Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-22
THE OLD PALACE AT HANOVER
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
ten The Star and the Chicago Record u.

E. CURTIS
e Chicago rd-.Is.G.J.
their heads instead OF their hearts. Com
pulsory enlistments. not for the defense
OF the country, but to increase the reve-
nues. were the fashion. and in the arch
ives Of Hanover may be found the &C
counts OF such affairs.
Duke George. according to the records
appears to have been kept busy away
wherever there was profit to be
had.
But. Notwithstanding the enormous
expenditures, the items seem small.
and the salaries paid by his majesty to
us seem ridiculous. The court tailor.
the duchess received only 10 thalers a
month, a thaler being about 20 cents in
our money. Hans. the court jester.
received 1914 thalers a month, the
mistress Of the. household 800 thalers.
the housekeeper 90. the master of the
horse and the master OF the hounds each
1000 thalers year: the governess to
the royal children. 200 thalers a year:
the doctor. 1000; the dancing master,
400: the director of the orchestra, 700.
and the court painter, 700.
i 4
The French cook received 800 tina
lers, or 1925 year: the maitre-d'hotel
500 thalers year. and the
WAGES assistant cooks $50 thalers
each. The gardener received
kalu. 500 thalers, the rabbit catcher
100. the coachman 416 and the outrid-
ers 266 thalers each year.
1t cost his. serene highness a total
Of 100000 a year to keep up his es-
adjustment at Harrenhausen. which
was q vast sum in those days. and it
does not include many items Of consid-
cradle magnitude. Ernest Augustus
was the first prince in Europe to pay
pensions to old servants, which is en-
tirely to his credit. and he gave allow
ances to several young musicians. artists
and others. to assist in their education.
He was a very generous man and he
lived like q prince
Thackeray. dipping his pen In vitriol.
says: 1T Is incalculable how much that
royal bigwig douis XIV of France) cost
Germany. Every prince initiated the
French king. and had his Versailles. his
Wilhelmhohe or Ludwigslust. his court
and Its splendors. his gardens laid out
with statues. his fountains and water
works and tritions. his actors and dancers
and singers and folders. his harem, with
duchies for them later; his enormous
festivities. his gambling tables. tourna-
ments, masquerades sRnd banquets last
ing a week long, for which the people
paid with their money. when the poor
wretches had it, with their bodies and
very blood when they had none. being
sold in thousands by their lords and
masters, who gayly dealt in soldiers.
staked a regiment upon the red at the
gambling table; swapped battalion
lace. and, as it were, pocketed their
people.
"You may see at Herrenhausen the
very rustic theater in which the Platens
danced n d performed
Classic Mosques, and sang before
the elector and his sons.
hellc. There are the very fauns
and dryads of stone still glimmering
through the branches. still grinnins and
piping their ditties of no tone, as in
the days when painted nymphs hung
earlands around them, appeared under
their leafy arcades with gilt crooks.
guiding rams with gilt horns: descend
ed from machines in the guise Of Diana
or Minerva, and delivered immense al
1egorical compliments to the princes re-
turned home from the campaign.
Put clumsy high Dutch statues In
waterwOrks in the place
Of those Of Marty: spread the table with
SpeckSuppe. Leber knchen
and like delicacies. in Mace of the French
cuisine. and fancy Frau Won kielman-
segge dancing with Count Hammerjunker
most awful German accent: imagine a
coarse Versailles, and we have a Han
over before US.
1--WE find the master of the horse had
1 600 thalers of pay: the high chamber
lain. COCOA thaler
Expensive being about three
Establishment. money. There are
two chamberlains, and one for the prin-
cess; five gentlemen Of the chamber. and
five gentlemen ushers; eleven pages and
to educate these young noble
men-such as governor, a preceptor. a
fecht-meister or fencing master, and a
dancing ditto, this latter with a handsome
salary of 400 thalers. There were three
body and court physicians. with 500 and
500 thalers: court barber. COO thalers;
q court ofganist. two musikanten; four
French fiddlers, twelve trumpeters and a
bugler; SO that there was plenty of
music, profane and pious. in Hanover.
There were ten chamber walters. and
twentyfOur lackeys in livery: a maitre-
d'hotel. and attendants of the kitchen
French cook. a body cook. ten cooks.
six cooks assistants. two braten mas
tiers. or masters OF the roast Zone fancies
enormous spit. turning slowly and the
honest masters of the roast beladlins the
dripping), pastry baker, a pie baker,
and, finally, three solutions, at the mod
est remuneration Of eleven thalers. In
the sugar chamber there were four pastry
cooks (for the ladies, no doubt: seven
officers in the wine and beer cellars: four
breadmakers. and Ave men in the plate
room. There were 600 horses in the
serene stables-no less than twenty teams
OF princely carriage horses. eight to a
team; sixteen coachmen; fourteen pos
tillions; nineteen hostlers; thirteen helps.
besides Smiths, carriage masters, horse
doctors and other attendants of the
stable"
At this time the court of Hanover al
though the elector was a buiwark of the
Protestant faith, was as
Catchers French as that of YER
sailles, for hundreds Of
OF CTumDS. French adventures. art
lists, architects. gardeners. cooks. paint
ers. BARRIERS, dancing masters. poets,
actors. singers and men and women
Of all sorts were there to catch
the crumbs that fell from the cleo
tors table. and they made themselves
very much at home. A lady visitor III
writing to friend told a story to illus
trate the situation:
II have been told that these Frenclmen