Private theatricals were of frequent occurrence in the home, in which the writer took part. There were musical events, programs of strictly classical music, rendered by prominent musicians, who thought it a pleasure to play for Dr.Hering, whenever invited. His friend Carl Gaertner, a Swede, a fine violinist, who was among the first to introduce classical chamber music to Philadelphians, was always ready to oblige. On several occasions the Septette of Beethoven was performed, which required seven instruments for its rendition. A musician by the name of Schneider played the horn.
This particular composition, arranged for four hands on the piano, was played nightly, after the dinner hour, by myself and one of the daughters, Melitta, who became my future wife. This was done to entertain the doctor who sat at his work in the adjoining study humming his favorite melodies.
The celebrated opera basso, Carl Formes, was a frequent guest at the house, where he was entertained whenever his performances in grand opera brought him to Philadelphia. He was then the world’s finest basso, who, in his roles of Sarastro, Leperello, Rocco and Marcel had no equal. To the famous aria, sung by Leperello from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Dr. Hering had made words in accordance with rapid increase in members of homoeopathic physicians throughout the world. This aria Formes rendered with great eclat and gusto on occasions when friends were assembled in the house.
After some of the guests had departed, a small party of the guests who remained, adjourned to the stage back of the curtain to play the game of Heraus wershat (Button, button, who has the button) with great hilarity. Mrs.Hering, as gay as her daughters, and Hering’s niece Bertha, joined in the fun and Carl Gaertner, violinist and wife, Mr. and Mrs. McGeorge, Mr. Faber, artist and wife, Mr.Midnight, Rudolph Hering, Miss Tafel, William Boericke and myself, enjoyed the party, which lasted into the small hours. Dr. Hering had retired to his study.
Before the party ended there was an alarm of fire in the neighborhood. We looked out of the windows. The sky to the North was lurid. We all rushed to the top of the house, better to see. Some crying, some laughing, Is it our Church? (The Swedenborgian Church at Broad and Brandywine Streets.) Others said, It is the great velocipede-ring close to the Church. Who will run to the fire? I and I-even the ladies are ready to go. We rushed madly down stairs to the second floor. There stood the gray-haired doctor. No Ladies, you shall not run to a fire. Gentlemen, he said, When I was as young as you, I was first at a fire. We made a dash for it, Professor Koch and myself in the lead. We encountered a stream of water from a hose that had sprung a leak: Koch was completely drenched, I almost as badly. We were in our best clothes. We arrived in time to see a large and beautiful building almost a heap of ashes. We stood against a brick-wall, almost red-hot, whence we had a good view of the fire, there to dry our wet clothes. No ill effects followed.
April 30, 1869 A Concert. I went with Mrs.Hering and some of the younger folks, to attend Carl Gaertner’s Fifth Classical Concert. Miss Bertha Hering sang in a duet from Der Freischuetz; also in a trio. Gaertner played a solo on the violin, The Soldier’s Farewell, his own composition, with great effect. These concerts are truly appreciated by the music lovers of Philadelphia. There is to be a grand introductory concert, to be given by Gaertner, for the benefit of the Fair fund. Wedding Trips.
Dr.Hering is opposed to wedding trips, which he condemns in the strongest terms, as Eine, verruchte Sitte, an outrageous custom. He believes it to be detrimental to health to be travelling at such a time. Thinks it is the time, of all times, when young married couples should stay at home instead of philandering about the country. He says the mode was introduced by the German nobility, and claims that the custom had a questionable origin morally, like the coming into fashion of the crinoline among the French.
May 1, 1869.
Gambling. Gaertner.
Carl Gaertner dined with us. He spoke of the vice of gambling; how it obsesses its victims, even more powerfully than the abuse of narcotics; how men in Europe have staked their honour, that of their wives, and the liberty of their children for the sake of material gain.
Fairs.
Dr.Hering wishes Fairs to become general. People must work for an end (zweck). Money is an equivalent for work. Work therefore is money, and money work. Each and every worker for the Fair must set an estimate upon his labor, whose equivalent it must bring. No more, no less. Homoeopathic Fairs should be an annual occurrence, like the Jahrmarkt in Germany. Character Building.
