COOnCR IN (!En\rANY 



61 



race is continued only through female descendants. Upon his 

 deathbed Diogenes gave his only daughter his lantei'ii and his 

 blessing with these additional words: ''Suche einen Menschen, bis 

 Du den Rechten findest. " All have in turn spent their lives in 

 the search after an ideal man, but with no success. Tn this novel, 

 Diogena, a woman of a titanic, Faust-like nature, has visited nearly 

 all countries in search for a real man. Finally she also sails to 

 America, but not before thoroughly preparing herself. " Ich las 

 alle Cooper 'schen und Sealsfield'schen Romane, um die Sitten der 

 Wilden kennen zu lernen, studirte die Sprache der Delawaren." 

 Dressed as a squaw and with painted body, she proceeds westward 

 with the famous lantern in her left hand. 



"Man muss jezt in Amerika lange reisen, ehe man Wilden 

 begegnet ; die Welt ist terribel civilisirt, nirgends mehr ein Zug 

 lieblicher Sauvagerie, ' ' In the land of the Delawares she meets 

 a superb chief. ''Ich hob die brennende Laterne in die Hohe und 

 nahm mein Lorgnon, das ich natiirlich nicht zuriickgelassenhatte, 

 um ihn zu beobachten, Es war eine Gestalt wie ein jugendlicher 

 Antinous aus rothem Granit. " Impressed by his savage, un- 

 spoilt grandeur, Diogena follows him, ])ut first returns to her 

 luggage to get her sale volatile and nail brush ! Having read in 

 Cooper that Indians respect silence when on the march, she fol- 

 lows the chief silently to his tent. There she speaks to him in 

 the Delaware language and learns he is without a wife. She begs 

 him to take her. Not knowing what love is, the noble chieftain 

 cannot appreciate Diogena 's advances. Seeing that this feeble, 

 aristocratic lady cannot even cook his simple meals, nor bring 

 him water, he fears that she will only bear him wretched, cow- 

 ardly children, and pitilessly sends her back to the Whites, for 

 whom she is good enough. Poor disillusioned Diogena! "Mir 

 schauderte vor dieser unbezwingl)aren Rohheit. 0, wo blieben 

 meine Hoffnungen ! was fand ich in dieser horribeln Realitat von 

 den Idealen Cooper's?" 



ScHERR.— The well-known literary historian and novelist, Jo- 

 hannes S. Scherr (1817-1886), who in the 'Allgemeine Deutsche 

 Biographie' is termed "eine Personlichkeit originellster Art, ein 

 Meister des akademischen Vortrages, ein litterarischer Lehrer 

 weitester Ivreise, ein vorragender Kampfer flir Freiheit, Va- 

 terland, Bildung, und ein Sprachbildner und Sprachgewaltiger. 

 wie kaum ein zweiter unter den Sprach- und Zeitgenossen, 

 wrote a novel in 1853 which cannot fail to be of interest to t'he 

 student of Cooper. In 'Die Pilger der Wildnis' the author chose 



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