |
When one takes into consideration how busy |
his life. how multifarous his duties and his pre- |
occupations, his brain never at rest and every
intellectual faculty subjected to the highest pos
sibie strain it may readily be imagined that he |
should feel from time to time the necessity Of
a period of complete retirement for self-exam-
tnation and meditation. The Emperor rightly
argues that no can be the worse for such
q species of spiritual stock taking and accord
fnsfy determined a few years ago to afford to
hts subjects the opportunity OF giving them
selVeS up for a few hours to quiet meditation
once in every twelve months He found that
stnce the Napoleonic wars at the beginning Of
ene last century, there had been an annual
~busstag." that is to say. day Of repentance
Instituted at the time when Prussia was in the
cary stages or her war of liberation from the
French invader and when she felt herself in
sore need Of the help Of Providence against the
overwhelming odds by which she was then con-
tronted The "busstag" had been kept up ever
since. In memory of those troubIous times. But !
the character of the observance OF the day had |
entirely changed. Instead of being given up to |
prayer, fasting and repentance it was celebrated |
as one of the most joyous holidays in the wear. |
q Circumstance to which the fact of its taking |
place In May. when the weather is so baImv
and the springtime scenery of the rural districts
80 attractive, no doubt contributed Indeed tho
-ousstaF was made the occasion of merry pic
mics in the country, of open air entertainments
and of all sorts of festivities and pastimes With
the object Of restoring to this day its original
nSnihcance the Kaiser changed its date from
Aay to November. when the weather throughout
his dominions is usually so abominable that no.
body feels any inclination to go holiday making
II must thoroughly be understood that the
-ousstag' Is statutory, the choice Of the date
being left 70 the ruler. In England for instance
ehe law does not compel the sovereign to have
q day of thi- kind every year but authorizes
nm to decree one by means OF a public proc
Lanadon whenever he secs fit In order that
me day thus proclaimed should possess the full
9uaIihcatlons Of legal holiday II must be pro-
claimed in accordance with the words that II fs
not only day of repentance but likewise "of
fasting The last two occasions | believe on
which day of this kind was proclaimed were in
course Of the Crimean War In 1854 and in 1887
N connection with the terrible Indian Mutinv
when so many thousands OF English women
children and men Of every age were rnassacred
under circumstances Of frightfuI atrocity Queen
Victoria declined at first 10 decree a fast and
declared that 1t would be enough to order day
on national repentance and humiliation But at
tnS last moment the London bankers and dnan-
ders and in particular the governors OF the
Bank OF England. took alarm and called upon
cne Premier and Lord Chancellor declaring that
the words -of fasting" were omitted from
the Queens proclamation the latter would not
Dc statutory. and consequently that the dav
would not be a legal holiday and that bills OF
exchange. etc. would be payable on the dav
So Queen Victoria obliged to give wav
and the day Of humiliation" was likewise mazda
sne "of fasting in order that the banking mr.
r2ngcInents might not be deranged On each
occasion the day WAS observed both In tosyn and
country Business suspended the churches
were thronged and in the words OF q conteuDo |
nary writer even the most turbulent portions
or our great cities have observed an unusual
Quietude and decorum." In the early stages Of
the war In South Africa, when almost every
day brought its fresh record Of disaster sus
tanned by the British troops and coonists tina
l2to Queen was urged to order "a dav of M