putterings 451a < vandeveer_19170728 index
Esther Vandeveer. “An Exile’s Return”
Esther Vandeveer. “An Exile’s Return”
Eastern Shore Herald (Eastville, Northampton County, Va.,) 38:23 (28 July 1917)
via Library of Virginia / Virginia Chronicle : link
entirety below —
- I am a woman artist. I was one day sketching in the Catskills when, hearing a step behind me, I turned and saw coming down the road directly behind me a young man with the flaxen hair and blue eyes of the Saxon. Seeing me, he lifted his hat politely and was passing on when, in order to stop him, I asked him a question about the Catskills. I was so struck by his appearance that I wished to make a sketch of him. He was unable to render the information I asked for, but my ruse served its purpose. He stood, hat in hand, deferentially chatting with me.
- He told me that he was a German, that he had not been long in America, that he preferred to travel as a pedestrian and was making a tour through Catskill mountains on foot. In time I made bold to ask him to pose for me. I dared not offer him money for doing so, for he seemed too aristocratic to receive pay for such a service. He not only granted my request, but intimated that he would buy the picture to ship to his father and mother in Germany.
- While I worked on the sketch I drew him on to tell me what had brought him to America. At first I got only evasive replies to my questions, but I purposely delayed my work for time to gain his confidence and at last got his story. The heir apparent of the principality from which ha hailed disgraced himself by a theft. My model was present at the time. It would not do for their future ruler to bear a stain, so the party drew lots as to which one should bear the obloquy. It fell to the man I was sketching, and when the theft was discovered he falsely owned himself the guilty one.
- His parents were nobles; they settled an annuity upon him, end he left home to become a wanderer. His allowance not sufficient to enable him to travel by conveyance, so be walked. But he declared he preferred that manner of travel.
- The meeting with this man occurred in April. I went into the country earlier than city folk, in order to catch that pale green which only appears on the foliage either in that month or May. I agreed to part with my sketch, since he begged so hard for it. He wished me to put It to oils for him, and I agreed do so. But to do this I preferred to take it to my studio in New York, where I could work on it to better advantage. I gave him my address city, and he was to give me a few sittings there while I was making the transfer from pastel to oils.
- It was the middle of July before I completed the sketches I needed for my winter’s work and returned to the city. I had told my subject he might call any time after the 20th of the same month. But that was about the time that the emperor of Austria declared war on Servia. Whether the prospect of a general European war influenced my German friend or not I cannot tell. At any rate, he did not make his appearance. Then the spark of war became a flame and the flame a conflagration. Germany called on her sons to return to the fatherland to do military duty.
- One evening when the Belgians and Germans were struggling for the master of Liege there was a ring at my bell, and my young friend appeared.
- “I come not for you to sit,”’ be said, “but to bid you goodby. I have found passage for Europe, and If not intercepted by a British or French cruiser I shall probably be able to end my exile and my loneliness on the field of battle.”
- As he spoke the last words his expressive face showed a sadness that went straight to my heart.
- “But the picture, baron,” I exclaimed, “will you not wait for me to finish it?”
- It was not the picture about which I was concerned. I clung to a straw to keep him from his purpose, to urge him to make a home for himself in America and in time to be happy.
- “When you hear that I am no longer sensible to disgrace send the sketch you have made to my parents.”
- I begged him to alter his resolution, but failed.
- “Would you have me add one disgrace to another?” he asked. “I am enrolled as a soldier, and I must serve as a soldier.”
- He gave me the address of his parents, bade me adieu and was gone.
- The war dragged on. Many of our young women went over to work with the Red Cross, and I finally threw down my brush and palette and went to France to nurse the soldiers.
- One day among the German wounded who were brought in I recognized my friend met in the Catsklll mountains in America. He was badly wounded. He recognized me at once, and his eye lit up at seeing me. He held up a cross made of gun metal and said, “I am no longer disgraced.”
- “Does gallantry in war in Germany remove such a stain as theft?” I asked.
- “Gallantry in War to Germany,” he replied, “removes any stain.”
- “But has not the real thief been called upon to bear the burden that belongs to him?”
- “I am proud to say that I still bear that burden. I am conscious of having served my country well, but I have served my prince.”
- I wondered at the difference to the German end the American mind as indicated by this man whose highest aim was to bear the burden of any man because that man was his prince.
- I nursed him, but not to life. He died proud of his sacrifice.
31 July 2024