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was so much dust lying on the roads. Now I continued on my way. Before noon I had completed my trivial errands in St. Gallen, and hurried to the house of those friends to humanity
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where I always had free entry, and arrived just in time for the midday meal. But for sure I was not so much concerned with dining, but rather with enjoying the company of my most agreeable benefactors.In St. Gallen, as in all places, there are at least two parties. One hears discussion of almost nothing there but the falling-off in business and affairs which concern France. Vehement Democrats and Aristocrats are joined in battle. There is a party of Moderates in the midst of the two, which is always the most rational. In the afternoon I prowled a little more about the city. I conversed with a few good friends and acquaintances, men of discernment, concerning what should become of us all at the last, and whether our cotton trade was going to sink completely into the dirt. One was despairing of any improvement in the near future. Another was more hopeful. A third, who lived off his rents and had little to do with trade made jokes about it. He said the cotton dealers, the spinners and weavers still had many old sins chalked up to them. They must atone for them for a long while yet.
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, to whom I had promised a visit when I was on a previous journey but had not kept my promise. At last I took my courage in both hands and went into the hall. I was very kindly received. I thought they would long since have had their supper. I just wanted to smoke a pipeful and then off to my lodging. But the supper had only just been brought in. I had to partake of it and afterwards they would not allow me to go out again. I had to stay overnight with them.Her husband, a merchant who had travelled far and wide, bored me to exhaustion far into the night, with nothing but tales of what he had met with on his travels, but chiefly about affairs concerning France. He is a vehement Democrat, a true Marat
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, who spits fire and brimstone over all enemies of the French nation. If it was in his power he would hack into a hundred thousand pieces and shred to rags with his own hands all despots and their armies, and gnaw upon their entrails like a savage. He gnashed his teeth, struck out about him, and made hideous gestures of murder, so that the tender ears of his spouse could stand no more. "Ugh, ... said she, "ugh, that is really too horrible! You are going about making me unable to eat any more. Moderate yourself. What use are your horrible grimaces here - there is no enemy here", etc. But it was no good. His boasting filled the air. Roared like a lion, uttering the most terrible curses and evil wishes over all despots, tyrants and enemies of freedom. A last his wife and all the rest went to bed.We smoked another pipeful and continued our discussion in the same vein, though I was always trying to turn it to some other subject. But in vain, he went on harping on the same string. Until I was so weary that I asked him for God's sake to show me my bed for the night. I said I was an old man, yet I had been on my old legs since one o'clock in the morning in that great heat, so for 24 hours altogether. By God, I could lie down right here on the floor. At last he showed me to a room. But all the windows had washing hanging in them, so that the room was boiling hot. I could not open a window to let in the smallest cooling breeze. I was almost fainting from the heat. A bottle of cold water, which I always take to my bedroom all year round, allowed
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Girtanner's diary does not mention a visit from Bräker at this time, so he was perhaps at the home of David von Gonzenbach. [Chronik, p 396]
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Not identified.
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Jean-Paul Marat was one of the leaders of the French Revolution, he had a reputation for bloodthirstiness.
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