Though I spare nobody where principles are concerned, yet I have come to the conclusion that I must act otherwise with Stern than with Fred; and as I foresee that my name—[the firm is Last and-Co., but my name is Drystubble—Batavus Drystubble]—will be connected with a book, wherein matters appear that are not in harmony with the respect which every honourable man and broker owes to himself, I conceive it to be my duty to communicate to you how I have endeavoured to bring this young man Stern back to the true path.
I did not speak to him of the Lord, because he is a Lutheran; but I worked on his mind and his honour. See how I did this, and observe how useful a knowledge of mankind is, I heard him say, “auf Ehrenwort,” and asked him what he meant by that?
“Well,” he said, “that I pledge my honour for the truth of what I say.”
“That is much,” I said. “Are you so sure of speaking the truth?”
“Yes,” he replied, “I always speak the truth. When my breast glows * * *” The reader knows the rest.
“That is indeed very noble,” said I, and I made as if I believed it.
But this was a part of the trap that I had prepared for him, to show the young fellow his right place, and to make him understand how great is the distance between a mere beginner—though his father may have a large business—and a broker who has frequented the Exchange for twenty years, but I said it in a manner not to run the risk of seeing old Mr. Stern fall into the hands of Busselinck and Waterman. I was acquainted with the fact that he knows all sorts of verses by heart; and as verses always contain lies, I was quite sure that I should very soon catch him telling lies. It was not long before I did. I sat in the back parlour, and he was in the suite[1]—for we have a suite; Mary was occupied with knitting, and he was going to tell her something. I listened very attentively, and when he had finished I asked him if he possessed the book containing the story which he had just narrated. He said Yes, and gave it me; it was a volume of one of the works of a certain fellow called Heine.
The following morning I handed to him—Stern, I mean—the following
“Herzliebchen? Mary your sweetheart? Do your parents and Louise Rosemeyer know that? Is it proper to say that to a child, who might, on account of it, very readily become disobedient to her mother, by thinking herself of age, because she is called herzliebchen. What is the meaning of that ‘carrying away on your wings?’ You have no wings, nor has your song. Try to fly over the Laurier Canal: it is not very wide. But if you had wings, could you propose such a thing to a girl who is not yet confirmed? what do you mean by that flying away together? For shame!
“Then you may go there alone, and hire lodgings, but don’t take with you a girl who has to help her mother at home. But you do not mean it; for you never saw the Ganges, and you cannot therefore know whether you will be comfortable there. Shall I tell you how matters stand? You tell nothing but lies only, because you make yourself in the verses a slave of cadence and rhyme. If the first line had ended in cake, you would have asked Mary whether she would go with you to a lake, and so on. You see, therefore, that your proposed voyage was not meant, and that all depends on a tinkling of words without sense. What if Mary should indeed like to undertake this journey? I do not speak now of the uncomfortable mode of conveyance which you propose; but she is, God be praised, too intelligent to long for a country of which you say:—
Im stillen Mondenschein;
Die Lotosblumen erwarten
Ihr trautes Schwesterlein;
Und schau’n nach den Sternen empor;
Heimlich erzählen die Rosen
Sich düftende Märchen in’s Ohr!’[4]
“What do you intend to do with Mary in that garden in the moonshine? Is that moral, is that proper, is that respectable, Stern? Would you disgrace me to the level of Busselinck and Waterman, with whom no respectable commercial firm will have any dealings, because of the elopement of their daughter, and because they are bunglers. What should I have to say, when they asked me on the Exchange why my daughter remained so long in that garden? For, you understand,—I hope that nobody would believe me if I said that she had to look after those lotos flowers, which; as you say, have been long waiting for her. And every intelligent man, foo, would laugh at me if I was foolish enough to say, ‘Mary is there in that red garden—[why red, and not yellow or purple?]—to listen to the tattle and laughing of the violets, or to the tales which the roses tell each other in a clandestine manner.’ Even though this might be the truth, of what use would it be to Mary if all happened so clandestinely that she did not understand a word? But it’s all lies, insipid lies, and ugly they are at the same time; for take a pencil and draw a rose with an ear, and see how that looks. And what do you mean by saying, that those tales have a nice perfume? Shall I tell you what it means in plain Dutch? That means, that you can smell the lieso it is!
