DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0202
186
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
Munich. This, however, was Drei-K'dnigs Dutt, or the
Fair of the Three Kings. By way of amusement, I thought
I would go to it; but as I could not very well go alone, I
invited Madame Thekla to accompany me, with which she
was very well pleased, as I promised to treat her to the
shows. As far as buying and selling, and the crowds of
peasants, and townspeople, and students, and soldiers, go,
it was like any other fair. At a little distance from the
long array of booths stood the shows—and thither we bent
our steps.
The first thing we came upon was a small ladder-wagon
covered with an arched awning ; and bound to one side of
the wagon were tall poles, from which floated a series of
ghastly pictures—hideous raw-head-and-bloody-bone pic-
tures ! There were murders, executions, beheadings in
German fashion •, the criminal extended on a horrid sort of
rack, and his head being chopped off by a grim executioner
with a sword, whilst a priest stood by in his long robes ;
there were houses on fire drownings ; miraculous
escapes; there were tall, smirking Hussars, and weeping
ladies in white—all heroes and heroines in these bloody
histories !
The subjects, the hideous drawing, the hard outlines, the
goggle-eyes, the blood, the knives, the fire, made you feel
sick. A considerable crowd was collected, and listened
breathlessly to the sounds of an organ, to which two
Tyroleans sang appalling tragedies. They sang in such
clear, sweet, mountain tones, that you were strangely fasci-
nated. Mournfully sang they, in a monotonous chant, of
blood, and crime, and terror, till you felt your blood creep;
and, by a frightful fascination, your eyes gloated on the
disgusting pictures.
What a terribly immoral influence must these exhibitions
have upon such an uneducated crowd as surrounded these
syrens ! Why should not a paternal government, which
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
Munich. This, however, was Drei-K'dnigs Dutt, or the
Fair of the Three Kings. By way of amusement, I thought
I would go to it; but as I could not very well go alone, I
invited Madame Thekla to accompany me, with which she
was very well pleased, as I promised to treat her to the
shows. As far as buying and selling, and the crowds of
peasants, and townspeople, and students, and soldiers, go,
it was like any other fair. At a little distance from the
long array of booths stood the shows—and thither we bent
our steps.
The first thing we came upon was a small ladder-wagon
covered with an arched awning ; and bound to one side of
the wagon were tall poles, from which floated a series of
ghastly pictures—hideous raw-head-and-bloody-bone pic-
tures ! There were murders, executions, beheadings in
German fashion •, the criminal extended on a horrid sort of
rack, and his head being chopped off by a grim executioner
with a sword, whilst a priest stood by in his long robes ;
there were houses on fire drownings ; miraculous
escapes; there were tall, smirking Hussars, and weeping
ladies in white—all heroes and heroines in these bloody
histories !
The subjects, the hideous drawing, the hard outlines, the
goggle-eyes, the blood, the knives, the fire, made you feel
sick. A considerable crowd was collected, and listened
breathlessly to the sounds of an organ, to which two
Tyroleans sang appalling tragedies. They sang in such
clear, sweet, mountain tones, that you were strangely fasci-
nated. Mournfully sang they, in a monotonous chant, of
blood, and crime, and terror, till you felt your blood creep;
and, by a frightful fascination, your eyes gloated on the
disgusting pictures.
What a terribly immoral influence must these exhibitions
have upon such an uneducated crowd as surrounded these
syrens ! Why should not a paternal government, which