THE STORY OF WAGNER'S NIECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7222, 10 January 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STORY OF WAGNER'S NIECE.

At IGS, Napoleon Place, in city, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, live Baron Alexander and his wife, Dorothea, the niece of Richard Wagner, the great composer. The Baron is at present employed in a fertilizing factory at four shillings a day, and on this sum, with a small pension which he receives from Germany, the pair endeavour to support themselves and their five children, tho eldest of whom is 9 and the youngest 4 years of age. The lady was found to-day by your correspondent in the single room which constituted her parlour, bedroom, and kitchen. There was no stove, and a table and bedstead was all the furniture visible. The story of her distress is a sad one. She is but 33 years old. She is pleasant of face, of matronly form, with frank blue eyes and a profusion of wavy hair. She talks her native tongue with a strong Saxon accent, melodious if not correct. Her manners are those of a well-bred lady. Her little girl Frida, although but 4, shows great musical talent and hart a tine voice. " rihe takes after her graudunele," said the mother. The husband was not in. He is Baron Alexander Von Berckefeldt, a nobleman by birth, a gentleman of thorough culture by education, once a staff officer in the army of Hanover, afterward a Captain of Grenadiers in the Prussian army and Military Commander of the large seaboard city of Dantzig, when his implacable enemy, rheumatism, compelled him to retire from active service. A TALE OP DISTRESS. "How did you become bo very poor ?" was asked of the ex-officer's wife. "Ob, it is a long story," she replied, with a sigh. "Ifyou have patience enough I will tell you. My name was Dorothea Brockhaus before I married. My father was one of the three Brockhaus brothers, whose publishinghouse in Leipsic is known the world over. He died in - 1877. His antipathy to men of the military profession was violent, unreasonable, and when I married Captain Alexander Von Berckefeldt he was very angry. By his will I was left that small fraction of his estate which the law gave mo—a mere trifle —£250, but even that I did not get. It might have sufficed to begin something or other with, but my husband's brother, Major Carl Von Berckefeldt, who was at that time Mayor of Springe, Hanover, defrauded us out of it. It has since been discovered that he had also embezzled other moneys intrusted to him, and he is now under criminal prosecution. The death of my father and the loss of this sum of money removed the last anchor we had in life, and we have since vainly tried to keep on our feet. My mother, Frau Ottilie Brockhaus, was the youngest sister of Richard Wagner. I have applied at various times to his widow, Frau Cosima Wagner, the daughter of Liszt, but you know she has £5000 income a year, and runs every year in debt for that much more.

HARD-HEARTED RELATIVES. . " "Then there is my sister, Anna Kottenbell, in Leipsic, a very wealthy widow with but one child, but she is unspeakably penurious. Then there is my brother, Professor Brockhaus, at the University of Kiel. He is a bachelor, but h6 is also very close. Then, again, I have lawsuits pending against all the members of icy family, as I claim a large share* of my father's estate, and that has taken both time and money. My lawyer now wants me to return to Geruiany and testify in court personally. We have been very unfortunate, and that fact, together with my legal struggle in consequence of my father's will, has estranged me arid my husband from the various members of our family. We owned a'sm&.l estate in Hanover, but an inundation swept everything away and greatly depreciated the property. My poor husband is a permanent sufferer from rheumatism. His disease is partially the consequence of a severe wound received at the battle of Langeusaza, in 1866, and he is troubled with it all the time more or less, but during the months of November, December, and January it always gets so bad that he has to lie in bed and is unable to stir. He is a cripple and quite lame. Let me tell you our 'experience in the last few years, and that will show you how hard he has tried to do his duty by his family. When, after my father's death, all assistance from my family ceased, he tried to find employment; in a variety of ways, but his thorough knowledge of all military branches he could not make practical use of in instructing pupils, etc., because of his lameness, and nothing else opened up for him. So, in March of last year (ISS3), we finally had secured funds enough to emigrate to America. EXILED TO AMERICA. " Everybody had told us there would be a better chance for us here, and our rich relations were glad to get rid of us that way, no doubt. Soon after our arrival here, it was represented to us that Texas was a good place to go to. We went there, and have been all through that large state and even as far as Colorado. We found that it was almost impossible to get any kind of occupation my husband was fitted for. We returned to New York, and there lived at the house of Dr. Kettenbell, a distant relative. He was himself very poor and unhappily married, and he helped to rid us of our remaining scanty funds. Finally my husband was forced to try any kind of worn. He attempted to do painting, but failed, and then again as a bricklayer, bat he fell down in a faint in the street, unable to do the hard toil. So in June of this year we secured passage back again to Germany. There we found tnat our relatives were as hard-hearted as ever, and that they would do nothing for us if we did not agree to go back to America. We finally had to do that and on September 6th we landed in Baltimore. We came directly to Chicago and put up at the Railroad House, 82, Sherman street. My husband vainly tried to find employment, and after seven weeks' stay at that boardiog-house we had to leave, having run £15 into debt. They kept my husband's . trunk as security for the money. My husband gets £6 a month pension money from the German Government, but that for a family of six persons, none of them used to absolute poverty, is but a trifle. We will have to move out of this house inside of three days, and where we shall go 1 don't know. 1 wish I could only interest some well-to-do people sufficiently to provide us with the means of returning to Germany, where we can live more cheaply than here, having my husband's pension to depend on."