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diff --git a/28432.txt b/28432.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65499ba --- /dev/null +++ b/28432.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10737 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Home Life in Germany, by Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Home Life in Germany + +Author: Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick + +Release Date: March 29, 2009 [EBook #28432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME LIFE IN GERMANY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | Superscripted text is marked with ^{} for example: S^{ce} | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + + * * * * * + + + + +HOME LIFE IN +GERMANY + + +BY +MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK + + + + +The Chautauqua Press +CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK +MCMXII + + + + +_First Published May 1908_ +_Second Edition June 1908_ +_Third Edition 1912_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. INTRODUCTORY 1 + + II. CHILDREN 7 + + III. SCHOOLS 15 + + IV. THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR 28 + + V. THE BACKFISCH 36 + + VI. THE STUDENT 47 + + VII. RIEHL ON WOMEN 59 + + VIII. THE OLD AND THE NEW 68 + + IX. GIRLHOOD 78 + + X. MARRIAGES 92 + + XI. THE HOUSEHOLDER 103 + + XII. HOUSEWIVES 113 + + XIII. HOUSEWIVES (_continued_) 123 + + XIV. SERVANTS 138 + + XV. FOOD 153 + + XVI. SHOPS AND MARKETS 167 + + XVII. EXPENSES OF LIFE 177 + +XVIII. HOSPITALITY 196 + + XIX. GERMAN SUNDAYS 205 + + XX. SPORTS AND GAMES 217 + + XXI. INNS AND RESTAURANTS 225 + + XXII. LIFE IN LODGINGS 237 + +XXIII. SUMMER RESORTS 250 + + XXIV. PEASANT LIFE 267 + + XXV. HOW THE POOR LIVE 286 + + XXVI. BERLIN 297 + +XXVII. ODDS AND ENDS 307 + +Translations of foreign words and phrases in this book will be found +in the Appendix at the back of the volume. + + + + +HOME LIFE IN GERMANY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +I was once greatly impressed by a story of an officer in the German +army, who told his English hostess that he knew the position of every +blacksmith's forge in Yorkshire. I wondered at the time how many +officers in the English army had learned where to find the +blacksmiths' forges in Pomerania. But those are bygone days. Most of +us know more about Germany now than we do about our own country.[1] We +go over there singly and in batches, we see their admirable public +institutions, we visit their factories, we examine their Poor Laws, we +walk their hospitals, we look on at their drill and their manoeuvres, +we follow each twist and turn of their politics, we watch their +birth-rate, we write reams about their navy, and we can explain to any +one according to our bias exactly what their system of Protection does +for them. We are often sufficiently ignorant to compare them with the +Japanese, and about once a month we publish a weighty book concerning +various aspects of their flourishing empire. + +Some of these books I have read with ardent and respectful interest; +and always as I read, my own little venture seemed to wither and +vanish in the light of a profounder knowledge and a wider judgment +than I shall ever attain. For I have not visited workhouses and +factories, I know little more about German taxes than about English +ones, and I have no statistics for the instruction and entertainment +of the intelligent reader. I can take him inside a German home, but I +can give him no information about German building laws. I know how +German women spend their days, but I know as little about the exact +function of a Buergermeister as about the functions of a Mayor. In +short, my knowledge of Germany, like my knowledge of England, is based +on a series of life-long, unclassified, more or less inchoate +impressions, and the only excuse I have for writing about either +country I find in my own and some other people's trivial minds. + +When I read of a country unknown or only slightly known, I like to be +told all the insignificant trifles that make the common round of life. +It is assuredly desirable that the great movements should be watched +and described for us; but we want pictures of the people in their +homes, pictures of them at rest and at play, as well as engaged in +those public works that make their public history. For no reason in +the world I happen to be interested in China, but I am still waiting +for just the gossip I want about private life there. We have Pierre +Loti's exquisite dream pictures of his deserted palace at Pekin, and +we have many useful and expert accounts of the roads, mines, railways, +factories, laws, politics, and creeds of the Celestial Empire. But the +book I ask for could not be written by anyone who was not of Chinese +birth, and it would probably be written by a woman. It might not have +much literary form or value, but it would enter into those minutiae of +life that the masculine traveller either does not see or does not +think worth notice. The author of such a small-beer chronicle must +have been intimate from childhood with the Chinese point of view, +though her home and her friends were in a foreign land. She would +probably not know much about her ancestral laws and politics, but she +would have known ever since she could hear and speak just what Chinese +people said to each other when none but Chinese were by, what they +ate, what they wore, how they governed their homes, the relationship +between husband and wife, parents and children, master and servant; in +what way they fought the battle of life, how they feasted and how they +mourned. If circumstances took her over and over again to different +parts of China for long stretches of time, she would add to her +traditions and her early atmosphere some experience of her race on +their own soil and under their own sun. What she could tell us would +be of such small importance that she would often hesitate to set it +down; and again, she would hesitate lest what she had to say should be +well known already to those amongst her readers who had sojourned in +her father's country. She would do well, I think, to make some picture +for herself of the audience she could hope to entertain, and to fix +her mind on these people while she wrote her book. She would know that +in the country of her adoption there were some who never crossed their +own seas, and others who travelled here and there in the world but did +not visit China or know much about its people. She would write for the +ignorant ones, and not for any others; and she would of necessity +leave aside all great issues and all vexed questions. Her picture +would be chiefly, too, a picture of the nation's women; for though +they have on the whole no share in political history, they reckon +with the men in any history of domestic life and habit. + +Germans often maintain that their country is more diverse than any +other, and on that account more difficult to describe: a country of +many races and various rules held loosely together by language and +more tightly of late years by the bond of empire. But the truth +probably is, that in our country we see and understand varieties, +while in a foreign one we chiefly perceive what is unlike ourselves +and common to the people we are observing. For from the flux and +welter of qualities that form a modern nation certain traits survive +peculiar to that nation: specialities of feature, character, and +habit, some seen at first sight, others only discovered after long and +intimate acquaintance. It is undoubtedly true that no one person can +be at home in every corner of the German Empire, or of any other +empire. + +There are many Germanys. The one we hear most of in England nowadays +is armed to the teeth, set wholly on material advancement, in a +dangerously warlike mood, hustling us without scruple from our place +in the world's markets, a model of municipal government and +enterprise, a land where vice, poverty, idleness, and dirt are all +unknown. We hear so much of this praiseworthy but most unamiable +_Wunderkind_ amongst nations, that we generally forget the Germany we +know, the Germany still there for our affection and delight, the dear +country of quaint fancies, of music and of poetry. That Germany has +vanished, the wiseacres say, the dreamy unworldly German is no more +with us, it is sheer sentimental folly to believe in him and to waste +your time looking for him. But how if you know him everywhere, in the +music and poetry that he could not have given us if they had not +burned within him, and in the men and women who have accompanied you +as friends throughout life,--how if you still find him whenever you go +to Germany? Not, to be sure, in the shape of the wholly unpractical +fool who preceded the modern English myth; but, for instance, in some +of the mystical plays that hold his stage, in many of his toys and +pictures, and above all in the kindly, lovable, clever people it is +your pleasure to meet there. You may perhaps speak with all the more +conviction of this attractive Germany if you have never shut your eyes +and ears to the Germany that does not love us, and if you have often +been vexed and offended by the Anglophobia that undoubtedly exists. +This Germany makes more noise than the friendly element, and it is +called into existence by a variety of causes not all important or +political. It flourished long before the Transvaal War was seized as a +convenient stick to beat us with. In some measure the Anglicised +Germans who love us too well are responsible, for they do not always +love wisely. They deny their descent and their country, and that +justly offends their compatriots. I do not believe that the Englishman +breathes who would ever wish to call himself anything but English; +while it is quite rare for Germans in England, America, or France to +take any pride in their blood. The second generation constantly denies +it, changes its name, assures you it knows nothing of Germany. They +have not the spirit of a Touchstone, and in so far they do their +country a wrong. + +In another more material sense, too, there are many Germanys, so that +when you write of one corner you may easily write of ways and food and +regulations that do not obtain in some other corner, and it is +obviously impossible to remind the reader in every case that the part +is not the whole. Wine is dear in the north, but it has sometimes +been so plentiful in the south that barrels to contain it ran short, +and anyone who possessed an empty one could get the measure of wine it +would hold in exchange. Every town and district has its special ways +of cooking. There is great variety in manner of life, in +entertainments, and in local law. There are Protestant and Catholic +areas, and there are areas where Protestants, Catholics, and Jews live +side by side. The peasant proprietor of Baden is on a higher level of +prosperity and habit than the peasant serf of Eastern Prussia; and the +Jews on the Russian frontier, those strange Oriental figures in a +special dress and wearing earlocks and long beards, have as little in +common with the Jews of Mannheim or Frankfort as with the Jews of the +London Stock Exchange. It would, in fact, be impossible for any one +person to enter into every shade and variety of German life. You can +only describe the side you know, and comment on the things you have +seen. So you bring your mite to the store of knowledge which many have +increased before you, and which many will add to again. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Throughout the book, although I am of German parentage, I have +spoken of England as my country and of the English as my +country-people. I was born and bred in England, and I found it more +convenient for purposes of expression to belong to one country than to +both. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHILDREN + + +In Germany the storks bring the children. "I know the pond in which +all the little children lie waiting till the storks come to take them +to their parents," says the mother stork in Andersen's story. "The +stork has visited the house," people say to each other when a child is +born; and if you go to a christening party you will find that the +stork has come too: in sugar on a cake, perhaps, or to be handed round +in the form of ice cream. Most of the kindly intimate little jests +about babies have a stork in them, and a stranger might easily blunder +by presenting an emblem of the bird where it would not be welcome. The +house on which storks build is a lucky one, and people regret the +disappearance of their nests from the large towns. + +When the baby has come it is not allowed out of doors for weeks. Air +and sunlight are considered dangerous at first, and so is soap and +even an immoderate use of water. For eight weeks it lies day and night +in the _Steckkissen_, a long bag that confines its legs and body but +not its arms. The bag is lined with wadding, and a German nurse, who +was showing me one with great pride, assured me that while a child's +bones were soft it was not safe to lift it in any other way. These +bags are comparatively modern, and have succeeded the swaddling +clothes still used in some parts of Germany. They are bandages +wrapping the child round like a mummy, and imprisoning its arms as +well as its legs. A German doctor told me that as these _Wickelkinder_ +had never known freedom they did not miss it; but he seemed to approve +of the modern compromise that leaves the upper limbs some power of +movement. + +Well-to-do German mothers rarely nurse their children. When you ask +why, you hear of nerves and anaemia, and are told that at any rate in +cities women find it impossible. I have seen it stated in a popular +book about Germany that mothers there are little more than "aunts" to +their children; and the _Steckkissen_ and the foster-mother were about +equally blamed for this unnatural state of affairs. From our point of +view there is not a word to be said in favour of the _Steckkissen_, +but it really is impossible to believe that a bag lined with wadding +can undermine a mother's affection for her child. Your German friends +will often show you a photograph of a young mother holding her baby in +her arms, and the baby, if it is young enough, will probably be in its +bag. But unless you look closely you will take the bag for a long +robe, it hangs so softly and seems so little in the mother's way. It +will be as dainty as a robe too, and when people have the means as +costly; for you can deck out your bag with ribbons and laces as easily +as your robe. The objection to foster-mothers has reality behind it, +but the evils of the system are well understood, and have been much +discussed of late. Formerly every mother who could afford it hired one +for her child, and peasant women still come to town to make money in +this way. But the practice is on the wane, now that doctors order +sterilised milk. The real ruler of a German nursery is the family +doctor. He keeps his eye on an inexperienced mother, calls when he +sees fit, watches the baby's weight, orders its food, and sees that +its feet are kept warm. + +A day nursery in the English sense of the word is hardly known in +Germany. People who can afford it give up two rooms to the small fry, +but where the flat system prevails, and rents are high, this is seldom +possible. One room is usually known as the _Kinderstube_, and here the +children sleep and play. But it must be remembered that rooms are big, +light, and high in Germany, and that such a _Kinderstube_ will not be +like a night nursery in a small English home. Besides, directly +children can walk they are not as much shut up in the nursery as they +are in England. The rooms of a German flat communicate with each +other, and this in itself makes the segregation to which we are used +difficult to carry out. During the first few days of a sojourn with +German friends, you are constantly reminded of a pantomime rally in +which people run in and out of doors on all sides of the stage; and if +they have several lively children you sometimes wish for an English +room with one door only, and that door kept shut. Even when you pay a +call you generally see the children, and possibly the nurse or the +_Mamsell_ with them. But a typical middle-class German family +recognises no such foreign body as a nurse. It employs one maid of all +work, who helps the housewife wherever help is needed, whether it is +in the kitchen or the nursery. The mother spends her time with her +children, playing with them when she has leisure, cooking and ironing +and saving for them, and for her husband all through her busy day. +Modern Germans like to tell you that young women no longer devote +themselves to these simple duties, but if you use your eyes you will +see that most women do their work as faithfully as ever. There is an +idle, pleasure-loving, money-spending element in Germany as there is +in other countries, and it makes more noise than the steady bulk of +the nation, and is an attractive target there as here for the darts of +popular preachers and playwrights. But it is no more preponderant in +Germany than in England. On the whole, the German mother leaves her +children less to servants than the English mother does, and in some +way works harder for them. That is to say, a German woman will do +cooking and ironing when an Englishwoman of the same class would +delegate all such work to servants. This is partly because German +servants are less efficient and partly because fewer servants are +employed. + +The fashionable nurses in Germany are either English or peasant girls +in costume. It is considered smart to send out your baby with a young +woman from the Spreewald if you live in Berlin, or from one of the +Black Forest valleys if you live in the duchy of Baden. In some +quarters of Berlin you see the elaborate skirts and caps of the +Spreewald beside every other baby-carriage, but it is said that these +girls are chiefly employed by the rich Jews, and you certainly need to +be as rich as a Jew to pay their laundry bills. The young children of +the poor are provided for in Berlin, as they are in other cities, by +creches, where the working mother can leave them for the day. Several +of these institutions are open to the public at certain times, and +those I have seen were well kept and well arranged. + +The women of Germany have not thrown away their knitting needles yet, +though they no longer take them to the concert or the play as they did +in a less sophisticated age. Children still learn to knit either at +school or at home, and if their mother teaches them she probably makes +them a marvellous ball. She does this by winding the wool round little +toys and small coins, until it hides as many surprises as a Christmas +stocking, and is as much out of shape; but the child who wants the +treasures in the stocking has to knit for them, and the faster she +secures them the faster she is learning her lesson. The mother, +however, who troubles about knitting is not quite abreast of her +times. The truly modern woman flies at higher game; with the solemnity +and devotion of a Mrs. Cimabue Brown she cherishes in her children a +love of Art. Her watchword is _Die Kunst im Leben des Kindes_, or Art +in the Nursery, and she is assisted by men who are doing for German +children of this generation what Walter Crane and others did for +English nurseries twenty-five years ago. You can get enchanting +nursery pictures, toys, and decorations in Germany to-day, and each +big city has its own school of artists who produce them: friezes where +the birds and beasts beloved of children solemnly pursue each other; +grotesque wooden manikins painted in motley; mysterious landscapes +where the fairy-tales of the world might any day come true. Dream +pictures these are of snow and moonlight, marsh and forest, the real +Germany lying everywhere outside the cities for those who have eyes to +see. Even the toy department in an ordinary shop abounds in treasures +that never seem to reach England: queer cheap toys made of wood, and +not mechanical. It must be a dull child who is content with a +mechanical toy, and it is consoling to observe that most children +break the mechanism as quickly as possible and then play sensibly with +the remains. Many of the toys known to generations of children seemed +to be as popular as ever, and quite unchanged. You still find the old +toy towns, for instance, with their red roofed coloured houses and +green curly trees, toys that would tell an imaginative child a story +every time they were set up. It is to be hoped they never will change, +but in this sense I have no faith in Germany. The nation is so +desperately intent on improvement that some dreadful day it will +improve its toys. Indeed, I have seen a trade circular threatening +some such vandalism; and in the last Noah's ark I bought Noah and his +family had changed the cut of their clothes. So the whole ark had lost +some of its charm. + +Everyone who is interested in children and their education, and who +happens to be in Berlin, goes to see the _Pestalozzi Froebel Haus_, the +great model Kindergarten where children of the working classes are +received for fees varying from sixpence to three shillings a month, +according to the means of the parents. There are large halls in which +the children drill and sing, and there are classrooms in which twelve +to sixteen children are taught at a time. Every room has some live +birds or other animals and some plants that the children are trained +to tend; the walls are decorated with pictures and processions of +animals, many painted and cut out by the children themselves, and +every room has an impressive little rod tied with blue ribbons. But +the little ones do not look as if they needed a rod much. They are +cheerful, tidy little people, although many of them come from poor +homes. In the middle of the morning they have a slice of rye bread, +which they eat decorously at table on wooden platters. They can buy +milk to drink with the bread for 5 pf., and they dine in school for 10 +pf. They play the usual Kindergarten games in the usual systematised +mechanical fashion, and they study Nature in a real back garden, where +there are real dejected-looking cocks and hens, a real cow, and a +lamb. What happens to the lamb when he becomes a sheep no one tells +you. Perhaps he supplies mutton to the school of cookery in connection +with the Kindergarten. Some of the children have their own little +gardens, in which they learn to raise small salads and hardy flowers. +There are carpentering rooms for the boys, and both boys and girls are +allowed in the miniature laundry, where they learn how to wash, +starch, and iron doll's clothes. You may frequently see them engaged +in this business, apparently without a teacher; but, as a matter of +fact, the children are always under a teacher's eye, even when they +are only digging in a sand heap or weeding their plots of ground. Each +child has a bath at school once a week, and at first the mothers are +uneasy about this part of the programme, lest it should give their +child cold. But they soon learn to approve it, and however poor they +are they do their utmost to send a child to school neatly shod and +clad. + +As a rule German children of all classes are treated as children, and +taught the elementary virtue of obedience. _Das Recht des Kindes_ is a +new cry with some of the new people, but nevertheless Germany is one +of the few remaining civilised countries where the elders still have +rights and privileges. I heard of an Englishwoman the other day who +said that she had never eaten the wing of a chicken, because when she +was young it was always given to the older people, and now that she +was old it was saved for the children. If she lived in Germany she +would still have a chance, provided she kept away from a small loud +set, who in all matters of education and morality would like to turn +the world upside down. In most German homes the noisy, spoilt American +child would not be endured for a moment, and the little tyrant of a +French family would be taught its place, to the comfort and advantage +of all concerned. I have dined with a large family where eight young +ones of various ages sat at an overflow table, and did not disturb +their elders by a sound. It was not because the elders were harsh or +the young folk repressed, but because Germany teaches its youth to +behave. The little girls still drop you a pretty old-fashioned curtsey +when they greet you; just such a curtsey as Miss Austen's heroines +must have made to their friends. The little boys, if you are staying +in the house with them, come and shake hands at unexpected +times,--when they arrive from school, for instance, and before they go +out for a walk. At first they take you by surprise, but you soon learn +to be ready for them. They play many of the same games as English +children, and I need hardly say that they are brought up on the same +fairy stories, because many of our favourites come from Germany. The +little boys wear sensible carpenters' aprons indoors, made of leather +or American cloth; and the little girls still wear bib aprons of black +alpaca. Their elders do not play games with them as much as English +people do with their children. They are expected to entertain and +employ themselves; and the immense educational value of games, the +training they are in temper, skill, and manners, is not understood or +admitted in Germany as it is here. The Kindergarten exercises are not +competitive, and do not teach a child to play a losing game with +effort and good grace. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SCHOOLS + + +German children go to day schools. This is not to say that there are +no boarding schools in Germany; but the prevailing system throughout +the empire is a system of day schools. The German mother does not get +rid of her boys and girls for months together, and look forward to the +holidays as a time of uproar and enjoyment. She does not wonder +anxiously what changes she will see in them when they come back to +her. They are with her all the year round,--the boys till they go to a +university, the girls till they marry. Any day in the streets of a +German city you may see troops of children going to school, not with a +maid at their heels as in Paris, but unattended as in England. They +have long tin satchels in which they carry their books and lunch, the +boys wear peaked caps, and many children of both sexes wear +spectacles. + +Except at the Kindergarten, boys and girls are educated separately and +differently in Germany. In some rare cases lately some few girls have +been admitted to a boys' _Gymnasium_, but this is experimental and at +present unusual. It may be found that the presence of a small number +in a large boys' school does not work well. In addition to the +elementary schools, there are four kinds of Public Day School for +boys in Germany, and they are all under State supervision. There is +the _Gymnasium_, the _Real-Gymnasium_, the _Ober-Real-Schule_, and the +_Real-Schule_. Until 1870 the Gymnasiums were the only schools that +could send their scholars to the universities; a system that had +serious disadvantages. It meant that in choosing a child's school, +parents had to decide whether at the end of his school life he was to +have a university education. Children with no aptitude for scholarship +were sent to these schools to receive a scholar's training; while boys +who would have done well in one of the learned professions could not +be admitted to a university, except for science or modern languages, +because they had not attended a Gymnasium. + +A boy who has passed through one of these higher schools has had +twelve years' education. He began Latin at the age of ten, and Greek +at thirteen. He has learned some French and mathematics, but no +English unless he paid for it as an extra. His school years have been +chiefly a preparation for the university. If he never reaches the +higher classes he leaves the Gymnasium with a stigma upon him, a +record of failure that will hamper him in his career. The higher +official posts and the professions will be closed to him; and he will +be unfitted by his education for business. This at least is what many +thoughtful Germans say of their classical schools; and they lament +over the unsuitable boys who are sent to them because their parents +want a professor or a high official in the family. It is considered +more sensible to send an average boy to a _Real-Gymnasium_ or to an +_Ober-Real Schule_, because nowadays these schools prepare for the +university, and any boy with a turn for scholarship can get the +training he needs. The _Ober-Real Schule_ professedly pays most +attention to modern languages; and it is, in fact, only since 1900 +that their boys are received at a university on the classical side. +They still prepare largely for technical schools and for a commercial +career. + +At a _Real-Schule_, the fourth grade of higher school, the course only +lasts six years. They do not prepare for the Abiturienten examination, +and their scholars cannot go from them to a university. They prepare +for practical life, and they admit promising boys from the elementary +schools. A boy who has been through any one of these higher schools +successfully need only serve in the army for one year; and that in +itself is a great incentive to parents to send their children. A +_Real-Schule_ in Prussia only costs a hundred marks a year, and a +_Gymnasium_ a hundred and thirty-five marks. In some parts of Germany +the fees are rather higher, in some still lower. The headmasters of +these schools are all university men, and are themselves under State +supervision. In an entertaining play called _Flachsmann als Erzieher_ +the headmaster had not been doing his duty, and has allowed the school +to get into a bad way. The subordinates are either slack or +righteously rebellious, and the children are unruly. The State +official pays a surprise visit, discovers the state of things, and +reads the Riot Act all round. The wicked headmaster is dismissed, the +eager young reformer is put in his place, the slackers are warned and +given another chance.... Blessed be St. Bureaukrazius ... says the +genial old god out of a machine, when by virtue of his office he has +righted every man's wrongs. The school in the play must be an +elementary one, for children and teachers are of both sexes, but a +master at a _Gymnasium_ told me that the picture of the official visit +was not exaggerated in its importance and effect. There was +considerable excitement in Germany over the picture of the evil +headmaster, his incompetent staff, and the neglected children; and I +was warned before I saw the play that I must not think such a state of +affairs prevailed in German schools. The warning was quite +unnecessary. An immoral, idle, and ignorant class of men could not +carry on the education of a people as it is carried on throughout the +German Empire to-day. + +I have before me the Annual Report of a _Gymnasium_ in Berlin, and it +may interest English people to see how many lessons the teachers in +each subject gave every week. There were thirty teachers in the +school. + + LESSONS + SUBJECT PER WEEK + + Religion 31 + German 42 + Latin 112 + Greek 72 + French 36 + History and Geography 44 + Mathematics and Arithmetic 56 + Natural History 10 + Physics 20 + Hebrew 4 + Law 1 + Writing 6 + Drawing 18 + Singing 12 + Gymnasium 27 + Swimming 8-1/2 + Handfertigkeit 3 + ---- + 502-1/2 lessons + +The headmaster took Latin for seven hours every week, and Greek for +three hours. A professor who came solely for religious teaching came +for ten hours every week. But most of the masters taught from sixteen +to twenty-four hours, while one who is down for reading, writing, +arithmetic, gymnastics, German, singing, and _Natur_ could not get +through all he had to do in less than thirty hours. On looking into +the hours devoted to each subject by the various classes, you find +that the lowest class had three hours religious instruction every +week, and the other classes two hours. There were 407 boys in the +school described as _Evangelisch_, 47 Jews, and 23 Catholics; but in +Germany parents can withdraw their children from religious instruction +in school, provided they satisfy the authorities that it is given +elsewhere. The two highest classes had lessons on eight chapters of +St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, on the Epistle to the Philippians, +and on the confessions of St. Augustine. Some classes were instructed +in the Gospel according to St. John, and the little boys learned Bible +History. So Germans are not without orthodox theological teaching in +their early years, whatever opinions they arrive at in their +adolescence. + +Every boy in the school spent two or three hours each week on German +composition, and, like boys in other countries, handled themes they +could assuredly not understand, probably, like other boys, without a +scruple or a hesitation. + +"Why does the ghost of Banquo appear to Macbeth, and not the ghost of +Duncan?" + +"How are the unities of time, place, and action treated in Schiller's +ballads?" + +"Discuss the antitheses in Lessing's Laokoon." + +"What can you say about the representation of concrete objects in +Goethe's _Hermann and Dorothea_?" + +These examples are taken at random from a list too long to quote +completely; but no one need be impressed by them. Boys perform +wonderful feats of this kind in England too. However, I once heard a +German professor say that the English boy outdid the German in +_gesunder Menschenverstand_ (sound common sense), but that the German +wins in the race when it comes to the abstract knowledge (_Wissen_) +that he and his countryfolk prize above all the treasures of the +earth. No one who knows both countries can doubt for a single moment +that the professor was right, and that he stated the case as fairly as +it can be stated. In an emergency or in trying circumstances the +English boy would be readier and more self-reliant: but when you meet +him where entertainment is wanted rather than resource, his ignorance +will make you open your eyes. This, at any rate, is the kind of story +told and believed of Englishmen in Germany. A student who was working +at science in a German university had been there the whole winter, and +though the city possessed many fine theatres he had only visited a +variety show. At last his friends told him that it was his duty to go +to the _Schauspielhaus_ and see a play by Goethe or Schiller. "Goethe! +Schiller!" said my Englishman, "_Was ist das?_" + +The education of girls in Germany is in a transition state at present. +Important changes have been made of late years, and still greater +ones, so the reformers say, are pending. Formerly, if a girl was to be +educated at all she went to a _Hoehere Toechterschule_, or to a private +school conducted on the same lines, and, like the official +establishment, under State supervision. When she had finished with +school she had finished with education, and began to work at the +useful arts of life, more especially at the art of cooking. What she +had learned at school she had learned thoroughly, and it was +considered in those days quite as much as was good for her. The +officials who watched and regulated the education of boys had nothing +to do with girls' schools. These were left to the staff that managed +elementary schools, and kept on much the same level. Girls learned +history, geography, elementary arithmetic, two modern languages, and a +great deal of mythology. The scandalous ignorance of mythology +displayed by Englishwomen still shocks the right-minded German. If a +woman asked for more than this because she was going to earn her +bread, she spent three years in reading for an examination that +qualified her for one of the lower posts in the school. The higher +posts were all in the hands of men. Of late years women have been able +to prepare for a teacher's career at one of the Teachers' Seminaries, +most of which were opened in 1897. + +More than forty years ago the English princess in Berlin was not +satisfied with what was done in Germany for the education of women; +and one of the many monuments to her memory is the Victoria Lyceum. +This institution was founded at her suggestion by Miss Archer, an +English lady who had been teaching in Berlin for some years, and who +was greatly liked and respected there. At first it only aimed at +giving some further education to girls who had left school, and it was +not easy to get men of standing to teach them. But as it was the +outcome of a movement with life in it the early difficulties were +surmounted, and its scope and usefulness have grown since its +foundation thirty-eight years ago. It is not a residential college, +and it has no laboratories. During the winter it still holds courses +of lectures for women who are not training for a definite career; but +under its present head, Fraeulein von Cotta, the chief work of the +Victoria Lyceum has become the preparation of women for the _Ober +Lehrerin_ examination. This is a State examination that can only be +passed five years after a girl has qualified as _Lehrerin_, and two +of these five years must have been spent in teaching at a German +school. To qualify as _Lehrerin_, a girl must have spent three years +at a Seminary for teachers after she leaves school, and she usually +gets through this stage of her training between the ages of fifteen +and eighteen. Therefore a woman must have three years special +preparation for a subordinate post and eight years for a higher post +in a German girls' school. + +The whole question of women's education is in a ferment in Germany at +present, and though everyone interested is ready to talk of it, +everyone tells you that it is impossible to foresee exactly what +reforms are coming. There are to be new schools established, _Lyceen_ +and _Ober-Lyceen_, and _Ober-Lyceen_ will prepare for matriculation. +When girls have matriculated from one of these schools they will be +ready for the university, and will work for the same examinations as +men. Baden was the first German State that allowed women to +matriculate at its universities. It did so in 1900, and in 1903 +Bavaria followed suit. In 1905 there were eighty-five women at the +universities who had matriculated in Germany; but there are hundreds +working at the universities without matriculating first. At present +the professors are free to admit women or to exclude them from their +classes; but the right of exclusion is rarely exercised. Before long +it will presumably be a thing of the past. + +An Englishwoman residing at Berlin, and engaged in education, told me +that in her opinion no German woman living had done as much for her +countrywomen as Helene Lange, the president of the _Allgemeine +deutsche Frauenverein_. Nineteen years ago she began the struggle that +is by no means over, the struggle to secure a better education for +women and a greater share in its control. In English ears her aim +will sound a modest one, but English girls' schools are not entirely +in the hands of men, with men for principals and men to teach the +higher classes. She began in 1887 by publishing a pamphlet that made a +great sensation, because it demanded, what after a mighty tussle was +conceded, women teachers for the higher classes in girls' schools, and +for these women an academic education. In 1890 she founded, together +with Auguste Schmidt and Marie Loeper-Housselle, the _Allgemeine +deutsche Lehrerinnen-Verein_, which now has 80 branches and 17,000 +members. But the pluckiest thing she did was to fight Prussian +officialdom and win. In 1889 she opened _Real-Kurse fuer Maedchen und +Frauen_, classes where women could work at subjects not taught in +girls' schools, Latin for instance, and advanced mathematics; for the +State in Germany has always decided how much as well as how little +women may learn. It would not allow people as ignorant as Squeers to +keep a school because it offered an easy livelihood. It organised +women's education carefully and thoroughly in the admirable German +way; but it laid down the law from A to Z, which is also the German +way. When, therefore, Helene Lange opened her classes for women, the +officials came to her and said that she was doing an illegal thing. +She replied that her students were not schoolgirls under the German +school laws, but grown-up women free to learn what they needed and +desired. The officials said that an old law of 1837 would empower them +to close the classes by force if Helene Lange did not do so of her own +accord. After some reflection and in some anxiety she decided to go on +with them. By this time public opinion was on her side and came to her +assistance; for public opinion does count in Germany even with the +officials. The classes went on, and were changed in 1893 to +_Gymnasialkurse_. In 1896 the first German women passed the +Abiturienten examination, the difficult examination young men of +eighteen pass at the end of a nine years' course in one of the +classical schools. Even to-day you may hear German men argue that +women should not be admitted to universities because they have had no +classical training. Helene Lange was the first to prove that even +without early training women can prepare themselves for an academic +career. Her experiment led to the establishment of _Gymnasialkurse_ in +many German cities; and even to the admission of girls in some few +cases to boys' Gymnasium schools. + +To-day Helene Lange and her associates are contending with the +schoolmasters, who desire to keep the management of girls' schools in +their own hands. She calls the _Hoehere Toechterschule_ the failure of +German school organisation, and she says that the difference of view +taken by men and women teachers as to the proper work of girls' +schools makes it most difficult to come to an understanding. +Consciously or not, men form an ideal of what they want and expect of +women, and try to educate them up to it; while women think of the +claims life may make on a girl, and desire the full development of her +powers. "The Higher Daughter," she says, "must vanish, and her place +must be taken by the girl who has been thoroughly prepared for life, +who can stand on her own feet if circumstances require it, or who +brings with her as housewife the foundations of further +self-development, instead of the pretentiousness of the half +educated." In one of her many articles on the subject of school reform +she points to three directions where reform is needed. What she says +about the teaching of history is so characteristic of her views and of +the modern movement in Germany, that I think the whole passage is +worth translation:-- + + "All those subjects that help to make a woman a better + citizen must be taken more seriously," she says. "It can no + longer be the proper aim of history teaching to foster and + strengthen in women a sentimental attachment to her country + and its national character: its aim must be to give her the + insight that will enable her to understand the forces at + work, and ultimately play an active part in them. Many + branches of our social life await the work of women, civic + philanthropy to begin with; and as our public life becomes + more and more constitutional, it demands from the individual + both a ripe insight into the good of the community and a + living sense of duty in regard to its destiny; and, on the + other hand, the foundations of this insight and sense of duty + must be in our times more and more laid by the mother, since + the father is often entirely prevented by his work from + sharing in the education of his children. Therefore, both on + her own account and in consideration of the task before her, + a woman just as much as a man should understand and take a + practical interest in public life, and it is the business of + the school to see that she does so. Over and over again those + who are trying to reform girls' schools insist that history + teaching should lead the student to understand the present + time; that it should recognise those economic conditions on + which the history of the world, especially in our day, + depends in so great a measure; that it should pay attention + not only to dates and events, but also to the living process + of civilisation, since it is only from the latter inquiry + that we can arrive at the principles of individual effort in + forwarding social life." + +Nowadays in Germany Helene Lange is considered one of the +"Moderates," but it will be seen from the above quotation that she has +travelled far from the old ideals which invested women with many +beautiful qualities, but not with the sense and knowledge required of +useful public citizens. She proceeds in the same article to say that +scientific and mathematical teaching should reach a higher standard in +girls' schools; and thirdly, that certain branches of psychology, +physiology, and hygiene should receive greater attention, because a +woman is a better wife and mother when she fulfils her duties with +understanding instead of by mere instinct. Nor will education on this +higher plane deprive women of any valuable feminine virtues if it is +carried out in the right way. But to this end women must direct it, +and in great measure take it into their own hands. She would not shut +men out of girls' schools, but she would place women in supreme +authority there, and give them the lion's share of the work. + +It seems to the English onlooker that this contest can only end in one +way, and that if the women of Germany mean to have the control of +girls' schools they are bound to get it. Some of the evils of the +present system lie on the surface. "It is a fact," said a +schoolmaster, speaking lately at a conference,--"it is a fact that a +more intimate, spiritual, and personal relationship is developed +between a schoolgirl and her master than between a schoolgirl and her +mistress." This remark, evidently made in good faith, was received +with hilarity by a large mixed audience of teachers; and when one +reflects on the unbridled sentiment of some "higher daughters" one +sees where it must inevitably find food under the present anomalous +state of things. But the schoolmaster's argument is the argument +brought forward by many men against the reforms desired by Helene +Lange and her party. They insist that girls would deteriorate if they +were withdrawn throughout their youth from masculine scholarship and +masculine authority in school. They talk of the emasculation of the +staff as a future danger. They do not seem to talk of their natural +reluctance to cede important posts to women, but this must, of course, +strengthen their pugnacity and in some cases colour their views. + +Meanwhile many parents prefer to send their daughters to one of the +private schools that have a woman at the head, and where most of the +teaching is done by women; or to a _Stift_, a residential school of +the conventual type, which may be either Protestant or Catholic. A +girl who had spent some years at a well-known Protestant _Stift_ +described her school life to me as minutely as possible, and it +sounded so like the life in a good English boarding-school thirty +years ago that it is difficult to pick out points of differences. That +only means, of course, that the differences were subtle and not +apparent in rules and time-tables. The girls wore a school uniform, +were well fed and taught, strictly looked after, taken out for walks +and excursions, allowed a private correspondence, shown how to mend +their clothes, made to keep their rooms tidy, encouraged in piety and +decorum. In these strenuous times it sounds a little old-fashioned, +and as a matter of fact a school of this kind fits a girl for a +sheltered home but not for the open road. For everyone concerned about +the education of women the interesting spectacle in Germany to-day is +the campaign being carried on by Helene Lange and her party, the +support they receive from the official as well as from the unofficial +world, and the progress they make year by year to gain their ends. