THE GUARD OF HONOR AT THE VOLKS FEST [PEOPLE'S FESTIVAL].

this last being similar to the "Harvest Home" of the English. Two years ago they held a beautiful festival which to American eyes seemed more Venetian than German. The exercises took place by torchlight, upon the river; the participants were embarked in light skiffs, most difficult to manage and easily overturned. They engaged in a mimic warfare-fighting each other with long wooden spears, and each trying to sink or overturn his adversary's boat. Those thus served would have to swim for their lives, the water being from fifteen to twenty feet deep. The scene was most exciting and picturesque; the flaming torches were mirrored in every ripple of the swift flowing stream; the giant oaks, mossdraped, threw weird and fastastic shadows, and the great masses of caladiums clashed their broad leaves together as if longing to be shields in the mimic battle of the spears. These same caladiums are a feature of the Comal river; their magnificent tropical foliage adding a distinctive character to the beauty of the scenery. They belong to the great yam family and are edible. Whether the colonists were aware of this fact in their time of starvation, tradition saith not-but there are acres and acres of these roots along the entire length of the Comal, and they could have been prepared for food by a thorough boiling or roasting, which deprives them of their acridity. This river, in many places forty feet deep, is so clear that a dime dropped on the bottom is as plainly seen as if laid on land. Its bed is carpeted with exquisite water grasses, mosses, and aquatic plants of most brilliant colors, giving the channel of the stream the appearance of a lovely terraced garden viewed through glass-save that the swift waters make it as variable in aspect as the everchanging kaleidoscope. This stream and the Guadalupe, which is only less lovely, furnish magnificent water power and turn many a mill in their merry course.

The Germans, ever foremost in educational matters, boast that their Prince's private secretary, Mr. Seele, established the first school in all

Western Texas, and that New Braunfels was the first city in the state where the citizens, by a unanimous vote, imposed upon themselves a tax to support a free school. The children are taught in the German language, having their own professors and tutors, and so grow up virtually a foreign population in our midst.

After resigning entirely from the service of the society, Baron von Meusebach withdrew from New Braunfels, and in subsequent years built a fine residence in Loyal Valley, near the beautiful Llano, where he is surrounded by lovely scenery, fine grounds, flourishing orchards and vineyards. Here he leads a secluded life-a relic of a past and monarchical régime; his sons have left the parental roof, are railroad men and merchants, and have dropped forever the distinguishing von from their names. Meusebach married a daughter of Count Correth, of the Tyrol. This gentleman forsook a gay court life in Vienna and gave up his commission in the Uhlans to come out to this new country-actuated by a pure love of republican institutions. He despised show and lived a simple, honest life, holding himself no higher than his German compatriots. He dropped his title and shrank in every way from display. An old oil painting shows him in his magnificent uniform-tall, fair-haired, slender and aristocratic-a masculine reproduction of his beautiful lady mother; behind him stands a liveried servant holding his master's richly caparisoned steed. He was but twenty-one then, and such a change did his views undergo in later years, that his sons refused to allow that portrait to be copied, as it would seem like ostentation, and be contrary to the known desires of their dead father. The portrait given here [page 265] represents him as he was in America-sooth to say neither as handsome, refined, nor debonair as when he touched the hearts or fancy of the fair Viennese.

New Braunfels can boast yet another example of genuine love of democratic principles in the person of their county surveyor. This gentleman is the nephew of that General Bosè who was renowned in the late Aus

trian war. He himself was a captain in the Confederate army; he inherited all the titles of the family and the estates which accompanied them, but he would not go back to Europe to receive the latter and was too democratic to bear the first, willingly renouncing it all in favor of the next heir. He is now seventy-three and enjoys a hale and hearty old age in the midst of his family, who are all well to do and settled on prosperous farms.

Others of the nobility who came out with Prince Solms or immediately after him, did not make much of a record for themselves. The great majority drank themselves to death; of a few there are still many tales. extant. Count Henkel von Donersmert, of Hesse Cassel, kept the first grocery store ever opened in the colony. He married a respectable young servant girl and was subsequently elected sheriff of Comal county. But gambling was with him a mania; he lost all that he had at the gaming table, and finally in a fit of remorse and despondency hung himself.

Baron Wedemeyer, son of the prime minister to the King of Hanover, lived here for some time. He began farming and had every promise of success; but the grand free life of America could not content him; he missed the glories of the Court in which his youth had been passed, so disposed of his real estate and returned to his native land. The lives of these titled gentry in this country offer a sharp contrast to their family traditions. Think of Baron von Nauenendorf presiding over a bar! Imagine Baron von Dalbigh breaking horses and running races-which business he still pursues. Baron Kriewicz Czepry found even these new settlements too civilized for him. His adventurous spirit led him among the Indians and with them he lived for years, but at last returned to civilization, married and settled down, and his sons still dwell by the borders of the Llano.

The untitled members of the community made better records for themselves and many attained to responsible positions. Gustave Schliecher, one of the Fortiers," was first state senator and then, for two terms, representative in Congress for his district. Since his death, the 20th legislature of Texas has named a county after him to perpetuate his memory. Edward Degner was also a member of Congress, and his sons are aldermen of the city of San Antonio. Jacob Kuechler, another " Fortier," and J. J. Groos, were commissioners of the general land office of Texas. Baron von Meusebach and George Pfeuffer were both state senators, and the latter was also regent of the state Agricultural and Mechanical College. Von Wrede, the commander of the Prince's body-guard, and Herman Seele, his secretary, have both been state legislators, the last having held many

other offices in district and county. Staechely, Kessler, Wurzbach, Clemens and Arnold, were all members of the legislature at various times. In fact Texas has given many honors to these adopted children of hers, and has ever been repaid with love and loyalty.

The merchants of New Braunfels have made themselves a national reputation for integrity and business acumen. They take no notes from each other or the farmers who trade with them, saying that the man who has to be bound by his note will cheat his neighbor. They have retained all their primitive and old world notions of business integrity, and their characters seem to have been strengthened by the furnace of fire through which they have passed.

One more trial was laid upon the people of this town and they met it manfully. The Baron de Bastrop, under the title of an old Spanish grant made to him, laid claim to the 1260 acres which form the town site of New Braunfels, and which Prince Solms had purchased from the Veramendi family. A long and troublesome lawsuit ensued-lasting nearly twentyfive years and which has become one of the causes célèbres of Texas court records. The expense of this litigation was defrayed by every house-holder contributing, each according to the value of his property. There was appeal after appeal and all the vexations of the law's delay;

but it ended at last, and, as a matter of justice, in the favor of the colonists.

When the city celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its existence, the town-council sent a cablegram to its founder in his castle of Rheingrafenstein. They received a gracious reply, and that was all. There were some hopes expressed that his Highness would present the city with a portrait of himself-but this was never done. In fact the whole result of the German emigration scheme was a disappointment to Prince Solms, who, metaphorically, washed his hands of the immigrants from the day that they voted for annexation. The Prince died in December, 1874, holding the rank of General Field Marshal of Austria. The Sophienberg, which he had named for his lady love with such pomp and ceremony, stood until very recently, but battered, shattered, almost roofless. Only one person clung to it, refusing to leave the spot where he had served his dear master, and enjoyed by reflection the glories of his brief, bright rule-old Karl Klinger, Prince Solms' servant, lived in the only rain-proof corner of the building until the autumn of 1886, when a