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STORIES OF
berries in September, and need no further men-tion. And of course Germany at the present time is very rich in. lyric writers of varying ability. They do not make song-writing a mere trade as is the habit with so many of our own drawing-room bards.
And now let us inquire into the story of the " Watch on the Rhine." This was written by Max Schneckenburger in 1840, and, as is not uncommon in the history of literature, it has superseded much better poems on the subject. It was selected from a great number to be the war song of 1870, when it immediately " caught on" and took the place of Korner's " Schwert-lied." Schneckenburger was a quiet and per-fectly obscure Swabian merchant who, as far as I have been able to discover, was never moved to write, or at any rate publish, any more than this one song, and did not live to enjoy the fame that was thrust upon it during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. "The Watch on the Rhine" had a rival in a piece that commenced:
" It never shall be France's,
The free, the German Rhine, Until its broad expanse is Its last defender's shrine."
But the martial " Watch" became the universal favourite when the aged King of Prussia rode
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