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR + + +There are no people in the world who need driving to school less than +the Germans. There are no people in the world who set so high a value +on knowledge. In the old days, when they lived with Jove in the +clouds, they valued knowledge solely for its own sake, and did not +trouble much about its practical use in the world. It is absurd to +say, as people often do now, that this spirit is dead in the nation. +You cannot be long in the society of Germans without recognising that +it survives wherever the stress of modern life leaves room for it. You +see that when a German makes money his sons constantly enter the +learned and the artistic professions with his full approval, though +they are most unlikely to make a big income in this way. You are told +by people who work amongst the poor, that parents will make any +sacrifices year after year in order to send a boy to one of the higher +schools. You know that the Scotsmen who live on oatmeal while they +acquire learning have their counterparts in the German universities, +where many a student would not dine at all if private or organised +charity did not give him a dinner so many days a week. Sometimes you +have heard it said of such and such a great German, that he was so +poor when he was young that he had to accept these free dinners given +in every German university town to penniless students. The fact would +be remembered, but it would never count against a man in Germany. The +dollar is not almighty there. + +To say, therefore, that education is compulsory throughout the empire +is not to say that it is unpopular. A teacher in an elementary school +was once telling me how particular the authorities were that every +child, even the poorest, should come to school properly clothed and +shod. "For instance," she said, "if a child comes to school in +house-shoes he is sent straight home again." "But do the parents mind +that?" I asked from my English point of view, for the teacher was +speaking of people who in England would live in slums and care little +whether their children were educated or not. But in Germany even the +poorest of the poor do care, and to refuse a child admission to school +is an effective punishment. At any rate, you may say this of the +majority. No doubt if school was not compulsory the dregs of the +nation would slip out of the net, especially in those parts of the +empire where the prevalent character is shiftless and easy going. +"When you English think that we hold the reins too tight, it is +because you do not understand what a mixed team we have to drive," a +north German said to me. "We should not get on, we should not hold +together long, if our rule was slack and our attention careless." + +At the last census only one in 10,000 could not read or write, and +these dunces were all Slavs. But how even a Slav born under the eye of +the Eagle can remain illiterate is a mystery. In 1905 there were +59,348 elementary schools in the empire, and their organisation is as +elaborate and well planned as the organisation of the army. In Berlin +alone there are 280. All the teachers at these schools have been +trained to teach at special seminaries, and have passed State +examinations that qualify them for their work. In Germany many men and +women, entitled both by class and training to teach in the higher +grade schools, have taken up work in the elementary ones from choice. +I know one lady whose certificates qualify her to teach in a _Hoehere +Toechterschule_ and who elects to teach a large class of backward +children in a _Volkschule_. Her ambition is to teach those children +described in Germany as _nicht voellig normal_: children we should +describe as "wanting." She says that her backward children repay her +for any extra trouble they give by their affection and gratitude. She +knows the circumstances of every child in her class, and where there +is real need she can get help from official sources or from +philanthropic organisations, because a teacher's recommendation +carries great weight in Germany. This lady gets up every day in summer +at a quarter past five, in order to be in school by seven. Her school +hours are from seven to eleven in summer, and from eight till twelve +in winter; but she has a great deal of work to prepare and correct +after school. Her salary is raised with every year of service, and +when she is past work she will be entitled to a State pension of +thirty pounds. + +Children have to attend school from the age of six and to stay till +they are fourteen; and in their school years they are not allowed to +work at a trade without permission. They do not learn foreign +languages, but they are thoroughly grounded in German, and they +receive religious instruction. Of course, they learn history, +geography, and arithmetic. In the new schools every child is obliged +to have a warm bath every week, but it is not part of a teacher's +duties to superintend it. Probably the women who clean the school +buildings do so. In the old schools, where there are no bathrooms, +the children are given tickets for the public bathing establishments. +The State does not supply free food, but there are philanthropic +societies that supply those children who need it with a breakfast of +bread and milk in winter. Everyone connected with German schools says +that no child would apply for this if his parents were not destitute, +and one teacher told me a story of the headmaster's boy being found, +to his father's horror and indignation, seated with the starving +children and sharing their free lunch. He had brought his own lunch +with him, but it was his first week at school, and he thought that a +dispensation of bread and milk in the middle of the morning was part +of the curriculum. + +School books are supplied to children too poor to buy them, and it +seems that no trouble is given by applications for this kind of relief +by people not entitled to it. Gymnastics are compulsory for both boys +and girls in the lower classes, and choral singing is taught in every +school. Teachers must all be qualified to accompany singing on the +violin. Most of the elementary schools in Prussia are free. Some few +charge sixpence a month. A child can even have free teaching in its +own home if it is able to receive instruction, but not to attend +school. Medical inspection is rigorously carried out in German +elementary schools. The doctor not only watches the general health of +the school, but he registers the height, weight, carriage, state of +nourishment, and vaccination marks of each child on admission; the +condition of the eyes and ears and any marked constitutional tendency +he can discover. Every child is examined once a month, when necessary +once a fortnight. In this way weak or wanting children are weeded out, +and removed to other surroundings, the short-sighted and the deaf are +given places in the schoolroom to suit them. The system protects the +child and helps the teacher, and has had the best results since it was +introduced into Prussia in 1888. + +Attendance at continuation schools is now compulsory on boys and girls +for three years after leaving the elementary school, where they have +had eight years steady education. They must attend from four to six +hours weekly; instruction is free, and is given in the evening, when +the working day is over. Certain classes of the community are free, +but about 30,000 students attend these schools in Berlin. The subjects +taught are too many to enumerate. They comprise modern languages, +history, law, painting, music, mathematics, and various domestic arts, +such as ironing and cooking. More boys than girls attend these +schools, as girls are more easily exempt. It is presumably not +considered so necessary for them as for their brothers to continue +their education after the age of fourteen. + +One of the most interesting experiments being made in Germany at +present is the "open air" school, established for sickly children +during the summer months. The first one was set up by the city of +Charlottenberg at the suggestion of their _Schulrat_ and their school +doctor, and it is now being imitated in other parts of Germany. From +Charlottenberg the electric cars take you right into the pine forest, +far beyond the last houses of the growing city. The soil here is loose +and sandy, and the air in summer so soft that it wants strength and +freshness. But as far out as this it is pure, and the medical men must +deem it healing, for they have set up three separate ventures close +together amongst the pine trees. One belongs to the Society of the Red +Cross, and here sick and consumptive women come with their children +for the day, and are waited on by the Red Cross sisters. We saw some +of them lying about on reclining chairs, and some, less sickly, were +playing croquet. The second establishment is for children who are not +able to do any lessons, children who have been weeded out by the +school doctor because they are backward and sickly. There are a +hundred and forty children in this school, and there is a creche with +twenty beds attached to it for babies and very young children. One +airy room with two rows of neat beds was for rickety children. + +The third and largest of the settlements was the _Waldschule_, open +every day, Sundays included, from the end of April to the middle of +October, and educating two hundred and forty delicate children chosen +from the elementary schools of Charlottenberg. We arrived there just +as the children were going to sit down to their afternoon meal of +bread and milk, and each child was fetching its own mug hanging on a +numbered hook. The meals in fine weather are taken at long tables in +the open air. When it rains they are served in big shelters closed on +three sides. Dotted about the forest there were mushroom-shaped +shelters with seats and tables beneath them, sufficient cover in +slight showers; and there were well lighted, well aired class-rooms, +where the children are taught for twenty-five minutes at a time. + +All the buildings are on the Doecker system, and were manufactured by +Messrs. Christoph & Unmark of Niesky. This firm makes a speciality of +schools and hospitals, built in what we should call the bungalow +style. Of course, this style exactly suits the needs of the school in +the forest. There is not a staircase in the place, there is no danger +of fire, no want of ventilation, and very little work for housemaids +or charwomen. The school furniture is simple and carefully planned. +Some of it was designed by Richard Riemerschmid of Munich, the +well-known artist. + +Each child has two and a half hours' work each day; all who are strong +enough do gymnastics, and all have baths at school. Each child has its +own locker and its own numbered blanket for use out of doors on damp +or chilly days. The doctor visits the school twice a week, and the +weight of each child is carefully watched. The busy sister who +superintends the housekeeping and the hygienic arrangements seemed to +know how much each child had increased already; and she told us what +quantities of food were consumed every day. The kitchen and larder +were as bright and clean as such places always are in Germany. When +the children arrive in the morning at half-past seven they have a +first breakfast of _Griesbrei_. At ten o'clock they have rolls and +butter. Their dinner consists of one solid dish. The day we were there +it had been pork and cabbage, a combination Germans give more +willingly to delicate children than we should; the next day it was to +be _Nudelsuppe_ and beef. At four o'clock they have bread and milk, +and just before they go home a supper like their early breakfast of +milk-soup, and bread. 260 litres of milk are used every day, 50 to 60 +lbs. of meat, 2 cwts. potatoes, 30 big rye loaves, 280 rolls, and when +spinach, for instance, is given, 80 lbs. of spinach. We asked whether +the children paid, and were told that those who could afford it paid +from 25 to 45 pf. a day. The school is kept open throughout the summer +holidays, but no work is done then, and two-thirds of the teachers are +away. Although the children are at play for the greater part of the +day in term time, and all day in the holidays, the headmaster told us +that they gave no trouble. There was not a dirty or untidy child to be +seen, nor one with rough manners. They are allowed to play in the +light, sandy soil of the forest, much as English children play at the +seaside, and we saw the beginning of an elaborate chain of fortresses +defended by toy guns and decorated with flowers. We heard a lesson in +mental arithmetic given in one of the class-rooms, the boys sitting on +one side of the room and the girls on the other; and we found that +these young sickly children were admirably taught and well advanced +for their age. To be a teacher in one of these open-air schools is +hard work, because the strain is never wholly relaxed. All day long, +and a German day is very long, the children must be watched and +guarded, sheltered from changes in the weather and prevented from +over-tiring themselves. Many of them come from poor cramped homes, and +to spend the whole summer in the forest more at play than at work +makes them most happy. I met Germans who did not approve of the +_Waldschule_ who considered it a fantastic extravagant experiment, too +heavy for the rate-payers to bear. This is a side of the question that +the rate-payers must settle for themselves; but there is no doubt +about the results of the venture on the children sent to school in the +forest. They get a training that must shape their whole future, moral +and physical, a training that changes so many unsound citizens into +sound ones every year for the German Empire. If the rate-payers can +survive the strain it seems worth while. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE BACKFISCH + + +The word is untranslatable, though my dictionary translates it. +Backfisch, m. fried fish; young girl; says the dictionary. In Germany +a woman does not arrive at her own gender till she marries and becomes +somebody's _Frau_. Woman in general, girl, and miss are neuter; and +the fried-fish girl is masculine. But if one little versed in German +wished to tell you that he liked a fried sole, and said _Ich liebe +einen Backfisch_, it might lead to misunderstandings. The origin of +the word in this application is dubious. Some say it means fish that +are baked in the oven because they are too small to fry in pans; but +this does not seem a sensible explanation to anyone who has seen +white-bait cooked. Others say it means fish the anglers throw back +into the water because they are small. At any rate, the word used is +to convey an impression of immaturity. A _Backfisch_ is what English +and American fashion papers call a "miss." You may see, too, in German +shop windows a printed intimation that special attention is given to +_Backfisch Moden_. It is a girl who has left school but has not cast +off her school-girl manners; and who, according to her nation and her +history, will require more or less last touches. + +Miss Betham-Edwards tells us that a French girl is taught from +babyhood to play her part in society, and that the exquisite grace +and taste of Frenchwomen are carefully developed in them from the +cradle. An English girl begins her social education in the nursery, +and is trained from infancy in habits of personal cleanliness and in +what old-fashioned English people call "table manners." An +Englishwoman, who for many years lived happily as governess in a +German country house, told me how on the night of her arrival she +tried out of politeness to eat and drink as her hosts did; and how the +mistress of the house confided to her later that she had disappointed +everyone grievously. There were daughters in the family, and they were +to learn to behave at table in the English way. That was why the +father, arriving from Berlin, had on his own initiative brought them +an English governess; for the English are admitted by their +continental friends to excel in this special branch of manners, while +their continental enemies charge them with being "ostentatiously" well +groomed and dainty. The truth is, that if you have lived much with +both English and Germans, and desire to be fair and friendly to both +races, you find that your generalisations will not often weigh on one +side. The English child learns to eat with a fork rather than with a +spoon, and never by any chance to put a knife in its mouth, or to +touch a bone with its fingers. The German child learns that it must +never wear a soiled or an unmended garment or have untidy hair. I have +known a German scandalised by the slovenly wardrobe of her well-to-do +English pupil, and I have heard English people say that to hear +Germans eat soup destroyed their appetite for dinner. English girls +are not all slovens, and nowadays decently bred Germans behave like +other people at table. But untidiness is commoner in England than in +Germany, and you may still stumble across a German any day who, +abiding by old customs, puts his knife in his mouth and takes his +bones in his hands. He will not only do these things, but defend them +vociferously. In that case you are strongly advised not to eat a dish +of asparagus in his company. + +Your modern German _Backfisch_ may be a person of finish and wide +culture. You may find that she insists on her cold tub every morning, +and is scandalised by your offer of hot water in it. She has seen +Salome as a play and heard Salome as an opera. She has seen plays by +G.B.S. both in Berlin and London. She does not care to see Shakespeare +in London, because, as she tells you, the English know nothing about +him. Besides, he could not sound as well in English as in German. She +has read Carlyle, and is now reading Ruskin. She adores Byron, but +does not know Keats, Shelley, or Rossetti. Tennyson she waves +contemptuously away from her, not because she has read him, but +because she has been taught that his poetry is "bourgeois." Her +favourite novels are _Dorian Gray_ and _Misunderstood_. She dresses +with effect and in the height of fashion, she speaks French and +English fluently, she has travelled in Italy and Switzerland, she +plays tennis well, she can ride and swim and skate, and she would +cycle if it was not out of fashion. In fact, she can do anything, and +she knows everything, and she has been everywhere. Your French and +English girls are ignorant misses in comparison with her, and you say +to yourself as you watch her and humbly listen to her opinions, +delivered without hesitation and expressed without mistakes: "Where is +the German _Backfisch_ of yesteryear?" + +"Did you ever read _Backfischchen's Leiden und Freuden_?" you say to +her; for the book is in its 55th edition, and you have seen German +girls devouring it only last week; German girls of a different type, +that is, from your present glittering companion. + +"That old-fashioned inferior thing," she says contemptuously. "I +believe my mother had it. That is not literature." + +You leave her to suppose you could not have made that discovery for +yourself, and you spend an amusing hour over the story again, for +there are occasions when a book that is not "literature" will serve +your purpose better than a masterpiece. The little book has +entertained generations of German girls, and is presumably accepted by +them, just as _Little Women_ is accepted in America or _The Daisy +Chain_ in England. The picture was always a little exaggerated, and +some of its touches are now out of date; yet as a picture of manners +it still has a value. It narrates the joys and sorrows of a young girl +of good family who leaves her country home in order to live with an +aunt in Berlin, a facetious but highly civilised aunt who uses a large +quantity of water at her morning toilet. All the stages of this toilet +are minutely described, and all the mistakes the poor countrified +_Backfisch_ makes the first morning. She actually gets out of bed +before she puts on her clothes, and has to be driven behind the bed +curtains by her aunt's irony. This is an incident that is either out +of date or due to the genius and imagination of the author, for I have +never seen bed curtains in Germany. However, Gretchen is taught to +perform the early stages of her toilet behind them, and then to wash +for the first time in her life in a basin full of water. She is +sixteen. Her aunt presents her with a sponge, and observes that the +civilisation of a nation is judged by the amount of soap it uses. "In +much embarrassment I applied myself to this unaccustomed task," +continues the ingenuous _Backfisch_, "and I managed it so cleverly +that everything around me was soon swimming. To make matters worse, I +upset the water-jug, and now the flood spread to the washstand, the +floor, the bed curtains, even to my clothes lying on the chair. If +only this business of dressing was over," she sighs as she is about to +brush her teeth, with brushes supplied by her aunt. But it is by no +means over. She is just going to slip into a dressing-gown, cover her +unbrushed hair with a cap, and so proceed to breakfast, when this +exacting aunt stops her: actually desires her to plait and comb her +hair at this hour of the morning, and to put on a tidy gown. +Gretchen's gown is extremely untidy, and on that account I will not +admit that the portrait is wholly lifelike. In fact, the author has +summed up the sins of all the _Backfisch_ tribe, and made a single +_Backfisch_ guilty of them. But caricature, if you know how to allow +for it, is instructive. Mr. Stiggins is a caricature, yet he stands +for failings that exist among us, though they are never displayed +quite so crudely. "Go and brush your nails," says the aunt to the +niece when the girl attempts to kiss her hand; and the _Backfisch_ +uses a nail-brush for the first time in her life. + +Then the two ladies sit down to breakfast. Gretchen fills the cups too +full, soaks her roll in her coffee, and drinks out of her saucer. Her +aunt informs her that "coffee pudding" is not polite, and can only be +allowed when they are by themselves; also that she must not drink out +of the saucer. "But we children always did it at home," says Gretchen. +"I can well believe it," says the aunt. "_Everything is permitted to +children._" The italics are mine. + +An aunt who has such ideas about the education of the young is +naturally not surprised when at dinner-time she has to admonish her +niece not to wipe her mouth with her hand, not to speak with her +mouth full, to eat her soup quietly, to keep her elbows off the table, +not to put her fingers in her plate or her knife in her mouth, and not +to take her chicken into her hands on ceremonial occasions. + +"My treasure," says the aunt, "as you know, we are going to dinner +with the Dunkers to-morrow. Be good enough not to take your chicken +into your hands. Here at home I don't object to it, but the really +correct way is to separate the meat from the bone with the knife and +fork." + +The docile _Backfisch_ says _Jawohl, liebe Tante_, and feels that this +business of becoming civilised is full of pitfalls and surprises. +Never in her life has she eaten poultry without the assistance of her +fingers. When she gets to the dinner-party she is fortunate enough to +sit next to her bosom friend, who starts in horror and whispers "With +a knife, Gretchen," when Gretchen is just about to dip her fingers in +the salt. The _Backfisch_ is truly anxious to learn, but she feels +that the injunctions of society are hard, and says it is poor sport to +eat your chicken with a knife and fork, because the best part sticks +to the bones. Then her friend stops her from drinking fruit syrup out +of her plate, and her neighbour on the other side, a stout guzzler who +has not been taught by his aunt to eat properly, encourages Gretchen +to drink too much champagne. + +After these early adventures the education of the _Backfisch_ proceeds +quickly. She has to learn at her aunt's tea-parties not to fill cups +to overflowing in sheer exuberance of hospitality; and she is also +instructed not to press food on people. "In good society," says the +aunt, "people decline to eat because they have had enough, and not +because they require pressing." She is obliged also to discourage +Gretchen from waiting too attentively on the young men who visit at +the house; and Gretchen, who does not care about young men, but only +yearns to be serviceable, devotes herself in future to the old ladies, +their foot-stools, their knitting, and their smelling bottles. This +touch is one of many that makes the book, in spite of its obvious +shortcomings, valuable as a picture of German character and manner. It +is impossible to imagine Gretchen in a French or English story of the +same class. The French girl would be more adroit and witty; the +English girl would expect young men to wait on her; and neither of +them would gush as Gretchen did about her old ladies. "My readiness to +serve them knew no bounds. To arrange their seats to their liking, to +give them stools for their feet and cushions for their backs, to rush +for their shawls and cloaks, to count the rows in their knitting, to +help them pick up their stitches, to thread their needles, to wind +silk or wool, to peel fruit, to run for smelling bottles and cold +water,--all these things I did with delight the instant my watchful +eye discovered the smallest wish, and I was always cordially thanked." + +Tastes differ. Some old ladies would be made quite uncomfortable by +such fussy attentions. The _Backfisch_ goes on to say that she was +equally assiduous in waiting on the old gentlemen. She picked up +anything they dropped, polished their spectacles for them, and +listened to their dull stories when no one else would. I consider the +portrait of Gretchen in this story a literary triumph. I can see the +girl; I can hear her voice and laugh. I know exactly how she behaved +and what the old ladies and gentlemen said to her, how she dressed and +how she did her hair; not because the author tells me just these +things, but because her type is as true to life to-day as it was +thirty years ago. As a contrast to her, a fine young lady from the +city presently joins the household, and the aunt does not have to +provide her with a tooth-brush. The new arrival wears blue satin +slippers, drinks her chocolate in bed, and cannot dress without the +help of a maid. In this way the author shows you that girls brought up +in cities are superfine rather than savage, and that you are not to +suppose the ordinary German _Backfisch_ is like her little heroine +from the provinces. + +The truth of the matter is, that no one nowadays has such manners as +the _Backfisch_ had when she first came from the wilds; at least, no +one of her class, even if they have grown up in Hinter-Pommern. But if +you travel in Germany next week and stay in small towns and country +places, you will still meet plenty of people who take their poultry +bones in their fingers and put their knives in their mouths. If they +are men you will see them use their fork as a dagger to hold the meat +while they cut it up; you will see them stick their napkins into their +shirt collars and placidly comb their hair with a pocket comb in +public; if they are women and at a restaurant, they will pocket the +lumps of sugar they have not used in their coffee. But if you are in +private houses amongst people of Gretchen's type you will see none of +these things. A German host still pulls the joint close to him +sometimes or stands up to carve, and a German hostess still presses +you to eat, still in the kindness of her heart piles up your plate. +But this embarrassing form of hospitality is dying out. As Gretchen's +aunt said, people in good society recognise that a guest refuses food +because he does not want it. Some years ago, when you had satisfied +your hunger and declined more, your German friends used to look +offended or distressed, and say _Sie geniren sich gewiss_. This is a +difficult phrase to translate, because the idea is one that has never +taken root in the English mind, _Sich geniren_, however, is a +reflective verb, a corruption of the French verb _se gener_, and what +they meant was that you really wanted a third potato dumpling but did +not like to say so. Whether your reluctance was supposed to proceed +from your distrust of your host's hospitality or shame at your own +appetite, is not clear; in either case it was taken, is even to-day +still often taken, for artificial. To accept a portion of an untouched +dish was considered a sign that you came from "a good house" where no +one grudged or wished to save the food put on the table; and formerly +you could not refuse sugar in your tea without being commended for +your economy. You are still invited to eat tarts and puddings in +Germany with what we consider the insufficient assistance of a +tea-spoon, but I have never been in a private house where salt-spoons +were not provided. You never used to find them in inns of a plain +kind, and unless you were known to be English and peculiar you were +not provided with more than one knife and fork for all the courses of +a _table d'hote_. You would see your German neighbours putting theirs +aside as a matter of course when their plates were removed. + +On the whole, then, the celebrated picture of the _Backfisch_, though +it is overloaded, bears some relation to the facts of life in Germany: +not only in the episodes that make the early chapters entertaining, +but all through the story in atmosphere, in the little touches that +give a story nationality. When the excellent Gretchen has been +civilised she spends a great deal of time in the kitchen, and soon +knows all the duties of the complete housekeeper; while, when the +frivolous Eugenie becomes _Braut_ she cannot cook at all. But +frivolous as she is, she recognises that marriage is unthinkable +without cooking, and straightway sets to work to learn. Then, too, +the _Backfisch_ is the ideal German maiden, cheerful, docile, and +facetious; and constantly on the jump (_springen_ is the word she +uses) to serve her elders. Middle-aged Germans used to have a most +tiresome way of expecting girls to be like lambs in spring, always in +the mood to frisk and caper: so that a quiet or a delicate girl had a +bad time with some of them. _Ein junges Maedchen muss immer heiter +sein_, they would say reproachfully. But it does not follow that you +are always _heiter_ just because you are not twenty yet; especially in +Germany, where girls are often anaemic and have headaches. However, +perhaps the modern German maiden does not allow her elders to be so +silly. + +There are some other ways, too, in which my _Backfisch_ of thirty +years ago is typical of German womanhood both then and now. She is as +good as gold, she is devoted to duty not to pleasure, and she is as +guileless as a child. You know that when she marries she will be +faithful unto death; you know that her husband and her children will +call her blessed. These things come out quite naturally, almost +unconsciously, in the little story that is "not literature," and which +for all that is so truly and deeply German in its quality and tone. +This Gretchen of the schoolroom, this caricature of the country +cousin, is akin in her simplicity, sweetness, and depth of nature to +that other Gretchen whose figure lives for ever in the greatest of +German poems. Just as the women of Shakespeare and the women of Miss +Austen are subtly kin to each other, inasmuch as they are English +women, so Goethe's girl and the girl of the poor little schoolroom +story are German in every pulse and fibre. And this national essence, +the honesty, goodness, and sweetness of the girl, are the real +things, the things to remember about her. Those little matters of the +toilet and the table will soon be out of date, are out of date already +in the greater part of Germany. As a picture of forgotten manners they +will always be amusing, just as it is amusing to read an +eighteenth-century English story of school life, in which the young +ladies fought and bit and scratched each other and were whipped and +sent to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE STUDENT + + +When an English lad goes to the university he usually goes there from +a public school, where out of school hours he has been learning for +years past to be a man. In these strenuous days he may have learned a +little in school hours too, but that is a new departure. Cricket and +character are what an English boy expects to develop at school, and if +there is stuff in him he succeeds. He does not set a high value on +learning. Even if he works and brings home prizes he will not be as +proud of them as of his football cap, while a boy who is head of the +school, but a duffer at games, will live for all time in the memory of +his fellows as a failure. But the German boy goes to school to acquire +knowledge, and he too gets what he wants. The habit of work must be +strong in him when at the age of eighteen he goes to one of his many +universities. But when he gets there he is free for the first time in +his life, and the first use he for the most part makes of his freedom +is to be thoroughly, happily idle. This idleness, if he has a backbone +and a call to work, only lasts a term or two; and no one who knows how +a German boy is held to the grindstone for twelve years of school life +can grudge him a holiday. But the odd fact is, that the Briton who +leaves school a man is more under control at Oxford or Cambridge than +the German at Heidelberg who leaves school a boy. + +A German university is a teaching institution which prepares for the +State examinations, and is never residential. There are no old +colleges. The professors live in flats like other people, and the +students live in lodgings or board with private families. There is one +building or block of buildings called the _Universitaet_ where there +are laboratories and lecture-rooms. The State can decline a professor +chosen by the university; but this power is rarely exercised. The +teachers at a German university consist of ordinary professors, +extraordinary professors, and _Privatdocenten_--men who are not +professors yet, but hope to be some day. An Englishman in his +ignorance might think that an extraordinary professor ought to rank +higher than an ordinary one; but this is not so. The ordinary +professors are those who have chairs; the extraordinary ones have +none. But all professors have a fixed salary which is paid to the day +of their death, though they may cease work when they choose. The +salaries vary from L240 to L350, and are paid by the State, but this +income is increased by lecturing fees. Whether it is largely increased +depends on the popularity of the lecturer and on his subject. An +astronomer cannot expect large classes, while a celebrated professor +of Law or Medicine addresses crowds. I have found it difficult to make +my English friends believe that there are professors now in Berlin +earning as much as L2500 a year. The English idea of the German +professor is rudely disturbed by such a fact, for his poverty and +simplicity of life have played as large a part in our tradition of him +as his learning. The Germans seem to recognise that a scholar cannot +want as much money as a man of affairs; therefore, when one of their +professors is so highly esteemed by the youth of the nation that his +fees exceed L225, half of the overflow goes to the university and not +to him at all. In this way Berlin receives a considerable sum every +year, and uses it to assist poorer professors and to attract new men. +As a rule a German professor has not passed the State examinations. +These are official, not academic, and they qualify men for government +posts rather than for professorial chairs. A professor acquires the +academic title of doctor by writing an original essay that convinces +the university of his learning. The title confers no privileges. It is +an academic distinction, and its value depends on the prestige of the +university conferring it. + +Germans say that our English universities exist to turn out gentlemen +rather than scholars, and that the aim of their own universities is to +train servants for the State and to encourage learning. I think an +Englishman would say that a gentleman is bred at home, but he would +understand how the German arrived at his point of view. When a German +talks of an English university he is thinking of Oxford and Cambridge, +and he knows that, roughly speaking, it is the sons of well-to-do men +who go there. Perhaps he does not know much about the Scotch and Irish +and Welsh universities, or London, or the north of England; though it +is never safe to build on what a German does not know. I once took for +granted that a man talking to me of some point in history would no +more remember all the names and dates of the Kings of Scotland than I +remember them myself. But he knew every one, and was scandalised by my +ignorance. So perhaps the average German knows better than I do what +it costs a man to graduate at Edinburgh or at Dublin. Anyhow, he knows +that three or four years at Oxford or Cambridge cost a good deal; and +he knows that in Berlin, for instance, a student can live on sixty +pounds a year, out of which he can afford about five pounds a term for +academic fees. If he is too poor to pay his fees the authorities allow +him to get into their debt, and pay later in life when he has a post. +There are cases where a man pays for his university training six years +after he has ended it. But a German university comes to a man's help +still more effectively when there is need for it, and will grant him +partial or even entire support. Then there are various organisations +for providing hungry men with dinners so many days a week; sometimes +at a public table, sometimes with families who arrange to receive one +or more guests on certain days every week. The Jewish community in a +university always looks after its poor students well, and this +practice of entertaining them in private houses is one that gives +rises to many jests and stories. The students soon find out which of +their hosts are liberal and which are not, and give them a reputation +accordingly. + +A German comparing his universities with the English ones will always +lay stress on the fact that his are not examining bodies, and that his +professors are not crammers but teachers. A student who intends to +pass the State examinations chooses his own course of reading for +them, and the lectures that he thinks will help him. He does not +necessarily spend his whole time at the same university, but may move +from one to the other in pursuit of the professors he wants for his +special purpose. He is quite free to do this; and he is free to work +night and day, or to drink beer night and day. He is under no +supervision either in his studies or his way of life. + +English people who have been to Germany at all have invariably been +to Heidelberg, and if they have been there in term time they have been +amused by the gangs of young men who swagger about the narrow streets, +each gang wearing a different coloured cap. They will have been told +that these are the "corps" students, and the sight of them so jolly +and so idle will confirm their mental picture of the German student, +the picture of a young man who does nothing but drink beer, fight +duels, sing _Volkslieder_ and _Trinklieder_, and make love to pretty +low-born maidens. When you see a company of these young men clatter +into the Schloss garden on a summer afternoon, and drink vast +quantities of beer, when you observe their elaborate ceremonial of +bows and greetings, when you hear their laughter and listen to the +latest stories of their monkey tricks, you understand that the +student's life is a merry one, but except for the sake of tradition +you wonder why he need lead it at a seat of learning. Anything further +removed from learning than a German corps student cannot be imagined, +and the noise he makes must incommode the quiet working students who +do not join a corps. Not that the quiet working students would wish to +banish the others. They are the glory of the German universities. In +novels and on the stage none others appear. The innocent foreigner +thinks that the moment a young German goes to the Alma Mater of his +choice he puts on an absurd little cap, gets his face slashed, buys a +boarhound, and devotes all his energies to drinking beer and ragging +officials. But though the "corps" students are so conspicuous in the +small university towns, it is only the men of means who join them. For +poorer students there is a cheaper form of union, called a +_Burschenschaft_. When a young German goes to the university he has +probably never been from home before, and by joining a _Corps_ or a +_Burschenschaft_ he finds something to take the place of home, +companions with whom he has a special bond of intimacy, and a +discipline that carries on his social education; for the etiquette of +these associations is most elaborate and strict. The members of a +corps all say "thou" to each other, and on the _Alte Herren Abende_, +when members of an older generation are entertained by the young ones +of to-day, this practice still obtains, although one man may be a +great minister of State and the other a lad fresh from school. The +laws of a "corps" remind you of the laws made by English schoolboys +for themselves,--they are as solemnly binding, as educational, and as +absurd. If a Vandal meets a Hessian in the street he may not recognise +him, though the Hessian be his brother; but outside the town's +boundary this prohibition is relaxed, for it is not rooted in ill +feeling but in ceremony. One corps will challenge another to meet it +on the duelling ground, just as an English football team will meet +another--in friendly rivalry. All the students' associations except +the theological require their members to fight these duels, which are +really exercises in fencing, and take place on regular days of the +week, just as cricket matches do in England. The men are protected by +goggles and by shields and baskets on various parts of their bodies, +but their faces are exposed, and they get ugly cuts, of which they are +extremely proud. As it is quite impossible that I should have seen +these duels myself, I will quote from a description sent me by an +English friend who was taken to them in Heidelberg by a corps student. +"They take place," he says, "in a large bare room with a plain boarded +floor. There were tables, each to hold ten or twelve persons, on +three sides of the room, and a refreshment counter on the fourth +side, where an elderly woman and one or two girls were serving wine. +The wine was brought to the tables, and the various corps sat at their +special tables, all drinking and smoking. The dressing and undressing +and the sewing up of wounds was done in an adjoining room. When the +combatants were ready they were led in by their seconds, who held up +their arms one on each side. The face and the top of the head were +exposed, but the body, arms and neck were heavily bandaged. The +duellists are placed opposite each other, and the seconds, who also +have swords in their hands, stand one on each side, ready to interfere +and knock up the combatant's sword. They say '_Auf die Mensur_', and +then the slashing begins. As soon as blood is drawn the seconds +interfere, and the doctor examines the cut. If it is not bad they go +on fighting directly. If it needs sewing up they go into the next +room, and you wait an endless time for the next party. I got awfully +tired of the long intervals, sitting at the tables, drinking and +smoking. While the fights were going on we all stood round in a ring. +There were only about three duels the whole morning. There was a good +deal of blood on the floor. The women at the refreshment counter were +quite unconcerned. They didn't trouble to look on, but talked to each +other about blouses like girls in a post office. The students drove +out to the inn and back in open carriages. It is a mile from +Heidelberg. The duels are generally as impersonal as games, but +sometimes they are in settlement of quarrels. I think any student may +come and fight on these occasions, but I suppose he has to be the +guest of a corps." + +A German professor lecturing on university life constantly used a word +I did not understand at first. The word as he said it was _Commang_, +with a strong accent on the second syllable. The word as it is written +is _Comment_, and means the etiquette set up and obeyed by the +students. The Germans have taken many French words into their language +and corrupted them, much as we have ourselves: sometimes by +Germanising the pronunciation, sometimes by conjugating a French verb +in the German way as they do in _raisonniren_ and _geniren_. The +_Commang_, said the professor, was a highly valuable factor in a young +man's education, because it helped more than anything else to turn a +schoolboy into a man of the world. So when I saw a little book called +_Der Bier Comment_ for sale I bought it instantly, for I wanted to +know how beer turned a schoolboy into a man of the world. It began +with a little preface, a word of warning to anyone attempting to write +about the morals, customs, and characteristics of the German nation. +No one undertaking this was to forget that the Germans had an amazing +_Bierdurst_, and that they liked to assuage this thirst in company, to +be cheerful and easy, and to sing while they were drinking. Then it +goes on to give the elaborate ceremonial observed at the _Kneiptafel_. +One of my dictionaries, although the German-English part has 2412 +pages, translates _Kneipe_ as "any instrument for pinching." I never +yet found anything I wanted in those 2412 pages. Another dictionary, +one that cost ninepence, and is supposed to give you all words in +common use, does not include _Kneipe_ at all. As an instrument for +pinching, _Kneipe_ is certainly not common, except possibly amongst +people who use tools. As a word for a sort of beer club it is as +common as beer. It is not only students who go to the _Kneipe_. In +some parts of Germany men spend most of the evening drinking beer and +smoking with their friends, while the womenfolk are by themselves or +with the children at home. But the beer _Commang_ that the professor +thought had such educational value is the name for certain intricate +rites practised by university students at the _Kneiptafel_. Those who +sit at the table are called Beer Persons, and they are of various +ranks according to the time of membership and their position in the +Kneipe. Every Beer Person must drink beer and join in the songs, +unless he has special permission from the chairman. The Beer Persons +do not just sit round the table and drink as they please. If they did +there would be no _Comment_, and I suppose no educational value. They +have to invite their fellows to drink with them, and the quantity +drunk, the persons who may have challenged, and the exact number of +minutes that may elapse before a challenge is accepted and returned, +is all exactly laid down. Then there are various festive and ingenious +ways of drinking together, so as to turn the orgy into something like +a game. For instance, the glass "goes into the world," that is, it +circulates, and any Beer Person who seizes it with a different hand or +different fingers from his neighbour is fined. Or the glasses are +piled one on the top of another while the Beer Persons sing, and some +one man has to drink to each glass in the pile at the word of command. +Or the president orders a "Beer Galop" with the words "_Silentium fuer +einen Biergalopp: ich bitte den noetigen Stoff anzuschaffen._" At the +word of command everyone, beginning with the president, passes his +glass to his left-hand neighbour and empties the one he receives. Then +the glasses are refilled, passed to the right, and emptied again as +soon as possible. The president, it seems, has to exercise a good deal +of discretion and ingenuity, for if the _Kneipe_ seems flat it lies +with him to order the moves in the game that will make it lively and +stimulate beer, song, and conversation. There are various fines and +punishments inflicted according to strict rule on those who transgress +the code of the _Kneipe_, but as far as I can make out they all +resolve themselves into drinking extra beer, singing extra songs, or +in really serious cases ceasing to be a Beer Person for whatever +length of time meets the offence. An Englishman who was present at +some of these gatherings in Heidelberg, told me that the etiquette was +most difficult for a foreigner to understand, and always a source of +anxiety to him all the evening. He was constantly invited to drink +with various members, and the German responsible for him explained +that he must not only respond to the invitation at the moment, but +return it at the right time: not too soon, because that would look +like shaking off an obligation, and not too late, because that would +look like forgetting it. + +A _Kommers_ is a students' festival in which the professors and other +senior members of a university take part, and at which outsiders are +allowed to look on. The presiding students appear _in vollem Wichs_, +as we should say in their war paint, with sashes and rapiers. Young +and old together drink beer, sing songs, make speeches, and in honour +of one or the other they "rub a Salamander,"--a word which is said to +be a corruption of _Sauft alle mit einander_. This is a curious +ceremony and of great antiquity. When the glasses are filled, at the +word of command they are rubbed on the table; at the word of command +they are raised and emptied; and again at the word of command every +man rubs his glass on the table, the second time raises it and brings +it down with a crash. Anyone who brought his glass down a moment +earlier or later than the others would spoil the _Salamander_ and be +in disgrace. In _Ekkehardt_ Scheffel describes a similar ceremonial in +the tenth century. "The men seized their mugs," he says, "and rubbed +them three times in unison on the smooth rocks, producing a humming +noise, then they lifted them towards the sun and drank; each man set +down his mug at the same moment, so that it sounded like a single +stroke." + +A _Kommers_ is not always a gay festival. It may be a memorial +ceremony in honour of some great man lately dead. Then speeches are +made in his praise, solemn and sacred music is sung, and the +Salamander, an impressive libation to the dead man's Manes, is drunk +with mournful effect. + +In small university towns--and it must be remembered that there are +twenty-two universities in Germany--the students play a great part in +the social life of the place. German ladies have often told me that +the balls they looked forward to with most delight as girls were those +given by students, when one "corps" would take rooms and pay for +music, wine, and lights. For supper, tickets are issued on such +occasions, which the guests pay themselves. The small German +universities seem full of the students in term time, especially in +those places where people congregate for pleasure and not for work. +Even in a town as big as Leipsic they are seen a good deal, filling +the pavement, occupying the restaurants, going in gangs to the play. +But in Berlin the German student of tradition, the beer person, the +duellist, the rollicking lad with his big dog, is lost. He is there, +you are told, but if you keep to the highway you never see him; and, +to tell the truth, in Germany you miss him. He stands for youth and +high spirits and that world of ancient custom most of us would be +loth to lose. In Berlin, if you go to the _Universitaet_ when the +working day begins, you see a crowd of serious, well-mannered young +men, most of them carrying books and papers. They are swarming like +bees to the various lecture-rooms; they are as quiet as the elderly +professors who appear amongst them. They have no corps caps, no dogs, +no scars on their scholarly faces. By their figures you judge that +they are not Beer Persons. They have worked hard for twelve years in +the gymnasiums of Germany, they have no idle habits, no interests so +keen as their interest in this business of preparing for the future. +They are the men of next year's Germany, and will carry on their +country's reputation in the world for efficiency and scholarship. