Chapter 13

19. Wurst, literally sausage, is used by German students to signify indiffer ence. When a sausage is on the table, and one is asked with mock courtesy which part he prefers, he naturally replies - "Why, it is all sausage to me." I have heard an elderly man in New England reply to the query whether he would have "black meat or breast" - "Any part, thank'ee - I guess it's all turkey." There are, of course, divers ancient and quaint puns in Pennsylvania, on such a word as wurst. Thus it is said that a northern pedlar, in being served with some sausage of an inferior quality, was asked again if he would have some of the wurst. Not understanding the word, and construing it as a slight, he replied to his hostess - "No, thank you, marm, this is quite bad enough." The literal meaning of this line, which is borrowed from Scheffel's poem of Perkeo, is "indifferent, and equal, to me."

20. It was, I believe, Ragnar Lodbrog who, in his Death Song, spoke, about as intelligently and clearly as Herr Breitmann, of a mass of weapons.

21. Is true art-enjoyment.

22. Where art thou Breitmann? - Believe it.

23. In the green wood.

24. Students in the streets.

25. Oh Fatherland! - how thou art far! Oh Time! - how art thou long!

26. Full details of this excursion were published in a pamphlet, entitled "Three Thousand Miles in a Railroad Car," and also in letters written by Mr. J. G. Hazzard for the New York Tribune.

27. In American-German festivals, cards are sometimes sold by the quantity, which are "good" for refreshments. This is done to avoid trouble in making change.

28. Breitmann and bride-man, breit and krumm (bride and groom), or broad and crooked, &c.

29. This refers to the passage of bills in the Legislature of a state by means of bribery. In Pennsylvania, as in many other states, bills which have "nothing in them" - i.e. no money - are rarely allowed to pass.

30. "Die Welt gleicht einer Bierbouteille."

31. Harrisburg is the capital of the state of Pennsylvania.

32. In a certain edition of the Breitmann Ballads, this phrase is said to have originated in 1845. In 1835, I heard it said that General Jackson in a letter spelt all correct "oll korrekt," and this I believe to be the real origin of the expression. - C.G.L.

33. This incident, and the one narrated in the preceding verse, are literally true.

34. "No more interlect than a half-grown shad," is a phrase which occurs, if the author remembers aright, in the Charcoal Sketches, by J. C. Neal. The Western people have carried this idea a step further, and applied it to sardines, as "small fishes," all of an average size, packed closely together in tin cans and excluded from the light of day. A man who has never travelled, and has during all his life been packed tightly among those who were his equals in ignorance and inexperience, is therefore a "sardine."

35. The incident narrated in this part, is told in Pennsylvania as having occurred to a well-known politician, who bore the sobriquet of "With all due deference," from his habit of beginning all his speeches with these words.

36. "Dese outpressions ish not to pe angeseen py anypodies ash schvearin, boot ash inderesdin Norse or Sherman idioms. Goot many refiewers vot refiewsed to admire soosh derms in de earlier editions ish politelich requestet to braise dem in future nodices from a transcendental philological standpoint." - FRITZ SCHWACKENHAMMER

37. Requisish. An abbreviation of the word requisition, which Breitmann had heard during the War of Emancipation. I once heard this cant term used in a droll manner, about the end of the war, by a little girl, six years old, the daughter of a quarter-master. She had "confiscated," or "foraged," or "skirmished," as it was indifferently called, a toy whip belonging to her little brother of four years, who was clamorously demanding its return. "I cannot let you have the whip," said she gravely, "as I need it for military purposes; but I can give you a requisish for it on my papa, who will give you an order on the United States Government." - C. G. L.

38. Bismarck.

39. Disraeli.

40. Uhu. An owl - the bird of kn-owl-edge.

41. Allons. Uhlan slang for go or went, as in America, they use the Spanish word vamos to express every person in every sense of the verb to go. Pronounced allon'd.

42. "O no, those are no angels Which sail so smoothly on, O no - they're cursed Frenchmen, All in an air-balloon."

43. "And when she came adown Unto the earth's firm surface, She was Mrs. Robinson."

44. Those are thrashed Frenchmen.

45. "Der Uhlan was not shenerally wear pickelhaube, but dis tay der Herr Breitmann gehappenet to hafe von on." - FRITZ SCHWACKENHAMMER

46. "And art thou truly living?"

47. "All my property."

48. "O maiden fair in Heaven!"

