Current Literature [pp. 193-200]

CURRENT LITERATURE.
tendency, as well of the special weakness
we have before alluded to, is given in his ac count of his visit to Garibaldi at Maddalena,
and his non-reception by that red-shirted
hero. A man of lower literary culture would
have ridiculed Garibaldi for his churlishness;
a man of higher instincts would have en tirely omitted the purely personal episode,
or dismissed it in a line; but Mr. Taylor
dwells upon it with a fatal persistency that is
quite inconsistent with his philosophy or dig nity, and scarcely increases our respect for
Garibaldi or himself. Perhaps one of the
hardest of literary and social feats is to re ceive a snub gracefully; and it is not alto gether surprising that Mr. Taylor has failed.
Yet we must repeat here, that the'volume is
original, apparently truthful, and exceedingly
interesting; and that, with a felicity rare
enough in these days to demand praise for a
man less popular than Bayard Taylor, the
poetic and practical suggestiveness of its titlepage is fully and thoroughly carried out in
the volume.
HANS BREITMIANN ABOUT TOWN, AND OTH ER BALLADS. By Chas. G. Leland. Phil adelphia: Peterson & Brothers.
When we add to what we have already
said about "Hans Breitmann," * that Mr.
Leland has succeeded in the always hazardous feat of repeating a good thing, and has
continued the public interest in his felicitous
creation, we have said enough to show that
he has done that which puts him pretty well
along in the front of American humorists.
His second book was a test: if he could succeed in taking his German-Yankee hero out
of the conditions and atmosphere in which he
first presented him, and give him a new setting, without any abatement of interest or
characteristic humor, it was quite evident that
he had created a character in American literature- as distinct, if not in some respects even
more original than Mr. Lowell's Conservative
Yankee. This, every reader of " Hans Breitmann About Town" will see that Mr. Leland
has done. The reckless, skeptical, poetic,
philosophic, hard -headed, sensual Dutchman is no less pronounced and fascinating in
* Vol. I, Sept. x868.
ward-meetings and "boledicks," in the un heroic city of New York, than he was when
he "goppled up doorkies" in his march with
Sherman to the Sea. He has fairly earned his
right to live in literature, and we already begin
to wonder how we have been able to do with out him, and why we had never met him
before.
The great charm of HIans Breitmann is that
he is something more than funny. Many of
his admirers will, of course, be amply satisfied
with the easy fun of his characteristic orthoe py, even if they do not really appreciate the
special knowledge of German idioms, which
makes it artistically good, and therefore
higher as a literary work than Artemus
Ward's spelling, or Bird-o'-Freedom Sawin's
dialect. But the occasional lyric strokes, the
rarer touches of dreamy German sentiment,
the sly satire on the later Teutonic philoso phy, better show the true genius of the crea tion, and the felicitous use to which Mr. Leland has put his studies of German literature,
which in other hands have so often been an
useless elegance, or a simple incentive to very
mild translations. It is doubtful if we really
yet appreciate the full force of this grotesque
creation-this singular hybrid of the qualities
of two races, and the ideas of two worlds - or
the moral and satiric power it holds as yet
unexpended.
The verses entitled "Breitmann About
Town" suggest something of this power, in
Der Breitmann's free comments on certain
social features, e.g.. Dey vent to see de Ridualisds,
Who vorship Gott mitt vlowers,
In hobes he'll lofe dem pack again,
In winter among de showers.
"Vhen de Pacific railroat's done
Dis dings imbrofed vill pe,
De joss-sticks vill pe santal vood " Said Breitemann, said he.
Or the following, which will, perhaps, be
more obvious to some of Hans' admirers:
Dey vented to de zirst hotel,
De prandy make dem creep,
A trop of id's enough to make
A brazen monkey veep.
Dey say a viner house ash dis
Vill soon ge-bildet pe,
Crate Gott!-vot can dey mean to trink?"
Said Breitemann, said he.
Quite as apparent is the satire in "Hans
Breitmann in Politics;" but, to our fancy,
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[AuGUST,'