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIEHL ON WOMEN + + +Not long ago I heard a German professor say that anyone who wanted to +speak with authority about the German family must read _Die Familie_ +by W.H. Riehl. He said that, amongst other things, this important work +explained why men went to the _Kneipe_, because they were fond of home +life; and also what was the sphere of women. I thought it would be +useful to have both these points settled; besides, I asked several +wise Germans about the book, and they all nodded their heads and said +it was a good one. So I got it, and was surprised to find it came out +in 1854. I thought ideas about women had advanced since then, even in +Germany, though a German friend had warned me just before my last +visit not to expect much in this way. She made a movement with her +lips as if she was blowing a bit of thistledown from her. "Remember," +she said, "that is what you will be directly you get there ... nothing +at all." But I had been to Germany so often that I was prepared to be +"nothing at all" for a time, and not to mind it much. What I wanted to +discover was how far German women had arrived at being "something" in +the eyes of their men. In my eyes they had always been a good deal: +admirable wives and mothers, for instance, patient, capable, thrifty, +and self-sacrificing. At first I thought that my friend was wrong, +and that women of late years had made great strides in Germany. I met +single women who had careers and homes of their own and were quite +cheerful. When you are old enough to look back twenty or thirty years, +and remember the blight there used to be on the "old maid," and the +narrow gossiping life she was driven to lead, you must admit that +these contented bachelor women have done a good deal to emancipate +themselves. In England they have been with us for a long time, but +formerly I had not come across them in Germany. On the contrary, I +well remember my amazement as a girl at hearing a sane able-bodied +single woman of sixty say she had naturally not ventured on a summer +journey to Switzerland till some man who looked after her money +affairs, but was in no way related, had given her his consent. I did +once hear a German boast of having struck his wife in order to bring +her to submission. He was not a navvy either, but a merchant of good +standing. He was not a common type, however. German men, on the whole, +treat their womenfolk kindly, but never as their equals. Over and over +again German women have told me they envied the wives of Englishmen, +and I should say that it is impossible for an English woman to be in +Germany without feeling, if she understands what is going on around +her, that she has suddenly lost caste. She is "nothing at all" because +she is a woman: to be treated with gallantry if she is young and +pretty, and as a negligible quantity if she is not. That perhaps is a +bitter description of what really takes place, but after reading Herr +Riehl, and hearing that his ideas are still widely accepted in +Germany, I am not much afraid of being unjust. His own arguments +convict the men of the nation in a measure nothing I could say would. +They are in extreme opposition to the ideas fermenting amongst modern +women there, and the strange fact that they are not regarded as quite +out of date makes them interesting. + +Herr Riehl's theory, to put it in a nutshell, is that the family is +all-important, and the individual, if she is a woman, is of no +importance at all. He does not object to her being yoked to a plough, +because then she is working for the family, but he would forbid her, +if he could, to enter any profession that would make her independent +of the family. She is not to practise any art, and if she "commences +author" it is a sure sign that she is ugly, soured, and bitter. In any +country where they are allowed to rule, and even in any country where +they distinguish themselves in art and literature, civilisation as +well as statecraft must be at a standstill. Queen Elizabeth and Maria +Theresa were evidently awkward people for a man laying down this +theory to encounter, so he goes out of his way to say that they were +not women at all, but men in women's clothes. Moreover, he has no +doubt that the Salic law must ultimately prevail everywhere. + +A woman has no independent existence: he says she is taught from +childhood to be subordinate to others; she cannot go out by herself +with propriety; she is not a complete creature till she finds a mate. +The unlucky women who never find one (more than 400,000 in Germany) +are not to make any kind of career for themselves, either humble or +glorious. Each one is to search carefully for relatives who will give +her a corner in their house, and allow her to work for them. If no one +wants her she may live with other women and bring up poor children. He +would allow women some education. Far be it from him to think that +women are to remain in compulsory ignorance. But their education is to +be "womanly," and carried on in the family. Women teachers in public +schools he considered a danger to the State, and he would send all +girls till they reach their twelfth or fourteenth year to the +elementary schools, where they would be taught by men and associate +with bare-footed children. Woman, in short, is to learn how to be +woman at home, and how not to be superwoman in school. She may even +have some instruction in art and science, but only a limited +instruction that will not encroach on her duty to the family. + +The fate of lonely single women is much on Herr Riehl's mind. What are +we to do with them? he asks despairingly. "What is to become of the +army of innocent creatures, without means, without a craft, doomed to +an aimless, disappointed life. Shall we shut them up in convents? +Shall we buy them into Stifts? Shall we send them to Australia? Shall +we put an end to them?" Quite in the manner of Dogberry, he answers +his own questions. Let them go their ways as before, he says. He knows +there is no short cut to social regeneration, and he will not +recommend one, not even extirpation. He points out that the working +women of Germany have never asked to be on an equality with men. The +lower you descend in the social scale the less sharply women are +differentiated from men, and the worse time women have in consequence. +The wife of a peasant is only his equal in one respect: she works as +hard as he does. Otherwise she is his serf. The sole public position +allowed to a woman in a village is that of gooseherd; while those +original minds who in other circumstances would take to authorship or +painting have to wait, if they are peasants, till they are old, when +they can take to fortune-telling and witchcraft. Herr Riehl admits +that the lot of women when they are peasants is not a happy one. He +does not make the admission because he thinks it of much consequence, +but because it illustrates his argument that the less "feminine" women +are the less power they exercise. He has no great fault to find with +the peasant's household, where the wife is a beast of burden in the +field and a slave indoors, bears children in quick succession, is old +before her time, and sacrifices herself body and soul to the family. +But he points out that on a higher social plane, where women are more +unlike men, more distinctively feminine, the position they take is +more honourable. Yet it is these same "superfeminine" women who are +foolishly claiming equality with men. + +Herr Riehl's views expressed in English seem a little behind the +times, here and there more than a little brutal. He speaks with +sympathy of suttee, and he quotes the Volga-Kalmucks with approval. +This tribe, it seems, "treat their wives with the most exquisite +patriarchal courtesy; but directly the wife neglects a household duty +courtesy ceases (for the _genius_ of the house is more important than +the personal dignity of the wife), and the sinner is castigated (_wird +tuechtig durchgepeitscht_). The whip used, the household sword and +sceptre, is handed down from generation to generation as a sacred +heirloom." I have translated this passage instead of alluding to it, +because I thought it was an occasion on which Herr Riehl should +literally speak for himself. + +It is, however, fair to explain that modern men as well as modern +women come under his censure. All the tendencies and all the habits of +modern life afflict him, and he lashes out at them without +discrimination, and with such an entire lack of prophetic insight +that I have found him consoling. For this book was published sixteen +years before the Franco-Prussian War, when Germany, the world must +admit, proved that it was not decadent. Yet every page of it is a +Jeremiad, an exhortation to his countryfolk to stop short on the road +to ruin. He does not see that the whole nation is slowly and patiently +girding its loins for that mighty effort; he believes it is blind, +weak, and flighty. If he had lived in England, and a little later, he +would certainly have talked about the Smart Set, Foreign Financiers, +and the Yellow Press. As he lived in Germany fifty years ago, he +scolds his countryfolk for living in flats. He wants to know why a +family cannot herd in one room instead of scattering itself in +several. As for a father who cannot endure the cry of children, that +man should never have been a father, says Herr Riehl. He cannot +approve of the dinner hour being put off till two o'clock. Why not +begin work at five and dine at eleven in the good old German way? He +praises the ruinous elaborate festivals that used to celebrate family +events, and considers that the police help to destroy family life by +fining people who in their opinion spend more than they can afford on +a wedding or a christening. He objects to artificial Christmas trees, +and points out that other nations set a tree in the drawing-room, but +that Germans have it in the nursery, the innermost sanctum of family +life. He arrives at some curious conclusions when he discusses the +German's habit of turning the beer-house into a sort of club that he +calls his _Kneipe_. Other races can drink, he says; _aber bloss die +germanischen koennen kneipen_--only the Germanic peoples can make +themselves at home in an inn. What does the _Stammgast_, the regular +guest, ask but the ways of home? the same chair every night, the same +corner, the same glass, the same wine; and where there is a +_Stammtisch_ the same companions. He sees that family life is more or +less destroyed when the men of the household spend their leisure +hours, and especially their evenings, at an inn, but he says that the +homelike surroundings of the _Kneipe_ prove the German's love of home. +In fact, he suggests that even the habitual drunkard is often a weak, +amiable creature cut out for family life; only, he has sought it at +the public-house instead of on his own hearth. + +Herr Riehl is, in fact, deeply concerned to see amongst his +countryfolk a gradual slackening of family ties, a widespread selfish +individualism amongst women, an abdication of duty and authority +amongst men. His views about women sound outrageous to-day, chiefly +because he wants to apply them to all women without distinction; and +also because they display a total want of consideration for the +welfare and the wishes of women themselves. But his position is +interesting, because with some modifications it is the position still +taken by the majority of German men; naturally, not by the most +advanced and intelligent, but by the average German from the Spree to +the Danube. He thinks that woman was made for man, and that if she has +board, lodging, and raiment, according to the means of her menfolk, +she has all she can possibly ask of life. When her menfolk are +peasants, she must work in the fields; when they belong to the middle +or upper classes, her place is in the kitchen and the nursery. Unless +he is exceptionally intelligent he does not understand that this +simple rule is complicated by modern economic conditions, and by the +enormous number of women thrown on their own resources. He would send +them as Herr Riehl did, to the kitchens and nurseries of other people; +or he would give up the problem in despair, as Herr Riehl did, +admitting with a sigh that modern humanitarianism forbids the +establishment of a lethal chamber for the superfluous members of a +weaker sex. + +The most modern German women are in direct opposition to Herr Riehl, +and it must be said that some of their leaders are enthusiastic rather +than sensible. They are drunk with the freedom they claim in a country +where women are not even allowed to attend a political meeting except +with the express consent of the police. In their ravings against the +tyranny of men they lose all historical sense, just as an American +does when he describes a mediaeval crime as if it had been committed by +a European with a twentieth-century conscience. They charge men with +keeping half humanity in a degrading state of slavery, and attribute +all the sins of civilisation to the enforced ignorance and +helplessness of women. Their contempt for their masters is almost +beyond the German language to express, eloquently as they use it. They +demand equality of education and opportunity, but they do not want to +be men. Far be such a desire from their minds. They mean to be +something much better. To what a pass have men brought the world, they +ask? How much better would manners and morals and politics be in the +hands of women! They repel with indignation the taunt that women have +no right to govern the State because their bodies are too weak to +defend it. They point out with a gleam of sense and justice that the +mother of children does serve the State in a supremely important way; +and for that matter they are willing to take many State duties on +their shoulders, and to train for them as arduously and regularly as +men train for the wretched business of killing each other. They will +not mate with those poor things--modern men--under the existing +marriage laws. They refuse to be household beasts of burden a day +longer. Life, life to the dregs with all its joys and all its +responsibilities, is what they want, and love if it comes their way. +But not marriage. Young Siegfrieds they ask for, young lions. Here one +bewildered reader rubbed her eyes; for she had just heard Siegfried +and the Goetterdaemmerung again, and sometimes she reads in the +_Nibelungenlied_; and if ever a man won a woman with his club, by +muscle seemingly, by magic really, but anyhow by sheer bodily +strength, was not that man Siegfried? and was not the woman +Bruennhilde? And what does the Siegfried of the Lied say when his wife +has failed to keep a guard on her tongue-- + + "Man soll so Frauen ziehen," sprach Siegfried, "der Degen, + Das sie ueppig Reden lassen unterwegen. + Verbiet es deinem Weibe; der meinen thu' ich's auch. + Ich schaeme mich, wahrlich um solchen uebermuethigen Brauch." + +And then, just as if he was one of those Volga-Kalmucks admired by +Herr Riehl, he beats poor Kriemhilde black and blue. + + "Das hat mich bald gereuet," so sprach das edle Weib; + "Auch hat er so zerblaueet deswegen meinen Leib! + Dass ich es je geredet, beschwerte ihm den Muth: + Das hat gar wohl gerochen der Degen tapfer und gut." + +Yet here is the last development in women, the woman who refuses as an +outrage both the theory of masculine superiority and the fact so +evident in Germany of masculine domination, here is the +self-constituted superwoman calling as if she was Eve to the primaeval +male. It may be perverse of me, but my imagination refuses to behold +them mated. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE OLD AND THE NEW + + +Germany stands midway between France and England in its care for its +womenfolk. French parents consider marriage the proper career for a +woman, and with logical good sense set themselves from the day of a +girl's birth to provide a dowry for her. When she is of a marriageable +age they provide the husband. They will make great sacrifices to +establish a daughter in prosperity, and they leave nothing to chance. +We leave everything to chance, and the idea of marriage made by +bargain and without love offends us. Such marriages are often enough +made in England, but they are never admitted. Some gloss of sentiment +or of personal respect is considered decent. But on the whole in this +country a girl shifts for herself. If she marries, well and good; if +she remains single, well and good too, provided she can earn her +living or has means. When she has neither means nor craft and fails to +marry, she is one of the most tragic figures in our confused social +hierarchy, difficult to help, superfluous. She sets her hand to this +and that, but she has no grip on life. To think of her is to invoke +the very image of failure and incompetence. She flocks into every +opening, blocking and depressing it; as a "help" she becomes a byword, +for she has grown up without learning to help herself or anybody +else. If she is a Protestant she has no haven. Only people who have +set themselves to help poor ladies know the difficulties of the +undertaking, and the miseries their protegees endure. + +Even in the Middle Ages the conscientious German was doing more for +this helpless element of his population than England and America are +doing to-day. He saw that some of his daughters would remain +unmarried, and that if they were gently bred he must provide for their +future, and he did this by founding _Stifte_. The old _Stift_ was +established by the gentlemen of some one district, who built a house +and contributed land and money for its maintenance, so that when they +died their unmarried daughters should still have a suitable home. Some +of these old _Stifte_ are very wealthy now, and have buildings of +great dignity and beauty; they still admit none but the descendants of +the men who founded them, and when they have more money than they need +to support the _Stift_ itself, they use it to pension the widows and +endow the brides belonging to their group or families. In +Hesse-Cassel, for instance, there is an ancient _Stift_ formed by the +_Ritterschaft_ of the Duchy and it is so well off that it can afford +to pension every widow and fatherless child, and buy an outfit for +every bride whose name either by marriage or descent entitles her to +its protection. The example set by the noble families of the Middle +Ages was followed in time by other classes, and _Stifte_ were +established all over Germany for the daughters of the bourgeoisie. +They grew in number and variety; some had a school attached to their +endowment and some an orphanage. In some the rule was elastic, in +others binding. There are _Stifte_ from which a woman may absent +herself for the greater part of the year, and yet draw an income from +its funds and have a room or rooms appointed to her use; there are +others where residence is compulsory. Some are only open to +descendants of the founders; some sell vacancies. A woman may have to +wait year after year for a chance of getting in; or she may belong to +one that will admit her at a certain age. In many there is a presiding +lady, the Domina or Abbess; and when the present Emperor visited a +well-known _Stift_ lately he gave the Abbess a shepherd's crook with +which to rule her flock. Some are just sets of rooms with certain +privileges of light and firing attached. Their constitution varies +greatly, according to the class provided for and the means available. +But you cannot be much amongst Germans without meeting women who have +been educated, endowed, helped in sickness, or supported in old age by +one of these organisations. You come across girls of gentle birth but +with no means who have been brought up in a _Stift_, or you hear of +well-to-do girls whose parents have paid high for their schooling in +one. You know the elderly unmarried daughter of an official living on +his pension, and you find that though she has never been taught to +earn her bread she looks forward to old age with serenity, because +when she was a child her relations bought her into a _Stift_ that will +give her at the age of fifty free quarters, fire, light, and an income +on which, with her habits of thrift, she can live comfortably. Another +woman engaged in private teaching and a good deal battered by the +struggle for life, comes to you some day more radiant than you have +ever seen her, and you find that influential friends have put her case +before a _Stift_, and that it has granted her two charming rooms with +free fire and light. I heard of a cook the other day who, after many +years of faithful service, left her employers to spend her old age in +a _Stift_. No social stigma attaches to the women living in one, and +they are as free, in some cases as well placed and well born, as the +English women living at Hampton Court. Some friction and some gossip +is presumably inevitable wherever women herd together in an unnatural +segregation from men and children. But at any rate the German _Stift_ +saves many a woman from the tragic struggle with old age and poverty +to which the penniless incapable spinster is condemned in our country. +It may not be a paradise, but it is a haven. As I said at the +beginning, the Frenchman dowers and marries his girl, the German buys +her a refuge, the Englishman leaves her to fate. + +On the whole, the German believes that the woman's province is within +the limits of the household. He wants her to be a home-maker, and in +Germany what "he" wants her to be still fixes the standard. But as the +census reveals the existence of large numbers of single women, and as +"he" often has a thoughtful and benevolent mind, more and more is done +there every year to prepare those women who must earn their living to +earn it capably. It has been understood for some time past that Herr +Riehl's plan of finding a family roof for every woman without one +presents difficulties where there are 400,000-odd women to provide for +in this way. One of the people who first saw this clearly, and +supported every sensible undertaking that came to the assistance of +women, was the Empress Frederick; and one of the institutions that she +encouraged and esteemed from the beginning was the _Lette-Verein_ in +Berlin. + +The _Lette-Verein_, named after its originator, Dr. A. Lette, was +founded, says its prospectus, to further the education of women and to +increase the efficiency of women dependent on themselves for support. +What it actually does is to train for housekeeping and office work, +and for some trades. Its interest lies in the ordered and thoughtful +provision it makes both for the woman who means to devote herself body +and soul to the family; and for the woman who prefers, or who is +driven, to stand in the market-place and compete with men. The +_Lette-Verein_ does not train servants or admit servants to its +classes. It occupies a large block of buildings in the west of Berlin, +for its various schools and hostels require a great deal of room. +Students who live in the city can attend daily classes; but those who +come from a distance can have board and residence for L1 a week or +less. Once a week strangers are allowed to see the _Lette-Haus_ at +work, and when I went there we were taken first to the kitchens, where +the future housewives of Germany were learning to cook. The stoves +were the sensible low closed-in ones used on the continent, and the +vessels were either earthenware or metal, kept brightly polished both +inside and out. The students were preparing and cooking various +dishes, but the one that interested me was the _Leipziger Allerlei_, +because I compared it with the "herbage" an English plain cook throws +into water and sends up half drained, half cold, and often enough half +clean. I could not stop to count the vegetables required for +_Leipziger Allerlei_, but there seemed to be at least six varieties, +all cooked separately, and afterwards combined with a properly made +sauce. The Englishman may say that he prefers his half-cooked cabbage, +and the English woman, if she is a plain cook, will certainly say that +the cabbage gives her as much trouble as she means to take; but the +German woman knows that when she marries her husband will want +_Leipziger Allerlei_, so she goes to the _Lette-Haus_ and learns how +to make it. Even the young doctors of Berlin learn cooking at the +_Lette-Haus_. Special classes for invalid cookery are held on their +behalf, and are said to be popular and extremely useful. Certainly +doctors whose work is amongst the poor or in country places must often +wish they understood something about the preparation of food. The +girls who go to the _Lette-Haus_ are taught the whole art of +housekeeping, from the proper way to scour a pan or scrub a floor to +fine laundry work and darning, and even how to set and serve a table. +An intelligent girl who had been right through the courses at the +_Lette-Haus_ could train an inexperienced servant, because she would +understand exactly how things ought to be done, how much time they +should take, and what amount of fatigue they involve. If her servants +failed her she would be independent of them. Some students at the +_Lette-Haus_ do, as a matter of fact, form a household that is carried +on without a single servant, and is on this account the most +interesting branch of the organisation. The girls are from fourteen to +sixteen years of age, and they pay L25 a year for instruction, board, +and lodging. Some of them are the daughters of landed proprietors, and +some will eventually earn a living as "supports of the housewife," an +honourable career shortly referred to by Germans as _eine Stuetze_. +They were a happy, healthy looking lot of girls. They wear neat +serviceable gowns while they are at work, aprons, linen sleeves to +protect their stuff ones, and pretty blue handkerchiefs tied like +turbans over their hair. Some of them were busy at the wash-tub, and +this seemed heavy work for girls of that age. The various kinds of +work are done in turn, and the student when her washing week comes +round is employed in this way three hours every morning. On alternate +days she mangles clothes, and in the afternoons she sews. Our guide +would not admit that three hours at the wash-tub could be too great a +strain on a half-developed girl, and it is a question for medical +wisdom to decide. The cooking and ironing looked hot work, but these +young German girls were cheerfully and thoroughly learning how to do +them, and whether they marry or stay single their knowledge of these +arts will be of inestimable use in later years. I heard of an +able-bodied Englishwoman the other day who took to her bed in tears +because her maids left her suddenly. She could not have roasted a leg +of mutton or made the plainest pudding. This is the school of the +future, said our enthusiastic guide when we went to see the "children" +at work at the _Lette-Haus_; and I, remembering my helpless +Englishwoman, agreed with her. The children's afternoons are mostly +given to needlework, and they are instructed in the prospectus not to +bring new clothes with them, because it is desired that they should +learn how to mend old ones neatly and correctly. They are taught to +darn and patch so finely that the repair cannot easily be discovered; +they make sets of body linen for themselves, three finely sewn men's +linen shirts, a gown for work-days, and some elaborate blouses. In +another part of the _Lette-Haus_, where students were being trained as +expert embroiderers and dressmakers, we were shown pieces of flowered +brocade into which patches had been so skilfully inserted that you +could only find them by holding them up to the light. In the +bookbinding department there were amateur and professional students. +The professionals apprentice themselves for three years, and from the +first receive a small weekly wage. The length of their apprenticeship +is determined by the length of time prescribed for men, and not by +what is necessary for their training. I asked if they easily found +regular work later, and was told that at present the demand for +expert women bookbinders exceeded the supply. The _Lette-Haus_ trains +women to be photographers, printers, and clerks. In fact, with German +thoroughness and foresight it does all one big institution can to save +the women of the nation from the curse of incompetence. It turns them +out efficient housewives or efficient craftswomen, according to their +needs. + +The German woman of to-day has travelled far from the ideal set up by +Herr Riehl, and still upheld by his disciples. Women have found that +the realities of life clash with that particular ideal, and rudely +upset it. Just like any man, a woman wants bread when she is hungry, +and when there is no man to give it to her she must raven for it +herself. She has been driven from a family hearth that has no fire on +it, and from a family roof that cannot afford her shelter. On the +whole, if I may judge from personal observation, it has done her good. +The traditional old maid is dying out in Germany as assuredly as she +is dying out in England, and who shall regret her? Her outlook was +narrow, her temper often soured. She had neither self-reliance nor +charm. She was that sad, silly spectacle, a clinging plant without +support. Now that she is learning to grow on her own account, she +finds that there is a good deal in life a sensible plant can enjoy +without clinging. The German "old maid" of the twentieth century has, +like her English sister, transformed herself into a "bachelor," a +person who for this reason or that has not married, and who +nevertheless has a cheerful time. She has her own work, she often has +her own flat, and if she lives in one of the big cities she has her +own club. + +There are at present three Ladies' Clubs in Berlin all flourishing. +The subscription to the _Berliner Frauenklub_ is only six marks a +year, yet it provides the members with comfortably furnished rooms +and well cooked meals at low prices. A member of this club can dine +for ninepence, and have a hot dish from fourpence to sevenpence. She +has access to a library of 1300 volumes, to the leading papers and +reviews, and to magazines in four languages. She can entertain women +at the club, but not men; though she can meet men there at certain +hours of the day. Social gatherings of various kinds are arranged to +meet the various needs and ages of the members; and one night a week +four or five card-tables are set out, so that the older members can +have a quiet game of skat or whist. We wonder what Herr Riehl would +say if he could see them. + +Another German Ladies' Club in Berlin is the _Deutscher Frauenklub_, +and it is nicknamed the Millionaire's Club because the subscription is +twenty-five shillings. It is a rather smarter club than the other, and +has a charming set of rooms. There are about 450 members. The Third +Club is a branch of the London Lyceum, and it has aroused great +interest and attention in Berlin, not only because it is on a more +magnificent scale than the other clubs, but because of the brave +effort it makes to unite the women of all nations and help them. Most +of the women distinguished in art and literature have joined it. + +I began this chapter by saying something of the _Stift_, the refuge +for unmarried women that Germany established in the Middle Ages and +still preserves. I end it with the Lyceum Club, that latest +manifestation of a modern woman's desire to help her own sex. The +character of these institutions and their history are both +significant. In other days men helped women; in these days women try +to help themselves. The _Stift_ gives a woman bread and shelter in +idleness; the aim of the Lyceum Club is not to give, but to bring +women together and to encourage good work. The _Stifte_ are still +crowded and the Lyceum flourishes, for in our time the old woman +jostles the new. But the new woman has arrived, and is making herself +felt; with amazing force and swiftness, you must admit when you +reflect on the position of women in Germany thirty or forty years +ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +GIRLHOOD + + +In the _Memoiren einer Idealistin_, those genuine and interesting +Memoirs that have been so widely read in Germany of late, Malvida von +Meysenbug, the daughter of a highly placed official at a small German +Court, describes her confirmation day and the long period of +preparation and the spiritual struggle that preceded it. + +"During a whole year my sister and I went twice a week to the pastor's +house to be instructed in the dogma of the Protestant Church," she +says.... "The ceremony was to be on Sunday. The Friday before we had +our last lesson. Our teacher was deeply moved; with tears in his eyes +he spoke to us of the holiness and importance of the act we were about +to perform.... According to the German custom amongst girls of the +better classes, we put on black silk dresses for the first time for +our confirmation, and this ceremonial attire calmed me and did me +good. Our maid took special pains with our toilet, as if we were going +to a worldly entertainment, and chattered more than usual. It jarred +on me, but it helped to distract my thoughts. When it was time to +start I said Good-bye to my mother with deep emotion, and asked her to +forgive me my faults. My sister and I were to go to the pastor's house +on our way to church. There we found everything strewn with flowers. +Our teacher received us in his priestly robes, and spoke to all of us +so lovingly and earnestly that the most indifferent were moved. When +the church bells began to peal our procession set out, the pastor at +its head, and we following two by two. The way from the rectory to the +church was strewn with flowers, and the church was decked with them. +The Choral Society of the town, to which some of our best friends +belonged, received us with a beautiful hymn. I felt on wings, I prayed +to God that this hour might be blessed to me throughout my life. The +sermon preached by the voice that had so often affected me made me +calm. When the preacher required us to make our confession of faith, I +uttered my 'Yes' with firm assurance. Then I knelt before him with the +rest to receive his blessing. He put his hands on our heads, accepted +us as members of the Protestant Church, and blessed each one +separately, and with a special verse from the Bible. To me he said, +'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' +My heart echoed the solemn vow: Faithful unto death. The choir greeted +the young Christians with a song of victory. We did not return to the +seats reserved for candidates, but sat with our parents and relatives +waiting with them until everyone had left the church, except those who +wished to partake of the Holy Communion." + +Malvida von Meysenbug is too much absorbed in her intense spiritual +experiences to describe the lighter side of confirmation in Germany, +which celebrates it with presents and a gathering of friends. A girl +gets her first black silk gown for the occasion, and both boys and +girls get as many presents as they do at Christmas or on a birthday. +These are all set out for the inspection of the friends who assemble +at the house after the religious ceremony, to congratulate the +parents and the youngest member of their church. There is an +entertainment of coffee, chocolate, and cakes; and a few days later +both boys and girls return these visits of congratulation in the +company of their parents. Some years ago, when a girl had been +confirmed, she was considered officially grown up and marriageable, +and entered straight away into the gaieties that are supposed to lead +to marriage. But the modern tendency in Germany is to prolong +girlhood, and the wife of sixteen is as rare there amongst the +educated classes as it is here. + +Amongst the Jews in Germany marriages are still arranged for the young +people by their elders; often, as in France, through the intervention +of friends, but also by the business-like office of the marriage +broker. It need hardly be said, perhaps, that the refined and +enlightened Jews refuse to marry in this way. They insist on choosing +their own mate, and even on overlooking some disparity of fortune. +Unorthodox Jews marry Christian women, and the Jewish heiress +constantly allies herself and her money with a title or a uniform. In +the latter case, however, the nuptials are just as business-like as if +the _Schadchan_ had arranged them and received his commission. The +Graf or the Major gets the gold he lacks, and the rich Jewess gets +social prestige or the nearest approach to it possible in a +Jew-baiting land. An ardent anti-Semite told me that these mixed +marriages were not fertile, and that if only everyone of Jewish blood +would marry a Christian, the country would in course of time be +cleared of a race that, she solemnly assured me, is as great a curse +to it, and as inferior as the negro in America. But as she was an +anti-Semite with a sense of humour she admitted that the remedy was a +slow one and difficult to enforce. As a matter of fact, the Jews +marry mostly amongst themselves in Germany, and men are still living +in Frankfurt and other large cities who have made comfortable fortunes +by the brokerage they charged on their matchmaking. Formerly a +prosperous unmarried Jew used to be besieged by offers from these +agents; and so were men who could give their daughters a good dowry. +The better-class Jews do not employ them nowadays, but their marriages +are suggested and arranged much as marriages are in France. A young +merchant of Berlin thinks it is time to settle down, or perhaps wants +a little capital to enlarge his business. He consults an uncle in +Frankfurt. The uncle tells his old friend, the father of several +daughters, that the most handsome, industrious, and accomplished man +the world has ever seen, his own nephew, in fact, thinks of marriage, +and that his conditions are this and that; he tells his nephew that +the most beautiful and amiable creature in Germany, a brilliant +musician, a fluent linguist, a devoted daughter, and a person of +simple housewifely tastes, lives next door to him, the uncle. Except +for the housewifely tastes, it sounds, and in fact is, rather like a +courtship in the _Arabian Nights_ so far. The prince hears of the +princess, and without having seen her sets out to seek her hand. The +young merchant pays a flying visit to Frankfurt, is presented to the +most beautiful creature in Germany, finds her passable, has a talk to +her father as business-like as a talk between two solicitors, +proposes, is accepted, and at once becomes the most ardent lover the +world has ever seen. + +Amongst Christians marriages are certainly not arranged for girls in +this matter-of-course way, and so "old maids" abound. Girls without +money have far less chance of marriage in Germany than in England, +where young people mate as they please and where a man expects to +support his wife entirely; while the spectacle, quite common here, of +girls with a good deal of money remaining single from various reasons, +sometimes actually from want of opportunity to marry, this every-day +occurrence amongst the English better classes is unknown on the +continent. In her powerful novel _Aus guter Familie_, Gabrielle Reuter +describes the life of a German girl whose parents cannot give her a +dowry, and who is doomed in consequence to old maidhood and to all the +disappointments, restrictions, and humiliations of unsought women. +While women look to marriage and nothing else for happiness, there +must be such lives in every monogamous country, where they outnumber +the men; but in England a woman's marriage is much more a matter of +chance and charm than of money. If she is poor and misses her chance +she is worse off than the German, for she has no _Stift_ provided for +her; but if she is attractive she is just as likely to marry without a +fortune as with one. Those German women who consider their ideas +"progressive" have taken up a new cry of late, a cry about every +woman's "right" to motherhood; but they do not seem to have found a +satisfactory way of securing this right to the 400,000 women who +outnumber the men. One learned professor wrote a pamphlet advocating +polygamy, but his proposal did not have the success he no doubt felt +it deserved. The women who discuss these questions, in magazines they +edit and mostly write themselves, said that his arguments were all +conducted from the man's point of view, and were most reprehensible. +Their own chief aim at present is to protect the mothers of +illegitimate children, and this seems a natural and proper thing for +the women of any community to do. Otherwise they are not a united +body. There are moderates and immoderates amongst them, and as I am a +moderate myself in such matters, I think those who go all lengths are +lunatics. It makes one open one's eyes to go to Germany to-day with +one's old-fashioned ideas of the German Frau, and hear what she is +doing in her desire to reform society and inaugurate a new code of +morals. She does not even wait till she is married to speak with +authority. On the contrary, she says that marriage is degrading, and +that temporary unions are more to the honour and profit of women. +"Dear Aunt S.," I heard of one girl writing to a venerable relative, +"I want you to congratulate me on my happiness. I am about to be +united with the man I love, and we shall live together (_in freier +Ehe_) till one of us is tired of it." A German lady of wide views and +worldly knowledge told me a girl had lately sent her a little volume +of original poems that she could only describe as unfit for +publication; yet she knew the girl and thought her a harmless +creature. She was presumably a goose who wanted to cackle in chorus. +This same lady met another girl in the gallery of an artist who +belonged to what Mr. Gilbert calls the "fleshly school." "Ah!" said +the girl to my friend, "this is where I feel at home." One of these +immoderates, on the authority of Plato, recommended at a public +meeting that girls should do gymnastics unclothed. Some of them are +men-haters, some in the interests of their sex are all for free love. +None of them accept the domination of men in theory, so I think that +the facts of life in their own country must often be unpleasantly +forced on them. I discussed the movement, which is a marked one in +Germany at present, with two women whose experience and good sense +made their opinion valuable. But they did not agree. One said that the +excesses of these people were the outcome of long repression, and +would wear out in time. The other thought the movement would go on and +grow; which was as much as to say that she thought the old morals were +dead. Undoubtedly they are dead in some sets in Germany to-day. You +hear of girls of good family who have asserted their "right to +motherhood" without marriage; and you hear of other girls who refuse +to marry because they will not make vows or accept conditions they +consider humiliating. These views do not attract large numbers; +probably never will. But they are sufficiently widespread to express +themselves in many modern essays, novels, and pamphlets, and even to +support several magazines. The women holding them are of various types +and quality, and are by no manner of means agreed with each other; +while those women who are working steadily and discreetly for the +progress of their sex condemn the extreme party, and consider them a +check on all real advancement. + +The German girl, then, is not always the simple creature tradition +paints her. At any rate she reads novels and sees plays that would +have been forbidden to her mother. Nevertheless she is as a rule just +as happy as a girl should be when the man of her dreams asks her to +marry him. In other days a proposal of marriage was a ceremonial in +Germany. A man had to put on evening dress for the occasion, and carry +a bouquet with him. "Oh yes," said a German friend of mine, "this is +still done sometimes. A little while ago a cousin of mine in Mainz was +seen coming home in evening dress by broad daylight carrying his +bouquet. The poor fellow had been refused." But in these laxer times a +man is spared such an ordeal. It is more usual in Germany than in +England to speak to a girl's father before proposing to her, but even +this is not invariable nowadays. Young people make their own +opportunities. "Last year my brother proposed to his present wife in +the woods near Baden while they gathered Waldmeister," said a young +German to a girl he ardently admired. "It will be in flower next week, +and your parents have just arranged that I may meet them at the _Alte +Schloss_ in time for dinner. After dinner we will walk in the +woods--_nicht wahr_?" But the girl, as it happened, did not wish to +receive a proposal of marriage from this young man, so she took care +not to walk in the woods and gather Waldmeister with him. It is often +said that the sexes herd separately in Germany, and do not meet each +other much. But this always seems to me one of the things said by +people who have looked at Germans and not lived amongst them. A nation +that has such an intimate home life, and is on the whole poor, +receives its friends in an intimate informal way. Young men have +different occupations and interests from girls, but when they are +admitted to a family they are often admitted on terms of easy +friendship. In London you may ask a young man with others to dinner at +intervals, and never get to know him; in Berlin you ask him without +others to supper, and soon get to know him very well. Besides, a +German cannot endure life long without an _Ausflug_ or a _Landpartie_, +and when the family plans one it includes one or two of its friends. + +When two Germans do get