The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (8.1896)

iyo Georg Biandes
I don't mean by this that he opposes the liberty women now-
adays have obtained. Nothing could be further from his mind.
He means the two sexes to have equal rights and equal freedom.
But he has no sympathy with the woman who, because she works
and fights her own battles, must throw to the winds all grace and
beauty. For there is nothing book-wormish about Georg
Brandes. As a true pagan, he loves to be surrounded by youth
and loveliness. There is an old-world tenderness and grace about
his bearing towards women, and he belongs to that race of men
who, like Bismarck, believe that a man never looks more charm-
ing than when reverently bending over a woman's hand.
It need scarcely be said that Dr. Brandes often finds the oppor-
tunity to look charming !
On the 26th of October 1891, it was twenty-five years since
he had published his first book. The anniversary was a good
opportunity for his friends and followers to honour him. A
public dinner was arranged, and in the course of the evening the
workmen, the artists, and the students greeted him with torches.
The great preparations on the part of his friends, and the com-
plete silence with which the Conservative papers treated the
matter, aroused curiosity, and when the evening came all Copen-
hagen was in the streets to see the procession.
The dinner was given at the Concert Palace, a beautiful
rococo building in one of the main streets. On the balcony
stood Georg Brandes, surrounded by his nearest friends, while
every window in the great building was thronged with festive
men and women. In front the big courtyard was filled with the
young men carrying torches, and outside on the pavement and
down the side streets were thousands of spectators.
It was from this balcony that Dr. Brandes^thanked all those
who