The Breitmann Ballads | Page 7

vidow; woman - voman; work - vork; one -
von; we - ve, &c. And hence, by way of a compound mixture, we get
from him drafel for travel, derriple for terrible, a daple-leck for a
table-leg, bepples for pebbles, tisasder for disaster, schimnastig dricks

for gymnastic tricks, let-bencil for lead-pencil, &c. The peculiarity of
Germans pronouncing in their mother tongue s like sh when it is
followed by a t or p, and of Germans in southern
Germany often also final s like sh, naturally produced
in their American jargon such results as shplit, shtop, shtraight, shtar,

shtupendous, shpree, shpirit, &c; ish(is), ash(as), &c.; and, by analogy
led to shveet(sweet), schwig(swig), &c. We need not notice, however,
more than these freaks of the
German-American-English of the
present poems, as little as we need advert to simple vulgarisms also met
with in England, such as the omission of the final g in words
terminating in ing (blayin' - playing; shpinnen' - spinning; ridin',
sailin', roonin', &c.). We must, of course, assume that the reader of this
little volume is well acquainted both with English and German.
The reader will perceive that the writer has taken another flight in
"Hans Breitmann's Christmas," and many of the later ballads, from
what he did in those preceding; and exception might be taken to his
choice of subjects, and treatment of them, if the language employed by
him were a fixed dialect - that is, a
language arrested at a certain
stage of its progress; for in that case he would have had to subordinate
his pictures to the narrow sphere of the realistic incidents of a given
locality. But the imperfect English utterances of the German, newly
arrived in America, coloured more or less by the peculiarities of his
native idiom, do not make, and never will make a dialect, for the simple
reason that, in proportion to his intelligence, his
opportunities, and
the length of time spent by him among his new English-speaking
countrymen, he will sooner or later rid himself of the crudenesses of his
speech, thus preventing it from
becoming fixed. Many of the
Germans who have emigrated and are still emigrating to America
belong to the well-educated classes, and some possess a very high
culture. Our poet has therefore presented his typical German, with
perfect propriety, in a
variety of situations which would be
imperceptible within which the the dialect necessarily moves, and has
endowed him with character, even where the local colour is wanting.
In "Breitmann in Politics," we are on purely American ground.

In it the Germans convince themselves that, as their hero can no longer
plunder the rebels, he ought to plunder the nation, and they resolve on
getting him elected to the State Legislature. They accordingly form a
committee, and formulate for their
candidate six "moral ideas" as his
platform. These they show to their Yankee helper, Hiram Twine, who,
having changed his
politics fifteen times, and managed several
elections, knows how matters should be handled. He says the moral
ideas are very fine, but not worth a "dern;" and instead of them
proclaims the true cry, that Breitmann is sound upon the goose,
about which he tells a story. Then it is reported that the German cannot
win, and that, as he is a soldier, he has been sent into the political field
only to lead the forlorn hope and get beaten. In answer to this, Twine
starts the report that Smith has sold the fight to Breitmann, a
notion which the Americans take to at once -
"For dey mostly dinked id de naturalest ding as efer couldt pefall
For
to sheat von's own gonstituents is de pest mofe in de came, Und dey
nefer sooposed a Dootchman hafe de sense to do de same."
Accordingly, Breitmann calls a meeting of Smith's supporters, tells
them that he hopes to get a good place for his friend Smith, though he
cannot approve of Smith's teetotal principles, because he, Breitmann, is
a republican, and the meaning of that word is plain: - "... If any
enlightened man vill seeken in his Bibel, he will find dat a publican is a
barty ash sells
lager; und de ding is very blain, dat a
re-publican ish von who sells id 'gain und 'gain." Moreover,
Smith believes in God, and goes to church, - what liberal German
can stand this? - while Breitmann, being a publican, must be a

sinner. As to parties, the principles of both are the same -
plunder - and "any man who gifes me his fote, - votefer his boledics pe,
- shall alfays pe regardet ash bolidigal friendt py me."
This brings the house down. And when Breitmann announces that he
sells the best beer in the city, and stands drinks gratis to his "bolidigal
friendts," and orders in twelve barrels of lager for the