engaged they let their world know of it. A +betrothal there is not the informal flimsy contract it often is with +us. They begin by publishing the event in their newspapers, and +sending round printed forms announcing it to their friends. In the +newspaper the announcement is rather bare compared with the +advertisement of other family events. "Engaged. Frl. Martha Raekelwitz +mit Hrn. Ingenieur Julius Prinz Dresden-Hamburg" is considered +sufficient. But the printed intimations sent round on gilt-edged paper +or cardboard to the friends of the contracting parties are more +communicative. On one side the parents have the honour to announce the +engagement of their daughter Anna to Mr. So-and-So, and on the other +side Mr. So-and-So announces his engagement to Miss Anna. Here is a +reproduction of such a form, with nothing altered except the actual +names and addresses. On the left-hand side of the double sheet of +cartridge paper the parents of the _Braut_ have their say-- + + "Die Verlobung ihrer Tochter Pauline mit Herrn Referendar Dr. + jur. Heinrich Schmidt in Berlin beehren sich ergebenst + anzuzeigen. + + Geh. Regierungsrat Dr. EUGEN BRAND + Koenigl. Gymnasialdirektor und + FRAU HELENE, geb. ENGEL + +STUTTGART, _im Juni 1906_ + Tiergarten 7" + +Then on the opposite page the future bridegroom speaks for himself-- + + "Meine Verlobung mit Fraeulein Pauline Brand, Tochter des + Koenigl. Gymnasialdirektors Herrn Geh. Regierungsrat Dr. Eugen + Brand und seiner Frau Gemahlin Helene, geb. Engel, in + Stuttgart, beehre ich mich ergebenst anzuzeigen. + + Dr. jur. HEINRICH SCHMIDT + Referendar + +BERLIN, _im Juni 1906_ + Kurfuerstendamm 2000" + +Directly these forms have been circulated, all the friends who have +received one and live near enough pay a visit of congratulation to the +bride's parents, and soon after the betrothed couple return these +visits with some ceremony. It is quite impossible, by the way, to talk +of Germans who are officially engaged without calling them the bride +and bridegroom. They plight their troth with the plain gold rings that +will be their wedding rings, and this stage of their union is +celebrated with as much ceremony and merrymaking as the actual +wedding. The Germans are giving up so many of their quaint poetical +customs that the girl of to-day probably wears a fine diamond +engagement ring instead of the old-fashioned gold one. But the ring +with which her mother and grandmother plighted their troth was the +ring with which they were wedded, and when Chamisso wrote _Du Ring an +meinem Finger_ he was not writing of diamonds. All the tenderness and +poetry of Germany go out to lovers, and the thought of a German bride +and bridegroom flashes through the mind with thoughts of flowers and +moonlight and nightingales. At least, it does if you can associate +them with the poems of Heine and Chamisso, with the songs of Schumann, +and with the caressing intimate talk of the German tongue unloosed by +love. But your experience is just as likely to play you the unkindest +trick, and remind you of German lovers whose uncouth public +endearments made everyone not to the manner born uncomfortable. + +When the bride and bridegroom live in the same town, and know a large +number of people, they are overdone with festivities from the moment +of betrothal to the day of marriage. The round of entertainments +begins with a gala dinner given by the bride's father, and this is +followed by invitations from all the relatives and friends on either +side. When you receive a German _Brautpaar_ they should be the guests +of honour, and if you can hang garlands near them so much the better. +You must certainly present the _Braut_ with a bouquet at some stage of +the proceedings, and you will give pleasure if you can manufacture one +or two mottoes in green stuff and put them in conspicuous places. For +instance, I knew of a girl who got engaged away from home. Do you +suppose that she was allowed to return to a bare and speechless front +door as her English cousin would? Nothing of the kind. The whole +family had set to work to twine laurel wreaths and garlands in her +honour, and she was received with _Wilkommen du glueckseliges Kind_ +done in ivy leaves by her grandmother. It was considered very +_ruehrend_ and _innig_. At some time during the engagement the +betrothed couple are sure to get photographed together, and anyone who +possesses a German family album will bear me out that the lady is +nearly always standing, while her bearded lover is sitting down. When +they are both standing they are arm in arm or hand in hand. I remember +a collection possessing two photographs of a married daughter with her +husband. One had been taken just before the wedding in the orthodox +pose; he in an easy chair and she standing meekly by his side: the +other represented them a year after marriage, when Heaven had sent +them twins. They were both standing then, and they each had a baby in +a _Steckkissen_ in their arms. + +If the bridegroom is not living in the same town with his bride her +life is supposed to run rather quietly in his absence. She is not +expected to dance with other men, for instance; but rather to spend +her time in embroidering his monogram on every conceivable object he +might use: on tobacco pouches, or slippers, on letter cases, on +braces, on photograph frames, on luggage straps, on fine pocket +handkerchiefs. If she is expert and possesses the true sentiment she +will embroider things for him with her hair. In these degenerate days +she does not make her own outfit. Formerly, when a German girl left +school she began to make stores of body and house linen for future +years. But in modern cities the _Braut_ gets everything at one of the +big "white" shops, from her own laces and muslins to the saucepan +holders for the kitchen, and the bread bags her cook will hang outside +the flat for the baker's boy. In Germany it is the bride, or rather +her parents, who furnish the house and provide the household linen; +and the linen is all embroidered with her initials. This custom +extends to all classes, so that you constantly hear of a servant who +is saving up for her _Aussteuer_, that is, the furniture and linen of +a house as well as her own clothes. If you ask whether she is engaged +you are told that the outfit is the thing. When the money for that is +there it is easy to provide the bridegroom. In higher spheres much +more is spent on a bride's trousseau than in England, taking class for +class. Some years ago I had occasion to help in the choice of a +trousseau bought in Hamburg, and to be often in and out of a great +"white ware" business there. I cannot remember how many outfits were +on view during those weeks, but they were all much alike. What some +people call "undies" had been ordered in immense quantities, sometimes +heavily trimmed with Madeira work, sometimes with a plain scollop of +double linen warranted to wash and wear for ever. The material was +also invariably of a kind to wear, a fine linen or a closely woven +English longcloth. How any one woman could want some six dozen +"nighties" (the silly slang sounds especially silly when I think of +those solid highly respectable German garments) was a question no one +seemed to ask. The bride's father could afford six dozen; it was the +custom to have six dozen if you could pay for them, and there they +were. The thin cambric garments French women were beginning to wear +then were shown to you and tossed contemptuously aside as only fit for +actresses. But this has all been changed. If you ask for "undies" in +Berlin to-day, a supercilious shoplady brings you the last folly in +gossamer, decolletee, and with elbow sleeves; and you wonder as you +stare at it what a sane portly German housewife makes of such a +garment. In this, as in other things, instead of abiding by his own +sensible fashions, the German is imitating the French and the +Americans; for it is the French and the Americans who have taught the +women of other nations to buy clothes so fragile and so costly that +they are only fit for the purse of a Chicago packer. + +When the outfit is ready and the wedding day near, the bride returns +all the entertainments given in her honour by inviting her girl +friends to a Bride-chocolate or a Bean-coffee. This festivity is like +a _Kaffee-Klatsch_, or what we should call an afternoon tea. In +Germany, until quite lately, chocolate and coffee were preferred to +tea, and the guests sat round a dining-table well spread with cakes. +At a Bean-coffee the cake of honour had a bean in it, and the girl who +got the bean in her slice would be _Braut_ before the year was out. +Another entertainment that takes place immediately before the marriage +is given by the bride's best friend, who invites several other girls +to help her weave the bridal wreath of myrtle. The bride does not help +with it. She appears with the bridegroom later in the afternoon when +the wreath is ready. It is presented to her with great ceremony on a +cushion, and as they bring it the girls sing the well-known song from +the _Freischuetz_-- + + "Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz + Mit veilchenblauer Seide; + Wir fuehren dich zu Spiel und Tanz + Zu Glueck und Liebesfreude! + + Lavendel, Myrt' und Thymian + Das waechst in meinen Garten; + Wie lang bleibt doch der Freiersmann? + Ich kann es kaum erwarten. + + Sie hat gesponnen sieben Jahr + Den goldnen Flachs am Rocken; + Die Schleier sind wie Spinnweb klar, + Und gruen der Kranz der Locken. + + Und als der schmucke Freier kam, + War'n sieben Jahr verronnen: + Und weil sie der Herzliebste nahm + Hat sie den Kranz gewonnen." + +The bridegroom receives a buttonhole, but no one sings him a song. In +the opera he is not on the stage during the bridesmaids' chorus. I +have not been able to find out whether the quaint pretty verses are by +Friedrich Kind, who founded the libretto of the opera on a story by +August Apel, or whether he borrowed them from an older source. German +brides wore myrtle and their friends wove a wedding wreath for them +long before 1820, when _Der Freischuetz_ appeared. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +MARRIAGES + + +"He was a pompous, stiff-jointed man," said my friends, "an official +in a small town, who would go to the stake rather than break the +letter of the law. But when he came to Berlin to attend a niece's +marriage he thought he would have some fun. He arrived late on +_Polterabend_, and he brought with him an enormous earthenware crock. +Instead of ringing he hurled the crock against the outside door of the +flat, so that it smashed to atoms with a noise like thunder. The +inhabitants of that flat came forth like a swarm of bees, but they +were not laughing at the fun, because it was not their _Polterabend_." +He had broken crockery on the wrong floor. + +In cities this ancient German custom of breaking crockery at the +bride's door on _Polterabend_ (the night before the wedding) has died +out, but it has not long been dead. I have talked with people who +remembered it in full force when they were young. I believe that the +idea was to appease the _Poltergeist_, who would otherwise vex and +disturb the young couple. My dictionary, the one that has 2412 pages, +says that a _Poltergeist_ is a "racketing spectre," probably what we +who are not dictionary makers would call a hobgoblin. In Brands' +_Antiquities_ I find reference to this old custom at the marriage of a +Duke of York in Germany, when great quantities of glass and china were +smashed at the palace doors the night before the wedding. + +Polterabend is still celebrated by Germans, although they no longer +consider it polite to smash crockery. There is always a large +entertainment, sometimes at the bride's house, sometimes at the house +of a near relative; there are theatricals with personal allusions, or +recitations of home-made topical poetry, some good music, and the +inevitable evergreens woven into sentiments of encouragement and +congratulation. The bride's presents are set out much as they are in +England, and perhaps class for class more valuable presents are given +in Germany than in England. Electro-plate, for instance, was +considered impossible a few years ago. A wedding present, if it was +silver at all, must be real silver. But it is not so much the custom +as with us to give presents of money. + +The civil marriage takes place either the day before or early on the +same day as the religious ceremony. The bride used to wear black silk, +and still wears a dark plain costume for this official function. Her +parents go with her and the necessary witnesses. The religious +ceremony often used to take place in the house, but that is no longer +customary. The anonymous author of _German Home Life_, a book +published and a good deal read in 1879, says that marriage is a +troublesome and expensive ceremony in Germany, and that this accounts +for the large number of illegitimate children. Mr. O. Eltzbacher, the +author of _Modern Germany_ published in 1905, confirms what was said +in 1877 as to the number of illegitimate children born in Germany and +Austria, for he says that in Germany itself they are 9 per cent., +while in those districts of Austria where the Germans form about +nine-tenths of the population, from 20 per cent, to 40 per cent, of +the children are born out of wedlock. In France statistics give 9 per +cent., in Scotland 7.4 per cent., and in England and Wales 4.2 per +cent. Nevertheless in modern Germany children are not illegitimate +because their parents are too poor to pay their marriage fees. The +civil marriage is obligatory everywhere, and costs nothing. The +religious ceremony need cost nothing at all. In the porch of every +church in Prussia there is a notice stating on which days _Freie +Trauungen_ are conducted. Several couples are married at the same +time, but they have the full liturgy and the marriage sermon. A small +charge is made for the organist and for the decoration of the church. +A friend whose husband has a large poor parish in Berlin tells me that +the Social Democrats object to the religious ceremony, and will stand +guard outside the house on the day of the civil marriage, to make sure +that the newly made husband and wife do not leave together to go to +church. Sometimes an artisan will wait a fortnight after the civil +ceremony before he ventures to have the religious one. Every artisan +in Berlin has to belong to the _Sozialdemokratischer Verband_, because +if he did not his fellow-workmen would destroy his tools and ruin his +chances of work. Apparently they interfere with his private affairs as +well. + +The marriage service is not to be found in the prayer-book Germans +take to church, but I have both read it and listened to it. The vows +made are much the same as here; but in Germany great importance is +attached to the homily or marriage sermon. This is often long and +heavy. I have heard the pastor preach to the young couple for nearly +half an hour about their duties, and especially about the wife's duty +of submission and obedience. His victims were kept standing before him +the whole time, and the poor little bride was shaking from head to +foot with nervousness and excitement. In some cities the carriage used +by a well-to-do bride and bridegroom is as big as a royal coach, and +upholstered with white satin, and on the wedding day decorated inside +and out with garlands of flowers. The bridegroom fetches his bride in +this coach, and enters the church with her. When a pretty popular girl +gets married all her admirers send flowers to the church to decorate +it. The bride and bridegroom exchange rings, for in Germany men as +well as women wear a plain gold wedding ring, and it is always worn on +the right hand. The bridegroom and all the male guests wear evening +dress and silk hats. The women wear evening clothes too, and no hats. +The bride wears the conventional white silk or satin and a white veil, +but her wreath must be partly of myrtle, for in Germany myrtle is the +bride's emblem. + +After the wedding dinner the bride slips away unnoticed and changes +her gown, and is presently joined by the bridegroom, but not by any of +the guests. No rice and no old slippers are thrown in Germany, and no +crowd of friends assembles to see the young pair start. The bride bids +her parents farewell, and slips away with her husband unseen and +unattended. After the wedding dinner there is often dancing and music. + +A hundred years ago wedding festivities lasted for many days after the +wedding, and the bride and bridegroom did not go till they were over. +When the celebrated and much married Caroline Schlegel married her +first husband, George Boehmer, in 1784, the ceremony took place at her +own home in Goettingen, where her father was a well-known professor. +"It would be unnatural if a young wife did not begin with an account +of her wedding day," she says in one of her letters. "Mine was +delightful enough. Boehmer breakfasted with me, and the morning hours +passed gaily, and yet with quietness. There was no trepidation--only +an intercourse of souls. My brother came. We were together till four, +and when he left us he gave us his blessing with tears.... Lotte and +Friederike wove the bridal wreath.... Then I had a talk with my father +and dressed myself.... Meanwhile those dear Meiners sent me a note, +with which were some garters they had embroidered themselves. Several +of my friends wrote to me, and last of all I got a silhouette, painted +on glass, of Lotte and Friederike weaving my bridal wreath. When I was +dressed I was a pretty bride. The room was charmingly decorated by my +mother. Soon after four o'clock Boehmer arrived, and the guests, +thirty-eight in number. Thank Heaven, there were no old uncles and +aunts, so the company was of a more bearable type than is usual on +such occasions. I stood there surrounded by my girl friends, and my +most vivid thought was of what my condition would be if I did not love +the man before me. My father, who was still far from well, led me to +the clergyman, and I saw myself for life at Boehmer's side and yet did +not tremble. During the ceremony I did not cry. But after it was over +and Boehmer took me in his arms with every expression of the deepest +love, while parents, brothers, sisters, and friends greeted me with +kind wishes as never a bride was greeted before, my brother being +quite overwhelmed--then my heart melted and overflowed out of sheer +happiness." + +A week later Caroline and her husband are still at Goettingen, and +still celebrating their marriage. At one house, under pretence of the +heat, the bride was led into the garden, and beheld there an +illuminated motto: "Happy the man who has a virtuous wife: his life +will be doubly long." Another friend arrayed her son as Hymen, and +taught him to strew flowers in Caroline's path, leading her thus to an +arbour where there was a throne of moss and flowers, with high steps +ascending to it, a canopy and a triumphal arch. Concealed behind a +bush were musicians, who sang an appropriate song, while the bride and +bridegroom mounted the throne and sank in each other's arms before a +crowd of sympathising and tearful spectators. + +This took place more than a hundred and twenty years ago, but I have +in my possession what I can only describe as the "literature" of a +marriage celebrated three years ago between a North and a South +German, both belonging to commercial families of old standing; and it +supplies me, if I needed it, with documentary evidence that Germans +enjoy now what they enjoyed then. The marriage took place in winter +and from a flat, so that the bride's friends could not build grottoes +or hide musicians behind a bush; but for weeks before both sides of +the family must have been busy composing the poems sung at the wedding +feast, the music that accompanied them, and the elaborate humorous +verses containing allusions to the past history of the bride and +bridegroom. To begin with, there is a dainty book of picture +postcards, the first one giving portraits of a very handsome and +dignified bridegroom with his dainty bride. Then there is a view of +Dresden where the bridegroom was born, another of the Rhenish town in +which he found his bride, and one of Berlin where she used to stay +with a married sister and deal "baskets" right and left to would-be +admirers. In Germany, when a girl refuses a man she is said to give +him a "basket," and a favourite old figure in the cotillon used to put +one in a girl's hands and then present two men to her. She danced with +the one she liked best, and the rejected man had to dance round after +them with the basket. + +Besides the book of postcards, each guest at this wedding was +presented with printed copies of the _Tafel-Lieder_ composed by +members of the family. One of these has eight verses and each verse +has eight lines. It relates little events in the life of the +bridegroom from babyhood onwards. You learn that he was a clever +child, that he lived at home with his mother instead of going abroad +to learn his work, that when he was young he ardently desired to go on +the stage, that he is a fine gymnast and musician, but that he needs a +wife because he is a dreamy person capable of putting on odd boots. +Another _Tafel-Lied_ describes the courtship step by step, and even +the assistance given by the poet's wife to bring the romance to its +present happy conclusion. + + "At last Frau Sophie stirred in the affair, + Her eyes had pierced to his heart's desire, + With fine diplomacy she coaxed Miss Clare + To own her maiden heart was set on fire. + On all the words and sighs there follow deeds: + He comes, he woos her, and at last succeeds." + +The songs are not all sentiment. They are jocular, and contain puns +and play upon names. Three out of the five end with an invitation to +everyone to raise their glasses with a _Hoch_ to the married pair. +This is done over and over again at German weddings, and as all the +guests want to clink glasses with the bride and bridegroom, there is a +good deal of movement as well as noise. Besides the _Tafel-Lieder_, +each of which made a separate booklet with its own dedication and +illustration, every guest received an elaborate book of samples: +samples of the various straws used that summer for ladies' hats. The +bridegroom's family had manufactured hats for many generations; they +were wealthy, highly considered people, and extremely proud of their +position in their own industry. I am sure that when an Englishman in +the same trade and of the same standing gets married, the last thing +that would be mentioned at his wedding would be hats. It would be +considered in the highest degree indecorous. But the German is still +guileless enough to be satisfied with his station in life when it is +sufficiently honourable and prosperous, and for this wedding two +little nieces had prepared this card of samples and composed a rhyme +for each different colour-- + + "Wie ist doch der Onkel hoch beglueckt + Das Tantchen heute der 'Brautkranz' schmueckt" + +went with "myrtle green." + + "Liebe Gaeste, mit Genuss, + Wollet alle Euch erheben-- + Hoch das Brautpaar-- + Es soll leben!" + +went with the "champagne" straw at the end; and one accompanying the +"silver" straw contained an allusion to the "silver" wedding +twenty-five years hence, when the bride's golden hair would be +silver-grey. + +Here is the _menu_, mostly in French, to which all the _Tafel-Lieder_ +were sung, and all the toasts drunk and congratulatory speeches made. +You will observe that it is none of your light cup, cake, and ice +entertainments that you have substituted for the solid old wedding +breakfast in this country. + +HOCHZEITS-TAFEL. + +Caviar-Schnitten +Potage Douglas +Saumon-S^{ce} Bernaise +Pommes Naturelles +Selle de Chevreuil a la Chipolata +Ris de Veau en demi Deuil +Poularde +Salade & Compote +Asperges en Branches S^{ce} Mousseline +Glace Napolitaine +Patisserie +Fruits & Dessert +Fromage + +Scharzberger Mousseux +1900er Caseler +1896er St. Emilion + +1890er Schloss Johannisberg + +Moet et Chandon + White Star + +And that no guest should depart hungry-- + +Kaltes Abendbrot +Bier + +Germans celebrate both silver and golden weddings with as much +ceremony and rejoicing as the first wedding. The husband and wife +receive presents from all their friends, and entertain them according +to the best of their circumstances. Children will travel across the +world and bring grandchildren with them to one of these anniversaries, +and they are of course a great occasion for the topical poetry, +theatricals, and tableaux that Germans enjoy. If the grandmother by +good luck has saved a gown she wore as a girl, and the grandchild can +put it on and act some little episode from the old lady's youth, +everyone will applaud and enjoy and be stirred to smiles and tears. +There is as much feasting as at a youthful wedding, and perhaps more +elaborate performances. Silver-grey is considered the proper thing for +the silver bride to wear. + +It seems like a want of sentiment to speak of divorce in the same +breath with weddings; but as a matter of fact, divorce is commoner in +Germany than in England, and more easily obtained. Imprisonment for +felony is sufficient reason, and unfaithfulness without cruelty, +insanity that has lasted three years, desertion, ill treatment or any +attempt on the other's life. You hear divorce spoken of lightly by +people whose counterparts in England would be shocked by it; people, I +mean, of blameless sequestered lives and rigid moral views. Some +saintly ladies, who I am sure have never harboured a light thought or +spent a frivolous hour, told me of a cousin who played whist every +evening with her present husband and his predecessor. My friends +seemed to think the situation amusing, but not in any way to be +condemned. At the same time, I have heard Germans quote the +saying--"_Geschiedene Leute scheiden fort und fort_," and object +strongly to associate with anyone, however innocent, who had been +connected with a matrimonial scandal. + +A woman remains in possession of her own money after marriage even +without marriage settlements; but the husband has certain rights of +use and investment. Her clothes, jewels, and tools are her own, and +the wages she earns by her own work. A man's creditors cannot seize +either these or her fortune to pay his debts. Both in Germany and +England the wife must live in the house and place chosen by the +husband, but in Germany she need not follow him to _unwirtlichen_ +countries against her will. He can insist on her doing the housework +and helping him in his business when he has no means to pay +substitutes; but she can insist on being maintained in a style proper +to their station in life. He is responsible for her business debts if +he has consented to her undertakings; but he can forbid her to carry +on a business if he prefers that she should be supported by him and +give her time and strength to the administration of their home. When +they are legally separated he must make her an allowance, but it need +only be enough for the bare necessaries of life if the separation is +due to her misconduct. The father and mother have joint control of the +children, but during the father's lifetime his rule is paramount. When +he is dead or incapacitated parental authority remains in the mother's +hands. It is her right and duty to care for the child's person, to +decide where it shall live, and to superintend its education. She can +claim it legally from people who desire to keep it from her. A child +born in wedlock is legitimate unless the husband can prove otherwise, +and he must establish proof within a year of the birth coming to his +knowledge. But a woman is not allowed to prove that a child born in +wedlock is illegitimate. + +If a man dies intestate and leaves children or grandchildren, his +widow inherits a fourth of his property; if he only has more distant +relatives, half; if he has none, the whole. A man cannot cut his wife +off with a shilling. He must leave her at least half of what would +come to her if he died intestate. All the laws relating to husband and +wife are to be found in the _Buergerliches Gesetzbuch_, which can be +bought for a mark. As far as the non-legal intelligence can grasp +them, they seem according to our times to be just to women, except +when they give the use of her income to the husband. This is a big +exception, however. I remember hearing a German say that his sister's +quarterly allowance, which happened to be a large one, was always sent +to her husband, as it was right and proper that important sums of +money should be in the man's hands and under his control. This +undoubtedly is the general German view. After the moonshine, the +nightingales, the feasting, the toasts, and the family poetry come the +realities of life: and the realities in German make the man the +predominant partner. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOUSEHOLDER + + +Rents are high in Germany. At least, the Germans say so, and so do the +people whose books about Germany are crammed with soul-satisfying +statistics and elaborate calculations. Over-crowding, too, is said to +be worse in Germany than in English cities. But I have always seen the +rent and the crowding judged by the number of rooms and not by their +size. This is really misleading, because you could put the whole of a +small London flat into many a German middle-class dining-room or +_Wohnzimmer_. You could bring up a family in a single room I once had +for a whole summer in Thueringen for 5s. a week. It was as big as a +church, and most light and airy. One camped in bits of it. I think +rent for rent rooms in Germany are quite twice as large as in London. +In Berlin, where rent is considered wickedly high, you can get a flat +in a good quarter for L80, and for that sum you will have four large +rooms, three smaller ones, a good kitchen, an attic that serves as a +lumber-room, and a share in a laundry at the top of the house. There +will even be a bathroom with a trickle of cold water, but it is only +in the very newest and most expensive German flats that you find hot +and cold water laid on. Your drawing and dining-rooms will be +spacious, and one of them is almost sure to have a balcony looking on +the street and the pleasant avenue of trees with which it is planted. +For this rent you must either make yourself happy on the third or +fourth floor in a house without a lift, or you must find one of the +delightful "garden" dwellings behind the _Hof_; but you will have a +better home for your money than you could get in a decent part of +London. In fact, it comes to this, in spite of all the statistics in +favour of London. If you can only spend L80 on your rent you can live +in a good quarter of Berlin, near enough to the Tiergarten, close to +the Zoological Gardens, and within a tram-ride of the delightful woods +at Halensee. In London you can get a small house for L80, but it will +either be in an unattractive quarter or in a suburb. A flat, wherever +it is, must always seem a dwelling place rather than a home, but the +Germans have elected to live in flats and accept their disadvantages. +In and around all the great cities there are villas, but their number +hardly counts in comparison with the masses of tall white houses, six +storeys high for the most part, and holding within their walls all +degrees of wealth and poverty. The German villa is florid, and likes +blue glass balls and artificial fountains in its garden. It is often a +villa in appearance and several flats in reality. Its most pleasant +feature is the garden-room or big verandah, where in summer all meals +are served. Outside Hamburg, on the banks of the Elbe, the merchant +princes of the city have built themselves palaces surrounded by +splendid park-like gardens. But Hamburg, though it does not love the +English, is always accused by the rest of Germany of being English. It +certainly has beautiful gardens. So have other German cities in some +instances, but well kept gardens are not the matter of course in +Germany that they are here. You see more bare and artificial ones and +more neglected overgrown ones in an afternoon's walk than you do all +the year round in England. But I wish we could follow the German +fashion of planting all our streets with double avenues of healthy +trees. Berlin in spring seems to be set in a wood; it is so fresh and +green. The flowering shrubs, on the other hand, are not to be compared +with ours. Everyone rushes to see a few lilac bushes, and Gueldres +roses trimmed to a stiff snowball of flowers, and everyone says _Wie +Herrlich!_ but you miss the profusion of lilac, hawthorn, and laburnum +that runs riot all about London in every residential road and every +garden. Above all, you miss the English lawns. In Berlin wherever +grass is grown it looks either thin or coarse. The majority of Germans +do not dream of wanting a garden. They are content with a few palms in +their sitting-room or window boxes on their balcony. They are proud of +their window-gardening in Berlin, but I think London windows in June +are gayer and more flowery. The palms kept in German rooms attain to a +great size and number, and a palm is a favourite present. Nursery +gardeners undertake the troublesome business of repotting them every +spring, so the owners have nothing to do but water them and keep them +from draughts. There are usually so many windows in a German +sitting-room that those near the plants need never be opened in +winter; and even when the temperature sinks several degrees below zero +outside, the air of the flat is kept artificially warm, so warm that +English folk gasp and flag in it. At the first sign of winter the +outside windows, removed for the summer, are brought back again. Our +windows are unknown on the continent, and disliked by continentals who +see them here. They call them guillotine windows, and consider them +dangerous. Theirs all open like doors, so that you have four doors to +each window, and until you get used to them you find they make a +pretty clatter whenever you set them wide. But in winter they are only +opened for a few minutes every morning when the room is "aired." It is +considered extravagant to open them at other times, because the heat +would escape and more fuel would be required. I suppose everyone in +England understands that our open fireplaces are almost unknown in +Germany. They have enclosed stoves of iron or porcelain that make +little work or dirt and give no pleasure. There is no gathering round +the hearth. You sit about the room as you would in summer, for it is +evenly heated. All the beauty and poetry of fire are wanting; you have +nothing but an atmosphere that will be comfortable or asphyxiating, +according to the taste of your hosts. Years ago in South Germany you +burnt nothing but logs of wood in the old-fashioned iron stoves, and +there was some faint pleasure in listening to their crackle. You could +just see the flames too, if you stooped low enough and opened the +little stove door. But the wood burnt so quickly that it was most +difficult to keep a big room warm. Nowadays you always find the +porcelain stove that Mark Twain says looks like the family monument. +In some of these coal is burnt, or a mixture of coal and peat. Some +burn anthracite, and are considered economical. A _Fuellofen_ of this +kind is kept burning night and day during the worst of the winter. It +requires attention two or three times in twenty-four hours; it is +easily regulated, and if the communicating doors are left open it +warms two or three rooms. A friend who has a large flat in Berlin told +me that there was one of these stoves in her husband's study, and that +her drawing-room which opens out of it, and which they constantly use, +had only had a fire in it five times last winter. I find on looking +at this friend's budget that she spends L16 a year on turf and other +fuel, and this seems high for a flat where so few fires were lighted. +But fuel is dear in German towns. Briquettes are largely used in +cities, small slabs of condensed coal that cost one pfennig each. It +takes about twenty-four slabs to keep a stove in during the day. The +great advantage of the _Fuellofen_ over the ordinary stove is that it +keeps in all night. There are dangerous variations of temperature in a +German flat that is kept as hot as an oven all day, and allowed to +sink below zero during the night. But you hear complaints on all sides +in Germany, both of inconsiderate English people who waste fuel by +opening windows in cold weather; and of the sufferings endured by +Germans who have been in England in winter. They do not like our open +fireplaces at all, because they say they wish to be warm all over and +not in bits. "In England," they tell you solemnly, "you can be warm +either in front or at the back; but you cannot be warm on both sides +as we are here. Besides, your fireplaces make dirt and work and are +extravagant. They would not suit us." In fact, they imply that for the +French and the English they are well enough, but not for the salt of +the earth. The German kitchen stoves are certainly more practical and +economical than ours, and I never can understand why we do not fetch a +few over and try them. They are entirely enclosed, and much lower than +ours. The Berlin kitchener has one fire that is lighted for a short +time to roast a joint, and another using less fuel that heats water +and does light cooking. The sweep, who is bound by the etiquette of +his trade to wear a tall hat in Germany, does not come into your flat +at all. You hear him shout through the courtyard that he will visit +the house next day, and he works from the garrets and cellars. The +police regulate his visits as they regulate everything else in +Germany. Chimneys must be swept every six weeks in summer, and every +four weeks in winter in Berlin. Dustbins are emptied every day, and in +some towns the police make most troublesome regulations with regard to +them. The householder has to set his outside to be emptied, and the +police insist on this being done at a certain hour, neither earlier +nor later, so that if your servant happens to be careless or +unpunctual you will be repeatedly fined. + +Staircases vary greatly according to the date and rent of the house. +The most modern houses in Berlin have broad front staircases with +thick carpets, and in some cases seats of "Nouveau Art" design on the +landings. In such houses you are always met on the threshold by +printed requests to wipe your feet and shut the door gently. They +don't tell you to do as you're bid. That is taken for granted, or the +police will know the reason why. There is always an uncarpeted back +staircase for servants and tradespeople, and for the tenants who +inhabit the poorer parts of the building. In houses where all the +tenants belong to the poorer classes, you find notices that forbid +children to play in the Hof, and command people not to loiter or to +make any noise on the stairs. Carpet-beating and shaking, which is +constantly and vigorously carried on, is only allowed on certain days +of the week and at certain hours. When there is a house porter he is +not as important and conspicuous as the French concierge. In my +experience he has usually gone out and thoughtfully left the front +door ajar. He is not a universal institution even in Berlin. + +Taxes vary in different parts of Germany. In Saxony a man spending +L500 a year pays altogether L60 for Income tax, Municipal rates, +Water, School, and Church rates. In Berlin the Income tax is not an +Imperial (Reichs) tax, but a _Landes_ tax, and amounts to L15 on an +income of L500. Smaller incomes pay less and larger ones more, in +proportion varying from about 2 to 4 per cent. Besides this _Staats_ +tax there is a municipal tax of exactly the same amount in Berlin and +Charlottenberg. But there are towns in Prussia where it is less; +others, mostly in the Western Provinces, where it is more, +considerably more in some cases. The water rate is paid by the house +owners, and the tenant pays it in his rent. There are no school taxes. +The church tax is compulsory on members of the _Landeskirche_. When a +man has no capital his income tax is levied on his yearly expenses; +but the man whose income is derived from capital pays a higher tax +than the man who has none. The German, too, pays a great deal to the +State indirectly; for nearly everything he requires is taxed. But the +three things he loves best, tobacco, beer, and music, he gets +cheap--cheaper than he can in a Free Trade country; so he pays for +everything else as best he can, and tries to look pleasant. "But the +burden is almost more than we can bear," said one thoughtful German to +me when I told him how greatly English people admired their municipal +enterprise, and the admirable provision made in Berlin for the very +poor. + +Last time I went to Germany I actually made the acquaintance of one +German who did not smoke, and on various occasions I was in the +society of others who did not smoke for some hours. In the Berlin +tramcars smoking is strictly forbidden, but I did not observe that +this rule was strictly enforced. In fact, my attention was drawn to it +one day by finding my neighbour's cigar unpleasantly strong. One +cigar in a tramcar, however, is nothing at all, and should not be +mentioned. It is when a railway carriage beautifully upholstered with +crimson velvet holds you, six Germans, and one Englishman, for eight +hours on a blazing summer day, that you begin to wonder whether, after +all, you do mind smoke. To be sure, you might have travelled in a +_Nichtraucher_ or a _Damen-Coupe_, but changes are a nuisance on a +journey. Besides, you know that a _Damen-Coupe_ is always crowded, and +that the moment you open a window someone will hold a handkerchief +tearfully to her neck and say, "_Aber ich bitte meine Dame: es +zieht!_" and all the other women in the carriage will say in chorus, +"_Ja! ja! es zieht!_" and if you don't shut the window instantly the +conductor will be summoned, and he will give the case against you. So +you travel all day long with seven cigars, most of them cheap strong +ones, that their owners smoke very slowly and replace directly they +are finished. And after a time the conversation turns on smoking, and +your neighbour admits that he always lights his first cigar when he +gets up in the morning and smokes it while he is dressing. His wife +dresses in the same room and does not like it, but.... It is +unnecessary to say more. Five cigars out of six are in sympathy with +him, while you amuse yourself by wondering what revenge a wife could +take in such circumstances. A bottle of the most offensive scent in +the market suggests itself, but you look at your neighbour's profile, +and see that he is the kind of man to pitch scent he did not like out +of the window. You have heard of one German husband who did this when +his wife brought home perfumes that did not please him. And then your +memory travels back and back along the years, arriving at last at the +picture of an English nursery, in the household where a German guest +had arrived the night before. The nurses and the children are sitting +peacefully at breakfast, when there enters to them a housemaid, +scornful, scandalised, out of breath with her hurry to impart what she +had seen. + +"He's a-smoking in bed," she says, "that there Mr. Hoggenheimer! He's +a-smoking in bed!" + +"Some of them do," says nurse, who is a travelled person, and refuses +to be taken by surprise. + +"Well, of all the nasty...." + +"Sh!" says nurse, pointing to the children, all eyes and ears. + +So that is all you can remember about the housemaid and Mr. +Hoggenheimer. But you remember him--a little dark man who sent you +books you could not read at Christmas, and brought you enchanting +gingerbreads covered with hundreds and thousands. You thought him +rather funny, but you liked him, and if he wanted to smoke in bed why +not? You liked toys in bed yourself, and you would have taken the dog +there if only it had been allowed. Then you come back again to the +present hour, nearly all the years of your life later, and you are in +a railway carriage with six German householders who, like Mr. +Hoggenheimer, want cigars in and out of season. + +"To-morrow," you say to your Englishman; "to-morrow I shall travel in +a _Nichtraucher_." + +"But then I can't smoke," he says quite truly. + +"We shall not travel together." + +"But that is so unsociable." + +"I would rather be unsociable than suffocated," you explain. "I have +suffered tortures to-day." + +"Have you? But you always say you don't mind smoke." + +"In reason. Seven cigars and one woman are not reasonable. Never +again will I travel with seven cigars." + +"I thought we had a pleasant journey," says the Englishman +regretfully. "That little man next to you----" + +"Mr. Hoggenheimer----?" + +"Was that his name?--I couldn't understand all he said, but he had an +amusing face." + +"A face can be misleading," you say; "that man bullies his wife." + +"How do you know?" + +"He told us so. He smokes before breakfast ... while he is dressing, +... and he has no dressing room...." + +The Englishman looks calm. + +"They do take one into their confidence," he remarks. "My neighbour +told me that he never could eat mayonnaise of salmon directly after +roast pork, because it gave him peculiar pains. I was afraid you'd +hear him describe his symptoms; but I believe you were asleep." + +"No, I wasn't," you confess; "I heard it all, and I shut my eyes, +because I knew if I opened them he'd address himself to me. I shut +them when he began talking to you about your _Magen_ and what you +ought to do to give it tone. You seemed interested." + +"It's quite an interesting subject," says the Englishman, who makes +friends with every German he meets. "He is not in the least like an +Englishman," they say to you cordially,--"he is so friendly and +amiable." