The Washington times., 1920-01-18
CONTINUED from First Page.)

ago. | am no more a Divine BIZ
ped; | am no more the High
Priest Of the Germans after
Goethe-no more the great
heather No. "a HELENE of
jovial life and portly person,
laughing cheerfully down on dis
NAL Nazarenesj only poor,
death-sick Jew"
Hegel, the German philosopher,
greatly influenced Heine and other
thinkers and writers in the last
century. Once Heine and Hegel
were looking at the stars through
an open window. Heine thus de-
scribes IL:
II being a young man OF twenty
two, and having Just eaten well
and drunk my coffee, spoke with
enthusiasm OF the stars, called
them the abodes OF the blest. But
the master muttered to himself,
The Stars! ha, ha! The stars are
only brilliant eruption on the
armament 'What?' cried /,
Then there Is no blissful spot
above, where Virtue is rewarded
after death?' But he, glaring at
me with his pale eyes, remarked.
sneeringly, so you want a bonus
because you have supported your
sick mother and refrained from
poisoning your brother"
Get a good history OF Heine. You
will see him at the end OF life.
tuberculosis deyourins his spinal
cord, paralysis creeping slowly
over him. one eye gone, but tho
indomitable will alive, lifting with
thumb and forefinger the paraly2cd
eyelid from the good eye, to watch
the effect of a witty remark.
You will see Heine at sixteen,
embracing his adored red-haired
Sefchen, a strange wild creature.
daughter of the public executioner.
A superstitious nurse had taken
him to the girls mother. "Die
Goechin," supposed to be witch.
and the executioner's wife. Later
he went regularly to see the beau-
tiful red-haired girl Of whom al
the neighbors lived in dread. She
showed him her grandfathers
sword that had been used in
hundred executions, then put
away In a grave because, "A sword
which has drunk blood five score
times acquires a horrible person.
ality, and can only be appeased
by the oblivion Of the grave"
. Sefchen, whose male relations
had all been public executioners,
taught him strange folk songs, one
that made him creep, foretelling
his own burial:
"Flow, flow, water flow; wash the
linen white as snow
"'Be ready soon,' she sang aloud;
I wash for thee thy dying
shroudv"
"Blade, blade, broad and bright,
Hew the oaken plank Alright.
Spade, spade, sharp and strong,
Dig the grave, deep and long"
1t was creepy, but the young
poet liked it; it stirred his imagi-
nation. He wrote poetry for the
young lady, and she, only sixteen,
opened a vein in her arm and made
neat copies Of the poems in her
own blood.
She must have been an interest
ing young person with "her skin
changing white; her great, deep,
dark eyes looking as if they had
just pronounced riddle and were
waiting quietly for an answer;
while the mouth, with its strongly
curved bow and oblong teeth, white
as ivory, seemed to say: You are
stupid and never will be able to
guess it.
Thus Heine describes her, with:
Her hair perfectly blood-red,
tied in long locks under her chin,
as though blood were yelling forth
from her throat in red streams
No wonder Heine wrote poetry
after associating with her. Too
bad we don't know more about her.
Let's hope that in spite Of pref
udice against her mother, the sor-
ceress, and her father, the public
executioner, she married an able,
steady man. Such a combination
should have had remarkable chill
dren.
The books that most affected and
developed Heine's boyish imagina-
tions were Don Quixote,' Sterne's
Sentimental Journey and "Gulii-
ver's Travels" Those three books,
the great fairy stories Of literature,
helped develop one Of the most
beautiful imaginations that ever
lived upon the earth, and one of
the greatest warriors in the army
OF freedom.
That fact ought to interest the
so-called Educators" who icll
fathers and mothers not to let
their children read fairy talss.
You may be sure, however, that
Red-Haired Sefichen did more for
Heine's imagination than Cervan-
tes, Sterne, or Swift.
AS you read the history OF this
man, keep in mind, as you always
should, the mother who created
him. She sold her jewelry, all