Da hüpfen herbei und lauschen
Die frommen, klugen Gazellen;
Und in der Ferne rauschen
Des heiligen Stromes Wellen,
Unter den Palmenbaum
Und Ruhe und Liebe trinken
Und träumen seligen Traum.’[5]
“Cannot you go to the Zoological Gardens, if you wish to see foreign animals? Must those animals be on the Ganges, which you never observe so well in the wilderness as in a nice enclosure of iron? Why are those animals pious and clever? I will not speak of the latter word (it serves to make foolish verses rhyme), but pious? What is the meaning of that? Is not this an abuse of a holy word that should only be used of men who hold the true faith? And then that holy stream? These stories you tell to Mary might make her a Pagan, might make her faith waver as to the existence of any other holy water than that of baptism, and any holier river than the Jordan. Is not that an undermining of morality, virtue, religion, Christianity, and respectability?
“Think about all this, Stern! Your father is the head of a respectable firm, and I am quite sure that he approves of my speaking thus in a straightforward way, and that he likes to do business with a person who defends virtue and religion. Yes, principles are sacred to me,and I do not scruple to say plainly what I mean: therefore, make no secret of what I say; you may write to your father that you are here in a respectable family, that shows you the right path, and ask yourself what would have become of you if you had gone-to Busselinck and Waterman? There you would likewise have recited such verses, and nobody would have told you the folly of it, because they are bunglers, You may write this to your father, for when principles are concerned I fear nobody. There the girls would perhaps have gone with you to the Ganges, and then you would perhaps by this time be lying under that tree on the grass; whereas, because I warned you, you remain with us in a respectable house. You may write all this to your father, and tell him that you are so grateful, that you came with us, and that I take such good care of you, and that the daughter of Busselinck and Waterman ran away; make him my compliments, and say that I intend to drop 116 per cent. of the brokerage, because I cannot suffer those low fellows, who steal the bread out of the mouth of a rival in trade by more favourable conditions.
“And be so kind as to give us something more substantial in your readings at the Rosemeyers’. I have seen in Shawlman’s parcel statements of the coffee-culture of the last twenty years, in all the Residencies in Java: read us something of that. And you must not scold the girls and all of us, by saying that we are cannibals, who have swallowed a part of you; that is not respectable, my boy; believe one who knows what goes on in the world. I served your father. before his birth—[I mean the firm, Last and Co., formerly it was Last and Meyer]—you understand, therefore, that I speak for your good. And incite Fred to behave himself better, and do not teach him to make verses; and make as if you, did not see it when he makes wry faces at the bookkeeper, and suchlike things. Show him a good example, because you are much older, and try to impress him with steadiness and gravity, because he must become a broker.
“Batavus Drystubble,
(Firm Last & Co., Coffee-Brokers,
No. 37 Laurier Canal”)
- ↑ Suite is an Amsterdamism, and means a front room divided from a back parlour by folding-doors: to possess such a “suite” is considered in Amsterdam as the ne plus ultra of respectability.
- ↑ “On song’s exulting pinion
I'll bear thee, my sweetheart fair.” - ↑ “Where Ganges holds his dominion,—
The sweetest of spots know I there.” - ↑ “ There a red blooming garden is lying
In the moonlight silent and clear;
The lotos-flowers are sighing
For their sister so pretty and dear.“ The violets prattle and titter,
And gaze on the stars high above;
The roses mysteriously twitter
Their fragrant stories of love.” - ↑
“The gazelles so gentle (pious) and clever
Skip lightly in frolicsome mood;
And in the distance roars ever
The holy river’s loud flood.“And there, while joyously sinking
Beneath the palm by the stream,
And love and repose while drinking,
Of blissful visions we'll dream.”
—From Bowring’s Heine’s Poems. Lond. 1866.