Homburg

“ HOMBURG-VOR-DER-HÖHE, a town and watering-place of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, prettily situated at the south-east foot of the Taunus Mountains, 12 m. N. of Frankfort-on-Main, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1905) 13,740. Homburg consists of an old and a new town, the latter, founded by the landgrave of Hesse-Homburg Frederick II. (d. 1708) , being regular and well-built. ”

“ If one could be at Homburg without people knowing one was there, the place might be tolerable."
"I have been told the scenery is very fine," hazarded Lady Emily.
"Oh, the scenery is well enough; but one knows it, and one has seen so much finer things in that way. When one has been across the Cordilleras, it is absurd to be asked to worship some poor little hills in Germany."
"I have seldom been out of Suffolk, except to visit some of my people in Scotland. Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis are quite big enough for me." ”

“ My guardian did not approve at all; he thought the gambling-room dangerous for my mother, and the society that moved there unsuitable for me. Homburg was reputed to be a haunt of the Parisian demi-monde. And in fact, we used to see on the terrace that year two notably striking figures whose names are doubtless still in the memory of those who go back to the time of the second French empire, Cora Pearl and Léonide Leblanc. I was not unacquainted with the existence of the haute galanterie of Paris. ”

“ S. Laing and her daughters Cecilia and Floy, and departed for a visit to the Rhine—that is to say, these ladies preceded us, and we joined them at the Hotel des Quatre Saisons in Homburg. It was a very brilliant season, for the German Emperor, fresh with the glory of his great victory, was being fêted everywhere, and Homburg the brilliant was not behind the German world in this respect. I saw the great man frequently, near and far, and was much impressed with his appearance. ”

“ They lie grouped round a pretty park which also furnishes the visitors with facilities for various recreations, such as lawn tennis, croquet, polo and other games. The industries of Homburg embrace iron founding and the manufacture of leather and hats, but they are comparatively unimportant, the prosperity of the town being almost entirely due to the annual influx of visitors, which during the season from May to October inclusive averages 12,000. ”

“ A background of adventure is set by the last days of the Second Empire and the Commune of 1871.
A DRAMA OF SUNSHINE-Played la Homburg. By Mrs. Aubrey Richardson. (First Novel Library) .
A dramatic episode of life in Homburg, at the height of the English senses. The characters represent types of men and women actually to be met with in the high social and political world of to-day. A society Beauty and a Sister of an Anglican Community personify the red Rose of Love, Pride and Gaiety, and the pale Lily of Purity, Aspiration and Repression. ”

“ Manage it they did, however; crept into their narrow cells at night, to emerge next morning, like butterflies from the chrysalis, gay, bright, and brilliant, and to recommence the never-varying but pleasant round of eating, sauntering, love-making, and gambling. Homburg was not then what it has since become. That great house of cards, the new Cursaal, had not yet arisen ”

“ In no German town are there better hotels than at Homburg, and one dines on a warm day in very pleasant surroundings, for Ritter's has its world-famous terrace, and some of the other hotels have very delightful open-air restaurants in their gardens. Simplicity, good plain food well cooked, is insisted on by the doctors at Homburg, and therefore a typical Homburg dinner is a very small affair compared to German feasts over which the doctors do not have control. ”

“ Of memorials to her, there is the bust at Homburg already mentioned. In the English church at Homburg, where she attended divine service for the first time after the death of her husband, is a memorial consisting of four reliefs, placed in the spandrels of the arches in the aisle, representing the four Evangelists. A striking statue of the Empress in coronation robes by Gerth was unveiled by the Emperor William in October, 1903. It is opposite the statue of her husband in the open space outside the Brandenburg gate at Berlin. ”

“ From the museum, the students, after a walk of over a mile, reached the Jewish quarter, glanced at the Rothschild House, the synagogue, and other buildings, returning to the Hôtel de Russie at dark.
On the following morning the party went to Homburg, nine miles distant, where they spent the rest of the day. The town is another watering-place, and has increased in popularity till it outrivals Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, or any other fashionable resort in Germany. It has its medicinal springs, which are beneficial in a variety of diseases. ”