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +HOUSEWIVES + + +"Frenchwomen are the best housewives in Europe," said a German lady +who knew most European countries well; "the next best are the English; +Germans come third." The lady speaking was one whose opinions were +always uttered with much charm, but _ex-cathedra_; so that you found +it impossible to disagree with her ... until you got home. But to hear +the supreme excellence of the _Hausfrau_ contested takes the breath +away; to see her deposed from the first place by one of her own +countrywomen dazzles the eyes. It was a new idea to me that any women +in the world except the Germans kept house at all. If you live amongst +Germans when you are young you adopt this view quite insensibly and +without argument. + +"My son is in England," you hear a German mother say. "I am uneasy +about him. I fear he may marry an Englishwoman." + +"They sometimes do," says her gossip, shaking her head. + +"It would break my heart. The women of that nation know nothing of +housekeeping. They sit in their drawing-rooms all day, while their +husband's hard-earned money is wasted in the kitchen. Besides ... +_mein armer Karl_--he loves _Nudelsuppe_ and _Kueken mit Spargel_. What +does an Englishwoman know of such things? She would give him cold +mutton to eat, and he would die of an indigestion. I was once in +England in my youth, and when I got back we had a _Frikassee von +Haehnchen mit Krebsen_ for dinner, and I wept with pleasure." + +"Perhaps," says the gossip consolingly, "your Karl will remember these +things and fetch himself a German wife." + +"Poor girl!" says Karl's not-to-be-consoled mother, "she would have to +live in England and keep house there. It happened to my niece Greta +Loehring. She had a new cook every fortnight, and each one was worse +than the one before. In England when a cook spoils a pudding she puts +it in the fire and makes another. Imagine the eggs that are used under +such circumstances." + +I remember this little dialogue, because I was young and ignorant +enough at the time to ask what a German did when she spoilt a pudding, +and was promptly informed that in Germany such things could not +happen. A cook was not allowed to make puddings unless her mistress +stood by and saw that she made them properly; "unless she is a +_perfekte Koechin_," added Karl's mother, "and then she does not spoil +things." + +A German friend, not the travelled one, but a real home-baked domestic +German, took me one hot afternoon this summer to pay a call, and at +once fell to talking to the mistress of the house about the washing of +lace curtains. There were eight windows in front of the flat, and each +window had a pair of stiff spotless lace curtains, and each curtain +had been washed by the lady's own hands. My friend had just washed +hers, and they both approached the subject as keenly as two gardeners +will approach a question of bulbs or Alpines. There are different ways +of washing a white curtain, you know, and different methods of +rinsing and drying it, and various soaps. Starch is used too at some +stage of the process; at least, I think so. But the afternoon was hot +and the argument involved. The starch I will not swear to, but I will +swear to ten waters--ten successive cleansings in fresh water before +the soul of the housewife was at rest. + +"And how do you wash yours?" said one of them, turning to me. + +"Oh--I!" I stammered, taken aback, for I had been nearly asleep; "I +send a post-card to Whiteley's, and they fetch them one week and bring +them back the next. They cost 1s. a pair." + +The two German ladies looked at each other and smiled. Then they +politely changed the subject. + +This trivial story is not told for its intrinsic merits, but because +it illustrates the difference of method between English and German +women. The German with much wear and tear of body and spirit washes +her own lace curtains. She saves a little money, and spends a great +deal of time over them. The Englishwoman, when she possibly can, likes +to spend her time in a different way. In both countries there are +admirable housekeepers, and middling housekeepers, and extremely bad +ones. The German who goes the wrong way about it sends her husband to +the _Kneipe_ by her eternal fussing and fidgeting. She is not his +companion mentally, but the cook's, for her mind has sunk to the +cook's level, while her temper through constant fault-finding is on a +lower one. The Englishwoman sends her husband to the club or the +public house, according to his social station, because she is +incapable of giving him eatable food. But the English belief that +German housewives are invariably dull and stodgy is not a whit more +ignorant and untrue than the German belief that all Englishwomen are +neglectful, extravagant housekeepers. The Englishwoman keeps house in +her own way, and it is different from the German way, but it is often +admirable. The comfort, the organisation, and the unbroken peace of a +well-managed English household are not surpassed, in some details not +equalled, anywhere in the world. + +The German ideal (for women) is one of service and self-sacrifice. Let +her learn betimes to serve, says Goethe, for by service only shall she +attain to command and to the authority in the house that is her due. + + "Dienen lerne bei Zeiten das Weib nach ihrer Bestimmung, + Denn durch Dienen allein gelangt sie endlich zum Herrschen + Zu der verdienten Gewalt, die doch ihr im Hause gehoeret, + Dienet die Schwester dem Bruder doch frueh, sie dienet den Eltern; + Und ihr Leben ist immer ein ewiges Gehen und Kommen, + Oder ein Heben und Tragen, Bereiten und Schaffen fuer Andre; + Wohl ihr, wenn sie daran sich gewoehnt, dass kein Weg ihr zu sauer + Wird, und die Stunden der Nacht ihr sind wie die Stunden des Tages: + Dass ihr niemals die Arbeit zu klein und die Nadel zu fein duenkt, + Dass sie sich ganz vergisst, und leben mag nur in Andern!" + +She is to serve her brothers and parents. Her whole life is to be a +going and coming, a lifting and carrying, a preparing and acting for +others. Well for her if she treads her way unweariedly, if night is as +day to her, if no task seems too small and no needle too fine. She is +to forget herself altogether and live in others. + +It is a beautiful passage, and an unabashed magnificent masculine +egotism speaks in every line of it. Whenever I read it I think of the +little girl in _Punch_ whose little brother called to her, "Come here, +Effie. I wants you." And Effie answered, "Thank you, Archie, but I +wants myself!" Herr Riehl quotes the passage at the end of his own +exhortations to his countrywomen, which are all in the same spirit, +and were not needed by them. German women have always been devoted to +their homes and their families, and they are as subservient to their +menfolk as the Japanese. They do not actually fall on their knees +before their lords, but the tone of voice in which a woman of the old +school speaks of _die Herren_ is enough to make a French, American, or +Englishwoman think there is something to be said for the modern revolt +against men. For any woman with a spice of feminine perversity in her +nature will be driven to the other camp when she meets extremes; so +that in Germany she feels ready to rise against overbearing males; +whilst in America she misses some of the regard for masculine judgment +and authority that German women show in excess. At least, it seems an +excess of duty to us when we hear of a German bride who will not go +down to dinner with the man appointed by her hostess till she has +asked her husband's permission; and when we hear of another writing +from Germany that, although in England she had ardently believed in +total abstention, she had now changed her opinion because her husband +drank beer and desired her to approve of it. But it was an +Englishwoman who, when asked about some question of politics, said +quite simply and honestly, "I think what Jack thinks." + +The truth is, that the women of the two great Germanic races are kin. +There are differences, chiefly those of history, manners, and +environment. The likeness is profound. + +"Par une rencontre singuliere," says M. Taine, "les femmes sont plus +femmes et les hommes plus hommes ici qu'ailleurs. Les deux natures +vont chacune a son extreme; chez les uns vers l'audace, l'esprit +d'entreprise et de resistance, le caractere guerrier, imperieux et +rude; chez les autres vers la douceur, l'abnegation, la patience, +l'affection inepuisable; chose inconnue dans les pays lointains, +surtout en France, la femme ici se donne sans se reprendre et met sa +gloire et son devoir a obeir, a pardonner, a adorer, sans souhaiter ni +pretendre autre chose que se fondre et s'absorber chaque jour +davantage en celui qu'elle a volontairement et pour toujours choisi. +C'est cet instinct, un antique instinct Germanique, que ces grands +peintres de l'instinct mettent tous ici en lumiere!... L'ame dans +cette race, est a la fois primitive et serieuse. La candeur chez les +femmes y subsiste plus longtemps qu'ailleurs. Elles perdent moins vite +le respect, elles pesent moins vite les valeurs et les caracteres: +elles sont moins promptes a deviner le mal et a mesurer leurs +maris.... Elles n'ont pas la nettete, la hardiesse d'idees, +l'assurance de conduite, la precocite qui chez nous en six mois font +d'une jeune fille une femme d'intrigue et une reine de salon. La vie +enfermee et l'obeissance leur sont plus faciles. Plus pliantes et plus +sedentaires elles sont en meme temps plus concentrees, plus +interieures, plus disposees a suivre des yeux le noble reve qu'on +nomme le devoir...." + +I cannot imagine what M. Taine means by saying that Englishwomen lead +a more sedentary and sequestered life than Frenchwomen, but the rest +of his description presents a well-known type in England and Germany. +"Voir la peinture de ce caractere dans toute la litterature anglaise +et allemande," he says in a footnote. "Le plus grand des observateurs, +Stendhal tout impregne des moeurs et des idees Italiennes et +francaises, est stupefait a cette vue. Il ne comprend rien a cette +espece de devouement, 'a cette servitude, que les maris Anglais, sous +le nom de devoir, out eu l'esprit d'imposer a leurs femmes.' Ce sont +'des moeurs de serail.'" + +Here the "greatest of all observers" seems to talk nonsense, for +marriage in the seraglio does not hinge on the submission of one wife +to one husband, but on a plurality of wives that English and German +women have only endured in certain historic cases. In both western +countries marriage has its roots in the fidelity of one man and one +woman to each other. A well-known English novelist once said quite +truly that an Englishman very rarely distrusts his wife, and never by +any chance distrusts the girl who is to become his wife; and just the +same may be said of the German of the better classes. In both +countries you will find sections of society above and below where +morals are lax and manners corrupt. German professors write sketches +of London in which our busy grimy city is held up to a virtuous +Germania as the modern Sodom and Gomorrah; and the Continental +Anglophobe likes nothing better than to entertain you with pictures of +our decadent society, pictures that really do credit to the vividness +and detail of his imagination. Meanwhile our press assures the +respectable Briton that Berlin is the most profligate city in Europe, +and that scurrilous German novels about the German army will show him +what the rotten state of things really is in that much over-rated +organisation. But these national amenities are misleading. The bulk of +the nation in both countries is sound, and family life still +flourishes both here and there. The men of the race, in spite of Herr +Riehl's prognostications, still have the whip hand, as much as is good +for them in England, a little more than is good for them in Germany. +If you go to Germany you must not expect a man to open a door for you, +or to wait on you at afternoon tea, or to carry a parcel for you in +the street. He will kiss your hand when he greets you, he will address +you as gracious lady or gracious miss, he will put his heels together +and make you beautiful bows, he will pay you compliments that are +manifestly, almost admittedly, artificial. That at least is one type +of man. He may leave out the kisses and the bows and the compliments +and be quite undisguisedly bearish; or he may be something betwixt and +between, kindly, concerned for your pleasure and welfare. But whatever +he is he will never forget for a moment that you are "only a woman." +If you marry him he will expect to rule everywhere except in the +kitchen, and as you value a quiet life you had better take care that +the kitchen produces what pleases him. On occasion he will assert his +authority with some violence and naivete. No one can be long amongst +Germans, or even read many German novels, without coming across +instances of what I mean. For example, there was once a quarrel +between lovers that all turned upon a second glass of champagne. The +girl did not want it, and the man insisted that she should drink it +whether she wanted it or not. What happened in the end is forgotten +and does not matter. It is the comment of the historian that remains +in the memory. + +"Her family had spoilt her," said he. "When they are married and my +friend gets her to himself she will not behave so." + +"But why should she drink a second glass of champagne if she did not +want it?" I asked. + +"Because he commanded her to," said this Petruchio, beginning to +bristle at once; and he straightway told me another story about a man +who threw his lady-love's dog into a pond, not because the dog needed +a bath, but in assertion of his authority. The lady had wished to keep +her dog out of the water. + +"Did she ever forgive the man?" said I. + +"Forgive!--What was there to forgive? The man wished to put the dog +in the pond. A man must know how to enforce his will ... or he is no +man." + +I nearly said "Lor!" like Mr. Tweddle in _The Tinted Venus_, but in +Germany it's a serious matter, a sort of _lese majeste_, to laugh at +the rightful rule of man. You must expect to see them waited on hand +and foot, and to take this service as a matter of course. I have known +Englishmen embarrassed by this state of affairs. + +"They will get me chairs," complained one, "and at table the daughters +jump up and wait on me. It's horrid." + +"Not at all," said I. "It's your due. You must behave as if you were +used to it." + +"I can't. The other day I got the daughters of the house to sit still +while I handed about cups of tea, and if some of the old boys didn't +jump down their throats and tell them they'd no business to let me +forget my dignity. Bless my dignity ... if it's such a tender plant as +that...." + +"Sh!" I said. "They must have been old-fashioned people. In some +houses young men hand cups." + +"They look jolly self-conscious while they're doing it, ... as if they +didn't half like it. You bet, they take it out of their womenfolk when +they get home. Look at that chap Mueller!" + +"Where is he?" + +"In Dresden, where I lived last winter. He stormed the house down +because his wife took up his glass of beer and drank before he did. +Nearly had a fit. Said his dignity as a husband was damaged. Then he +turned to me and asked whether even in England a wife would be so bold +and bad?" + +"What did you say?" + +"I didn't say anything. I looked sick." + +"That's no use. You should say a great deal, and wave your arms about +and hammer on the table. You don't know how to show emotion." + +"I should hope not," says the Englishman. "But German women are always +telling me they envy the women in our country." + +"That's their politeness," I assure him. "They don't mean it. They're +as happy as the day is long. Besides, Germans don't get drunk and beat +their wives with pokers. You know perfectly well that most +Englishmen----" + +But, of course, whatever you say about German women of the present day +can be contradicted by anybody who chooses to describe one at either +end of the scale, for the contrasts there are violent. You will find +in the same street a woman who exercises a profession, lives more or +less at her club, and is as independent as her brother; and women who +are household drudges, with neither leisure nor spirit for any +occupation that would enrich their minds. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOUSEWIVES (_Continued_) + + +In Germany the home is furnished by the bride's parents, and the +household linen forms part of her trousseau and is marked by her +monogram. In describing the furniture of a German flat, you must first +decide whether you are going to choose one furnished to-day by a +fashionable young woman in Berlin or Hamburg; or one furnished by her +parents twenty to twenty-five years ago. Modern German furniture is +quite easily suggested to the English imagination, because some of it +looks as if the artist had visited our Arts and Crafts Exhibitions and +then made his own designs in a nightmare; while some has accepted +English inspiration and adapted itself wisely and cleverly to German +needs. To-day a German bride will have in her bedroom a wardrobe with +a big mirror, a toilet table or chest, a marble-topped washstand and +two narrow bedsteads, all of fumed wood. If she has money and +understanding the things have probably come from England, not from an +emporium, but from one of our artists in furniture whom the Germans +know better and value more highly than we do ourselves. But if she has +money only she can buy florid pretentious stuff that outdoes in +ugliness the worst productions of our "suite" sellers. Her mother, +however, probably did without any kind of toilet table or glass in +her wardrobe. Twenty years ago you occasionally saw such things in the +houses of rich people, but they were quite unusual. A small hanging +glass behind the washstand was considered enough for any _ordentliche +Frau_. Nowadays in rare cases the _ordentliche Frau_ actually has +silver brushes and powder pots and trinket boxes. But as a rule she +still does without such things; she brushes her beautiful hair with an +ivory or a wooden brush, and leaves paint and powder to ladies who are +presumably not _ordentlich_. At one time narrow brass or iron +bedsteads were introduced from England, and were used a great deal in +Germany. I remember seeing one all forlorn in a vast magnificent +palace bedroom where a fourposter hung with brocade or tapestry would +have looked more at home. But the real old-fashioned bedstead, still +much liked and formerly seen everywhere was always of wood, single and +with deep sides to hold the heavy box mattress. In Mariana Starcke's +_Travels in Europe_, published in 1833, she says of an inn in Villach, +"tall people cannot sleep comfortably here or in any part of Germany; +the beds, which are very narrow, being placed in wooden frames or +boxes, so short that any person who happened to be above five feet +high must absolutely sit up all night supported by pillows; and this, +in fact, is the way in which the Germans sleep." + +I think this is a statement that will be as surprising to any German +who reads it as the statements made by Germans about England have +often been to me. It is true, however, that tall people do find the +old-fashioned German bedsteads short; and it is true that the big +square downy pillows are supported by a wedge-shaped bolster called a +_Keilkissen_. But the _Plumeau_ is what the German loves, and the +Briton hates above all things: the mountain of down or feathers that +tumbles off on cold nights and stays on on hot ones. You hate it all +the year round, because in winter it is too short and in summer it is +an oppression. Sometimes the sheet is buttoned to it, and then though +you are a traveller you are less than ever content. At the best you +never succumb to its attractions. Every spring the good German +housewife takes her maid and her _Plumeaux_ to a cleaner and sits +there while the feathers are purified by machinery and returned to +their bags. In this way she makes sure of getting back her own +feathers both in quality and quantity. Except for the _Plumeaux_ and +the want of a dressing-table and proper mirror, an ordinary German +bedroom is very comfortable and always very clean. However plain it is +you can use it partly as a sitting-room, because a sofa and a good +sized table in front of it are considered an indispensable part of its +furniture. When Germans come to England and have to live in lodgings +or poorly furnished inns, the bedrooms seem to them most comfortless +and ill provided. The poor Idealist who lived as an exile in London in +the early Victorian age describes her forlorn room with nothing in it +but a "colossal" bed, a washstand, and a chest of drawers, and though +she does not describe them, you who know London from that side can see +the half-dirty honey-combed counterpane, the untempting cotton sheets, +the worn uncleanly carpet, the grained or painted furniture with doors +and drawers that will not shut; and if you know Germany too you must +in honesty compare with it the pleasant rooms you have inhabited there +for less rent than she paid her Mrs. Quickly,--rooms with cool clean +painted floors, solid old dark elm cupboards, and bedsteads that when +you had pitched the _Plumeau_ on the floor or the sofa were inviting +because they were made with spotless home-spun linen. + +What we call the drawing-room used to be extremely chill and formal in +Germany, but it has never been as hideously overloaded as English +drawing-rooms belonging to people who do not know better. The "suite" +of furniture covered with rep or brocade was everywhere, and the rep +was frequently grass-green or magenta. There was invariably a sofa and +a table in front of the sofa, and a rug or a small carpet under the +table. Even in these days this arrangement prevails and must continue +to do so while the sofa is considered the place of honour to which the +hostess invites her leading guest. If you go to Germany in ignorance +of the social importance attached to the sofa, you may blunder quite +absurdly and sit down uninvited or when your age or your sex does not +entitle you to a seat there. I was once present when an English girl +innocently chose a corner of the sofa instead of a chair, though there +were older women in the room. The hostess promptly and audibly told +her to get up, for she knew it was not an affair to pass off as a +joke. In England the question of precedence comes up chiefly at the +dinner-table. The host and hostess must send the right people together +and place them correctly too. In Germany you have to know as hostess +who is to sit on the sofa; and your decision may be complicated by the +absurd titles of your guests. For instance, one Frau Direktor may be +the wife of a post office official who had a university education, and +in Germany a university education counts; while another Frau Direktor, +though she can afford better clothes, is merely the wife of the man +who manages the factory in the next village. I have heard a story of a +Frau Kreisrichter and a Frau Actuar that ended in a life-long feud, +and it all turned on a _Kaffee Klatsch_ and the wrong woman on the +sofa. It is not easy to know what to do about these ridiculous titles +in Germany, because some people insist on them and some laugh at them +as much as we do. I once asked a lady who had the best right to know, +about using military titles instead of names: Herr Lieutenant, Herr +Major, and so on. She was quite explicit. "_Mir ist es ein Greuel_," +she said, and went on to tell me that it was only done as one might +expect by people who did not know better, and of course by servants. +All the same, it is well to be careful and study the individual case. +I know of an American who addressed his professor as Professor Lachs. + +"Where are your manners, mein Herr?" said the professor in a fury, "I +am Herr Professor Dr. Lachs to every student in this laboratory." + +But when it comes to Mrs. Tax-Collector and Mrs. Organist and Mrs. +Head Master, and it does come to this quite seriously, it is difficult +for the foreigner to appraise values. The length of the titles, too, +is a stumbling-block. You may marry a harmless Herr Braun, and in +course of time become Frau Wirklichergeheimerober regierungsrath. In +this case I don't think your friends would use the whole of your title +every time they addressed you; but you would undoubtedly have a seat +on the sofa before all the small fry. + +On the table in front of the sofa there used always to be a heavy +coloured cloth, and then put diamond-wise a light embroidered or lace +one. A vase of artificial or real flowers, according to taste, stood +exactly in the middle, and a few books in ornamental bindings on +either side. There would be very few ornaments, but these few would be +good of their kind, though probably hideous. Luckily the family did +not assemble here on State occasions. For every-day use there was a +_Wohnzimmer_ soberly furnished with solid well made chairs and +cupboards. Here the mistress of the house kept her palms, her +work-table, and her pet birds. Here her husband smoked his +after-dinner cigar and drank his coffee before going to his work +again. Here the elder children did their lessons for next day's +school, and here at night the family sat round one lamp,--the father +smoking, the mother probably mending, the children playing games. For +German fathers do not live at the _Kneipe_. They are occasionally to +be found with their families. When the flat was not large enough to +furnish a third sitting-room, the dining-room was used in this way. A +modern German family still lives in any room rather than the +drawing-room, but it has learned how to make a drawing-room +attractive. The odious "suite" has been abolished or dispersed, and a +lighter, less formal scheme of decoration is making its way. You see +charming rooms in Germany nowadays, but they are never quite like +English ones, even when your friends point to a wicker chair or an +Eastern carpet and tell you that they love everything English and have +furnished in the English fashion. In the first place, you do not see +piles of magazines and papers or of library books in a German +drawing-room. They would be considered scandalously untidy, and put +away in a cupboard at once. If there are cut flowers they are not +arranged as they are here. On ceremonial occasions and anniversaries +great quantities of flowers are presented, but they are mostly wired +and probably arranged in a fanciful shape. The favourite shape changes +with the season and the fashion of the moment. One year those who wish +to honour you and have plenty of money, will send you lyres and harps +made of violets, pansies, pinks, cornflowers, any flower that will +lend itself meekly to popular design. The favourite design in Berlin +one spring was a large flat sofa cushion of Guelder roses with tall +sprays of roses or carnations dancing from it. On ordinary occasions +market bunches are put into water as an English cottager puts in his +flowers, level and tightly packed. But on a festive occasion in a rich +man's house you hear of a long dinner table strewn with branches of +pink hawthorn and peonies. In fact, a riot of flowers is now +considered correct by wealthy people, but you do not find them here +and there and everywhere, whether people are wealthy or not, as you do +in England. That is partly because there are so few private gardens. + +The extreme tidiness of German rooms is a constant source of surprise. +They are as guiltless of "litter" as the showrooms of a furniture +emporium. You would think that the people who live in them were never +employed if you did not know that Germans were never idle. Every bit +of embroidery has its use and its own corner. The article now being +embroidered is neatly folded inside the work-basket or work-table when +it is not in the lady's hands. The one book she is reading will be +near. Any other books she possesses will be on shelves, and probably +behind glass doors. Each chair has its place, each cushion, each +ornament. Even where there are children German rooms never look +disarranged. I can truly say I have only once seen a German room +untidy and dusty, and that was in a house with no one but a "Mamsell" +in charge; and she apologised and explained that it was to be spring +cleaned next day. There is, by the way, a curious litter of things +kept on a German sideboard in many houses,--coffee machines, silver, +useful and ornamental glass, great blue beer jugs, and suchlike; but +they are kept there with intention and not by neglectful accident. +Then the narrow corridor of a German flat is often uncomfortably +choked with articles of household use: lamps, for instance, and a +refrigerator, and the safe in which the mistress locks her food; spare +cupboards too, and neat piles of papers and magazines. It will be +inelegant, but it will be orderly and clean. + +It is the way in this country to laugh at the German _Hausfrau_, and +pity her for a drudge; and it is the way with many Germans to talk as +if all Englishwomen were pleasure loving and incompetent. The less +people know of a foreign nation the greater nonsense they talk in +general, and the more cocksure they are about their own opinions. A +year ago, when I was in Germany, I asked a friend I could trust if +there really was much Anglophobia abroad except in the newspapers. She +reflected a little before she answered, for she was honest and +intelligent. + +"There is none amongst people like ourselves," she said,--"people who +know the world a little. But you come across it?" She turned to her +husband. + +"There are others like G.," she said. "He turns green if anyone speaks +of England, and he says Shakespeare is _dumm_. You see, he has never +been out of Germany, and has never met any English people." + +So I told her about my English cook, who snorted with scorn when I +assured her Germans considered rabbits vermin and would not eat them. + +"H ... ph!" she said, "I shouldn't have thought foreigners were so +particular." + +The average German housewife has to keep the house going on +exceedingly small means and with inefficient help. It is her pride and +pleasure to make a little go a long way, and she can only achieve +this by working with her hands. Probably her servant cannot cook, but +she can, and it would never occur to her to let her husband and +children eat ill-prepared food because servants do not like ladies in +the kitchen. A German lady, like a princess of ancient Greece, +considers that it becomes her to do anything she chooses in her own +house, and that the most convenient household workshop is the kitchen. +The Idealist from whom I have quoted before was the daughter of a +well-known German diplomatist, and she had been used since childhood +to the atmosphere of Courts. She was an accomplished well-born woman +of the world, but she had not been a week in her sordid London +lodgings with the woman she calls Mrs. Quickly, before she blundered +in her innocent German way--into the lodging-house kitchen. Figure to +yourself the stupefaction and the indignation of Mrs. Quickly, +probably engaged, though the Idealist does not say so, in dining off +the foreign woman's beef. "I went down to the kitchen," says Fraeulein +von Meysenbug, "with a muslin gown on my arm to ask for an iron so +that I could iron my gown there. The kitchen was Mrs. Quickly's true +kingdom; here she alone reigned at the hearth, for the servant was not +allowed to approach the saucepans. Mrs. Quickly looked at me with +unconcealed astonishment as I came in, but when I proffered my request +her astonishment turned to wrath. 'What!' she shrieked, 'a lady +ironing in the kitchen? That is impossible.' And with the mien of +offended majesty she snatched the gown from me, and ordered the little +maid servant to put an iron in the fire and to iron the gown; then she +turned to me and said with tragic emphasis, 'You are a foreigner. You +don't understand our English ways: we consider it extremely +unladylike for a lady to enter the kitchen, and worse still if she +wants to iron her own gown. No, ma'am, please to ring the bell when +you require anything; otherwise you will ruin my servants.' Much +ashamed of my ignorance on this higher plane of English custom," +continues the Idealist, "I crept back to my parlour and laughed +heartily as I looked round the dirty, wretchedly furnished room, and +reflected on the abyss set by prejudice between the ground-floor and +the basement." + +"How do you like your new German governess?" I once asked an English +friend who lived in the country and had just engaged a German lady for +her only daughter. + +"Oh! I like her," said my friend without enthusiasm. "She is a +brilliant musician and a fine linguist and all that. But she has such +odd ideas about what a girl ought to know. The other day I actually +caught her teaching Patricia to _dust_." + +"If you don't watch her," I said, "she'll probably teach Patricia to +cook." + +My friend looked anxious first, and then relieved. + +"I don't see how she could do that," she said. "The cook would never +have them in the kitchen for five minutes. But now you mention it, I +believe she can cook. When things go wrong she seems to know what has +been done or not done." + +"That might be useful," I suggested. + +"I don't see it. I expect my cook to know her work, and to do it and +not to rely on me. I've other fish to fry." + +But the German housewife expects to have her fingers literally in +every pie even when by rights they should be employed elsewhere. You +hear, for instance, of a great Court functionary whose wife is so +devoted to cooking that though she has a large staff of servants she +cannot be persuaded to spend the day anywhere but in her kitchen. +Mistresses of this kind breed incapable servants, and you find, in +fact, that German maids cannot compare with our English ones in +qualities of self-reliance, method, and initiative. They mostly expect +to be told from hour to hour what to do, and very often to lend a hand +to the ladies of the household rather than to do the thing themselves. +Indeed, though the servants are on duty from morning till night more +than English servants are, in some ways they have an easier time of it +than ours, because they are used so much to run errands and go to +market. Everyone who has been in German towns can remember the hordes +of servants with baskets and big umbrellas strolling in twos and +threes along the streets in the early morning. They are never in any +hurry to get home to work again, and a good many doubtless know that +what they leave undone will be done by their mistress. The German +kitchen with its beautiful cleanliness and brightly polished copper +pans I have described, but I have not said anything yet about the +fidgety housewife who carries her _Tuechtigkeit_ to such a pitch that +she ties every wooden spoon and twirler with a coloured ribbon to hang +by against the wall. In England you hear of ladies who tie every +bottle of scent on the toilet table with a different ribbon, and that +really has more sense in it, because it must be trying to a cook's +nerves to use spoons tied with delicate ribbons that must not be +spoiled. Every housewife has dainty little holders for the handles of +saucepans when they are hot. You see them, all different shapes and +sizes, on view with the piles of kitchen cloths and the various aprons +that form part of every lady's trousseau, and if you have German +friends they probably present you with a few from time to time. I +have never noticed any pictures in a German kitchen, but there are +nearly always _Sprueche_ both in the kitchen, and the dining-room and +sometimes in the hall: rhyming maxims that are done in poker work or +painted on wood and hung in conspicuous positions-- + + "Wie die Kueche so das Haus, + Reinlich drinnen, reinlich draus" + +is a nice one; and so is + + "Trautes Heim + Glueck allein." + +There was one in the _Lette-Haus_ or some other big institution about +an hour in the morning being worth several hours later in the day, +which would prick our English consciences more sharply than it can +most German ones, for they are a nation of early risers. Schools and +offices all open so early that a household must of necessity be up +betimes to feed its menfolk and children with bread and coffee before +their day's work. In most German towns the tradespeople do not call +for orders, but they do in Hamburg; and a friend born there told me in +a whisper, so that her husband should not hear the awful confession, +that she would never be a good "provider" in consequence. She went to +market regularly, for many housewives will not delegate this most +important business to a cook, but she had not the same eye for a tough +goose or a poor fish, perhaps not the same backbone for a bargain, as +a housewife used from childhood to these sorties. In some towns the +butcher calls over night for orders. The baker's boy brings rolls +before anyone is up, and hangs them outside the flat in one of two +bags every household possesses. After the early breakfast either the +mistress or the cook fetches what is required for the day. + +When the good German housewife is not in her kitchen, English +tradition believes her to be at her linen cupboard. + +"I am going to write a humble little gossiping book about German Home +Life," I said to a learned but kindly professor last spring. + +"German Home Life," he said, rather aghast at my daring, for we had +only just made each other's acquaintance, and I believe he thought +that this was my first visit to Germany and that I had been there a +week. "It is a wide field," he went on. "However ... if you want to +understand our Home Life ... just look at that...." + +We were having tea together in the dining-room in his wife's absence, +and he suddenly got up from table and threw back both doors of an +immense cupboard occupying the longest wall in the room. I gazed at +the sight before me, and my thoughts were too deep for words. It was a +small household, I knew. It comprised, in fact, the professor, his +beautiful young wife, and one small maid-servant; and for their +happiness they possessed all this linen: shelf upon shelf, pile upon +pile of linen, exactly ordered, tied with lemon coloured ribbons, +embroidered beyond doubt with the initials of the lady who brought it +here as a bride. The lady, it may as well be said, is a celebrated +musician who passes a great part of each winter fulfilling engagements +away from home. "But what happens to the linen cupboard when you are +away?" I asked her, later, for it was grievous to think of any +servant, even a "pearl," making hay of those ordered shelves. "I come +home for a few days in between and set things to rights again," she +explained; and then, seeing that I was interested, she admitted that +she had put up and made every blind and curtain, and had even +carpentered and upholstered an empire sofa in her drawing-room. She +showed me each cupboard and corner of the flat, and I saw everywhere +the exquisite order and spotlessness the notable German housewife +knows how to maintain. We even peeped into the professor's +dressing-room. + +"He must be a very tidy man," I said, sighing and reflecting that he +could not be as other men are. "Do you never have to set things to +rights here?" + +"Every half hour," she said. + +These enormous quantities of linen that are still the housewife's +pride used to be necessary when house and table linen were only washed +twice a year. A German friend who entertained a large party of +children and grandchildren every week, pointed out to me that she used +eighteen or twenty dinner napkins each time they came, and that when +washing day arrived at the end of six months even her supply was +nearly exhausted. The soiled linen was stored meanwhile in an attic at +the top of the house. The wash itself and the drying and ironing all +took place up there with the help of a hired laundress. In most German +cities this custom of washing at home still prevails, but in these +days it is usually done once a month. The large attics that serve as +laundries are engaged for certain days by the families living in the +house, and one servant assisted for one day by a laundry woman washes +and irons all the house and body linen used by her employers and +herself in four weeks. It sounds impossible, but in Germany nothing +involving hard work is impossible. All the differences of life between +England and Germany, in as far as expenses are concerned, seem to come +to this in the end: that over there both men and women will work +harder for less money. On the monthly washing day the ladies of the +household do the cooking and housework, and on the following day they +help to fold the clothes and iron them. + +"I am very tired," confessed a little maid-servant who had been sent +out at night to show me where to find a tram. "We got up at four +o'clock this morning, and have been ironing all day. My mistress gets +up as early, and works as hard as I do. She is very _tuechtig_, and +where there are four children and only one servant there is a good +deal to do." + +Yet her mistress had asked me to supper, I reflected, and everything +had been to time and well cooked and served. The rooms had looked as +neat and orderly as usual. The _Hausfrau_ had entertained me as +pleasantly as if she had no reason to feel tired. We had talked of +English novels, and of the invasion of England by Germany; for her +husband was a soldier, and another guest present was a soldier too. +The men had talked seriously, for they were as angry with certain +English newspapers as we are over here with certain German ones. But +the _Hausfrau_ and I had laughed. + +"When they come, I'm coming with them," she said. + +"We will receive you with open arms," said I. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SERVANTS + + +The first thing that English people notice about German servants is, +that they are allowed to dress anyhow, and that the results are most +unpleasing. In Hamburg, the city that gives you ox-tail soup for +dinner and has sirloins of beef much like English sirloins, the maids +used to wear clean crackling, light print gowns with elbow sleeves. +This was their full dress in which they waited at table, and fresh +looking country girls from Holstein and thereabouts looked very well +in it. This costume is being superseded in Hamburg to-day by the +English livery of a black frock with a white cap and apron. But in +other German cities, in the ordinary middle-class household, the +servants wear what they choose on all occasions. In most places they +are as fond of plaids as their betters, and in a house where +everything else is methodical and well arranged, you will find the +dishes plumped on the table by a young woman wearing a tartan blouse +decidedly decolletee, and ornamented with a large cheap lace collar. I +have dined with people whose silver, glass, and food were all +luxurious; while the girl who waited on us wore a red and white +checked blouse, a plaid neck-tie with floating ends, and an enormous +brooch of sham diamonds. In South Germany the servants wear a great +deal of indigo blue: stuff skirts of plain blue woollen, with blouses +and aprons of blue cotton that has a small white pattern on it. Some +ladies keep smart white aprons to lend their servants on state +occasions, but the laciest apron will not do much for a girl in a +sloppy coloured blouse with a plaid neck-tie. But these same girls who +look such slovens usually have stores of tidy well-made body linen and +knitted stockings. In England a servant of the better class will not +be seen out of doors in her working-dress. "In London," says the +Idealist in her Memoirs, "no woman of the people, no servant-girl will +stir a step from the house without a hat on her head, and this is one +of the ugliest of English prejudices. While the clean white cap worn +by a French maid looks pretty and suitable, the Englishwoman's hat +which makes her "respectable" is odious, for it is usually dirty, out +of shape, and trimmed with faded flowers and ribbons." It gives me +pleasure to quote this criticism made by an observant German on our +English servants, partly because it is true, and it is good for us to +hear it, and partly because it encourages me to continue my criticism +of German as compared with English servants. For it ought to be +possible to criticise without giving offence. The Idealist has a very +poor opinion of English lodging-house bedrooms and lodging-house +keepers, and she states her opinion quite plainly, but I cannot +imagine that anyone in this country would be hurt by what she says. On +the contrary, it is amusing to find the ills from which most of us +have suffered at times recognised by the stranger within our gates. +None of us admire the battered tawdry finery we see in our streets +every day, and I cannot believe that German ladies admire the shocking +garments in which their servants will come to the door and wait at +table. But though these clothes are sloppy looking and unsuitable, +they are never ragged; and the girl who puts on an impossible tie and +blouse will also wear an impeccable long white apron with an +embroidered monogram you can see across the room. In most towns +servants go shopping or to market with a large basket and an umbrella. +They do not consider a hat or a stuff gown necessary, for they are not +in the least ashamed of being servants. Some years ago they made no +attempt to dress like ladies when they went out for themselves, and +even now what they do in this way is a trifle compared to the +extravagant get-up of an English cook or parlour-maid on a Sunday +afternoon. A German girl in service is always saving with might and +main to buy her _Aussteuer_, and as she gets very low wages it takes +her a long time. She needs about _L_30, so husbands are not expensive +in Germany in that class. German servants get less wages than ours, +and work longer hours. Speaking out of my own experience, I should say +that they were indefatigable, amiable, and inefficient. They will do +anything in the world for you, but they will not do their own work in +a methodical way. A lady whose uncle at one time occupied an important +diplomatic post in London, told me that her aunt was immensely +surprised to find that every one of her English servants knew his or +her work and did it without supervision, but that none of them would +do anything else. The German lady, not knowing English ways, used to +make the mistake at first of asking a servant to do what she wanted +done instead of what the servant had engaged to do; but she soon found +that the first housemaid would rather leave than fill a matchbox it +was the second housemaid's "place" to fill; and what surprised her +most was to find that her English friends sympathised with the +housemaids and not with her. "We believe in everyone minding his own +business," they said. + +"We believe that it is the servant's business to do what his employer +wants," says the German. + +"You must tell him what you want when you engage him," you say. "Then +he can take your place or leave it." + +"But that is impossible ... _Unsinn_ ... _Quatsch_...." says the +German indignantly. "How can I tell what I shall want my servant to do +three months hence on a Monday morning. _Das hat keinen Zweck._" + +"I know exactly what each one of my servants will do three months +hence on a Monday morning," you say. "It is quite easy. You plan it +all out...." + +But you will never agree. The German has his or rather her own +methods, and you will always think her unmethodical but thrifty and +knowledgeable, and she will always think you extravagant and ignorant, +but "chic," and on these terms you may be quite good friends. In most +German households there is no such thing as the strict division of +labour insisted on here. Your cook will be delighted to make a blouse +for you, and your nurse will turn out the dining-room, and your +chambermaid will take the child for an airing. They are more human in +their relation to their employers. The English servant fixes a gulf +between herself and the most democratic mistress. The German servant +brings her intimate joys and sorrows to a good _Herrschaft_, and +expects their sympathy. When a girl has bad luck and engages with a +bad _Herrschaft_ she is worse off than in England, partly because when +German housekeeping is mean it sounds depths of meanness not unknown, +but extremely rare here; and also because a German servant is more in +the power of her employers and of the police than an English one. +Anyone who has read Klara Viebig's remarkable novel, _Das Taegliche +Brot_ (a story of servant life in Berlin) will remember the mistress +who kept every bit of dainty food under lock and key, and fed the +kitchen on soup-meat all the year round. The chambermaid gives way in +a moment of hunger and temptation, manages to get the key, and is +discovered by the worthless son of the house stealing cakes. He +threatens her with exposure if she will not listen to his love-making. +Even if there was no son and no love-making, a girl who once steals +cakes in Germany may go from place to place branded as a thief. +Because every servant has to have a _Dienstbuch_, which is under the +control of the police, and has to be shown to them whenever she leaves +her situation. There is no give and take of personal character in +Germany. Ladies do not see the last lady with whom a girl has lived. +They advertise or they go to a registry office where servants are +waiting to be engaged. In Berlin every third house seems to be a +registry office, and you hear as many complaints of the people who +keep them as you hear here. So the government has set up a large +Public Registry in Charlottenberg, where both sides can get what they +want without paying fees. But servants are not as scarce in Germany +yet as they are here and in America. German ladies tell you they are +scarce, but it is only true in comparison with a former state of +things. In comparison with London, servants are still plentiful in +Germany. When a lady finds a likely looking girl at an office, she +either engages her at once on the strength of the good character in +her _Dienstbuch_, or, if she is very particular, she takes her home +and discusses things with her there. The engagement is not completed +until the lady has filled in several forms for police inspection; +while the servant has to take her _Dienstbuch_ to the police station +both when she leaves and when she enters a situation. It is hardly +necessary to say that when a girl does anything seriously bad, and her +employers record it in the book, the book gets "lost." Then the police +interfere and make things extremely disagreeable for the girl. A +friend told me that in the confusion of a removal her own highly +valued servant lost her _Dienstbuch_, or rather my friend lost it, for +employers usually keep it while a girl is in their service; and though +she took the blame on herself, and explained that the book was lost, +the police were most offensive about it. In the end the book was +found, so I am not in a position to say what penalties my friend and +her maid would have incurred if they had never been able to produce +it. But Germans have often told me that servants as a class have real +good reason to complain of police insolence and brutality. Here is an +entry from a German servant's _Dienstbuch_, with nothing altered but +the names. On the first page you found the following particulars:-- + +GESINDE-DIENSTBUCH + +Fuer Anna Schmidt. +Aus Rheinbeck. +Alt Geb. 20 Juni 1885. +Statur Schlank. +Augen Grau. +Nase } Gewoehnlich. +Mund } +Haare Dunkelblond. +Besondere Merkmale + +_Official stamp._ (_Official signature of + Amtsvorsteher._) + +Then came the record of her previous situations:-- + +Key: +A: NR. +B: NAME, STAND, UND WOHNUNG DER DIENERSCHAFT +C: INHABER IST ANGENOMMEN ALS +D: TAG DES DIENSTANTRITTS +E: TAG DES DIENSTAUSTRITTS +F: GRUND DES DIENSTAUSTRITTS UND DIENSTABSCHIEDS--ZEUGNISS +G: BEGLAUBIGUNG UND BEMERKUNG DER POLIZEI-BEHOeRDE + ++--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+----------- + A | B | C | D | E | F | G ++--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+----------- + 1 |Wittwe |Dienstmagd |Den 20ten|Den 2ten|Veraenderung |Gesehen + |Auguste | | Oktober | Januar | halber. | + |Knoblauch | | 1901 | 1902 | Betragen |(_Place and + | | | | | gut |date, with + | | | | | |official + | | | | | |stamp and + | | | | | |signature_) + | | | | | | + 2 |Boretzky, |Dienstmaedchen|Den 2ten |Den 2ten|Wird entlassen|Gesehen + |Restaurant | | Februar | Oktober| weil ihr | + |zur Post, | | 1902 | 1904 | Benehmen mir |(_Place and + |Baerenstrasse| | | | nicht mehr |date, with + |2 | | | | passt. Sonst |official + | | | | | fleissig und |stamp and + | | | | | ehrlich |signature_) ++--+------------+-------------+---------+--------+--------------+----------- + +It will be seen that the characters given tell nothing about a +servant's qualities and knowledge; while the vague complaint that Anna +Schmidt's behaviour no longer suited her mistress might mean anything +or nothing. In this case it meant that a son of the house had annoyed +the girl with his attentions, and she had in consequence treated him +with some brusquerie. But ten minutes' talk with a lady who knows the +best and the worst of a servant is worth any _Dienstbuch_ in Germany. +And when English servants write to the _Times_ and ask to have the +same system here, I always wonder how they would like their failings +sent with them from place to place in black and white; every fresh +start made difficult, and every bad trait recorded against them as +long as they earn their daily bread. + +Wages are much lower in Germany than here. Some years ago you could +get a good cook for from L7 to L12, but those days are past. Now you +hear of a general servant getting from L10 to L12, and a good plain +cook from L15 upwards. These are servants who would get from L22 to +L30 in England, and more in America. But the wages of German servants +are supplemented at Christmas by a system of tips and presents that +has in course of time become extortionate. Germans groan under it, but +every nation knows how hard it is to depart from one of these +traditional indefinite customs. The system is hateful, because it is +neither one of free gift nor of business-like payment, but hovers +somewhere between and gives rise to much friction and discontent. In a +household account book that a friend allowed me to see I found the +following entry. "Christmas present for the servant. 