The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-11-05

on the vaudeville stage. 1t was read |
thousands of times. More than once
the author himself was called on to
read it before large public gatherings
where it was enthusiastically applaud |
ed. At religious services held in the
woods at Frohnau year ago to cele-
brate the anniversary of the battle OF
Sedan, the minister incorporated it
into the service. 1t fell victim to the
postcard craze, as we'll as to the
modern fad of wall notices.
When | started out with my letter
of introduction to meet Ernst Lis
sauer, | pictured heroic and martial
figure from some Wagnerian opera
whose flashing eye and clenched fist
would be constant reminder of the
spirit expressed in his song. The apart
ment house where he lives in Esen-
nacherstrasse, Berlin, bore out my
imaginary sense of him. 1t is taller
and grimmer than the adjoining hous-
es, and over the great arched door
way leers a monsterous gargoyle in
whose claws writhe four great snakes.
Lissauer is 81 years old. He was
born in Berlin His father was the
head of one of the largest silk firms
in Germany. He studied for a time
at the University of Munich, but soon
abandoned the theories and history
of literature for literature itself.
Fat, Unwieldy and Slow of Speech.
l. We in AmNrica are forever drawing
the distinction between the Germany
! before the war, full of music and phil
osophy and art-and the Germany or
today, in which the elemental love of
combat seems to have reached its
climax Having regarded the Hymn
of Hate" as perfect expression of the
new, militaristic\ Germany, imagine
my surprise when, on that first visit
there came toward me from the gar
den house a man who looked like a
poet or a professor or a composer in
that earlier Germany, which, it is gem
orally supposed, disappeared off the
face of the earth half a century ago.
He is fat and unwieldy and slow of
speech. He has an impressive way of
speaking the first few words of SEN
tence, and leaving you to wait out
side as best you may, while he search>
es around in the depths of his being
for exactly the idea that he needs. And
then, just as you are beginning to be
amused by what seems like an affecta-
ton, he energies with real thought
worthy of real thinker.
The poem has been given a larger
political and international signihc-
ancc than any poem that has appeared
within the last fifty years. 1t has
been translated, not only into Eng
lish, but into French, Hungarian, into
PLAT Deutsch' Glow GERMANY, into
Italian. 1t has been initiated and
parodied scores of times.
Germans Who do Not Like the Thing
But in Germany itself there are
many who declare that the poem does
, not represent the national spirit. So
cialists have arisen in the Prussiar
Dict and declared it inhumane to hate
another country, statesmen have de
clared it undiplomatic, clergymer
, have declared it un-Christian.
: "A great nation" say some, may
a be full of scorn, of indignation. But o
: hate? Never"
! A big controversy, whole litera
. ture has grown up around this ques
> ton, and the dispute is even NOR
:. warm today than it was a year age
y when the poem first appeared, an,
, when the two newspapers to which
: was first sent rejected it as too vic
= lent. On the one hand. its autho
- receives scores of letters from tn
: front thanking him for expressing tn
emotion of the whole people in arms
On the other hand, letters come
him addressed simply-"Lissauer. at
thor of the Hymn of Hate, Germany
rebuking him for poisoning the mind
of his countrymen. There are new!
papers that wage a systematic can
paign against the poem; and on ii
? other hand, there are banking house