to the
fruit of this union. The "Siegfried Idyl" of 1871 is dedicated to the
boy's happy childhood in the beautiful surroundings of Lucerne.

In this year, the centennial anniversary of Beethoven's birth, he also
told his nation what it possessed in him, its most manly son. He
represents, as he says in that Jubilee pamphlet, the spirit so much
feared beyond the mountains as well as on the other side of the Rhine.
He regained for us the innocence of the soul. What is now wanting is,
that out of this pure spirit-nature, as it is illustrated in his
music, there shall arise a true culture in contrast with the foreign
civilization, which resembles the time of the Roman emperors? These
tones utter anew a world-saving prophesy, and shall we not then
appropriate them fully and forever? The "thought of Baireuth" now
obtained more definite form. A number of friends of the cause were to
make it real and wrest German art from the Venusberg of the common
theatre.

The work of the Wagner-clubs now began, which, with the aid of the
Baireuth Board of Managers, under the direction of the indefatigable
banker Fustel, has led to the goal at last. Liszt's Scholar, Tausig,
and his friend, Frau von Schleinitz, in Berlin, organized the society
of "Patrons," each member of which was to contribute one hundred
thalers toward a fund of three hundred thousand. By the publication of
his writings, Wagner himself introduced the cause that was to show
that in his art also he sought that life by which the ideal nature of
the nation exists. His noble-minded king had, in November of 1870,
uttered the words of deliverance to the other German princes, which
finally gave us again a dignified and honorable existence as a nation,
by creating the German empire. Could German art then remain in the
background? Our artist was now all activity--a wonderfully joyous and
stirring activity. To the "German army before Paris," he who had
always thought and labored for his nation's glory, sang, in January,
1871, the song of triumphant joy of the German armies' deeds:

The Emperor comes: let justice now in peace have sway.

At that time, also, he composed, at the suggestion of Dr. Abrahams,
owner of the "Peters edition," in Leipzig, the Kaiser March, which
closes with the following people's song:

God save the Emperor, William, the King!
Shield of all Germans, freedom's defense!
The highest crown
Graces thine head with renown!