30 marks in +money. Bed linen, 9.50. Pincushion, 1.5. Five small presents. In all +42 marks. _Was not contented._" This was a general servant in a +family of two occupying a good social position, but living as so many +Germans do on a small income. But then the servant's wages for doing +the work of a large well-furnished, well-kept flat was L14, and these +same friends told me that servants now expect to get a quarter of +their wages in money and presents at Christmas. A German servant gets +a great deal more help from her mistress, and is more directly under +her superintendence, than she would be in a household of the same +social standing in this country. I have heard an English lady say that +when she had asked people to dinner she made it a rule to go out all +day, because if she did not her servants worried her with questions +about extra silver and other tiresome details. All the notable +housewives in England will say that this lady was a "freak," and must +not be held up to the world as an English type. But I think there is +something of her spirit in many Englishwomen. They engage their +servants to do certain work, and hold them responsible. The German +holds herself responsible for every event and every corner in her +husband's house, and she never for a moment closes her eyes and lets +go the reins. The servants are used to working hand in hand with the +ladies of the household, and do not regard the kitchen as a department +belonging exclusively to themselves after an early hour in the +morning. + +"Why did you leave your last place?" you say to an English cook +applying for yours. + +"Because the lady was always in the kitchen," she replies quite +soberly and civilly. "I don't like to see ladies in my kitchen at all +hours of the day. It is impossible to get on with the work." + +But in Germany the kitchen is not the cook's kitchen. It belongs to +the people who maintain it, and they enter it when they please. It is +always so spick and span that you sigh as you see it, because you +think of your own kitchen at home with its black pans and unpleasant +looking sink. _There are no black pans in a German kitchen_; you never +see any grease, and you never by any chance see a teacloth or a duster +with a hole in it. An English kitchen in a small household is +furnished with more regard to the comfort of the servants than a +German one, and with less concern for the work to be done there. We +supply comfortable chairs, a coloured table-cloth, oil-cloth, books, +hearth-rug, pictures, cushions, inkstand, and a roaring fire. The +German kitchen lacks all these things. It does not look as if the +women who live in it ever expected to pursue their own business, or +rest for an hour in an easy chair. But the shining brightness of it +rejoices you,--every vessel is of wood, earthenware, enamel, or highly +polished metal, and every one of them is scrupulously clean. The +groceries and pudding stuffs are kept in fascinating jars and barrels, +like those that come to children at Christmas in toy kitchens made in +Germany. The stove is a clean, low hot table at which you can stand +all day without getting black and greasy. In this sensible spotless +workshop a German servant expects to be busy from morning till night. +Neither for herself nor for her fellow-servants will she ever set a +table for a tidy kitchen meal. She eats anywhere and anywhen, as the +fancy takes her and the exigencies of the day permit. Her morning meal +will consist of coffee and rye bread without butter. In the middle of +the morning she will have a second breakfast, rye bread again with +cheese or sausage. In a liberal household she will dine as the family +dines; in a stingy one she will fare worse than they. In an +old-fashioned household her portion will be carved for her in the +dining-room, because the joint will not return to the kitchen when the +family has done with it, but be placed straightway in the +_Speiseschrank_ under lock and key. In the afternoon she will have +bread and coffee again, and for supper as a rule what the family has, +sausage or ham or some dish made with eggs. One friend who goes out so +much with her husband that they are rarely at home to supper, told me +that she made her servant a monthly allowance to buy what she liked +for supper. German servants are allowed coffee and either beer or +wine, but they are never given tea. Except for the scarcity of butter +in middle-class households, they live very well. + +They go out on errands and to market a great deal, but they do not go +out as much for themselves as our servants do. A few hours every other +Sunday still contents them in most places. Their favourite amusement +is the cheap public ball, and the careful German householder is +actually in the habit of trusting the key of the flat to his +maid-of-all-work, and allowing her to return at any hour of the night +she pleases. This at any rate is the custom in Berlin and some other +large German towns, and the evil results of such a system are +manifold. Over and over again burglaries have been traced to it. One +beguiling man engages your maid to dance and sup with him, while his +confederate gets hold of her key and comfortably rifles your rooms. On +the girls themselves these entertainments are said to have the worst +possible influence, and most sensible Germans would put a stop to them +if they could. + +You must not expect in Germany to have hot water brought to you at +regular intervals as you do in every orderly English household. The +Germans have a curious notion that English life is quite uniform, and +all English people exactly alike. One man, a notably wise man too, +said to me that if he knew one English family he knew ten thousand. +Another German told me that this account of German life would be +impossible to write, because one part of Germany differed from the +other part; but that a German could easily write the same kind of book +about England, because from Land's End to John o' Groats we were so +many peas in a pod. To us who live in England and know the differences +between the Cornish and the Yorkshire people, for instance, or the +Welsh and the East Anglians, this seems sheer nonsense. I have tried +to understand how Germans arrive at it, and I believe it is by way of +our cans of hot water brought at regular intervals every day in the +year in every British household. I remember that their machine-like +precision impressed M. Taine when he was in England, and certainly +miss them sadly while we are abroad. Gretchen brings you no hot water +unless you ask for it; but she will brush your clothes as a matter of +course, though she does all the work of the household. She will, +however, be hurt and surprised if you do not press a small coin into +her hand at the end of each week, and one or two big ones at parting. +One friend told me that when she stayed with her family at a German +hotel her German relatives told her she should give the chambermaid a +tip that was equal to 20 pf. for each pair of boots cleaned during +their stay. It seems an odd way of reckoning, because the chambermaid +does not clean boots. However, the tip came to L3, which seems a good +deal and helps to explain the ease with which German servants save +enough for their marriage outfit on small wages. It is usual also to +tip the servant where you have supped or dined. Your opportunity +probably comes when she precedes you down the unlighted stairs with a +lantern or a candle to the house door. But you need not be at all +delicate about your opportunity. You see the other guests make little +offerings, and you can only feel that the money has been well earned +when you have eaten the elaborate meal she has helped to cook, and has +afterwards served to you. + +Domestic servants come under the law in Germany that obliges all +persons below a certain income to provide for their old age. The Post +Office issues cards and 20 pf. stamps, and one of these stamps must be +dated and affixed to the card every Monday. Sometimes the employers +buy the cards and stamps, and show them at the Post Office once a +month; sometimes they expect the servant to pay half the money +required. Women who go out by the day to different families get their +stamps at the house they work in on Mondays. If a girl marries she may +cease to insure, and may have a sum of money towards her outfit. In +that case she will receive no Old Age Pension. But if she goes on with +her insurance she will have from 15 to 20 marks a month from the State +after the age of 70. In cases of illness, employers are legally bound +to provide for their domestic servants during the term of notice +agreed on. At least this is so in Prussia, and the term varies from a +fortnight to three months. In some parts of Germany servants are still +engaged by the quarter, but in Berlin it has become unusual of late +years. The obligation to provide for illness is often a heavy tax on +employers, especially in cases when the illness has not been caused by +the work or the circumstances of the situation, but by the servant's +own carelessness and folly. Most householders in Berlin subscribe 7.50 +a year to an insurance company, a private undertaking that provides +medical help, and when necessary sends the invalided servant to a +hospital and maintains her there. It even pays for any special food or +wine ordered by its own doctor. + +One cause of ill health amongst German servants must often be the +abominable sleeping accommodation provided for them in old-fashioned +houses. It is said that rooms without windows opening to the air are +no longer allowed in Germany, and there may be a police regulation +against them. Even this cannot have been issued everywhere, for not +long ago I had a large well furnished room of this kind offered me in +a crowded hotel. It had windows, but they opened on to a narrow +corridor. The proprietor was quite surprised when I said I would +rather have a room at the top of the house with a window facing the +street. I know a young lady acting as _Stuetze der Hausfrau_ who slept +in a cupboard for years, the only light and air reaching her coming +from a slit of glass over the door. I remember the consumptive looking +daughter of a prosperous tradesman showing us some rooms her father +wished to let, and suggesting that a cupboard off a sitting-room would +make a pleasant study. She said she slept in one just like it on a +higher floor. Of course she called it a _Kammer_ and not a cupboard, +but that did not make it more inviting. Over and over again I have +known servants stowed away in holes that seemed fit for brooms and +brushes, but not for creatures with lungs and easily poisoned blood. +This is one of the facts of German life that makes comparison between +England and Germany so difficult and bewildering. Everyone knowing +both countries is struck by the amount of State and police +surveillance and interference the Germans enjoy compared with us. I do +not say "endure," because Germans would not like it. Most of them +approve of the rule they are used to, and they tell us we live in a +horrid go-as-you-please fashion with the worst results. I suppose we +do. But I have never known an English servant put to sleep in a +cupboard, though I have heard complaints of damp fireless rooms, +especially in old historical palaces and houses. And I have never been +offered a room in a good English inn that had no windows to the open +air. These windowless rooms may be forbidden as bedrooms by the German +police, but it would take a bigger earthquake than the empire is +likely to sustain to do away with those still in use. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FOOD + + +Although the Germans as a nation are large eaters, they begin their +day with the usual light continental breakfast of coffee and rolls. In +households where economy is practised it is still customary to do +without butter, or at any rate to provide it only for the master of +the house and for visitors. In addition to rolls and butter, you may, +if you are a man or a guest, have two small boiled eggs; but eggs in a +German town are apt to remind you of the Viennese waiter who assured a +complaining customer that their eggs were all stamped with the day, +month, and year. Home-made plum jam made with very little sugar is +often eaten instead of butter by the women of the family; and the +servants, where white rolls are regarded as a luxury, have rye bread. +No one need pity them on this account, however, as German rye bread is +as good as bread can be. Ordinary London household bread is poor stuff +in comparison with it. The white rolls and butter are always excellent +too, and I would even say a good word for the coffee. To be sure, Mark +Twain makes fun of German coffee in the _Tramp Abroad_: says something +about one chicory berry being used to a barrel of water; but the +poorest German coffee is better than the tepid muddy mixture you get +at all English railway stations, and at most English hotels and +private houses. Milk is nearly always poor in Germany, but whipped +cream is often added to either coffee or chocolate. + +The precision that is so striking in the arrangement of German rooms +is generally lacking altogether in the serving of meals. The family +does not assemble in the morning at a table laid as in England with +the same care for breakfast as it will be at night for dinner. It +dribbles in as it pleases, arrayed as it pleases, drinks a cup of +coffee, eats a roll and departs about its business. Formerly the women +of the family always spent the morning in a loose gown, and wore a cap +over their undressed hair. This fashion, Germans inform you, is +falling into desuetude; but it falls slowly. Take an elderly German +lady by surprise in the morning, and you will still find her in what +fashion journals call a _neglige_, and what plain folk call a wrapper. +When it is of shepherd's plaid or snuff-coloured wool it is not an +attractive garment, and it is always what the last generation but one, +with their blunt tongues, called "slummocking." Most German women are +busy in the house all the morning, and when they are not going to +market they like to get through their work in this form of dress and +make themselves trim for the day later. The advantage claimed for the +plan is one of economy. The tidy costume worn later in the day is +saved considerable wear and tear. The obvious disadvantage is the +encouragement it offers to the sloven. In England whatever you are by +nature you must in an ordinary household be down to breakfast at a +fixed hour, presentably dressed; at any rate, with your hair done for +the day, and, it is to be supposed, with your bath accomplished. +Directly you depart from this you open the door to anything in the +dressing-gown and slipper way, to lying abed like a sluggard, and to +a waste of your own and the servants' time that undermines the whole +welfare of a home. At least, this is how the question presents itself +to English eyes. Meanwhile the continent continues to drink its coffee +attired in dressing-gowns, and to survive quite comfortably. In every +trousseau you still see some of these confections, and on the stage +the young wife who has to cajole her husband in the coming scene +usually appears in a coquettish one. But then it will not be made of +shepherd's plaid or snuff-coloured wool. + +The dinner hour varies so much in Germany that it is impossible to fix +an hour for it. In country places you will find everyone sitting down +at midday, in towns one o'clock is usual, in Hamburg five is the +popular hour, in Berlin you may be invited anywhen. But unless people +dine at twelve they have some kind of second breakfast, and this meal +may correspond with the French dejeuner, or it may be even more +informal than the morning coffee. It consists in many places of a roll +or slice of bread with or without a shaving of meat or sausage. +Servants have it, children take it to school, charitable institutions +supply the bread without the meat to their inmates. In South Germany +all the men and many women drink beer or wine with this light meal, +but in Prussia most people are content with a _belegtes Butterbrot_, a +roll cut in two, buttered, and spread with meat or sausage or smoked +fish. This carries people on till one or two o'clock, when the chief +meal of the day is served. + +All over Germany dinner begins with soup, and in most parts the soup +is followed by the _Ochsenfleisch_ that made it. At least +_Ochsenfleisch_ should make it by rights. + +"I know what this is," said an old German friend, prodding at a tough +slice from a dish we all found uneatable. "This is not _Ochsenfleisch_ +at all. This is _cow_." + +Good gravy or horseradish sauce is served with it, whether it is ox or +cow, and for a time you take a slice day after day without +complaining. It is the persistence of the thing that wears you out in +the end. You must be born to _Ochsenfleisch_ to eat it year in and +year out as if it was bread or potatoes. It does not appear as +regularly in North as in South Germany; and in Hamburg you may once in +a way have dinner without soup. People who know Germany find this +almost beyond belief, but Hamburg has many little ways of its own, and +is a city with a strong individual character. It is extremely proud of +its cooking and its food, and it has every right to be. I once +travelled with two Germans who in a heated way discussed the +comparative merits of various German cities. They could not agree, and +they could not let the matter drop. At last one man got the best of +it. "I tell you that Hamburg is the finest city in Germany," he said. +"In a Hamburg hotel I once ate the best steak I ever ate in my life." +The other man had nothing to say to that. Hamburg has a splendid fish +supply, and Holstein brings her quantities of fruit and of farm +produce. Your second breakfast there is like a French dejeuner, a meal +served and prepared according to your means, but a regular meal and +not a mere snack. You drink coffee after it, and so sustain life till +five o'clock, when you dine. Then you drink coffee again, and as your +dinner has probably been an uncommonly good one you only need a light +supper at nine o'clock, when a tray will arrive with little sandwiches +and slender bottles of beer. In North Germany, where wine is scarce +and dear, it is hardly ever seen in many households, so that a young +Englishman wanting to describe his German friends, divided them for +convenience into wine people and beer people. The wine people were +plutocrats, and had red or white Rhine wine every day for dinner. I +probably need not tell my well-informed country people that Germans +never speak of hock. + +In households where the chief meal of the day is at one or two o'clock +there is afternoon tea or coffee. It used invariably to be coffee, +good hot coffee and fresh rusks and dainty little _Hoernchen_ and +_Radankuchen_, an excellent light cake baked in a twisty tin. German +cakes want a whole chapter to themselves to do them justice, and they +should have it if it were not for a dialogue that frequently takes +place in a family well known to me. The wife is of German origin, but +as she has an English husband and English servants she keeps house in +the English way. Therefore mutton cold or hashed is her frequent +portion. + +"How I hate hashed mutton," she sometimes says. + +"Why do you have it, then?" says the husband, who has a genius for +asking apparently innocent but really provoking questions. + +"What else can I have?" says the wife. + +"Eel in jelly," says the husband. He once tasted it in Berlin, and it +must have given him a mental shock; for whenever his wife approaches +him with a domestic difficulty, asks him, for instance, what he would +like for breakfast, he suggests this inaccessible and uninviting dish. + +"There is never anything to eat in England except mutton and +apple-tart," says the wife. "Your plain cooks can't cook anything +else. They can't cook those really. Think of a German apple-tart--" + +"Why should I? I don't want one." + +"That's the hopeless part of it. You are all content with what Daudet +called your _abominable cuisine_. I thank him for the phrase. It is +descriptive." + +"Oh, well," says the husband, "we're not a greedy nation." + +So if this is the English point of view the less said about cakes the +better. And anyhow, it is in this country that afternoon tea is an +engaging meal. Berlin offers you tea nowadays, but it is never good, +and instead of freshly cut bread and butter they have horrid little +chokey biscuits flavoured with vanilla. Old-fashioned Germans used to +put a bit of vanilla in the tea-pot when they had guests they delighted +to honour, but they all know better than that nowadays. The milk is +often boiled milk, but even that scarcely explains why tea is so seldom +fit to drink in Germany. Supper is a light meal in most houses. The +English mutton bone is never seen, for when cold meat is eaten it is +cut in neat slices and put on a long narrow dish. But there is nearly +always something from the nearest _Delikatessen_ shop with it,--slices +of ham or tongue, or slices of one or two of the various sausages of +Germany: _Blutwurst_, _Mettwurst_, _Schinkenwurst_, _Leberwurst_, all +different and all good. When a hot dish is served it is usually a light +one, often an omelette or some other preparation of eggs; and in spring +eggs and bits of asparagus are a great deal cooked together in various +ways: not asparagus heads so often as short lengths of the stalk sold +separately in the market, and quite tender when cooked. There is nearly +always a salad with the cold meat or a dish of the salted cucumbers +that make such a good pickle. The big loaves of light brown rye bread +appear at this meal instead of the little white rolls eaten at +breakfast. Beer or wine is drunk, and very often of late years tea as +well. Sweets are not usually served at supper, unless guests are +present. They are eaten at the midday dinner, and each part of Germany +has its own favourite dishes. + +Soups are nearly always good in Germany, and some of the best are not +known in England. The dried green corn so much used for soup in South +Germany can, however, be bought in London from the German provision +merchants, so at the end of this greedy chapter I will give a recipe +for making it. _Nudelsuppe_ of strong chicken stock and home-made +_Nudeln_ used to be what the Berliner called his roast goose--"_eine +jute Jabe Jottes_," but the degenerate Germans of to-day buy tasteless +manufactured _Nudeln_ instead of rolling out their own. _Nudeln_ are +the German form of macaroni, but when properly made they are better +than any macaroni can be. If you have been brought up in an +old-fashioned German menage, and, as a child likes to do, peeped into +the kitchen sometimes, you will remember seeing large sheets of +something as thin and yellow as chamois leather hung on a clothes +horse to dry. Then you knew that there would be _Nudeln_ for your +dinner, either narrow ones in soup, or wider ones boiled in water and +sprinkled with others cut as fine as vermicelli and fried brown in +butter. The paste is troublesome to make. It begins with a deceptive +simplicity. Take four whole eggs and four tablespoonsful of milk if +you want enough for ten people, says the cookery book, and make a +light dough of it with a knife in a basin. Anyone can do that, you +find. But then you must put your dough on the pastry board, and work +in more flour as you knead it with your hands. "The longer you knead +and the stiffer the dough is the better your _Nudeln_ will be," +continues the cookery book. But the next operation is to cut the dough +into four, and roll out each portion _as thin as paper_, and no one +who has not seen German _Nudeln_ before they are cooked can believe +that this is actually done. It is no use to give the rest of the +recipe for drying them, rolling each piece loosely and cutting it into +strips and boiling them with salt in water. If you told your English +cook to make you _Nudeln_ she would despise it for a foreign mess, and +bring you something as thick as a pancake. If you want them you had +better get them in a box from a provision merchant, as the _Hausfrau_ +herself does nowadays. + +English people often say that there is no good meat to be had in +Germany. I would say that there is no good mutton, and a great deal of +poor coarse beef. But the _Filetbraten_ that you can get from the best +butchers is excellent. It is a long roll of undercut of beef, so long +that it seems to be sold by the yard. If you cook it in the English +way, says my German cookery book, you rub it well with salt and pepper +and baste it with butter; while the gravy is made with flour, +mushrooms, cream, and extract of beef. I should like to see the +expression of the English plain cook if she was told to baste her beef +with butter and make her gravy for it with mushrooms. I once came back +from Germany with a new idea for gravy, and tried it on a cook who +seemed to think that gravy was made by upsetting a kettle over a joint +and then adding lumps of flour. + +"My sister's cook always puts an onion in the tin with a joint," I +said tentatively, for I was not very hopeful. I know that there is +always some insuperable objection to anything not consecrated by +tradition. + +"It gives the gravy a flavour," I went on,--"not a strong flavour"-- + +I stopped. I waited for the objection. + +"We couldn't do that HERE," said the cook. + +"Why not?--We have tins and we have onions." + +"It would spoil the dripping. What could I do with dripping as tasted +of onion?" + +I had never thought of that, and so I had never asked my sister what +was done in her household with dripping as tasted with onion. + +"I should think," I said slowly, "that it could be used to baste the +next joint." + +"Then that would taste of onion," said the cook, "and I should have no +dripping when I wanted it." + +I have always thought dripping a dull subject, and I know that it is +an explosive one, so I said nothing more. I went on instead to +describe a piece of beef stewed in its own juices on a bed of chopped +vegetables. We actually tried that, and when it was cold it tasted +agreeably of the vegetables, and was as tender to carve as butter. + +"How did you like the German beef?" I said to an Englishwoman who had +been with me a great many years. + +"I didn't like it at all, M'm." + +"But it was so tender." + +"Yes, M'm, it made me creep," she said. + +So this chapter is really of no use from one point of view. You may +hear what queer things benighted people like the Germans eat and +drink, but you will never persuade your British household to +condescend to them. + +Except in the coast towns, sea fish is scarce and dear all over +Germany. Salt fish and fresh-water fish are what you get, and except +the trout it is not interesting. A great deal of carp is eaten, cooked +with vinegar to turn it blue, and served with horseradish or wine +sauce. At a dinner party I have seen tench given, and they were +extremely pretty, like fish in old Italian pictures, but they were not +worth eating. At least a pound of fresh butter was put on each dish of +them, handed round, and you took some of it as well as a sort of +mustard sauce. Perch, pike, and eel are all eaten where nothing better +is to be had; but the standing fish-course of inland Germany is trout. +Most hotels have a tank where they keep it alive till it is wanted, +and in the Black Forest the peasants catch it and peddle it, walking +miles to make good sales. We went into the garden of our hotel in the +Wiesenthal one day, and found the basin of the fountain there crammed +with live trout. It was so full that you could take one in your hand +for a moment and look at its speckles, as lovely as the speckles on a +thrush's breast. The man who was carrying them on his back in a wooden +water-tight satchel was having a drink, and he had put out his fish +for a drink while he rested. I have never been within reach of fresh +herrings in Germany, and have never seen them there, but smoked ones +are eaten everywhere, often with salad, or together with smoked ham +and potatoes in their jackets. Neither the ham nor the herrings are +ever cooked when they have been smoked, and the ham is very tough in +consequence. The breast of a goose, too, is eaten smoked but not +cooked, and is considered a great delicacy. Poultry varies in quality +a good deal. Everyone knows the little chickens that come round at +hotel dinners, all legs and bones. A German family will sit down +contentedly to an old hen that the most economical of us would only +use for soup, and they will serve it roasted though it is as tough as +leather. I think it must be said that you get better fowls both in +France and England than in Germany. The German national bird is the +goose. In England, if you buy a goose your cook roasts it and sends it +up, and that is all you ever know of it. In Germany a goose is a +carnival, rather as a newly killed pig is in an English farmhouse. +You begin with a stew of the giblets, you perhaps continue with the +bird itself roasted and stuffed with chestnuts, you may have a dozen +different dishes made of its remains, while the fat that has basted it +you hoard and use sparingly for weeks. For instance, you cook a +cabbage with a little of it instead of with water. In South Germany, +goose livers are prepared with it, and are just as much liked as _pate +de foie gras_. + +Hares are eaten and most carefully prepared in Germany. They are +skinned in a way that an English poulterer has been known to learn +from his German customers and pronounce very troublesome, and the back +is usually served separately, larded and basted with sour cream. +Vegetables are cooked less simply than in England, and you will find +the two countries disagree heatedly about them. The Englishman does +not want his peas messed up with grease and vinegar, and though he +will be too polite to say so, he will silently agree with his plain +cook who says that peas served in the pod is a dish only fit for pigs +and what she has never been accustomed to; while the German will get +quite dejected over the everlasting plain boiled cabbage and potatoes +he is offered week after week in his English boarding-house. At home, +he says, he is used to mountains of fat asparagus all the spring, and +he thinks slightly of your skinny green ones or of the wooden stuff +you import and pay less for because it is "foreign." He likes potatoes +cooked in twenty various ways, and when mashed he is of opinion that +they should not be black or lumpy. He wants a dozen different +vegetables dished up round one joint of beef, and in summer salads of +various kinds on various occasions, and not your savage mixed salad +with a horrible sauce poured out of a bottle; furniture polish he +believes it to be from its colour. In the autumn he expects chestnuts +cooked with gravy and vegetables, or made into light puddings; and +apple sauce, he assures you, should be a creamy white, and as smooth +as a well made puree. If he is of the South he would like a +_Mehlspeise_ after his meat, _Spetzerle_ if he comes from Wuertemberg; +one of a hundred different dishes if he is a Bavarian. He will not +allow that your national milk puddings take their place. If he is a +North German his _Leibgericht_ may be _Rote Gruetze_. This is eaten +enormously all over Denmark and North Germany in summer, and is +nothing in the world but a ground rice or sago mould made with fruit +juice instead of milk. The old-fashioned way was to squeeze +raspberries and currants through a cloth till you had a quart of pure +juice, which you then boiled with 4 oz. ground rice and sugar to +taste, stirring carefully lest it should burn, and stirring patiently +so that the rice should be well cooked. But where fruit is dear you +can make excellent _Rote Gruetze_ by stewing the fruit first with a +little water and straining off the juice. A quart of currants and a +pound of raspberries should give you a good quart mould. The Danes +make it of rhubarb and plum juice in the same way; and my German +cookery book gives a recipe for _Gruene Gruetze_ made with green +gooseberries, but I tried that once and found it quite inferior to our +own gooseberry fool. + +Food is so much a matter of taste and custom, that it seems absurd to +make dogmatic remarks about the superiority of one kitchen to another. +If you like cold mutton, boiled potatoes and rice pudding, most days +in the week, you like them and there is an end of it. The one thing +you can say for certain is that to cook for you requires neither skill +nor pains, while to cook for a German family, even if it lives plainly +and poorly, takes time and trouble. In trying to compare the methods +of two nations, one must naturally be careful to compare households on +the same social plane; and an English household that lives on cold +mutton and rice pudding is certainly a plain and probably a poor one. +In well-to-do English households you get the best food in the world as +far as raw material goes, but it must be said that you often get poor +cooking. It passes quite unnoticed too. No one seems to mind thick +soups that are too thick and gravies that are tasteless, and melted +butter like Stickphast paste, and savouries quite acrid with over much +vinegar and anchovy. I once saw a whole company of English people +contentedly eat a dish of hot scones that had gone wrong. They tasted +of strong yellow soap. But I once saw a company of Germans eat bad +fish and apparently like it. They were sea soles handed round in a +Swiss hotel, and they should by rights have been buried the day +before. I thought of Ottilie von Schlippenschlopp and the oysters. But +the soles were carefully cooked, and served with an elaborate sauce. + + * * * * * + +GREEN CORN SOUP.--For six people take 7 oz. of green corn: wash it +well in hot water, and cook it until it is quite soft in stock or salt +water. Put it through a sieve, add boiling stock, and serve with fried +slice of bread or with small semolina dumplings. + +GREEN CORN SOUP.--Another way. For six people take 5-1/2 oz. of green +corn, wash it well in hot water, and let it simmer for a few minutes +with a little stock and 1-1/2 oz. butter. Then add strong stock, and let +it simmer slowly with the lid on till the corn is soft. Then stir a +tablespoonful of fine flour with half a cupful of milk, and add it to +the soup, stirring all the time. This must then cook an hour longer. +When ready to serve, mix the yolks of two eggs with a little sour +cream, and add the soup carefully so that it is not curdled. The soup +is not strained through a sieve when it is served without dumplings. + +The little dumplings are first cooked as a panada of semolina, butter, +milk and egg, and then dropped into the soup and cooked in it for ten +minutes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SHOPS AND MARKETS + + +Berlin people compare their Wertheim with the Bon Marche at Paris, or +with Whiteley's in London; only always adding that Wertheim is +superior to any emporium in France or England. So it really is in one +way. A great artist designed it, and the outside of the building is +plain and stately, a most refreshing contrast to most Berlin +architecture. On the ground floor there is a high spacious hall that +is splendid when it is lighted up at night, and a staircase leads up +and down from here to the various departments, all decorated soberly +and pleasantly, mostly with wood. You can buy almost anything you want +at Wertheim's, from the furniture of your house to a threepenny pair +of cotton mittens with a thumb and no fingers. You can see tons of the +most hideous rubbish there, and you can find a corner reserved for +original work, done by two or three artists whose names are well known +in Germany. For instance, Wertheim exhibits the very clever curious +"applications" done by Frau Katy Muenchhausen, groups of monkeys, +storks, cocks and hens, and other animals, drawn with immense spirit +and life on cloth, cut out and then _machined_ on a background of +another colour. The machining has a bad sound, I admit, but for all +that the "applications" are enchanting. Wertheim, too, shows some +good furniture; he sells theatre tickets, books, fruit, groceries, +Liberty cushions, embroideries, soaps, perfumes, toys, ironmongery, +china, glass, as well as everything that can be called drapery. He has +a tea-room as well as a large general refreshment-room, where you can +get ices, iced coffee, beer, all kinds of sandwiches, and the various +_Torten_ Germans make so very much better than other people. In this +room no money is wasted on waiters or waitresses, and no one expects +to be tipped. You fetch what you want from a long bar running along +two sides of the room, and divided into short stretches, each selling +its own stuff; you pay at the counter, and you carry your ice or your +cake to any little marble-topped table you choose. The advantage of +the plan is that you do not have to wait till you catch the eye of a +waitress determined not to look your way: the disadvantage is that you +have to perform the difficult feat of carrying a full cup or a full +glass through a crowd. Whatever you buy at the counter is sure to be +good, but if all you could get was a Mugby Junction bun you would have +to eat it after the exhausting process of buying a yard of ribbon or a +few picture postcards at Wertheim's. + +To begin with, there are no chairs. You cannot sit down. On a hot +summer morning, when you have perhaps been to the market already, you +go to the Leipziger Strasse for theatre tickets, a pair of gloves, and +two or three small odds and ends. On the ground floor you see gloves, +innumerable boxes of them besieged by a pushing, determined crowd of +women. The shop ladies in any coloured blouses look hot and weary, but +try to serve six customers at once. When you have chosen what you +want, and know exactly how sharp the elbows to left and right of you +are, you see your lady walk off with your most pushful neighbour and +the pair of three-penny gloves she has after much argument agreed to +buy; for at Wertheim's you cannot depart with so much as a halfpenny +postcard till it has passed through three pairs of hands besides your +own. First the shop lady must deposit it with a bill at the cashier's +desk. Then, when the cashier can attend to you, you pay for it. Then +you may wait any time until the third person concerned will do it up +in paper and string. This last proceeding is often so interminably +delayed that if you were not in Germany you would snatch at what you +have paid for and make off. But the _Polizei_ alone knows what would +happen if you ran your head against the established pedantry of things +in the city of the Spree. You would probably find yourself in prison +for _Beamtenbeleidigung_ or _lese majeste_. "The Emperor is a fool," +said some disloyal subject in a public place. "To prison with him," +screamed every horror-struck official. "Off with his head!" "But I +meant the Emperor of China," protested the sinner. "That's +impossible," said the officials in chorus. "Anyone who says the +Emperor is a fool means our Emperor." And an official spirit seems to +encroach on the business one, and drill its very customers while it +anxiously serves them. For instance, the arrangements for sending what +you buy are most tiresome and difficult to understand at Wertheim's. +His carts patrol the streets, and your German friends assure you that +he sends anything. You find that if you shop with a country card the +things entered on it will arrive; but if you buy a bulky toy or some +heavy books and pay for them in their departments, you meet with fuss +and refusal when you ask as a matter of course to have them sent. It +can be done if your goods have cost enough, but not if you have only +spent two or three shillings. It is the fashion in England just now +for every man who writes about Germans to say that they are immensely +ahead of us in business matters. I cannot judge of them in their +factories and warehouses, but I am sure they are behind us in their +shops. A woman cannot live three hundred miles from Berlin and get +everything she wants from Wertheim delivered by return and carriage +free. Nor will he supply her with an immense illustrated catalogue and +a book of order forms addressed to his firm, so that the trouble of +shopping from a distance is reduced to a minimum. In England you can +do your London shopping as easily, promptly, and cheaply from a Scotch +or a Cornish village as you can from a Surrey suburb. + +In most German towns you still find the shops classified on the old +lines. You go to one for drapery, and to another for linen, and to +another for small wares, and to yet another for ribbons. There are +sausage shops and chocolate shops, and in Berlin there are shops for +the celebrated Berlin _Baumkuchen_. There are a great many cellar +shops all over Germany, and these are mostly restaurants, laundries, +and greengrocers. The drinking scene in _Faust_ when Mephisto made +wine flow from the table takes place in Auerbach's Keller, a cellar +restaurant still in existence in Leipzig. The lower class of cellar +takes the place in Germany of our slums, and the worst of them are +regular thieves' kitchens known to the police. There is an admirable +description of life in a cellar shop in Klara Viebig's _Das Taegliche +Brot_. The woman who keeps it has a greengrocery business and a +registry office for servants, and as such people go is respectable; +but I recommend the book to my countrymen who go to Berlin as +officials or journalists for ten days, are taken over various highly +polished public institutions, and come back to tell us that the +Germans are every man jack of them clean, prosperous, well mannered, +and healthy. It is true that German municipal government is striving +rather splendidly to bring this state of things about, but they have +plenty of work before them still. These cellar shops, for instance, +are more fit for mushroom growing than for human nurseries, and yet +the picture in the novel of the family struggling with darkness and +disease there can still be verified in most of the old streets of +Germany. + +When our English journalists write column after column about the +dangerous explosive energy and restlessness of modern Germany, I feel +sure that they must be right, and yet I wish they could have come +shopping with me a year or two ago in a small Black Forest town. One +of us wanted a watch key and the other a piece of tape, and we set off +light-heartedly to buy them, for we knew that there was a draper and a +watchmaker in the main street. We knew, too, that in South Germany +everyone is first dining and then asleep between twelve and two, so we +waited till after two and then went to the watchmaker's. There was no +shop window, and when, after ringing two or three times, we were let +in we found there was no shop. We sat down in a big cool sitting-room, +beautifully clean and tidy. The watchmaker's wife appeared in due +course, looked at us with friendly interest, asked us where we came +from, and how long we meant to stay, wondered if we knew her cousin +Johannes Mueller, a hairdresser in Islington, discussed the relative +merits of emigration to England and America, offered us some cherries +from a basketful on the table, and at last admitted unwillingly that +her husband was not at home, and that she herself knew not whether he +had watch keys. So we set off to buy our tape, and again found a +private room, an amiable family, but no one who felt able to sell +anything. It seemed an odd way of doing business we said to our +landlord, but he saw nothing odd in it. Most people were busy with +their hay, he explained. Towards the end of a week we caught our +watchmaker, and obtained a key, but he would not let us pay for it. He +said it was one of an old collection, and of no use to him. The +etiquette of shopping in Germany seems to us rather topsy-turvy at +first. In a small shop the proprietor is as likely as not to conduct +business with a cigar in his mouth, even if you are a lady, but if you +are a man he will think you a boor if you omit to remove your hat as +you cross his threshold. Whether you are a man, woman, or child, you +will wish him good-morning or good-evening before you ask for what you +want, and he will answer you before he asks what your commands are. If +you are a woman, about as ignorant as most women, and with a humble +mind, you will probably have no fixed opinion about the question of +free or fair trade. You may even, if you are very humble, recognise +that it is not quite the simple question Dick, Tom, and Harry think it +is. But you will know for certain that when you want ribbons for a hat +you had better buy them in Kensington and not in Frankfurt, and that +though there are plenty of cheap materials in Germany, the same +quality would be cheaper still in London. Everything to do with +women's clothing is dearer there than here. So is stationery, so are +groceries, so are the better class of fancy goods. But the Germans, +say the Fair Traders, are a prosperous nation, and it is because their +manufactures are protected. This may be so. I can only look at various +quite small unimportant trifles, such as ribbons, for instance, or +pewter vases or blotting-paper or peppermint drops. I know that a +German woman either wears a common ribbon on her hat, or pays twice +as much as I do for a good one; she is content with one pewter vase +where your English suburban drawing-room packs twenty into one corner, +with twenty silver frames and vases near them. A few years ago the one +thing German blotting-paper refused to do was to absorb ink, and it +was so dear that in all small country inns and in old-fashioned +offices you were expected to use sand instead. The sand was kept +beside the ink in a vessel that had a top like a pepper pot; and it +was more amusing than blotting-paper, but not as efficacious. As for +the peppermint drops, they used to be a regular export from families +living in London to families living in Germany. They were probably +needed after having goose and chestnuts for dinner, and ours were +twice as large as the German ones and about six times as strong, so no +doubt they were like our blotting-paper, and performed what they +engaged to perform more thoroughly. + +But shops of any kind are dull compared with an open market held in +one of the many ancient market places of Germany. Photographs of +Freiburg give a bird's-eye view of the town with the minster rising +from the midst of its red roofs; but there is just a peep at the +market which is being held at the foot of the minster. On the side +hidden by the towering cathedral there are some of the oldest houses +in Freiburg. It is a large crowded market on certain days of the week, +and full of colour and movement. The peasants who come to it from the +neighbouring valleys wear bright-coloured skirts and headgear, and in +that part of Germany fruit is plentiful, so that all through the +summer and autumn the market carts and barrows are heaped with +cherries, wild strawberries, plums, apricots, peaches, and grapes in +their season. The market place itself, and even the steps of the +minster and of the surrounding houses, are crowded with the peasants +and their produce, and with the leisurely servants and housewives +bargaining for the day's supplies. From a view of the market place at +Cottbus in Brandenburg you may get a better idea of the people at a +German market; the servants with their umbrellas, their big baskets, +their baggy blouses and no hats, the middle class housewife with a hat +or a bonnet, and a huge basket on her arm, a nursemaid in peasant +costume stooping over her perambulator, other peasants in costume at +the stalls, and two of the farm carts that are in some districts yoked +oftener with oxen than with horses. There is naturally great variety +in the size and character of markets, according to the needs they +supply. In Hamburg the old names show you that there were separate +markets for separate trades, so that you went to the Schweinemarkt +when you wanted pigs, and to some other part of the city when you +wanted flowers and fruit. In Berlin there are twelve covered markets +besides the open ones, and they are all as admirably clean, tidy, and +unpoetical as everything else is in that spick and span, swept and +garnished Philistine city. The green gooseberries there are marked +"unripe fruit" by order of the police, so that no one should think +they were ripe and eat them uncooked; and you can buy rhubarb +nowadays, a vegetable the modern Berliner eats without shuddering. But +in a Berlin market you buy what you need as quickly as you can and +come away. There is nothing to tempt you, nothing picturesque, nothing +German, if German brings to your mind a queer mixture of poetry and +music, gabled, tumbledown houses, storks' nests, toys, marvellous +cakes and sweets and the kindliest of people. If you are so modern +that German means nothing to you but drill and hustle, the roar of +factories and the pride of monster municipal ventures, then you may +see the markets of Berlin and rest content with them. They will show +you what you already know of this day's Germany. But my household +treasures gathered here and there in German markets did not have one +added to their number in Berlin. + +"That!" said a German friend when I showed her a yellow pitcher dabbed +with colour, and having a spout, a handle, and a lid,--"that! I would +not have it in my kitchen." + +It certainly only cost the third of a penny, but it lived with honour +in my drawing-room till it shared the fate of all clay, and came in +two in somebody's hands. The blue and grey bellied bottle, one of +those in which the Thuringian peasants carry beer to the field, cost +three halfpence, but the butter-dish with a lid of the same ware only +cost a halfpenny. There is always an immense heap of this rough grey +and blue pottery in a South German market, and it is much prettier +than the more ornate Coblenz ware we import and sell at high prices. +So is the deep red earthenware glazed inside and rough outside and +splashed with colours. You find plenty of it at the Leipziger Messe, +that historical fair that used to be as important to Western Europe as +Nijni Novgorod is to Russia and the East. To judge from modern German +trade circulars, it is still of considerable importance, and the +buildings in which merchants of all countries display their wares have +recently been renovated and enlarged. Out of doors the various +market-places are covered with little stalls selling cheap clothing, +cheap toys, jewellery, sweets, and gingerbread; all the heterogeneous +rubbish you have seen a thousand times at German fairs, and never +tire of seeing if a fair delights you. + +But better than the Leipziger Messe, better even than a summer market +at Freiburg or at Heidelburg, is a Christmas market in any one of the +old German cities in the hill country, when the streets and the open +places are covered with crisp clean snow, and the mountains are white +with it, and the moon shines on the ancient houses, and the tinkle of +sledge bells reaches you when you escape from the din of the market, +and look down at the bustle of it from some silent place, a high +window perhaps, or the high empty steps leading into the cathedral. +The air is cold and still, and heavy with the scent of the Christmas +trees brought from the forest for the pleasure of the children. Day by +day you see the rows of them growing thinner, and if you go to the +market on Christmas Eve itself you will find only a few trees left out +in the cold. The market is empty, the peasants are harnessing their +horses or their oxen, the women are packing up their unsold goods. In +every home in the city one of the trees that scented the open air a +week ago is shining now with lights and little gilded nuts and apples, +and is helping to make that Christmas smell, all compact of the pine +forest, wax candles, cakes, and painted toys, you must associate so +long as you live with Christmas in Germany. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +EXPENSES OF LIFE + + +A few years ago a German economist reckoned that there were only +250,000 families in the empire whose incomes exceeded L450, a year. +There were nearly three million households living on incomes ranging +from L135 to L450, and nearly four millions with more than L90 but +less than L135. But there were upwards of five millions whose incomes +fell below L45. Since that estimate was made, Germany has grown in +wealth and prosperity; and in the big cities there is great +expenditure and luxury amongst some classes, especially amongst the +Jews who can afford it, and amongst the officers of the army who as a +rule cannot. But the bulk of the nation is poor, and class for class +lives on less than people do in England. For instance, the headmaster +of a school gets about L100 a year in a small town, and from L200 to +L300 in a big one. A lieutenant gets about L65 a year, and an +additional L12 if he has no private means. His uniform and mess +expenses are deducted from this. He is not allowed to marry on his +official income, unless he or his wife has an income of L125 in +addition to his pay, as even in Germany an army man can hardly keep up +appearances and support a wife and family on less than L190 a year. It +is quite common to hear of a clerk living on L40 or L50, or of a +doctor who knows his work and yet can only make L150. The official +posts so eagerly sought after are poorly paid; so are servants, +agricultural labourers, and artisans. When you are in Germany, if you +are interested in questions of income and expenditure, you are always +trying to make up your mind why a German family can live as +successfully on L400 as an English family on L700, for you know that +rent and taxes are high and food and clothing dear. If you are a woman +and think about it a great deal, and look at family life in as many +places and classes as you can, you finally decide that there are three +chief reasons for the great difference between the cost of life in +England and Germany. In the first place, labour is cheaper there; in +the second place, the standard of luxury and even of comfort is lower; +in the third place, the women are thriftier and more industrious than +Englishwomen. This, too, leaves out of account the most important +fact, that the State educates a man's children for next to nothing; +and drills the male ones into shape when they serve in the army. + +Servants, we have seen, get lower wages than they do here, but the +real economy is in the smaller number kept. Where we pay and maintain +half a dozen a German family will be content with two, and the typical +small English household that cannot face life without its plain cook +in the kitchen and its parlour-maid in her black gown at the front +door, will throughout the German Empire get along quite serenely with +one young woman to cook and clean and do everything else required. If +she is a "pearl" she probably makes the young ladies' frocks and irons +the master's shirts to fill in her time. Germans do not trouble about +the black frock and the white apron at the front door. They will even +open the door to you themselves if the "girl" is washing or cooking. +A female servant is always a "girl" in Germany. I once heard a young +Englishwoman who had not been long in Germany ask an elderly +acquaintance to recommend a dressmaker. + +"The best one in ---- is Fraeulein Mueller," said the elderly +acquaintance. + +"But she is too expensive," said the Englishwoman, and she glanced +across the room at the lady's nieces, who were neatly and plainly +dressed. "Do girls go to Fraeulein Mueller?" + +"Girls! Certainly not," said the lady, with the expression Germans +keep for the insane English it is their fate to encounter +occasionally. + +"But that is what I want to know, ... a dressmaker girls go to ... +girls with a small allowance." + +"I am afraid I cannot help you," said the lady stiffly. "I know +nothing about the dressmakers girls employ." + +"Perhaps Miss Brown means 'young girls,'" said one of the nieces, who +was not as slow in the uptake as her aunt, and it turned out that this +was what Miss Brown did mean; but she had not known that in everyday +life _Maedchen_ without an adjective usually means a servant. She had +heard of _Das Maedchen aus der Fremde_ and _Der Tod und das Maedchen_, +and blundered. + +I once made a German exceedingly angry by saying that the standard of +comfort was higher in England than in Germany. She said it was lower. +When you have lived in both countries and with both peoples you arrive +in the end at having your opinions, and knowing that each one you hold +will be disputed on one side or the other. "Find out what means +_Gemuetlichkeit_, and do it without fail," says Hans Breitmann, but +_Gemuetlichkeit_ and comfort are not quite interchangeable words. Our +word is more material. When we talk of English comfort we are thinking +of our open fires, our solid food, our thick carpets, and our +well-drilled smart-looking servants. The German is thinking of the +spiritual atmosphere in his own house, the absence, as he says, of +ceremony and the freedom of ideas. He talks of a man being _gemuetlich_ +in his disposition, kindly, that is, and easy going. We talk of a +house being comfortable, and when we do use the word for a person +usually mean that she is rather stout. When both you and the German +have decided that "comfort" for the moment shall mean material +comfort, you will disagree about what is necessary to yours. You must +have your bathroom, your bacon for breakfast, your table laid +precisely, your meals served to the moment, your young women in black +or your staid men to give them to you, and your glowing fires in as +many rooms as possible. The German cares for none of these things. He +would rather have his half-pound of odds and ends from the provision +shop than your boiled cod, roast mutton, and apple-tart; he wants his +stove, his double windows, his good coffee, his _kraeftige Kost_, and +freedom to smoke in every corner of his house. He is never tired of +telling you that, though you have more political freedom in England, +you are groaning under a degree of social tyranny that he could not +endure for a day. The Idealist, quoted in a former chapter, is for +ever talking of the "hypocrisy" of English life, and her burning +anxiety is to save the children of certain Russian and German exiles +from contact with it. Another German tells you that our system of +collegiate life for women would not suit her countryfolk, because +they are more "individual." Each one likes to choose her own rooms, +and live as she pleases. The next German has suffered torments in +London because he had to sit down to certain meals at certain hours +instead of eating anything he fancied at any time he felt hungry, and +I suppose it is only your British _Heuchelei_ that leads you to smile +politely instead of adding, "As the beasts of the field do." But I am +always mazed, as the Cornish say, when Germans talk of their freedom +from convention. In Hamburg I was once seriously rebuked by an old +friend for carrying a book through the streets that was not wrapped up +in paper. In Hamburg that is one of the things people don't do. In +Mainz and in many other German towns there are certain streets where +one side, for reasons no one can explain, is taboo at certain hours of +the day; not of the night, but of the day. You may go to a music shop +at midday to buy a sonata, and find, if you are a girl, that you have +committed a crime. The intercourse between young people outside their +homes is hedged round with convention. German titles of address are so +absurdly formal that Germans laugh at them themselves. Their +ceremonies in connection with anniversaries and family events bristle +with convention, and offer pitfalls at every step to the stranger or +the blunderer. It is true that men do not dress for dinner every day, +and wax indignant over the necessity of doing so for the theatre in +England; but there are various occasions when they wear evening dress +in broad daylight, and an Englishman considers that an uncomfortable +convention. The truth is, that these questions of comfort and +ceremonial are not questions that should be discussed in the hostile +dogmatic tone adopted in both countries by those who only know their +own. The ceremonies that are foreign to you impress you, while those +you have been used to all your life have become a second nature. An +Englishwoman feels downright uncomfortable in her high stuff gown at +night, and a German lady brought up at one of the great German Courts +told me that when she stayed in an English country house and put on +what she called a ball dress for dinner every night, she felt like a +fool. + +To come back to questions of expenditure so intimately related to +questions of comfort, it must be remembered that in an English +household there are two dinners a day: one early for the servants and +children, and one late for the grown-ups; and solid dinners cost money +even in England, where at present there is no meat famine. When +Germans dine late they don't also dine early, even where there are +children; while the kitchen dinner, that meal of supreme importance +here, is eaten when the family has finished theirs, and is as informal +as the meal a bird makes of berries. In a German household, living on +a small income, nothing is wasted,--not fuel, not food, not cleaning +materials, as far as possible not time. The _tuechtige Hausfrau_ would +be made miserable by having to pay and feed a woman who put on gala +clothes at midday, and did no work to soil them after that. + +"Two girls," I once heard a German say to an Englishwoman who had just +described her own modest household which she ran, she said, with two +maids. "Two girls ... for you and your husband. But what, I ask you, +does the second one do?" + +"She cleans the rooms and waits at table and opens the door," said the +Englishwoman. + +"All that can one girl do just as well. I assure you it is so. There +cannot possibly be work in your household for two girls. You have told +me how quietly you live, and I know what English cooking is, if you +can call it cooking." + +"You see, there must be someone to open the door." + +"Why could one girl not answer the door, ... unless she was washing. +Then you would naturally go yourself." + +"But it wouldn't be natural in England," said the Englishwoman. "It +would be odd. Besides, if you only have one servant, she can't dress +for lunch." + +"Why should she dress for lunch?" asked the German. "My Auguste is a +pearl, but she only dresses when we have _Gesellschaft_. Then she +wears a plaid blouse and a garnet brooch that I gave her last +Christmas, and she looks very well in them. But every day ... and for +lunch, when half the work of the day is still to be done.... What, +then, does your second girl do in the afternoons?" + +"She brings tea and answers the door." + +"Always the door. But your husband is not a doctor or a dentist. Why +do so many people come to your door that you need a whole girl to +attend to them?" + +"Oh! They don't," said the Englishwoman, getting rather worn. "There +are very few, really. It's the custom." + +"Ah!" said the German, with a long deep breath of satisfaction. "So +are you English ... such slaves to custom. _Gott sei Dank_ that I do +not live in a country where I should have to keep a girl in idleness +for the sake of the door. With us a door is a door. Anyone who happens +to be near opens it." + +"I know they do," said the Englishwoman, "and when a servant comes she +expects you to say _Guten Tag_ before you ask whether her mistress is +at home?" + +"Certainly. It is a politeness. We are a polite nation." + +"And once, when I had just come back from Germany, I said Good-morning +to an English butler before I asked if his mistress was at home, and +he thought I was mad. We each have our own conventions. That's the +truth of the matter." + +"Not at all," said the German. "The truth of the matter is, that the +English are extremely conventional, and follow each other as sheep do; +but the German does what pleases him, without asking first whether his +neighbour does likewise." + +This is what the German really believes, and you agree or disagree +with him according to the phase of life you look at when he is +speaking. You find that when he comes to England he honestly feels +checked at every turn by our unwritten laws, while when you go to +Germany you wonder how he can submit so patiently to the pettiness and +multiplicity of his written ones. He vaguely feels the pressure and +criticism of your indefinite code of manners; you think his elaborate +system of titles, introductions, and celebrations rather childish and +extremely troublesome. If you have what the English call manners you +will take the greatest care not to let him find this out, and in +course of time, however much you like him on the whole, you will lose +your patience a little with the individual you are bound to meet, the +individual who has England on his nerves, and exhausts his energy and +eloquence in informing you of your country's shortcomings. They are +legion, and indeed leave no room for the smallest virtue, so that in +the end you can only wonder solemnly why such a nation ever came to be +a nation at all. + +"That is easily answered," says your Anglophobe. "England has arrived +where she is by seizing everything she can lay hands on. Now it is +going to be our turn." + +You express your interest in the future of Germany as seen by your +friend, and he shows you a map of Europe which he has himself marked +with red ink all round the empire as it will be a few years hence. +There is not much Europe outside the red line. + +"But you haven't taken Great Britain," you say, rather hurt at being +left out in this way. + +"We don't want it ... otherwise, ... but India ... possibly +Australia." He waves his hands. + +You look at him pensively, and suddenly see one of the great everyday +distances between your countryfolk and his. You think of a French +novel that has amused you lately, because the parents of the heroine +objected to her marriage with the hero on grounds you were quite +incapable of understanding. The young man's work was in Cochin-China, +and the young lady's father and mother did not wish her to go so far. +Never in your life have you heard anyone raise such a trivial +difficulty. You live in a dull sober street mostly inhabited by dull +sober people, but there is not one house in it that is not linked by +interest or affection, often doubly linked, with some uttermost end of +the earth. You can hardly find an English family that has not one +member or more in far countries, and so the common talk of English +people in all classes travels the width of the world in the wake of +those dear to them. But in 1900 only 22,309 Germans out of a +population of 60,400,000 emigrated from Germany, and these, says Mr. +Eltzbacher, whose figures I am quoting, were more than counterbalanced +by immigration into Germany from Austria, Russia, and Italy. It is +true that the population of Germany is increasing with immense +rapidity, and that the question of expansion is becoming a burning +one; but it is a question quite outside the strictly home politics of +this unpretending chronicle. We are only concerned with the obvious +fact that Germans settle in far countries in much smaller numbers than +we do, and that those who go abroad mostly choose the British flag and +avoid their own. It does not occur as easily to a German as to an +Englishman that he may better his fortunes in another part of the +world, or if he is an official that he will apply for a post in Asia +or Africa. He wants to stay near the Rhine or the Spree where he was +born, and to bring up his children there; and with the help of the +State and his wife he contrives to do this on an extraordinary small +income. The State, as we have seen, almost takes his children off his +hands from the time they are six years old. It brings them up for +nothing, or next to nothing; in cases of need it partially feeds and +clothes them, it even washes them. Some English humorist has said that +a German need only give himself the trouble to be born; his government +does the rest. But first his mother and then his wife do a good deal. +They are like the woman in Proverbs who worked willingly with her +hands, rose while it was night, saw well to the ways of her household, +and ate not the bread of idleness. + +I have before me the household accounts of several German families +living on what we should call small incomes; and they show more +exactly than any vague praise can do the prodigies of thrift +accomplished by people obliged to economise, and at the same time to +present a respectable appearance. The first one is the budget of a +small official living with a wife and two children in a little town +where a flat on the fourth or fifth floor can be had at a low rent:-- + + L s. d. +Rent 20 0 0 +Fuel 3 10 0 +Light 1 10 0 +Clothes for the man 3 0 0 +Clothes for the wife 2 0 0 +Clothes for the children 1 0 0 +Boots for the man 1 0 0 +Boots for the wife and children 1 5 0 +Repairs to boots 0 17 6 +Washing and house repairs 3 0 0 +Doctor 2 0 0 +Newspaper 0 12 0 +Charwoman 3 0 0 +Taxes 2 10 0 +Postage 1 4 0 +Insurances 2 10 0 +Amusements 3 0 0 +Housekeeping 45 0 0 +Sundries 3 1 0 + ----------- + L100 0 0 + =========== + +The fuel allowed in this budget consists of 30 cwt. of _Steinkohlen_ +at 1 mark 15 pf. the cwt., 30 cwt. of _Braunkohlen_ at 70 pf. the +cwt., and 4 cwt. of kindling at 1 mark 10 pf. the cwt. This quantity, +3 tons without the kindling, would have to be used most sparingly to +last through a long rigorous German winter, as well as for cooking and +washing in summer. The amount set apart for lights allows for one lamp +in the living room and two small ones in the passage and kitchen. The +man may have a new suit every year, one year in winter and the next +year in summer, and his suit may cost L2, 10s. His great-coat also is +to cost L2, 10s., but he can't have a new suit the year he buys one, +and it should last him at least four years. The ten shillings left is +for all his other clothes except boots, and presumably for all his +personal expenses, including tobacco, so he had better not spend it +all at once. His wife performs greater miracles still, for she has to +buy a winter gown and a summer gown, a hat and gloves, for her L2. +These are not fancy figures. The miracle is performed by tens of +thousands of German women every year. They buy a few yards of cheap +stuff and get in a sewing-woman to make it up, for as a rule they are +not nearly as clever and capable as Englishwomen about making things +for themselves. Your English maid-servant will buy a blouse length at +a sale for a few pence, make it up smartly, and wear it out in a month +of Sundays. Your German she-official will have a blouse made for her, +and it will probably be hideous; but she will wear it so carefully +that it lasts her two years. Under-raiment she will never want to buy, +as she will have brought a life-long supply to her home at marriage. +You easily figure the children who are dressed on twenty marks a year, +the girl in a shoddy tartan made in a fashion of fifty years ago with +the "waist" hooked behind, and the boy in some snuff-coloured mixture +floridly braided. But the interesting revelation of this small +official budget is in its carefully planned fare made out for a +fortnight in summer and a fortnight in winter. In winter the +_Hausfrau_ may spend about 17s. a week on her food and in summer 19s. +That leaves only 2s. a month for the extra days of the month, and for +small expenses, such as soda, matches, blacking, and condiments. +Breakfast may cost sixpence a day, and for this there is to be 3/4 litre +of milk, 4 small white rolls, 1/2 lb. rye bread, 2 oz. of butter, 1 oz. +of coffee. Nothing is set down for sugar, and I think that most German +families of this class would not use sugar, and would eat their bread +without butter. On Sunday they have a goose for dinner, and pay 4s. +6d. for it, and though 4s. 6d. is not much to pay for a goose, it +seems an extravagant dish for this family, until you discover that +they are still dining on it on Wednesday. Not only has the _Hausfrau_ +brought home this costly bird, but she has laid in a whole pound of +lard to roast with it, white bread for stuffing, and cabbage for a +vegetable. Pudding is not considered necessary after goose, and for +supper there is bread and milk for the children, and bread, butter, +cheese, and beer for the parents. On Monday they have a rest from +goose, and dine on _gehacktes Schweinefleisch_. German butchers sell +raw minced meat very cheaply, and the _Hausfrau_ would probably get as +much as she wanted for three-halfpence. On Tuesday they get back to +the goose, and have a hash of the wings, neck, and liver with +potatoes. For supper, rice cooked with milk and cinnamon. Germans use +cinnamon rather as the Spaniards use garlic. They seem to think it +improves everything, and they eat quantities of milky rice strewn with +it. On Wednesday my family has soup for dinner, a solid soup made of +goose, rice, and a pennyworth of carrots. For supper there is sausage, +bread, and beer. By the way, this official is not really +representative, for he spends nothing on tobacco, and only a penny +every other day on beer. He cannot have been a Bavarian. His wife +gives him cod with mustard sauce on Thursday, Sauerkraut and shin of +beef on Friday, and on Saturday lentil soup with sausages, an +excellent dish when properly cooked for those who want solid +nourishing food. On the following Sunday 3 pounds of beef appears, and +potato dumplings with stewed fruit, another good German mixture if the +dumplings are as light as they should be. The husband has them warmed +up for supper next day. One day he has bacon and vegetables for +dinner, and another day only apple sauce and pancakes, but at every +midday meal throughout the fortnight he has carefully planned food on +which his wife spends considerable time and trouble. He never comes +home from his work on a winter's day to have a mutton bone and watery +potatoes set before him. In summer the bill of fare provides soups +made with wine, milk, or cider; sometimes there are curds for supper, +and if they have a chicken, rice and stewed fruit are eaten with it. +But a chicken only costs this _Hausfrau_ 1 mark 20 pf., so it must +have been a small one. I have often bought pigeons for 25 pf. apiece +in Germany, and stuffed in the Bavarian way with egg and bread crumbs +they are good eating. Fruit is extremely cheap and plentiful in many +parts of Germany, but not everywhere. We have Heine's word for it that +the plums grown by the wayside between Jena and Weimar are good, for +most of us know his story of his first interview with Goethe; how he +had looked forward to the meeting with ecstasy and reflection, and how +when he was face to face with the great man all he found to say was a +word in praise of the plums he had eaten as he walked. In the +fruit-growing districts most of the roads are set with an avenue of +fruit trees, and so law-abiding are the boys of Germany, and so +plentiful is fruit in its season, that no one seems to steal from +them. I have talked with elderly Germans, who remembered buying 3 +pounds of cherries for 6 kreuzers, a little more than a penny, when +they were boys. But those days are over. The small sweet-water grapes +from the vineyards of South Germany are to be had for the asking where +they are grown, and apricots are plentiful in some districts, and the +little golden plums called _Mirabellen_ that are dried in quantities +and make the best winter compote there is. When I see English grocers' +shops loaded up with dried American apples and apricots that are not +worth eating, however carefully they are cooked, I always wonder why +we do not import _Mirabellen_ instead. + +Sweetbreads in the Berlin markets were about 1 mark 10 pf. each last +year, small tongues were 1 mark 10 pf. _Morscheln_, a poor kind of +fungus much used in Germany, were 65 pf. a pound, real mushrooms were +1 mark 50 pf., and the dried ones used for flavouring sauces were the +same price. Butter and milk are usually about the same price as with +us, but eggs are cheaper. You get twenty for a mark still in spring, +and I remember making an English plumcake once in a Bavarian village +and being charged 6 pf. for the three eggs I used. A rye loaf weighing +4 pounds costs 50 pf., the little white rolls cost 3 pf. each. In +Berlin last year vegetables were nearly as dear as in London, but in +many parts of Germany they are much cheaper. I know of one housewife +who fed her family largely on vegetables, and would not spend more +than 10 pf. a day on them, but she lived in a small country town where +green stuff was a drug in the market. Asparagus is cheaper than here, +for it costs 35 pf. to 40 pf. a pound, and is eaten in such quantities +that even an asparagus lover gets tired of it. Meat has risen terribly +in price of late years. In the open market you can get fillet of beef +for 1 mark 60 pf., sirloin for 90 pf., good cuts of mutton for 90 pf. +to 1 mark, and veal for 1 mark, but all these prices are higher at a +butcher's shop. Fillet of beef, for instance, is 2 marks 40 pf. a +pound there. + +The budget of a family living on L250 a year does not call for so much +comment as the smaller one, because L250 is a fairly comfortable +income in Germany. Either a schoolmaster or a soldier must have risen +in his profession before he gets it; but the following estimate is +made out for a business man who does not get a house free or any other +aid from outside:-- + + L s. d. +Rent 50 0 0 +Fuel 7 10 0 +Light 5 0 0 +Clothes--husband 6 0 0 + " wife 4 0 0 + " children 2 10 0 +Shoes 4 0 0 +School fees 5 0 0 +Washing 5 0 0 +Repairs to linen 2 10 0 +Doctor and dentist 5 0 0 +Newspapers and magazines 2 0 0 +Servant's wages 9 0 0 +Servant's insurance and Christmas present 2 0 0 +Taxes 6 0 0 +Postage 1 10 0 +Insurances 5 0 0 +Housekeeping 90 0 0 +Amusements and travelling 25 0 0 +Christmas and presents 10 0 0 +Sundries 3 0 0 + ----------- + L250 0 0 + =========== + +On examining this budget it will occur to most people that the poor +_Hausfrau_ might spend a little more on her clothes and a little less +on her presents, and as a matter of fact even in Germany, where +Christmas is a burden as well as a pleasure, this would be done. The +next budget is the most interesting, because it is not an ideal one +drawn up for anyone's guidance, but is taken without the alteration of +one penny from the beautifully kept account book of a friend. There +were no children in the family, so nothing appears for school fees or +children's clothes. The household consisted of husband and wife and +one maid. They lived in one of the largest and dearest of German +cities, and the husband's work as well as their social position forced +certain expenses on them. For instance, they had to live in a good +street and on the ground floor; and they had to entertain a good deal. + + M. Pf. +Bread 180 -- +Meat 310 95 +Fish and poultry 98 55 +Aufschnitt 67 25 +Potatoes 19 10 +Vegetables 110 50 +Fruit 87 95 +Eggs 83 90 +Milk 121 85 +Butter 195 -- +Lard 36 55 +Flour, Gries, etc. 25 60 +Sugar and treacle 66 20 +Groceries 22 50 +Coffee 67 -- +Tea and chocolate 17 95 +Drinks 159 10 +Lights 30 55 +Washing 126 80 +Laundress 32 25 +Ice 10 20 +Coal and wood 170 10 +Turf and other fuel 159 25 +Matches 3 -- +Cleaning 60 -- +Furniture 4 55 +Repairs 19 50 +Crockery and kitchenware 38 -- +Repairs 49 -- +China and glass 30 5 +Clothes--husband 181 20 + " wife 452 85 +Boots--husband 24 10 + " wife 60 35 +Linen 17 5 +Charities 232 20 +Rent 2150 -- +Rent of husband's share of professional rooms 318 70 + ---- -- + Carry forward 5839 45 + + M. Pf. +Brought forward 5839 45 +Fares 46 10 +Books 64 25 +Writing materials 30 50 +Charwoman and tips 85 95 +Wages and servants' presents 335 50 +Papers 35 25 +Carpenter 125 -- +Tobacco and cigars 165 90 +Sundries 39 35 +Photography and fishing tackle 141 10 +Music lessons 15 10 +Medicine 13 80 +Hairdresser 2 40 +Presents--family 291 75 + " friends 119 -- +Amusements 137 25 +Travelling 736 40 +Stamps 99 65 +Entertaining (at Home) 232 -- +Charities[2] 24 -- +Subscriptions 119 80 +Fire insurance 12 30 +Old age insurance 10 40 + ---- -- + 8722 20 + ==== == + +There are some interesting points about this budget as compared with +an English one of L436. It will be seen that although meat is so dear +in Germany the weekly butcher's bill for three people was only 6s., +fish and poultry together only 2s., and the ham sausage, etc. from the +provision shop under 1s. 6d. a week. The washing bill for the year is +low, because nearly everything was washed at home, and dear as fuel is +in Germany this household spent about L16, where an English one +presenting the same front would spend L20 to L25. Observe, too, the +amount spent on servants' wages by people who lived in a large +charmingly furnished flat, and had a long visiting list. The wife, +too, a very pretty woman and always well dressed, spent much less on +her toilet than anyone would have guessed from its finish and variety, +for she came from one of the German cities where women do dress well. +There is nearly as much difference amongst German cities in this +respect as there is amongst nations. Berlin is far behind either +Hamburg or Frankfurt, for instance. The middle-class women of Berlin +have an extraordinary affection all through the summer season for +collarless blouses, bastard tartans, and white cotton gloves with +thumbs but no fingers. In England the force of custom drives women to +uncover their necks in the evening, whether it becomes them or not, +and it is not a custom for which sensible elderly women can have much +to say. But pneumonia blouses have never been universal wear in any +country, and it is impossible to explain their apparently irresistible +attraction for all ages and sizes of women in the Berlin electric +cars. Those who were not wearing pneumonia blouses a year ago were +wearing _Reform-Kleider_, shapeless ill-cut garments usually of grey +tweed. The oddest combination, and quite a common one, was a sack-like +_Reform-Kleid_, with a saucy little coloured bolero worn over it, +fingerless gloves, and a madly tilted beflowered hat perched on a +dowdy coiffure. These are rude remarks to make about the looks of +foreign ladies, but the _Reform-Kleid_ is just as hideous and absurd +in Germany now as our bilious green draperies were on the wrong people +twenty-five years ago, and I am sure every foreigner who came to +England must have laughed at them. On the whole, I would say of German +women in general what a Frenchwoman once said to me in the most +matter-of-fact tone of Englishwomen, _Elles s'habillent si mal_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Probably private charities. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOSPITALITY + + +If a German cannot afford to ask you to dinner he asks you to supper, +and makes his supper inviting. At least, he does if he is sensible, +and if he lives where an inexpensive form of entertainment is in +vogue. But even in Germany people are not sensible everywhere. The +headmaster of a school in a small East Prussian town told me that his +colleagues, the higher officials and other persons of local +importance, felt bound to entertain their friends at least once a +year, and that their way was to invite everyone together to a dinner +given at the chief hotel in the town; and that to do this a family +would stint itself for months beforehand. He spoke with knowledge, so +I record what he said; but I have never been amongst Germans who were +hospitable in this painful way. Hotels are used for large +entertainments, just as they are in England, but most people receive +their friends in their homes, and only hire servants for some special +function, like a wedding or a public dinner. + +The form of hospitality most popular in England now, the visit of two +or three days' duration, is hardly known in Germany, and I believe +that they have not begun yet to supply their guests with small cakes +of soap labelled "Visitors," and meant to last for a week-end but not +longer. In towns no one dreams of having a constant succession of +staying guests, and either in town or country when a German family +expects a guest at all it is more often than not for the whole summer +or winter. You do not find a German girl arranging, as her English +cousin will, for a round of visits, fitting in dates, writing here and +there to know if people can take her in, and by the same post +answering those who are planning a pilgrimage for themselves and wish +to be taken. A visit in Germany is not the flighty affair it is with +us. + +"This winter," says your friend, "my niece from Posen will be with +us," and presently the niece arrives and stays about three months. +There is rarely more than one spare room on a flat, and that is often +a room not easily spared. In country houses there are rows of rooms, +but they are not filled by an everlasting procession of guests in the +English way. When you stay in a country house at home you wonder how +your hosts ever get anything done, and whether they don't sometimes +wish they had a few days to themselves. To be sure, English hosts go +about their business and leave you to yours, more than Germans think +polite. I once spent six weeks, quite an ordinary visit as to length, +with some friends who had several grown-up children. It was a most +cheerful friendly household, but one day I got into a corner near the +stove, rather glad for a change to be myself for a while with a novel +for company. When I had been there a little time the second daughter +looked in and at once apologised. + +"Mamma sent me to see," she explained,--"she feared you were by +yourself." + +It is not easy to tell your German hosts that you like and wish to be +by yourself sometimes; and if you say that you are used to it in +England you won't impress them. The English are so inhospitable and +unfriendly, they will say, for that is one of the many popular myths +that are believed about us. I have been told of a German lady who has +lived here most of her life, and complains to her German friends that +she has never spent a night under an English roof; but then, she +chooses to associate exclusively with Germans, whose roofs she refuses +to regard as English ones, even when they are in Kensington; and she +cherishes such an invincible prejudice against the born English that +she lives amongst them year after year without making a friend. It +would be quite simple to perform the same feat in Paris, or even in +Berlin, although there you would not have such a large foreign colony +to stand between you and the detestable natives. + +The real difficulty in writing about German hospitality is to find and +express the ways in which it differs from our own; and certainly these +lie little in qualities of kindness and generosity. Amongst both +nations, if you have a friendly disposition you will find friends +easily, and receive kindness on all sides. Perhaps, as one concrete +instance is worth many assertions, I may describe a visit I paid many +years ago to a family who invited me because a marriage had recently +connected us. I had seen some of the family at the wedding, and had +been surprised to receive a warm invitation, not for a week-end and a +cake of visitors' soap, but for the rest of the winter; six weeks or +two months at least. The family living at home consisted of the +parents, a grown-up son and two grown-up daughters. Some of them met +me at the station, for the German does not breathe who would let a +guest arrive or depart alone. Your friends often give you flowers when +you arrive, and invariably when you go away. I cannot remember about +the flowers on this occasion, but I remember vividly that the day +after my arrival the two married daughters living in the same town +both called on me and brought me flowers. Week after week, too, they +made it their pleasure to entertain me just as kindly as my immediate +hosts, taking me to concerts or the opera, asking me to dinner or +supper, including me on every occasion in the family festivities, +which were numerous and lively. In some ways my hosts found me a +disappointing guest, and said so. The trouble was that I liked plain +rolls and butter for breakfast, while the daughters for days before I +came had baked every size and variety of rich cake for me to eat first +thing in the morning with my coffee. I never could eat enough to +please anyone either. You never can in Germany, try as you may. Yet it +was hungry weather, for the Rhine was frozen hard all the time I was +there, and we used to skate every day in the harbour when the +daughters of the house had finished their morning's work. Two maids +were kept on the flat, but, like most German servants, they were +supposed to require constant supervision, and when a room was turned +out the young ladies in their morning wrappers helped to do it. They +helped with the ironing too and the cooking, and did all the mending +of linen and clothes. "A child's time belongs to her parents," said +the father one day when the elder daughter wanted to skate, but was +told that she could not be spared. "I've had a heavenly time," said a +girl friend who had been laid up for some weeks with a sprained ankle; +"I've had nothing to do but read and amuse myself." The household +work, however, was usually done before the one o'clock dinner, and the +afternoon was given up to skating, walks, and visits. There were not +so many formal calls paid as in England, but there was a constant +interchange of hospitality amongst the members of the family, the kind +of intimate unceremonious entertaining described in Miss Austen's +novels. Every time one of the many small children had a birthday there +was a feast of chocolate and cakes, a gathering of the whole clan. The +birthday cake had a sugared _Spruch_ on it, and a little lighted +candle for each year of the child's age, and the birthday table had a +present on it from everyone who came to the party, and many who did +not. Once a week the married daughters and their husbands came to +supper with my hosts, and every day when they were not coming to +supper they called on their mother, and if she could coax them to stay +drank their afternoon coffee with her. Sometimes one or two strangers +were asked to coffee, for this household was an old-fashioned one, and +gave you good coffee rather than wishy-washy tea. It made a point of +honour of a _Meringuetorte_ when strangers came, and of the little +chocolate cream cakes Germans call Othellos. But it must not be +supposed that one or two strangers constitute a _Kaffee-Klatsch_, that +celebrated form of entertainment where at every sip a reputation dies. +A genuine _Klatsch_ was, however, given during my stay by a young +married woman who wished to entertain her friends and display her +furniture. About twenty ladies were invited, and when they had +assembled they were solemnly conducted through every room of the flat +from the drawing-room to the spick-and-span kitchen, where every pan +was of shining copper and every cloth embroidered with the bride's +monogram. The procession as it filed through the rooms chattered like +magpies, for except myself every member of it had been to school with +the bride, and had helped to adorn her home with embroidered chair +backs, cushions, cloths, newspaper stands, foot-stools, duster bags, +and suchlike, all of which they now had the pleasure of seeing in the +places suitable to them. By the time we sat down in the dining-room +to a table loaded with cakes, the slight frost of arrival had melted +away. The strange Englishwoman no longer acted as a wet blanket, and +when she tried to converse with her neighbours she found, as she still +finds at German entertainments, that she could only do so by screaming +at the top of her voice as you do in England in a high wind or in the +sound of loud machinery. Everyone was in the highest spirits, and the +collective noise they made was amazing. In Germany, when actors play +English parts or when people in private life put on English manners, +the first thing they do is to lower their voices as if they had met to +bury a friend. This is the way our natural manner strikes them, while +their natural manner strikes us as easy and jolly, but tiring to the +voice and after a time to the spirit. There are quiet Germans, but +when they sit at a good man's table they must certainly either shout +or be left out of all that goes on. At a _Kaffee-Klatsch_ you either +shout or whisper, you eat every sort of rich cake presented to you if +you can, you drink chocolate or coffee with whipped cream. Nowadays +you would often find tea provided instead. When the hostess finds she +cannot persuade anyone to eat another cake, she leads her guests back +to the drawing-room, and the _Klatsch_ goes on. There is often music +as well as gossip, and before you are allowed to depart there are more +refreshments, ices, sweetmeats, fruit, little glasses of lemonade or +_Bowle_. When you get home you do not want any supper, and you are +quite hoarse, though you have only been to a simple _Kaffee-Klatsch_ +without _Schleppe_. Your friends tell you that when they were young a +_Kaffee-Klatsch mit Schleppe_ was the favourite form of entertaining, +and lasted the whole afternoon and evening. Men were asked to come in +when the _Klatsch_ was over and a supper was provided. Those must have +been proud and bustling days for a _Hausfrau_ with one "girl." + +To be asked to dinner or supper in Germany may mean anything. Either +form of invitation varies both in hour and kind more than it does in +England; but unless you are asked to a dinner that precedes a dance +you hardly ever need evening dress. Some years ago you would have +written that people never dressed for dinner in Germany except when +the dinner celebrated a betrothal, a wedding, or some equally +important and unusual event. But it has become the fashion in Berlin +lately to dress for large dinners and evening entertainments. No rule +can be laid down for the guidance of English visitors to Germany, +because what you wear must depend partly on the dinner hour and partly +on the ways of your hosts and their friends. Last year when I was in +Berlin I accepted a formal invitation sent a fortnight beforehand to a +dinner