“ He was a man of vacillating character, and did not hesitate to lend his support to the Romanists whenever it served his personal interests. However, he has left to posterity an imperishable hymn in “Light of Light, O Sun of heaven.” He is credited with having reformed the art of verse-writing in Germany. He died of the pestilence in Danzig in 1639.
Homburg and Held were lawyers. Homburg was born near Eisenach in 1605, and later we find him practising law in Naumburg, Saxony. He was a man of great poetic talent, but at first he devoted his gifts to writing love ballads and drinking songs. ”

“ During the building of Friedrichshof the Empress took up her residence at Homburg and drove over every day, being on the friendliest terms, not only with the architect and builder, but also with the masons and the other workmen. One might say that she watched the laying of nearly every stone, and she must have felt sorry when the work was done. ”

“ If she has no one to advise her, I will offer my services; and who knows——”
A cab was passing; M. Fortunat hailed it, and ordered the Jehu to drive him to the Rue du Helder, No. 43, Hotel de Homburg.
Was it by chance or premeditation that this establishment had received the name of one of the gambling dens of Europe? Perhaps the following information may serve to answer the question. The Hotel de Homburg was one of those flash hostelries frequented by adventurers of distinction, who are attracted to Paris by the millions that are annually squandered there. ”

“ The central position of this city gives it a decided advantage for trade and commerce. The activity of the eighty thousand inhabitants is striking in comparison with the ducal residence of Darmstadt, an hour’s ride by railway, with its long broad streets and population of thirty thousand, but looking dull and dreary as a village. The railroad in an hour conveys one to Wiesbaden, in a half hour to Mayence, and in an hour’s ride by omnibus and rail one arrives at Homburg. ”

“ Passed them working in the fields, men and women, comfortably dressed, sturdy, and apparently happy as day is long. Every man has at least his three acres, many more; the cow is also there, but is chiefly in shaft of cart or plough. As we picked way down awesome street, Friedrichsdorf, save for few children and old men, seemed deserted village; all able-bodied inhabitants at work in field. By-and-by, when sun goes down, they come trooping home, tramping down stony street, a jocund throng.
Thursday.—Rain departed; for days in succession Homburg been at its best ”

“ Hope he never takes base advantage of his opportunities. But there is a look in Jeames's eye, as he hands the glass of water, which melikes not.
Tuesday.—Between one and two in afternoon of revolving days, great centre of life in Homburg is Madame Brahe's little shop in Louisen-strasse; little only on first glance: contains unsuspected recesses in rear, whither surplus population flows. A model place for light luncheon such as Dr. Deetz ordains: also for English visitors convenient exchange and mart for latest gossip and display of newest dresses. ”

“ Near it are the remains of the old Benedictine monastery of Homburg or Hohenburg, where the emperor Henry IV. defeated the Saxons in 1075. The manufacture of cloth is the chief industry; lace, starch, machines, cigars and chemicals are also produced, while spinning, dyeing, brewing and printing are carried on. There is a sulphur bath in the neighbourhood, situated in a pleasant park, in which there are monuments to those who fell in the war of 1866. Langensalza became a town in 1211 and was afterwards part of the electorate of Saxony. ”

“ Nauheim is a sweet little place. One never sees a soldier and wouldn't know that Militarismus existed. There are two policemen, one of them an old fellow of 70 who shuffles along to keep his weak knees from giving way. I went on business to the police office t' other day. The building stood in a fine cabbage garden, and over the first door one met on entering stood the word Küche [40] in large letters. Quite like the old idyllic pre-Sadowan German days. My heart is getting well! I made an excursion to Homburg yesterday, with J. B. Warner of Cambridge, counsellor at law, and general disputant. ”

