New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-07
The Song
BY c. A. RlNCK
Translated, Nth Introductory Comment,
bv William /. Mcpherson

from this extremely sample tredcnlehJ-JT0n1
the aroidGnce Of orer-ensph0sis.
The author, c. 4. Rinck, is not tceH Enot0H
enough as a ,c11ter to haze gotten his name into
the last aUoilable edition Of the German WHO'S
Who" II is, in fact, a remarkable testimony
TO the stimulating effect Of tho tcGr on literary
production that so many Of the German stories
Of high quality in this series Of tyunsldt'ons
hare been uvitter By men and scomeH dPpor-
ently unrecognized in the field Of fiction before
the tcar began. And the sans observotion
holds GOOD IN France and Great Britain. VT
ness. for example, the rise Of the French 'oar
sfo,.y ,criters Rene Benjamin and Marcel M
dqud. and the 1cork in English Of Ton Hoy.
WYE WERE sitting under a spreading
w linden tree, talking about the strange
w things that happen in war. Each of
us had had a remarkable experience OF some
sort And now the captain, who had hitherto
listened in silence, began his story.
You know. gentlemen, that not long ago I
was on the East front-up in Courland. Tow
ard the end, just before my regiment was trans
ferred to the West front, we used to have al
most every day sharp brushes with the out
posts of a celebrated Russian regiment, IN
which. as we found out through the prisoners
we took number Of officers Of other nationali-
ties were serving.
After one of these fights we found, lying un-
der his horse, a severely wounded officer, who
sought with his last strength, after we hat
freed him from his perilous position, to tell m'
something which I could not understand. He
spoke Russian first, and then French; but l
knew little of either language Finally, with
great effort he drew out Of pocket of his coat
a small. silver embossed wallet and handed 1t
to me.
But at that moment he expired. took the
wallet. since it was evidently his wish that
should do so. Perhaps, said to myself, some
thing in it will help me to understand what he
wanted to tell me. But it contained only few
brief letters in 4 woman's handwriting, almost
illegible and without envelopes, and sheet Of
note paper. on which musical composition was
sketched out.
These contents gave me no clew to the Off
GERS identity. The little silver arms on the
wallet-they were three oak leaves surrounding
a sort Of lyre-also told me nothing. In my
leisure hours at headquarters, where discov-
cred piano. tried to play the melody sketched
on the sheet Of note paper. 1t made deep i'm.
uression on me because Of its striking original
itv and its passionate intensity Of feeling l
could realize at once that these accords were
inspired by a very powerful emotion, and that
they spoke a special language of their own.
For long time could not get them out Of
my head They pursued me. 1t seemed to me
always that somehow ! must be able to evoke
from them the words which the dying man had
tried to make me understand Especially on
the long railroad trip to the West front Cfor
the vibration of a railroad train in motion
always stimulates my musical sensibihty) |
wrestled continuously with the s0iTit Of the
melody.
Often in the trying days which we had in the
West it came insstently into my head, espe-
cialy at the most critical moments. / have
been able to observe, both in my own case and
in the cases Of others, how great an element in
our intellectual life music is. The craving to
sing often makes itself manifest even in the
midst of an assault. There was a private in
my company who went into every attack with
harmonica, and when we got into the enemy's
trenches the sergeant always said to him:
Now put the thing aside; here we go back to
ordinary soldering again
But ! have strayed away from my story.
the incident in which il figured only when | oc-
casonally handled the wallet, which | kept in
The pocket Of my coat. A good half year had
passed by But one winter day our staff was
ouartered in a big country house. Its owners
still occupied it. They had not made up their
minds to flee until after fight had become i'm
possible, and so were cut off from access TO the
unnvaded part Of France.
After our arrival we made our formal visit
and we're then invited, through a servant, to
the family dinner table. The family consisted
Of two distinguished looking elderly ladies,
still beautiful and elegant lady Of about forty
five years. whom the servant addressed as
Madame la Baronne and young girl, who was
evidently not the baroness's daughter. She had
dark hair and was very pretty. But her great
est charm was her natural and winning manner
The other ladies were stiff and reserved, and
let us see plainly, in spite Of their surface po-
liteness that they regarded us as enemies. Be