Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1915-04-08

On Monday afternoon Mrs. Amelia
von Ende of New York delivered an ad
dress in the lecture room of the public
library on THE Great Poets of Little
B .lgium. " While here Mrs. Won Ende
was a guest of the Misc Margaret and
Luise Gattiker and it was by their in
vitation that the company had the plea
sure of enjoying the able, comprehen
size and excellent address. Mrs. Won
Ende said in part:
Just as by intensive farming greater
res Its can sometimes be achieved on a
small plot Of ground than has been OBJ |
tanned on vast area, so small countries
in the cou1 Sc of human progress have
frequently achieved more than the
large empires of the world. The
large empires that are engaged in eX-
panding their territories are not the
ones that have given us the most last
ing and the great values. 1t is to the
little countries of Europe that we owe
| some of the worlds greatest treasures.
Achievements philosophy, art and
drama of Ancient Greece have remain
ed modern through the ages. Rome
only adopted and modified the intellec-
tual achievements of Greece and re-
| flected them as her own. Medieval
France gave US the troubadour poetry
and the earliest lyric song. Medieval
B .lgium turned out musicians that
created new style in music which
reigned supreme in the music of all
Countries until and beyond Johann Sc
| bastian Bach. In the sixteenth CEN
fury that same small country produced
great artists like Rubens, Halls and van
| Breughel, who set their seal upon the
art of Europe. In the eighteenth cen
tury little Switzerland produced the
great philosopher, j. j. Rousseau, and
the educator, Pestalozzi, and in our
present time another Swiss is revolu
tionizing the teaching of physical cul-
ture, Emil Jacques DalcrOze, who has
become responsible for much of the
modern rhy thmical dancing. The mas
ter of the modern German novel is &C
lknowledged to be Gottfried Keller. The
little German Duchy Of Weimar became
in the eighteenth century the center
of classicism, the home of Goethe,
poets and thinkers of Germany st that
time. In the nineteenth century it be-
came the cradle of modern music. Little
Denmark produced one of the greatest
sculptors of the world, Thorwaldsen,
and the greatest critic of our times,
George Brandes. To little Belgium is
due the credit of having produced the
first poets that represent a healthy
spiritual revival after the decadence of
the century's end. Maeterlinck mater
iaIized the spiritual world, showed in
his plays the development of the wo-
man 8 soul to consciousness of her pos
sibiIities. In his essays he appeals not
| to the few, but to the many, gives
them the wisdom Of the ages culIed from
the books of the great philosophers of
the world and has become guide and
teacher to the young generation which
was tempted to fall away from the old
standards and ideals. In his last work,
The fairy play, THE Blue Bird" he |
deals with the quest of happiness, MAX
ing his boy hero seek the fanciful blue |
bird in his dreams, on awakening to !
find it in the modest hut of his parents
The truth that real happiness is within |
US and near us when We least know it, |
has never been more practically and
forcibly brought home to US. Through
his essays and The Blue Bird" Mac
terlinck has become one of the great
est ethical teachers of our time.
In the lyric poet, Verhaeren, can be
seen the development from pessimism
to hopeful view of life and from ma
tionalism to wide and generous sym
pathy with all humanity. Verhaeren
has said that the masses of the Euro
pean nations have feverish longing to
get close to one another and to know
one another In one Of his popular lee
lures he tells the nations of the world
to appreciate and to admire one an
other This shows the spirit of the young
generation of Belgian poets to cherish
the ideal of a brotherhood of nations
The speakers table was decor ated
with generous display of willow, the
downy buds of which are the harbinger
of the recreation of spring.