ldings,
theatres, libraries, schools, and barracks, had been erected by the
Dukes, as well as several private residences intended for some of the
higher officials. The whole town was, in fact, the creation of the
Dukes; the whole ground on which it stood had been originally their
property, but it was mostly held as freehold by those who had built
their own private houses on it. No one would have built a house on
leasehold land, and several of the houses were of so substantial a
character that one saw they had been intended to last for more than
ninety-nine years. The same family often remained in their house for
generations, and the different stories were occupied by three
generations at the same time--by grandparents, parents, and children.
In this small town I was born on December 6, 1823. My father, Wilhelm
Mueller, was Librarian of the Ducal Library, and one of the most
popular poets in Germany. A national monument was erected to his
memory at Dessau in the year 1891, nearly a hundred years after his
birth.

[Illustration: MY FATHER]

What a blessing it would be if such a rule were followed with all
great men, who seem so great at the time of their death, and who, a
hundred years later, are almost forgotten, or at all events
appreciated by a small number of admirers only. This Monument- and
Society-mania is indeed becoming very objectionable, for if for some
time there has been no room for tombs and statues in Westminster
Abbey, there will soon be no room for them in the streets of London.
The result is that many of the people who walk along the Thames
Embankment, particularly foreigners, often ask, "Cur?" when looking at
the human idols in bronze and marble put up there; while historians,
remembering the really great men of England, would ask quite as often,
"Cur non?" There is a curious race of people, who, as soon as a man of
any note dies, are ready to found anything for him--a monument, a
picture, a school, a prize, a society--to keep alive his memory. Of
course these societies want presidents, members of council,
committees, secretaries, &c., and at last, subscriptions also. Thus it
has happened that the name of founder (_Gruender_) has assumed,
particularly in Germany, a perfume by no means sweet. Those who are
asked to subscribe to such testimonials know how disagreeable it is to
decline to give at least their name, deeply as they feel that in
giving it they are offending against all the rules of histor