Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 4. (Győr; 1962)

K. Vörös: The days of a barber’s journeyman at Győr in 1823

Das brutale Verhalten Károly Francsics' dem Lehrling gegenüber, deutet er mit den eigenen bitteren Erfahrungen der Lehrlings jähre. Dass es zu den Misshandlungen des Gesellen gekommen war, daran mag wohl dessen deutsche Abstammung mitbeigetragen haben und der Umstand, dass der Meister, bei dem Francsics in der Lehre stand, auch ein Deutscher war. Ausser der Trunksucht und seiner jähzornigen Natur mag auch eine Art der Rachsucht — sich für die in seiner Jugendzeit erlittenen Misshandlungen auf welche Art immer, zu rächen — mitgespielt haben. Aber auch die Stimmung, die damals in Győr herrschte, hatte dazu beigetragen. Um diese Zeit war Győr eine der bedeutendsten Städte Ungarns, mit regem Handel und einem blühenden Gewerbe, mit einer vielseitigen Gesellschaftsschichtung und mit nationalen Gegensätzen zwischen der ungarischen und deutschen Bevölkerung. Eine Athmosphäre, die sich gut dazu eignet, altes, persönliches Unrecht wieder in Erinnerung zu rufen. In Kenntnis des oben Gesagten gewinnen diese, an und für sich unbedeutenden Ereignisse eine gewisse gesellschaftliche und lokale Färbung. Der andere Ausschnitt aus dem Tagebuch von Károly Francsics behandelt eine Reise mit dem Schiff von Pressburg nach Budapest. Es ist dies eine lebendige, stimmungsvolle Beschreibung der einige Tage dauernden Fahrt auf der grossen Galeere. K. Vörös THE DAYS OF A BARBER'S JOURNEYMAN AT GYÖR IN 1823 This study publishes two selections from the manuscript memoirs and diaries of Károly Francsdcs, a barber at Veszprém, written between 1846 and 1870 in five volumes. The father of Károly Francsics is an impoverished petty nobleman, earning his living by his trade of manufacturing straps in the borough of Pápa (in the northwestern part of Transdanubia). At first he wants to send his son to* a school, but as the youngster ,is not attracted by learning, he makes him an apprentice in a barber's shop. The young man finishes his term of apprenticeship at the age of sixteen, at the end of 1820. !ln the years 1820—1821 he acts as a journeyman in two sjmaller Transdanubian boroughs, arriving at Győr at the beginning of 1823 for a stay of half a year. After four years of further wandering he settles in the town of Veszprém, not far from the Lake Balaton. 27 years pass by until he creats a self-standin existence, attaining even a modest well-being, but the last years of his life are a period of financial troubles again. Between 1846 and 1870 Francsics writes a diary, adding the story of his youthful years as an introduction. Both the diaries and the memoirs are characterized by an outlook of the petty bourgeois, although we may discern the literary qualities of the author here and then. One of the published portions records Francsics' stay at Győr in 1823. The story centres around two events, namely: the author inflicts a wound on his fellow-journeyman of German origin with a candlestick in a fit of anger, and samewhat later he insults one of their apprentices until he is bleeding. The study tries to trace the motives of Francsics' behaviour. The reason for the brutal treatment of the apprentice may toe found in the not less brutal treatment he experienced in his term of apprenticeship; the insultink of the fellow-journeyman is in connection with the latter's German origin, as the master spoiling the years of Francsics' apprenticeship was a German as well. So his actions are motivated by the queer desire of requiting the grievances he experienced when an apprentice. Besides of his addiction to drinking and passionate nature, the very atmosphere of Győr in those years has contributed to arouse such a desire. The town was one of the most important commercial and industrial centres of Hungary, beset by strong and manifold social and rather latent national antagonisms between the Hungarian and German burgesses. This is an atmosphere favouring the revival of such ancient personal grievances. So the given background lends some general social and concrete local significance to the otherwise simple stories. The other selection published here records the voyage of Francsics on the Danube from Pozsony to Pest. It is a vivid and attractive descpirtion of the few days the author spent on board of the large galley driven by oars. Ki Vörös 170