# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S205
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

205

I am the light, I shine for you
With holy life of virtue.
Whoever comes to me and follows me
Need not hover in darkness.
I am the way, I show well
How one should truly walk.

I show you what is harmful,
To flee and to avoid,
And to cleanse and separate your heart
From wicked cunning.
I am the rock and refuge of souls
And lead you to heaven's gate.

So we are to put on Christ, to walk after Christ. And the care for our body, which is indeed right, we should not exercise in a way that thereby stirs up its evil desires.

To this we are exhorted "by the mercies of God."	C. M. Z.

Albert Friedrich Hoppe.

II.

The late Prof. D. Hoppe, in the account of his own life, further relates from the time of his stay in New Orleans:

Of the war years, from 1861 to 1865, I will mention here only this, that food was extremely expensive; we paid 10 cents for one potato, and 10 dollars for a small 60-pound sack of flour that was obtained for us as a favor. For a time we received, through the charity of our neighbor, a little bread every day for our small second daughter, whom the Lord later took from us again. We lived mainly on cornmeal mush. After the passing of Forts Philip and Jackson by the northern ships, we stood for several days in fear of a bombardment of the city. After we had been cut off from all connection with the outside world for a long time, we received our first shipment of the "Lutheraner," the "Abendschule," the "Lehre und Wehre," and some schoolbooks, hymnals, etc., from St. Louis, sent via New York because the river was not yet open. The transport costs of the small crate containing these items came to 30 dollars. The food that was brought to the city after the opening of the port was poor, partly spoiled, and was sold at enormous prices. The reason for this was that General Butler made towboats available only to the ships loaded by his brother, while an entire fleet of ships freighted with food had to remain lying at the bar and let their goods spoil. I will also note that we could hear the bombardment of the forts quite clearly during the night hours; the sound was like that of large crates being nailed shut nearby; it would fall silent for a while, then begin again anew. A Confederate soldier from our congregation, who had been at Fort Jackson at the time, confirmed to me that the bombardment by the ships had proceeded in just the manner described; the bombs, he said, had struck eighteen feet deep into the glacis, and they had dug one out.

After I had recovered from yellow fever, I carried on my office as before and did not spare myself, so that when I suffered a severe cold during Lent in 1868, I still did not omit either confirmation instruction or the Lenten services, and as a result developed a throat ailment, so that after confirmation and Eastertide I could scarcely speak a loud word. The congregation wanted to give me two months' leave for my recovery, and so I traveled to the synodical assembly of the Western District in St. Louis, which began on May 6, 1868, and found hospitable lodging in the house of Mr. Leonhardt. There I received from my congregation a letter dated May 10, from which I quote the following: "Since you have for so many years, through good days and bad, preached to Zion Congregation the Word of God purely and clearly, and have faithfully stood by it in every respect and in all circumstances according to your ability, thereby sacrificing your health, it feels compelled out of gratitude and duty to propose to you that you take a trip to Germany, in order thereby to restore, as far as possible, your health, which has suffered greatly." The funds needed for the trip were provided by the congregation. I accepted this proposal with joy, since it made it possible for me to see my aged father and my dear sister and other beloved relatives and friends once more in this life. There was no need to undertake any special cure for my ailment, since eminent physicians in New Orleans had already told me that the only remedy for my recovery was the greatest possible rest, and the same was repeated to me by Professor Bock in Leipzig, whom I consulted.

Soon after the synod I set out, together with Mr. Leonhardt and his family, on the journey to Germany, where I stayed a full two months. I then began the return journey and arrived back in New Orleans, considerably improved, already in August.

After some time I then accepted the position that Zion Congregation — that is, my own congregation — offered me on December 29, 1868, in which it, as an incorporated body, called me "to be professor of a higher school." So I had risen to the position that had seemed to me the highest of all when I was a small boy, because my grandfather had been a professor.

For a year the congregation continued to pay me my previous pastor's salary, "to assist me in establishing the academy." Later I no longer needed their assistance, at least not financially. I would gladly have seen the members of the congregation send their children to my school, and I had it announced from the pulpits that I would teach such pupils free of charge. But for several years I had only a single pupil from all the congregations; nor was I overrun by outside students. So I was compelled, alongside the school, to give private lessons in the most varied subjects. I gave Latin instruction to doctors, taught English in American households, French to Frenchmen, German to Germans and Americans, Hebrew to Jews, and besides that reading, writing, arithmetic, mathematics, bookkeeping, and music. In part this instruction was very well...