Hering’s teachers were mild, genial, loving men. His father, a teacher, was of the same disposition. He had great respect for etiquette, and a yielding disposition, Hering’s grandfather not quite so much. Hering is different, straight forward and unyielding when on the side of truth. Children should not be obliged to imitate their parents, at least not their faults. He says he would not advise his sons to go through with all he had experienced. Yet, he says, he has had great luck in his life. A man from the Pfalz. De Nusky.
I conversed with one of the doctor’s patients this afternoon whose name is Koch, formerly from Allentown. He is a German, originally from the Palatinate. He has great admiration for the Pennsylvania German people. He thinks them hospitable and kind, and admires their honesty. He remembers my great uncle, the Rev. John Helfrich, who was associated with Dr. Hering at the Allentown Academy. He saw him at a convention of ministers at Norristown. Also the Reverends Bibige and Miller. He knew De Nusky, a resident of Kutztown, who had also been a minister, and originally came from Hamburg, in Germany; left his country on account of religions persecution. Everything he did was for money. He married a rich but very ignorant woman. He had suffered shipwreck on his way to this country, arriving at New York, poor, almost naked. He became very rich, in later life, while living in Allentown.
Bethlehem. Moravians.
Bethlehem in Pennsylvania was founded more than 200 years ago by Moravians under a certain Count Zinsendorf, who left Saxony on account of persecution. The Indians around Bethlehem stood in great awe of this man who they thought was sent to them by the Great Spirit, and they prostrated themselves before his shadow. They could not have been moved to do him harm. The Count lies buried in the graveyard by the Moravian Church in Bethlehem.
Pennsylvania German Dialect.
A good part of the dialect was brought from the Palatinate in Germany. Many immigrants came from Switzerland. Those who came from Holland had been greatly persecuted by the Spaniards. A stipend was given to young men who wished to study for the ministry, afterwards sent as missionaries to America. Michael Schlatter was one who was sent to Pennsylvania. It was the Prince of Orange, whose forces won a victory over the Spaniards, who saved Protestantism in Holland. The dreadful Spanish Inquisition spread over Europe. In Paris thousands of Protestants were put to death; King Charles himself fired upon them from the windows of his palaccatacombse, the Luxembourg. The Huguenots secreted themselves in the, under the city. The Spanish put to death many of the Protestant Moors, in their country, who were a modified race of Caucasians, very skilful in the art of architecture.
MEETING IN WILMINGTON, DELAWARE The following address was read by Dr. A. Negendank:
While we are today assembled. representing the Homoeopathic physicians of the State of Delaware, to share in the general respect, and to show our high esteem to the departed master spirit of Constantine Hering, I feel that in honoring him we are conferring honor ourselves as being followers of the same principle in medicine-Similia similibus curantur-which our deceased veteran ever defended, and to the elucidation of which he devoted a large portion of a long life of eighty years.
Dr. Hering was a man sui generis, far above the grovelling propensities of ordinary human nature; he forgot, in his devotion to science the entity of worldly existence for which so many toil. Our profession has always claimed, not for the individual, but for the body collective, a high standard of honor and unselfishness, a position above those who know less of the frailties of humanity. Let everyone judge for himself if he deserves such a claim or not, but I say it without hesitation, that our departed friend deserved that claim, and that I believe him to have been the high priest of his profession.
There are men who seem to be sent into this world for purposes and action only. All their facilities are bent to toil and work; their spirits and their frames alike team with energy. They pause and slumber like other men, but only to recruit from actual fatigue; they occasionally need quiet, though only as invigoration for renewed exertion; they investigate and reflect; their mission, their enjoyment, the object and condition of their existence is work; they would not be content to exist here without it, nor conceive of another life without it. Their vitality is beyond that of ordinary men; they are never seen idle; in repose they dream of work, and their pleasure is work.
In 1878 and 1879 he published 2 editions of his book, Sunstroke and Its Homeopathic Treatment.
Upon Hering's death in 1880 Knerr became responsible for the completion of the 10-volume Guiding Symptoms.
Dr. Knerr wrote 2-volume Repertory to the Guiding Symptoms,