Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/217

 CHAPTER VII

N Mainz I learned from a member of the democratic club that Kinkel had already passed through on his way to the Palatinate. Mr. Zitz, one of the democratic leaders of Mainz, who had organized a corps of volunteers in the neighborhood, and was to be found at the little city of Kircheimbolander, would probably be able to tell me more. I therefore set out on foot to that place, carrying my baggage in a knapsack on my back. I found Mr. Zitz, a tall, stately man, surrounded by his apparently well-armed and disciplined free corps. (Mr. Zitz, a few years later, was well known in New York as a member of the law firm of Zitz & Kapp.) The camp looked orderly and well-managed. The artillery consisted of three or four little cannon, such as were commonly used to make a noise at popular frolics. Mr. Zitz told me that Kinkel had gone to Kaiserslautern, the revolutionary capital of the Palatinate, to offer his services to the provisional government. I marched on, and found Kinkel and Anneke both in the best of humor. They welcomed me heartily, quartered me in a tavern, and told me that soon they might give me something to do.

The next morning I rose bright and early. With especial curiosity I observed how people under a revolutionary condition look. I found that the guests in the tavern breakfasted as calmly as ever. I was told that the son of mine host would celebrate his wedding in a few days, and that great preparations were going on for the festivity. There was, indeed, a good deal of bustle on the streets—here persons who seemed to be following their daily vocation in the accustomed way;