The Breitmann Ballads | Page 9

the

German-American free-lance has grown into a type; and more than one

newspaper, anticipating this volume, has published Anglo-German
poems
referring to Hans Breitmann and the Prussian-French war. In
several
pamphlets written in Anglo-German rhymes, which appeared
in London in
1871, Breitmann was made the representative type of
the war by both
the friends and opponents of Prussia, while during
February of the
same year Hans figured at the same time, and on the
same evenings for
several weeks, on the stages of three London
theatres. So many imitations of these poems were published, and so
extensively and familiarly was Mr. Leland's hero spoken of as the
exponent of the German cause, that it seemed to a writer at the time as
if he had become "as regards Germany what John Bull and Brother
Jonathan have
long been to England and America." In connection
with this
remark, the
following extract from a letter of the Special
Correspondent of the
London Daily Telegraph of August 29,
1870, may not be without
interest: -
"The Prussian Uhlan of 1870 seems destined to fill in French legendary
chronicle the place which, during the invasions of 1814 - 15, was
occupied by the Cossack. He is a great traveller. Nancy, Bar-le-Duc,
Commercy, Rheims, Chalons, St. Dizier,
Chaumont, have all heard of
him. The Uhlan makes himself quite at home, and drops in, entirely in a
friendly way, on mayors and corporations, asking not only himself to
dinner, but an
indefinite number of additional Uhlans, who, he says,
may be expected hourly. The Uhlan wears a blue uniform turned up
with yellow, and to the end of his lance is affixed a streamer

intimately resembling a very dirty white pocket-handkerchief.
Sometimes he hunts in couples, sometimes he goes in threes, and
sometimes in fives. When he lights upon a village, he holds it to

ransom; when he comes upon a city, he captures it, making it literally
the prisoner of his bow and his spear. A writer in Blackwood's
Magazine once drove the people of Lancashire to
madness by
declaring that, in the Rebellion of 1745, Manchester 'was taken by a
Scots sergeant and a wench;' but it is a
notorious fact that Nancy
submitted without a murmur to five Uhlans, and that Bar-le-Duc was
occupied by two. When the Uhlan arrives in a conquered city, he visits
the mayor, and makes his usual inordinate demands for meat, drink,
and cigars. If his demands are acceded to, he accepts everything with a
grin. If he is refused, he remarks, likewise with a grin, that he will
come again to-morrow with three thousand light horsemen, and he

gallops away; but in many cases he does not return. The secret of the
fellow's success lies mainly in his unblushing impudence, his easy
mendacity, and that intimate knowledge of every highway and byway
of the country which, thanks to the military
organisation of the
Prussian army, he has acquired in the
regimental school. He gives
himself out to be the precursor of an imminently advancing army, when,
after all, he is only a boldly adventurous free-lance, who has ridden
thirty miles across country on the chance of picking up something in
the way of information or victuals. Only one more touch is needed to

complete the portrait of the Uhlan. His veritable name would seem to
be Hans Breitmann, and his vocation that of a 'bummer;' and Breitmann,
we learn from the preface to Mr. Leland's
wonderful ballad, had a
prototype in a regiment of Pennsylvanian cavalry by the name of Jost,
whose proficiency in 'bumming,' otherwise 'looting,' in swearing,
fighting, and drinking lager beer, raised him to a pitch of glory on the
Federal side which excited at once the envy and the admiration of the
boldest
bush-whackers and the gauntest guerillas in the Confederate
host."
The present edition embraces all the Breitmann poems which have as
yet appeared; and the publisher trusts that in their collected form they
will be found much more attractive than in scattered volumes. Many
new lyrics, illustrating the hero's travels in Europe, have been added,
and these, it is believed, are not inferior to their predecessors.

N. TRÜBNER.
The Breitmann Ballads.

HANS BREITMANN'S BARTY.
HANS BREITMANN gife a barty;
Dey had biano-blayin',
I felled in lofe mit a Merican frau,
Her name vas Madilda Yane.
She hat haar as prown ash a pretzel,
Her eyes vas himmel-plue,
Und vhen dey looket indo mine,
Dey shplit mine heart in dwo.
Hans Breitmann gife a barty,
I vent dere you'll pe pound;
I valtzet mit Matilda Yane,
Und vent shpinnen' round und round.
De pootiest Fraulein in de
house,
She vayed 'pout dwo hoondred pound,
Und efery dime she gife a
shoomp
She make de vindows sound.
Hans Breitmann gife a barty,
I dells you it cost him dear;
Dey rolled in more ash sefen kecks
Of foost-rate lager beer.
Und vhenefer dey knocks de shpicket in
De deutschers gifes a cheer;
I dinks dot so vine