Year: 1870

NOoA01 ASA0Ve


Journalism in the average is no
exception to the worlds rule of
sycophancy to success; and it would
be strange indeed if the free and
independent press of our modern re-
public should allow any other public
expression in the world to surpass it
in multiform homage of that most
absolute of oil fereign monarchies,
which is now in the full flush of an
almost unparalleled military triumph
over demoralized civilization. The
profound editorial military Judges of
that branch of Yankee newspaper
dom, which would .fain secure the
naturalized German vote for its
party, have already exhausted the
technical adjectives of critical admi-
ration upon the victors of Sedan and
Metz; the innumerable swarm of
minor-editorial paragraphcrs have
studiously appropriated from the
London Journals every line of pro-
Prussian annexation to be found
therein the consumptive legion of
night. editors have fairly gone mad
with ALTERATION in headlines fear
lcssly derisive of a Napoleon in ad-
vcrsity; and who can wonder that
even the generally incorruptiblc "lo.
cal' editors of the provincial ex-
changes have at last yielded to the
fashion, and are at pains to make
Prussians Of the heroes and heroines
of their more romantic "local"
stories as frequently as possible ?
No assiduous reader Of exchanges
CO have failed to observe how many
of the latest "Truths stranger than
Fictions" in current print involve
expatriatod subjects of the Prussian
King; and now the heretofore wild
ly American Kalamazoo Gazette
itself catches the prevailing foreign
maria, and memorializes as follows
a no less Germanic parsonage than
an imported Baron Twenty-Five
years ago, according to this pervcrt
from strictly native romance, Baron
Carl Oscar Wilhelm Won Hakc, son
of a pensioned general of the Prus-
sian service, and himself lieutem-
ant of Hohenzollern cavalry stopped
from his high degree to whisper
words of love in the little pink ears
of an innocent young actress. Too
much Of a gentleman to marry the
girl without incurring both military
and social ruin, and too much more
gentleman to discard a faithful
heart on that account, Won Hake
took advantage of the confusion en-
suing from the revolution in Baden
to fly with his true love to America,
where he not unreasonably expected
to find fortune and power for both
by immediate election to remunera-
tive political Office. Landing in
New York, he soon learned that the
West was the section of the republic
regularly apportiohed to the official
domination of his particular nation
aljty-another nation having the i'm
mediate preference in the Empire
State-and as in his hasty flight he
had not brought. enough money to
support extended occidental travel,
the situation was embarrassing in the
extreme. Having no good friend to
tell him that he had only to an
nounce himself as ga foreign noble
man" in order to have all Fifth Ave-
nue. at his feet, he regarded his pre-.
dicament as desperate, and in chival-
rous consideration for the fair part
ner of his exile, induced the Prus.
sian Consul in this city to send the
heartbroken young lady to her ma
tive tootlights. For himself, he
dared not return his military supe-
riors had, of course, published him
as a deserter and denounced against
him the penalty of death; his aristo.
cratic family had Indignantly dis
owned him and he had no ohoice
but to remain where he was, forget
his high descent, and compromise
with fate by becoming CLASSY minor
official in some lager beer dispensary.
To this complexion did he come at
last, and in it was he disguised for
four years. Growing more and more
miserable, however, in 1852 he went
to Canada. Readers familiar with
the apparent purpose of providence
in creating the latter country may at
once infer, as a matter of course,
that the exiled and disgraced young
nobleman went there to commit sui
eide /; but such, curiously enough,
was not the case. He went as a
member of the shovelry on q nem
Canadian railroad under German
contractor, and soon became distin-
guished as the most naughty and
silent gentleman under a cloud that
ever delved with ignoninious spade.
Noticing at last that he threw, dirt