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i s ¦ 300 JOHANNA KINKEt.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* I<N • «»• The Decease Papers Of Johann...
Time passed , four children Iiad been born to them , and they led an ideal and happy life , when in the year of 1848 the trumpet of
revolution resounded through Europe . The republic had been proclaimed in Franceand though Johanna ' s heart glowed with love
and enthusiasm for the , people's cause , she felt that the parting hour drew near and she shrank from it in despair . Her husband was
the leader of a mild opposition ; no one had higher motives or more generous aspirations than he , and every one of his acts bore
the impress of a candid and kindly disposition averse to violence ; but step by step his adversaries forced him to proceed on his path
to its furthest limits . " It was on the evening of the 10 th of May 1849 , " she writes
, in her memoir , " when Kinkel stood by the bedside of his sleeping children , struggling in vain against the tears which silently one by
one stole over his face ; and when he bent to kiss their brows , perhaps for the last time , I thought at the moment , ' God in
Heaven , how is it possible that a father can leave these children ?* but 6 I reproved myself instantly , and the voice of reason replied ,
It is because his noble heart embraces humanity and loves all men like his children , that he must stake his life for the poor and suffering people . ' He wentand those lines by Sallet , which six
, years ago had impressed me so deeply , were our parting words . " Meanwhile the tide of events rolled on , and Kinkel was in Baden .
He and his wife contrived to evade the vigilance of the Prussian police and to maintain a regular correspondence . Kinkel forwarded
his letters to a lady in France , who sent them to an English friend then residing in Bonn . " This lady displayed great marks of
sympathy and interest in our fate , " Frau Kinkel remarks , " but her ' s was an orthodox creed , and one day she evinced some unwillingness to
lend her assistance any longer to forward the letters of a rebel . " " Madam" I said" in England God is the God of a constitutional
government , , but , in Russia He favors absolute principles , and in America He is a republican . " "We could not however come to any
agreement and though on friendly terms we parted . For a long time Frau Kinkel had no news from her husband ,
and spent a time of deep anxiety . One day her father stepped into the room and said : —
" There is bad news ; try to bear up against it . " " Mhusband is dead ! " she exclaimed , starting up in terror .
" No y , not dead , but taken prisoner . " 66 , day of woe ! he a prisoner , and to the Prussians ! " She
then heard the further details , and also that he was wounded . At once her resolution was formed , she must go and see him . The
next morning found her on board a steamer , bound for Mannheim . Nearlthe whole ship was occupied by Prussian soldiers , who
vented y their rage against the rebels in wild , revengeful speeches and threats .
The following morning she had to bear-the same company in . the
I S ¦ 300 Johanna Kinket.
i s ¦ 300 JOHANNA _KINKEt .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1859, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011859/page/12/
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