49. Nancy, the "light of love" of Lorraine. - London Times, Dec. 6, 1870.

50. "I require you to surrender: I have thirty thousand men Not far from here, parbleu! But give me first champagne: I've a wondrous thirst, you know- About a dozen cart-loads; And then I'll let you go."

51. "O Lord, Lord, Lord! We are ruined!"

52. "We will take the ready gelt."

53. "Yes, give a hundred thousand francs 'Tis all to me, you know."

54. "Ah, that will make you trouble, Which I would not gladly see; So follow all my counsels, And take advice from me. I have two thousand bottles, The best"-

55. "From the wrath of the Northmen, deliver us, Lord!"

56. There is a German student's song which begins with this couplet.

57. La Redoute - the gambling-room at Spa.

58. Spa is famous for painted ornamental wooden ware, such as fans and boxes.

59. "And to him who sung this song, God give a happy year!"

60. "If wine is better than loving, Or if love doth much more than wine."

61. "Yes, when the flower is plucked, And taken from the stem."

62. "What is sweeter than this drinking? Yes - naught can better be Naught is sweeter, though, than loving; It tastes better than wine to me. There's nothing like the maidens, There's nothing like good beer, And he who does not love them both Can be no cavalier."

63. "The colours are not unknown to me."

64. "Ils etaient deux alors; ils sont mille aujourd'hui. Sur ces temps primitifs le doux progres a lui, Et chacque jour le Rhin vers Cologne charrie De nombreux Farinas, tous 'seul, 'tous 'Jean Marie.'" - Le Maout,"Le Parfumeur," cited by Eugene Rimmel in Le Livre des Parfums, Paris, 1870.

65. Bierstadt - Herr Schwackenhammer had evidently here in view, not only the American artist BIERSTADT, but also the great city of Munich, specially famous for its manufacture of beer.

66. Rattenkonig, or Rat-king, is a term applied in German to a droll mixture of incidents or details. It is derived from an extraordinary story of twelve rats, with one (their king) in the centre, which were found in a nest with their tails grown together, firmly as the ligament which connects the Siamese Twins.

67. "Lucifers." The first name applied in America to friction matches, and one still used by many people.

68. Scalawag - an American word, of very doubtful origin, signifying a low, worthless fellow.

69. "If we can in our monastery collect our rents, we do not care a red cent for infallibility."

70. This verse is parodied from the lines of a ribald old Latin song, "Viginti Jesuiti nuper convenere."

71. "If I could throw myself outside of, or around, a glass of Rhenish wine." "If I could see a glass of whisky," said an American, "I'd throw myself outside of it mighty quick." Since writing the above, I have seen the expression thus given in a copy of La Belle Sauvage. - Bill of the Play, London, June 27, 1870.

"Nay these natives - simple creatures- Had resolved that for the future Each his own canoe would paddle, Each his own hoe-cake would gobble, And get outside his own whisky."

72. "Deus se fecit olim homo,"&c. A very curious epigram to this effect was placed upon "Pasquin" while the writer was in Rome, during a past winter. It was as follows:- "Perche Eva mangio il pomo Iddio per riscattarci si fece uomo, Ed ora il Nono Pio Per mantenerci schiavi, si fa Dio."

73. M'Closky. An Irish adventurer, admirably depicted by Mr. Charles Lever.

74. "Do you not see that if you are infallible, and wish to give it out."

75. "During its life."

76. "Thou art a very puppy."

77. This was the late Charles Astor Bristed of New York, to whom many of these ballads were addressed in letters.

78. Lines from Gudrun, each of which is freely translated by the lines following it.

79. "Go forth, my book, through all the world, Bear what thy fate may be! They may bite thee, they may tear thee, So they do no harm to me!"

80. "Pull on your boots so rough and tough, And whet your sword beside, We have been lazy long enough, The road is worth the ride."

81. Schicksal, Destiny.

82. Menschheitsideal, Human Ideal.

83. A little stream in Cincinnati, beyond which lies the German quarter, is known as the Rhine.

84. That was a dark young gypsy.

85. Ah, Rosalie, my lovely one!

86. Blood-coloured is the lovely rose.

87. Who roses picks his finger pricks No matter what befall; In winter-time he finds them gone And gets no rose at all. Our petting and caressing here, Our joy or misery It all shall rest sub rosa, love, And our own secret be!

88. "Thou'rt right, my darling son."

89. "Good-bye, my friend, my Frederick!"

90. Woppenshield, coat of arms.

Here ends the Project Gutenberg edition of Charles G. Leland's "The Breitmann Ballads"