“ You city folks may have your financial flurries, but if you've never been around and between and under a bank scrap in a small town, you don't know what trouble is. There were a couple of failures that needn't have happened, and a lot of partisan financiering, and then the town rose up and sat down on our social leaders with a most pronounced scrunch. We can stand just about so much society in Homeburg, but when it gets to elbowing into business, churches, schools and funerals, we are more sensible than you metropolitans are. ”

“ The wealth and energy of the German Hinterlands pours itself eagerly into Hamburg’s lap and the ancient mediaeval city now finds itself, unlike somnolent Copenhagen, at the very forefront of Europe’s activity. Hamburg is, commercially, more alive and active than Berlin, and as a port receives more shipping than London. Hamburg is almost as wide awake as is New York.
After our drive, we came to the Hotel Europaer, where we dined and rested, and then departed a little before midnight for Amsterdam. ”

“ In Hamburg they were selected from among the most respectable and wealthy men in the city, some of them far advanced in age. They were conveyed to the old castle of Haarburg on the left bank of the Elbe, and these men, who had been accustomed to all the comforts of life, were deprived even of necessaries, and had only straw to lie on. The hostages from Lübeck were taken to, Hamburg: they were placed between decks on board an old ship in the port: this was a worthy imitation of the prison hulks of England. ”

“ Homeburg is a good town, and it makes its girls behave even if it has to half kill them.
You haven't any idea, Jim, how much bustle and noise and excitement and general enthusiasm a passenger train can put into a small town for a few minutes. Just imagine yourself in Homeburg on a cold winter afternoon. It's four o'clock. The sun has stood the climate as long as it can and is getting ready to duck for shelter [Pg 9] behind the dreary fields to the west. If you ran an automobile a mile a minute down the walk on Main Street you wouldn't have to toot for a soul. ”

“ If any one wants to talk to the burgomaster, I say he is not at home. If they say they saw him at the window, I answer that it makes no difference, he is still not at home. People in Hamburg know at once what that answer means; they slip a thaler into Henrich's hand, and his Honor promptly comes home. If he has been ill, he recovers at once; if he has had visitors, they leave at once; if he has been lying down, he gets up at once. I run about with the lackeys of the gentry, now and then, and I know well enough what goes on in those houses. ”

“ Hambourg is also very considerable on account of the Wealth of its Inhabitants, who are almost all Merchants, and much of the Temper of the Dutch Merchants, very greedy of Gain and thrifty. Their greatest Delight is so have Gardens at the City-Gates, pretty much in the Taste of those of Holland. The Wives of the great Merchants are as much confin'd at Hambourg, as the Women of Quality are at Venice, but I observ'd they were only pent up from Foreigners. A Man may pass his time very well in this City, where there are several Persons of Quality to see, who make their Visitors perfectly welcome. ”

“ The four leagues from Mannheim to Heidelberg are through a country, not one spot of which is uncultivated; this is backed by the finely wooded mountains of the Odenwald, on which are still visible the remains of some of the many castles which formerly crowned the different heights. We reached Heidelberg towards evening, and as soon as I had seen Sir Humphry comfortably lodged in the hotel of the Prince Carl, immediately under the imposing ruins of its far-famed castle, he begged me to go and see my mother, he being too fatigued to accompany me ”

“ Seems as if the world was always looking Homeburg men over, the way a housewife looks over an asparagus patch, and yanking out the ones who stick up a little higher than the rest. We don't worry about the good who die young in Homeburg; but the interesting who go early and forget to come back make us sad and sore. No sooner does a Homeburg man begin to broaden out and get successful and to hoist the town upward as he climbs himself, than we begin to grieve. ”

“ Very probably the whole story is but a newspaper canard, devised by the proprietors of some rival gaming establishment, who would have been delighted to see the fashionable Hombourg under a cloud.
'When people want to commit suicide at Hombourg, they do it genteelly; early in the morning, or late at night, in the solitude of their own apartments at the hotels. It would be reckoned a gross breach of good manners to scandalize the refined and liberal administration of the Kursaal by undisguised felo-de-se. The devil on two croupes at Hombourg is the very genteelest of demons imaginable. ”