The New York Herald

The Schiller Centenary.-The countrymen of Frederic von Schiller, who was to Germany what Burns was to Scotland and Béranger to France, have been celebrating, all over Christendom, the centennial anniversary of his birthday. In this city and vicinity, where there is a German population of at least a hundred thousand souls, the Schiller festivals have been, so far as the Germans were concerned, well arranged, and have gone off with some éclat. They were conducted, with one exception, strictly upon the European plan. At the Academy of Music the bust of the poet was crowned by young girls, tableaux vivants from his plays were exhibited, and a prize poem was declaimed by an actress of the German theatre. There was also a concert at the City Assembly Rooms, where only German music was performed, and the Stadt theatre has presented during the week a number of Schiller's plays.

So far, so good. It is well and proper that the Germans should honor the memory of one who was not only a great poet, but a good citizen and a worthy man in every relation of life. But the occasion could not be allowed to go by without being seized by some orators who are more noted for the pomposity and length than the brilliancy of their harangues. The Germans were clever enough not to give up one of the precious evenings of the week to the Cicero of the 'Common Pleas' bench and the poet of the Post; so there was a sort of oratorical matinee at the Cooper Institute, which seems to be a sort of refuge for all the small fry lecturers and spouters of the present day, as the Tabernacle used to be ten years ago. Here the "distinguished orators" referred to above went into ecstasies about Coleridge's translation of Schiller, and had the usual attack of mutual admiration, all for the delectation of a few hundred loungers. Mr. Bryant puffed Judge Daly and Judge Daly quoted from Mr. Bryant's poetry. There was quite as much about Daly and Bryant as about Schiller. When we consider that the orators are not in themselves absorbingly interesting, and that their joint style is not, to say the least, of that brilliant order which enlivens a dull subject, the sufferings of the audience must have been intolerable. Happily the majority of them were German, and unacquainted with the English tongue.

Seriously, the attempt to Americanize a Schiller Festival was absurd. The songs which have endeared his name to the Germans cannot be rendered into English without losing half their beauty, and the plays of Schiller produced upon our stage have all been backed to death.