Old Tavern Signs Part 14

Since we did not hesitate to threaten the landlord with the ghastly musician of the "Dance of Death," it will seem only fair to remind the guests of the tower, which in the old days was used as prison for the peace-breakers. Luther, like all good Germans, was not a prohibitionist; he recognized "a drink in honor," "einen Trunk in Ehren," but he was a fierce enemy of all "drunkards and loafers" who lie in taverns Sunday and week-day and pour the beer down their throats as cows gulp water, saying: "What do I care about G.o.d, what do I care about death? You miserable hog, you shall get what you are striving for, you shall die too and be swallowed up by the mouth of h.e.l.l." To every decent landlord such guests are a curse. To chase them from his threshold the owner of the "George and Dragon" in Great Budworth (Ches.h.i.+re) invented the fine rhyme which should stand over every tavern door:--

"As St. George in armed array Did the fiery dragon slay, So may'st thou, with might no less, Slay that dragon drunkenness."

A decent behavior surely, but no melancholy teetotalism, such is Luther's standpoint. "Those have not been of the devil who drank a little more as their thirst required and became joyful."--"It is not the fault of the eating and drinking, that some people degrade themselves to swine." Just as dancing in itself is no sin: "Why not admit an honorable dance at a marriage feast? Go and dance! The little children dance too without sin; do the same and be like a child whose soul is not injured by dancing."

The whole world appears to Luther like an inn in a strange town, in which the pilgrim lies. In his nightly dreams he does not think of becoming a citizen or a major of this town, his thoughts wander away through the gate to the far city where his home is.

To the pretentious traveler his description of "Christ's Inn," which reminds us of our Swiss sign, "Hie zum Christkindli," might serve as a little lesson in modesty. Thus he speaks about it in a Christmas sermon: "Look, how the two parents in a strange land in a strange city search in vain for good and hospitable friends. Even in the inns was no room, since the city at that time was so crowded. In a cow-stable they had to go and make the best of it as poor poor people! There was no couch, no linnen, no cus.h.i.+ons, no feather-beds; on a bundle of straw they made their bed as close neighbours of the good cattle.

There in a hard winter-night the n.o.ble blessed fruit was born, the dear child Jesus." And in another Christmas sermon he says: "If you look at it with cow's or swine's eyes it was a miserable birth ... but if you open your spiritual eyes you will see countless thousands of angels, filling the heaven with their song and honouring not only the child but the manger too in which it lies."

Everything depends finally upon the way we look at it, if with cows'

eyes or with spiritual eyes. Only these will enable us to see in the poorest inn the angel of hospitality covering us at night with gentle wings. Till finally Mother Earth shall cover us softly in our last quiet "Deversorium" in which we have at least the hangman's comfort: "You shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills which are often the sadness of parting as the procuring of mirth."

But we must not end without delivering a little sermon to the signs, too, that still glitter in the warm suns.h.i.+ne. To them, c.o.c.ks, deer, bears, oxen, and horses, a church-tower c.o.c.k, celebrated by the humorous clergyman poet Moricke of Schwabenland, gives this solemn warning:--

"You poor old iron things, Why should you be so vain?

Who knows how many springs You will up there remain?"

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