given on a Sunday at five o'clock. As the host was a +distinguished scientific man who had just returned from a journey +round the world, it promised to be an interesting entertainment; and +there were, in fact, some of the most celebrated members of the +University present. They were all in morning dress, and their +womenfolk wore what we should call Sunday frocks. The dinner was +beautifully cooked and served, and was not oppressively long. Soup +began it of course, roast veal with various vegetables followed, fish +came next, lovely little grey-blue fish better to look at than to eat, +then chicken, ice pudding, and dessert. There were flowers on the +table, but not as many as we should have with the same opportunities, +for the house was set in an immense garden; and all down the long +narrow table there were bottles of wine and mineral water. When the +champagne came, and that is served at a later stage in Germany than it +is with us, speeches of congratulation were made to the host on his +safe return, and every guest in reach clinked their glasses with his. +After dinner men and women rose together in the German way, and drank +coffee in the drawing-room. The men lighted cigars. A little later in +the evening slender glasses of beer and lemonade were brought round, +and just before everyone left at nine o'clock there was tea and a +variety of little cakes and sandwiches, not our double sandwiches, but +tiny single slices of buttered roll, each with its scrap of caviare or +smoked salmon. + +A ball supper or a Christmas supper in Germany consists of three or +four courses served separately, and all hot except the sweet, which is +usually _Gefrorenes_. Salmon, roast beef or veal, venison or chicken, +and then ice would be an ordinary menu, and every course would be +divided into portions and handed round on long narrow dishes. In most +German towns you are often asked to supper, and very seldom to dinner. +You never know beforehand what sort of meal to expect unless you have +been to the house before. In some houses it will be hot, in others +cold. In Berlin, supper usually offers you a dish made with eggs and +mushrooms, eggs and asparagus, or some combination of the kind, and +after this the usual variety of ham and sausages fetched from the +provision shop. Tea and beer are drunk at this meal in most houses. +Sometimes Rhine wine is on the table too. The sweets are often small +fruit tartlets served with whipped cream. One menu I remember +distinctly, because it was so quaint and full of surprises. We began +with huge quantities of asparagus and poached eggs eaten together. +Then we had _Pumpernickel_, Gruyere cheese and radishes, and for a +third course vanilla ice. That was the end of the supper, but later in +the evening, just before we left, in came an enormous dish covered +with gooseberry tartlets, and we had to eat them, for somehow in +Germany it seems ungrateful and unfriendly not to eat and drink what +is provided. + +After dinner or supper everyone wishes everyone else _Mahlzeit_ which +is to say, "I wish you a good digestion." Sometimes people only bow as +they say it, but more often they shake hands. I know an Englishman who +was much puzzled by this ceremony at his first German dinner-party. He +saw everyone shaking hands as if they were about to disperse the +instant the feast was over, and when his host came to him with a +smiling face, took his hand and murmured _Mahlzeit_, he summoned what +German he had at his command and answered _Gute Nacht_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +GERMAN SUNDAYS + + +There was to be singing in the forest on Sunday afternoon, we were +told, when we arrived at our little Black Forest town; and we were on +no account to miss it. We did not want to miss anything, for whenever +we looked out of our windows or strolled through the streets we were +entertained and enchanted. From the hotel we could see women and girls +pass to and fro all day with the great wooden buckets they carried on +their backs and filled at the well close by. As dusk fell the oldest +woman in the community hobbled out, let down the iron chains slung +across the street, and lighted the oil lamps swinging from them. All +the gossips of the place gathered at the well of evenings, and +throughout the day barefooted children played there. Behind the main +street there were gabled houses with ancient wooden balconies and +gardens crammed with pinks. The population mostly sat out of doors +after dark, and as it was hot weather no one went to bed early. Even +in the dead of night the timber waggons drawn by oxen passed through +the town, and the driver did his best to wake us by cracking his long +whip. For though a Black Forest town is mediaeval in its ways, it is +not restful. It may soothe you by suggestion, the people seem so +leisurely and the life so easy going; but there is not an hour in the +twenty-four when you are secure from noise. The Sunday in question +began with the bustle occasioned in a country inn by an unusual strain +on its resources. There must be an extra good dinner for the expected +influx of guests, said the landlord's niece, who kept house for him, +while the wife and daughters ran a second hotel higher up the valley. +We escaped to the forest, where the morning hours of a hot June day +were fresh and scented, and we were sorry we had to return to the +hotel for a long hot midday dinner. When it was over, we sat in the +garden and wondered why people held a festival on the top of a hill on +such a sleepy afternoon. However, when the time came we joined the +leisurely procession making the ascent. An hour's stroll took us to +the concert hall, a forest glade where people sat about in groups +waiting for the music to begin. Barrels of beer had been rolled up +here, and children were selling _Kringel_, crisp twists of bread +sprinkled with salt. There were more children present than adults, and +we observed, as you nearly always will in Germany, that though they +belonged to the poorer classes they wore neat clothes and had quiet, +modest manners. The older people often let them drink out of their +glasses, for it was a thirsty afternoon, and when the singing began +the children joined in some of the songs. The occasion of the festival +was the friendly meeting of several choirs, and they sang fine anthems +as well as _Volkslieder_. The effect of the music in the heart of the +forest was enchanting, and we stayed till the end. These choral +competitions or reunions often take place on a Sunday in Germany, and +in summer are often held in an inn garden. They bring some custom to +the innkeeper, but drunkenness and disorder are almost unknown. In +fact, all the cases of drunkenness I have seen in Germany have been +in the Munich comic papers. You never by any chance hear of it as you +do in England amongst people you know, and you may spend hours at the +Berlin Zoo on a Whit-Monday and see no one who is not sober. +University students get drunk and have fights with innkeepers and +policemen, but that is etiquette rather than vice. Next day they +suffer from _Katzenjammer_, but feel that they are upholding ancient +tradition. Real intemperance is found almost entirely amongst the +dregs of the big cities and the lowest class of peasants. + +In Berlin the better class of artisans and small tradespeople escape +from their flats on Sundays to their allotment gardens. You see whole +tracts of these gardens on the outskirts of the city, and many of them +have some kind of summer house or rough shelter. Here the family +spends the whole day in fresher air, and presumably finds out how to +grow the simpler kinds of flowers and vegetables. Those who have no +garden and can afford a few pence for fares go farther afield. They +carry food for the day in tin satchels, or rolls that look as if they +ought to accompany butterfly nets and contain entomological specimens. +But they are usually in the hands of a stout alpaca-clad middle-class +mater-familias, who looks rather anxious and flustered while she herds +her flock and hunts for a garden with the announcement, "Hier koennen +Familien Kaffee kochen." There for a trifling indemnity she can be +accommodated with seats, cups and saucers, and hot water; just as +people can in an English tea-garden. Provisions she has with her in +her _Pickenick Rolle_. If fate takes you to Potsdam on a fine summer +Sunday, you will think that the whole bourgeoisie of Berlin has +elected to come by the same train and steamer, and that everyone but +you has brought food for the day in a green tin. You need not expect +to find a seat either in the train or the steamer at certain hours of +the day, and as you stand wedged in the crowd on the dangerously +overladen boat, and look about you as best you can at the chain of +wooded lakes, you wonder how it is that such overcrowding is permitted +in a police-governed land. At home we take such things for granted as +part of our system or want of system. But in Germany the moment you +cross the frontier a thousand trifles make you feel that you are a +unit in an army, drilled and kept under by the bureaucracy and the +police. It surprises you to see an unmanageable crowd in a train or on +a steamer, much as it would surprise you to see soldiers swarm at will +into a troopship. You expect them to march precisely, each man to his +place. And in Germany this nearly always happens in civil life; while +even on a Sunday or a public holiday the mob behaves itself. At the +Berlin Zoo, for instance, there are such masses of people every Sunday +that you see nothing but people. It is impossible, or rather would not +be agreeable, to force your way through the crowd surrounding the +cages. But the people are interesting, and it is to see them that you +have ventured here. You soon find, however, that it is not a venture +at all. No one will offend you, no one is drunken or riotous. The +gardens are packed with decent folk, mostly of the lower middle +classes, and the only unseemly thing you see them do is to eat small +hot sausages with their fingers in the open-air restaurants. + +Sunday is the great day of the week at German theatres. In all the +large towns there are afternoon performances at popular prices, and +this means that people who can pay a few pence for a seat can see all +the great classical plays and most of the successful modern ones; and +they can hear many of the great operas as well as a variety of +charming light ones never heard in this country. On one Sunday +afternoon in Berlin, Hoffmann's _Erzaehlungen_ was played at one +theatre, and at others Gorky's _Nachtasyl_, Tolstoy's _Power of +Darkness_, Hauptmann's _Versunkene Glocke_, the well known military +play _Zapfenstreich_, and Lortzing's light opera _Der Waffenschmied_. +The star players and singers do not usually appear at these popular +performances, and the Wagnerian _Ring_ has, as far as I know, never +yet been given. But on Sunday afternoons all through the winter the +playhouses are crowded with people who cannot pay week-day prices, and +yet are intelligent enough to enjoy a fairly good performance of +_Hamlet_ or _Egmont_; who are musical and choose a Mozart opera; or +who are interested in the problems of life presented by Ibsen, Gorky, +Tolstoy, or their own great fellow-countryman Gerhardt Hauptmann. When +summer comes, as long as the theatres are open the whole audience +streams out between the acts to have coffee or beer in the garden, or +when there is no garden, in the nearest restaurant; and then comes +your chance of appraising the people who take their pleasure in this +way. They look for the most part as if they belonged to the small +official and shop-keeper class. If the play is a suitable one, there +are sure to be a great many young people present, and at the +State-supported theatres these Sunday performances are such as young +people are allowed to see. + +In the evening the Sunday play or opera is always one of the most +important of the week; the play everyone wishes to see or the opera +that is most attractive. A Wagner opera is often played on a Sunday +evening in the theatre that undertakes Wagner. The smaller stages will +give some old favourite, _Der Freischuetz_, _Don Juan_, _Oberon_, or +_Die Zauberfloete_. In fact, all through the winter the upper and +middle classes make the play and the opera their favourite Sunday +pastime. The lower classes depend a good deal on the public dancing +saloons, which seem to do as much harm as our public-houses, and to be +disliked and discouraged by all sensible Germans. + +So far this account of a German Sunday suggests that Germans always go +from home for their weekly holiday, and it is true that when Sunday +comes the German likes to amuse himself. But he is not invariably at +the play or in inn gardens. It is the day when scattered members of a +family will meet most easily, and when the branch of the family that +can best do so will entertain the others. Some years ago in a North +German city I was often with friends who had a dining-room and narrow +dinner table long enough for a hotel. The host and hostess, when they +were by themselves, dined in a smaller room, sitting next to each +other on the sofa; but on Sundays their children and grandchildren, +some spinster cousins, some _Stammgaeste_ (old friends who came every +week) all met in the drawing-room at five o'clock, and sat down soon +after to a dinner of four or five courses in a long dining-room. It +was a company of all ages and some variety of station, and the +patriarchal arrangement placed the venerable and beloved host and +hostess side by side at the top of the room, with their friends in +order of importance to right and left of them, until you came, below +the salt as it were, to the Mamsells and the little children at the +foot of the table. But the Mamsells did not leave the room when the +sweets arrived. Everyone ate everything, including the preserved +fruits that came round with the roast meat, and the pudding that +arrived after the cheese. In those days it was not considered proper +in Germany for ladies to eat cheese, and no young lady would dream of +taking one of the little glasses of Madeira offered on a tray. They +were exclusively for _die Herren_, and always gave a fillip to the +conversation, which was also more or less a masculine monopoly. Just +before the end of the dinner it was the business of the Mamsell +belonging to the house to light a little army of Vienna coffee +machines standing ready on the sideboard, so that coffee could be +served when everyone went back to the drawing-room. The men smoked +their cigars there too, and someone would play the piano, and when no +music was going on there was harmless, rather dull, family +conversation. The spinster cousins got out their embroidery, the +Mamsells disappeared with the children, _die Herren_ either talked to +each other or had a quiet game of _Skat_. The women and some of the +men had been to church in the morning, but this did not prevent them +from spending the rest of the day as it pleased them. + +It will be seen that from the English point of view Sunday is not +observed at all in Germany; yet this does not mean, as is often +announced from English pulpits, that the whole nation is without +religion. Un-belief is more widely professed than here, and many +people who call themselves Christians openly reject certain vital +doctrines of Evangelical faith,--are Unitarians, in fact, but will not +say so. But the whole question of religious belief in Germany is a +difficult and contentious one, for according to the people you meet +you will be told that the nation lacks faith or possesses it. If you +use your own judgment you must conclude that there is immensely more +scepticism there than here, and that there is also a good deal of +vague belief, a belief, that is, in a personal God and a life after +death. But you must admit that except in an "evangelical" set belief +sits lightly on both men and women. Certainly it has nothing to do +with the way they spend Sunday, and if they go to church in the +morning they are as likely as not to go to the theatre in the +afternoon. They sew, they dance, they fiddle, they act, they travel on +the day of rest, more on that day than on any other, and when they +come to England there is nothing in our national life they find so +tedious and unprofitable as our Sundays. They cannot understand why a +people with so strong a tendency to drink should make the public-house +the only counter attraction to the church on the working man's day of +leisure; and when they are in a country place, and see our groups of +idle, aimless young louts standing about not knowing what to do, they +ask why in the name of common sense they should not play an outdoor +game. The Idealist expresses the German point of view very well in her +Memoirs, and in so far as she misunderstands our English point of view +she is only on a line with those amongst us who denounce the +continental Sunday as an orgy of noisy and godless pleasures. She +says: "I had a thousand opportunities of noticing that the religious +life did not mean a deep life-sanctifying belief, but simply one of +those formulas that are a part of 'respectability,' as they understand +it both in the family and in society." Nothing proves this better than +their truly shocking way of keeping holy the Sabbath day, which is the +very reverse of holy, inasmuch as it paves the way to the heaviest +boredom and slackness of spirit. I have been in English houses on +Sundays where the gentlemen threw themselves from one easy chair to +the other, and proclaimed their empty state of mind by their awful +yawns; where the children wandered about hopelessly depressed, because +they might neither play nor read an amusing book, not even Grimm's +_Fairy Tales_; where all the mental enjoyment of the household +consisted of so-called 'sacred music,' which some young miss strummed +on the piano or, worse still, sang. A young girl once spoke to me in +severe terms about the Germans who visit theatres and concerts on +Sundays. I asked her whether, if she put it to her conscience, she +could honestly say that she had holier feelings and higher thoughts, +whether, in fact, she felt herself a better human being on her quiet +Sunday, than when she heard a Beethoven Symphony, saw a Shakespeare +play, or any other noble work of art. She confessed with embarrassment +that she could not say so, but nevertheless arrived at the logical +conclusion that, for all that, it was very wicked of the Germans not +to keep Sunday more holy. Another lady, a cultured liberal-minded +person, invited me once to go with her to the Temple Church, one of +the oldest and most beautiful London churches in the city, belonging +to the great labyrinth of Temple Bar where English justice has its +seat. The music of the Temple Church is famous, and I had expressed a +wish to hear it. So I went with my house-mate and the lady in +question, and sat between them. During the sermon I had great trouble +not to fall asleep, but fought against it for the sake of decorum. To +my surprise, when I glanced at my right-hand neighbour I saw that she +was fast asleep, and when I glanced at the one on my left I saw that +she was asleep too. I looked about at other people, and saw more than +one sunk in a pious Nirvana. As we left the church I asked the +Englishwoman, who had a strong sense of humour, whether she had slept +well. 'Yes,' she said, laughing, 'it did me a lot of good.' 'But why +do you go?' I said. 'Oh, my dear,' said she, 'what can one do? It has +to be on Sundays.' + +"But this narrow Sunday observance is worse for the lower than for the +upper classes. At that time the great dispute was just beginning as to +whether the people should be admitted to the Crystal Palace, to +museums, and suchlike institutions. The question was discussed in +Parliament, and decided in the negative. It was feared that the +churches would remain empty, and that morals would suffer if the +people began to like heathen gods, works of art and natural +curiosities, better than going to church. At least, this is the only +explanation one can give of such a decision. The churches and the +public-houses remained the only public places open on Sundays. The +churches were all very well for a few hours in the morning, but what +about the afternoon and evening? Then the beer-house was the only +refuge for the artisan or proletarian bowed down by the weight of hard +work, unused and untaught to wile away the idle hours of Sunday in any +intellectual occupation, and having no friendly attractive home to +make the peace of his own hearth the best refreshment after the +exhausting week. And so it turned out: the public-houses were full to +overflowing, and the holiness of Sunday was only too often desecrated +by the unholy sight of drunken men and, more horrible still, drunken +women; but this was not all, for so strong was the temptation thrust +upon them, that the workman's hardly earned week's wages went in +drink, and the children were left without bread and not a penny was +saved to lighten future distress. The coarse animal natures of the +only half-human beings became coarser and more animal through the +degrading passion for drink that only too often has murder in its +train, and murder in its most terrible and brutal guise!" + +There is not one idea or argument in this passage that I have not +heard over and over again from the lips of every German who has +anything to say about our English Sunday, and every German who has +been in England or heard much of English life invariably attacks what +he considers this weak joint in our armour. + +"What is the use?" he asks, "of going to church in the morning if you +get drunk and beat your wife at night?" + +"But the same man does not usually do both things in one day," you +represent to him. "One set of people goes to church and keeps Sunday +strictly, and another set goes to public-houses and is drunk and +disorderly. You should try to get out of your head your idea that we +are all exactly alike." + +"But you are--exactly alike. Everyone of you goes to church with a +solemn face, sings psalms, and comes back to his roast beef and +apple-pie. All the afternoon you are asleep; and at night the streets +and parks are not fit for respectable people." + +"At night," you explain, "all the respectable people are at home +eating cold beef and cold pie. The others...." + +"The others you drive to drink and fight and kill by your pharisaical +methods. You shut the doors of your theatres and your art galleries, +and you set wide the doors of your drinking hells. How you can call +yourself a religious people--it is Satanic...." + +"But, my dear man," you say, taking a long breath, "the people who go +to public-houses don't want theatres and art galleries. They are on +too low a level." + +"It is the business of the State to raise them--not to push them down. +Besides, there is drinking--much drinking--in England on the higher +levels too, as you well know...." + +"Of course I know," you say impatiently. "All I am saying is that we +do not bring it about by shutting the British Museum on Sundays." + +But next time the subject comes up for discussion your German will say +again, as he has said ever since he could speak, that the English +Sunday is anathema, and a standing witness to British _Heuchelei_, +because people sing psalms in the morning and get drunk and beat their +wives at night. You can easily imagine the Hypocrite's Progress +painted by a German Hogarth, and it would begin with a gentleman in a +black coat and tall hat on his way to church, and would end with the +same gentleman in the last stage of delirium tremens surrounded by his +slaughtered family. For in Germany one of the curious deep rooted +notions about us, who as people go are surely indifferent honest, is +that we are _ein falsches Volk_. With the want of logic that makes +human nature everywhere so entertaining, a German will nearly always +cash a cheque offered by an English stranger when he would refuse to +do so for a countryman. As far as one can get at it, what Germans +really mean by our _Heuchelei_ when they speak without malice is our +regard for the unwritten social law. This is so strong in us from old +habit and tradition that most of us do not feel the shackles; but the +stranger within our gates feels it at every step. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SPORT AND GAMES + + +The word Sport has been taken into the German language lately, but +Germans use it when we should use "hobby." "It is my sport," says an +artist when he shows you furniture of his own design. He means that +his business in life is to paint pictures, but his pleasure is to +invent beautiful chairs and tables. When the talk turns on the absurd +extreme to which the Marthas of Germany carry their housekeeping zeal, +a German friend will turn to you in defence of his countrywomen. "It +is their 'sport,'" says he, and you understand his point of view. Yet +another will tell you that the English have only become sportsmen in +modern times, and that the Germans are rapidly catching them up; but +this is the kind of information you receive politely, disagree with +profoundly, and do not discuss because you have not all the facts at +your fingers' ends. But you know that the British love of sport, be it +vice or virtue, is as ingrained in Britons as their common sense, and +as old as their history. + +In Germany the country gentleman is a sportsman. He rides, he shoots, +he hunts the wild boar which he preserves in his great forests. "You +have no country (_Land_)," said a German to me, using the word as +opposed to town. "In Germany we have country still." He meant that +England is thickly populated, and that we have no vast tracts of +heath and forest where wild animals live undisturbed. I told him there +were a few such places still in Scotland, but that they all belonged +to American and Jewish millionaires; however, he would not believe it. +He said he had spent a fortnight in England and had not heard of them. + +It is not such a matter of course with Germans of a certain class to +ride as it is with us. You see a few men, women, and children on +horseback in Berlin, but not many; and in most German towns you see no +one riding except cavalry officers. I am told that the present Emperor +tried to institute a fashionable hour for riding in the Tiergarten, +but that it fell through partly because there were not enough people +to bring decent carriages and horses. On the great estates in East +Prussia the women as well as the men of the family ride, and go great +distances in this way to see their friends; but in cities you cannot +fail to observe the miserable quality and condition of the horses and +the scarcity of private carriages. In fact, the German does not make +as much of animals as the Englishman does. If he lives in the country, +or if he means to be a man of fashion, he will have dogs and horses, +but he will not have one or both, by hook or by crook, whether he is +rich or poor, as the Briton does. You see dogs in any German city that +remind you of a paragraph that once appeared in an Italian paper, a +paragraph about a case of dog stealing. The dog was produced in court, +said the paper, and was either a fox terrier or a Newfoundland. But +you often see a fine Dachs; in Heidelberg the students are proud of +their great boar-hounds, and in the Black Forest there are numbers of +little black Pomeranians. + +In German towns where there is water, the traffic on it both for +business and amusement is as busy as with us, and in some respects +better managed. Hamburg life, for instance, is largely on the basin of +the Alster; either in the little steamers that carry you from city to +suburb, or in the small craft that crowd its waters on a summer night. +It is as usual in Hamburg as on the Thames to own boats and understand +their management, and there are the same varieties to be seen there: +the pleasure boats with people of all ages, the racing outrigger full +of strenuous, lightly clad young men, and the little sail boats +scurrying across the water before the breeze. On the Rhine the big +steamers do a roaring traffic all the summer, and catch the public +that likes a good dinner with their scenery; and on the Rhine, as well +as on most of the other rivers of Germany, there are a great many +swimming baths; for every German who has a chance learns to swim. In +Hamburg on a summer evening you meet troops of little boys and girls +going to the baths, many of them belonging to the poorer classes; for +where there are no swimming baths attached to the school they get +tickets free or at a very low rate. About fishing I can only speak +from hearsay, for I have never caught a minnow myself, but I have met +Germans who are keen anglers, and I have found that they knew every +London shop beloved of anglers, and the English name of every fly. + +Germans get more amusement out of their water-ways in winter than we +do, for the winters there are long and hard, so that there is always +skating. I have seen the Alster frozen for weeks, and the whole city +of Hamburg playing on the ice. It was not what we call good ice, and +not what we call good skating. For the most part people were content +to get over the ground, to mix with their friends, to have hot drinks +at the booths that sprang up in long lines by the chief track, and +even to stroll about without skates and watch the fun. All classes, +all ages, and both sexes skate nowadays, but some fifty or sixty years +ago German ladies were not seen on the ice at all. Skating, like most +exercises that are healthy and agreeable, was considered unfeminine, +and men had the fun to themselves. In the mountain districts of +Germany winter sports are growing in favour every year, and people go +to the Riesengebirge or to the Black Forest for tobogganing and +ski-ing. The German illustrated papers constantly have articles about +these winter pastimes, and portraits of the distinguished men and +women who took part in them. The history of cycling in Germany is not +unlike its history here. The boom subsided some years ago, but a +steady industry survives. In Berlin you see officers in uniform on +bicycles, but you see hardly any ladies. That is because the Emperor +and Empress disapprove of cycling for women, and their disapproval has +made it unfashionable. Ten years ago, two years, that is, after the +English boom, no woman on a bicycle had ever been seen in the remoter +valleys of the Black Forest. One who ventured there used to be +followed by swarms of wondering children, who wished her _All Heil_ at +the top of their voices. They did not heave bricks at her. + +Tennis has not been blighted by the imperial frown, and is extremely +popular in Germany. Hockey, as far as I know, is not played yet; +certainly not by women. Cricket and football are played, but not very +much. An Englishman teaching at a gymnasium, told me that the +authorities discouraged outdoor games, as they were considered waste +of time. Gymnastics is the form of athletics really enjoyed and +practised by Germans. Every boy, even every girl, begins them at +school, and the boy when he leaves school joins a _Turnverein_. For +wherever Germans foregather, and whatever they do, you may be sure +they have a _Verein_, and that the _Verein_ has feasts in winter and +_Ausfluege_ in summer. When a man is young and lusty, the delights of +the _Verein_, the _Ausflug_, the feast, and the walking tour are often +combined. You meet a whole gang of pleasure pilgrims ascending the +broad path that leads to the restaurant on the top of a German +mountain, or you encounter them in the restaurant itself making +speeches to the honour and glory of their _Verein_; and you find that +they are the gymnasts or the fire brigade, or the architects or what +not of an adjacent town, and that once a year they make an excursion +together, beginning with a walk or a journey by rail or by steamer, +and culminating in a restaurant where they dine and drink and +speechify. Every age, every trade, and every pastime has its _Verein_ +and its anniversary rites. I was much amused and puzzled in Berlin one +afternoon by a procession that filed slowly past the tram in which I +sat, and was preceded and attended by such a rabble of sightseers that +the ordinary traffic was stopped for a time. I thought at first it was +a demonstration in connection with temperance or teetotalism, because +there were so many broad blue ribbons about, and I was surprised, +because I know that Germans club together to drink beer and not to +abstain from it, and that they are a sober nation. At the head of the +procession came a string of boys on bicycles, each boy carrying a +banner. Then came four open carriages garlanded with flowers. There +was a garland round each wheel, as well as round the horses' necks and +the coachmen's hats, and anywhere else where a garland would rest. In +each carriage sat four damsels robed in white, and they wore garlands +instead of hats. After them walked a large, stout, red-faced man in +evening dress, and he carried a staff. After him walked the music, men +puffing and blowing into brass instruments, and, like their leader, +wearing evening dress and silk hats. They were followed by a +procession that seemed as if it would stretch to the moon, a +procession of elderly, portly men all wearing evening dress, all +wearing broad blue ribbons and embroidered scarves, and all marching +with banners bearing various devices. The favourite device was _Heil +Gambrinus_, and when I saw that I knew that the blue ribbons had +nothing to do with total abstention. The next banner explained things. +It was the _Verein_ of the _Schenkwirte_ of Berlin,--the publicans, in +fact, of Berlin having their little holiday. + +All through the summer the German nation amuses itself out of doors, +and leads an outdoor life to an extent unknown and impossible in our +damp climate. A house that has a garden nearly always has a garden +room where all meals are served. Sometimes it is a detached summer +house, but more often it opens from the house and is really a big +verandah with a roof and sides of glass. In country places the inn +gardens are used as dining-rooms from morning till night, and you may +if you choose have everything you eat and drink brought to you out of +doors. Most inns have a skittle alley, for skittles are still played +in Germany by all classes. The peasants play it on Sunday afternoons, +and the dignified merchant has his skittle club and spends an evening +there once a week. The favourite card game of Germany is still _Skat_, +but bridge has been heard of and will probably supersede it in time. +_Skat_ is a good game for three players, with a system of scoring +that seems intricate till you have played two or three times and got +used to it. In Germany it is always _die Herren_ who play these +serious games, while the women sit together with their bits of +embroidery. At the Ladies' Clubs in Berlin there is some card playing, +but these two or three highly modern and emancipated establishments do +not call the tune for all Germany. Directly you get away from Berlin +you find that men and women herd separately, far more than in England, +take their pleasures separately, and have fewer interests in common. +It is still the custom for the man of the family to go to a beer-house +every day, much as an Englishman goes to his club. Here he meets his +friends, sees the papers, talks, smokes, and drinks his _Schoppen_. +Each social grade will have its own haunts in this way, or its own +reserved table in a big public room. At the Hof Braeuhaus in Munich one +room is set apart for the Ministers of State, and I was told some +years ago that the appointments of it were just as plain and rough as +those in the immense public hall where anyone who looked respectable +could have the best beer in the world and a supper of sorts. + +It is dull uphill work to write about sport and outdoor games in +Germany, because you may have been in many places and met a fair +variety of people without seeing any enthusiasm for either one or the +other. The bulk of the nation is, as a matter of fact, not interested +in sport or in any outdoor games except indifferent tennis, swimming, +skating, and in some places boating. When a German wants to amuse +himself, he sits in a garden and listens to a good band; if he is +young and energetic, he walks on a well-made road to a restaurant on +the top of a hill. In winter he plays skat, goes to the theatre or to +a concert, or has his music at home. Also he reads a great deal, and +he reads in several tongues. This, at any rate, is the way of Germans +in cities and summer places, and it is a very small proportion of the +educated classes who lead what we call a country life. "Elizabeth" +knows German country life, and describes it in her charming books; +perhaps she will some day choose to tell us how the men in her part of +the world amuse themselves, and whether they are good sportsmen. I +must confess that I have only once seen a German in full sporting +costume. It was most impressive, though, a sort of pinkish grey bound +everywhere with green, and set off by a soft felt hat and feathers. As +we were having a walk with him, and it was early summer, we ventured +to ask him what he had come to kill. "Bees," said he, and killed one +the next moment with a pop-gun. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +INNS AND RESTAURANTS + + +English people who have travelled in Germany know some of the big +well-kept hotels in the large towns, and know that they are much like +big hotels in other continental cities. It is not in these +establishments that you can watch national life or discover much about +the Germans, except that they are good hotel-keepers; and this you +probably discovered long ago abroad or at home. If you are a woman, +you may be impressed by the fineness, the whiteness, the profusion, +and the embroidered monograms of the linen, whether you are in a huge +caravanserai or a wayside inn. Otherwise a hotel at Cologne or +Heidelberg has little to distinguish it from a hotel at Brussels or +Bale. The dull correct suites of furniture, the two narrow bedsteads, +even the table with two tablecloths on it, a thick and a thin, the +parqueted floor, and the small carpet are here, there, and everywhere +directly you cross the Channel. + +The modern German tells you with pride that this apparent want of +national quality and colour is to be felt in every corner of life, and +that what you take to be German is not peculiarly German at all, but +common to the whole continent of Europe. This may be true in certain +cases and in a certain sense, but there is another sense in which it +is never true. For instance, the women of continental nations wear +high-necked gowns in the evening. It is only English women who wear +evening gowns as a matter of course every day of their lives. I have +been told in Germany that, so far from being a sign of civilisation, +this fashion is merely a stupid survival from the times when all the +women of Europe went barenecked all day. However this may be, there is +no doubt that whether the gown be high or low, worn by sunlight or +lamplight, you can see at a glance whether the woman who wears it is +English, French, or German. Every nation has its own features, its own +manners, and its own tone, instantly recognised by foreigners, and +apparently hidden from itself. The German assures you that the English +manner is quite unmistakable, and he will even describe and imitate +for your amusement some of his silly countryfolk who were talking to +him quite naturally, but suddenly froze and stiffened at the approach +of English friends whose national manner they wished to assume. In +England we are not conscious of having a stiff frozen manner, and we +never dream that everyone has the same manner. It takes a foreigner to +perceive this; and so in Germany it takes a foreigner to appreciate +and even to see the characteristic trifles that give a nation a +complexion of its own. + +Some of the most comfortable hotels in Germany are the smaller ones +supported entirely by Germans. A stray Englishman, finding one of +these starred in Baedeker and put in the second class, may try it from +motives of economy, but in many of them he would only meet merchants +on their travels and the unmarried men of the neighbourhood who dine +there. In such establishments as these the _table d'hote_ still more +or less prevails, while if you go to fashionable hotels you dine at +small tables nowadays and see nothing of your neighbours. The part +played during dinner by the hotel proprietor varies considerably. In a +big establishment he is represented by the _Oberkellner_, and does not +appear at all. The _Oberkellner_ is a person of weight and standing; +so much so that when you are in a crowded beer garden and can get no +one to attend to you, you call out _Ober_ to the first boy waiter who +passes, and he is so touched by the compliment that he serves you +before your turn. But in a real old-fashioned German inn you have +personal relations with the proprietor, for he takes the head of his +table and attends to the comfort of his customers as carefully as if +they were his guests. This used to be a universal custom, but you only +find it observed now in the Sleepy Hollows of Germany. I have stayed +in a most comfortable and well-managed hotel where the proprietor and +his brother waited on their guests all through dinner, but never sat +down with them. There were hired men, but they played a subordinate +part. In small country inns the host still arrives in the garden when +your meal is served, asks if you have all you want, wishes you _guten +Appetit_, and after a little further conversation waddles away to +perform the same office at some other table. Except in the depths of +the country where the inn-keepers are peasants, a German hotel-keeper +invariably speaks several languages, and has usually been in Paris and +London or New York. His business is to deal with the guests and the +waiters, and to look after the cellar and the cigars; while his wife +or his sister, though she keeps more in the background than a French +proprietress, does just as much work as a Frenchwoman, and, as far as +one can judge, more than any man in the establishment. She +superintends the chambermaids and has entire care of the vast stock of +linen; in many cases she has most of it washed on the premises, and +she helps to iron and repair it. She buys the provisions, and sees +that there is neither waste nor disorder in the kitchen; she often +does a great part of the actual cooking herself. When I was a girl I +happened to spend a winter in a South German hotel of old standing, +kept for several generations in the same family, and now managed by +two brothers and a sister. The sister, a well-educated young woman of +twenty-five, used to get up at five winter and summer to buy what was +wanted for the market, and one day she took me with her. It was a +pretty lesson in the art of housekeeping as it is understood and +practised in Germany. All the peasant women in the duchy could not +have persuaded my young woman to have given the fraction of a farthing +more for her vegetables than they were worth that day, or to take any +geese except the youngest and plumpest. She went briskly from one part +of the market to the other, seeming to see at a glance where it was +profitable to deal this morning. She did not haggle or squabble as +inferior housewives will, because she knew just what she wanted and +what it was prudent to pay for it. When she got home she sat down to a +second breakfast that seemed to me like a dinner, a stew of venison +and half a bottle of light wine; but, as she said, hotel keeping is +exhausting work, and hotel-keepers must needs live well. + +At some hotels in this part of Germany wine is included in the charge +for dinner, and given to each guest in a glass carafe or uncorked +bottle. It is kept on tap even in the small wayside inns, where you +get half a litre for two or three pence when you are out for a walk +and are thirsty. If you dislike thin sour wine you had better avoid +the grape-growing lands and travel in Bavaria, where every country +inn-keeper brews his own beer. Many of these small inns entertain +summer visitors, not English and Americans who want luxuries, but +their own countryfolk, whose purses and requirements are both small. +As far as I know by personal experience and by hearsay, the rooms in +these inns are always clean. The bedding all over Germany is most +scrupulously kept and aired. In country places you see the mattresses +and feather beds hanging out of the windows near the pots of +carnations every sunny day. The floors are painted, and are washed all +over every morning. The curtains are spotless. In each room there is +the inevitable sofa with the table in front of it, a most sensible and +comfortable addition to a bedroom, enabling you to seek peace and +privacy when you will. If you wander far enough from the beaten track, +you may still find that all the water you are supposed to want is +contained in a good-sized glass bottle; but if you are English your +curious habits will be known, and more water will be brought to you in +a can or pail. My husband and I once spent a summer in a Thuringian +inn that had never taken staying guests before, and even here we found +that the proprietress had heard of English ways, and was willing, with +a smile of benevolent amusement, to fill a travelling bath every day. +This inn had a summer house where all our meals were served as a +matter of course, and where people from a fashionable watering-place +in the next valley came for coffee or beer sometimes. The household +itself consisted of the proprietress, her daughter, and her +maidservant, and during the four months we spent there I never knew +them to sit down to a regular meal. They ate anything at any time, as +they fancied it. The summer house in which we had our meals was large +and pleasant, with a wide view of the hills and a near one of an old +stone bridge and a trout stream. The trees near the inn were limes, +and their scent while they were in flower overpowered the scent of +pines coming at other times with strength and fragrance from the +surrounding forest. The only drawback to our comfort was a hornets' +nest in an old apple-tree close to the summer-house. The hornets used +to buzz round us at every meal, and at first we supposed they might +sting us. This they never did, though we waged war on them fiercely. +But no one wants to be chasing and killing hornets all through +breakfast and dinner, so we asked the maid of the inn what could be +done to get rid of them. She smiled and said _Jawohl_, which was what +she always said; and we went out for a walk. When we came back and sat +down to supper there were no hornets. _Jawohl_ had just stood on a +chair, she said, poured a can of water into the nest, and stuffed up +the opening with grass. She had not been stung, and we were not +pestered by a hornet again that summer. I have sometimes told this +story to English people, and seen that though they were too polite to +say so they did not believe it. But that is their fault. The story as +I have told it is true. We found immense numbers of hornets in one +wild uninhabited valley where we sometimes walked that summer, but we +were never stung. + +The proprietress of this inn, like most German women, was a fair cook. +Besides the inn she owned a small brewery, and employed a brewer who +lived quite near, and showed us the whole process by which he +transferred the water of the trout stream into foaming beer. His +mistress had no rival in the village, and the village was a small one, +so sometimes the beer was a little flat. When _Jawohl_ brought a jug +from a cask just broached, she put it on the table with a proud air, +and informed us that it was _frisch angesteckt_. We once spent a +summer in a Bavarian village where a dozen inns brewed their own beer, +and it was always known which one had just tapped a cask. Then +everyone crowded there as a matter of course. In all these country +inns there is one room with rough wooden tables and benches, and here +the peasants sit smoking their long pipes and emptying their big mugs +or glasses, and as a rule hardly speaking. They do not get drunk, but +no doubt they spend more than they can afford out of their scanty +earnings. + +In the Bavarian village the inns were filled all through the summer +with people from Nuremberg, Erlangen, Augsburg, Erfurth, and other +Bavarian towns. The inn-keeper used to charge five shillings a week +for a scrupulously clean, comfortably furnished room, breakfast was +sixpence, dinner one and two-pence, and supper as you ordered it. For +dinner they gave you good soup, _Rindfleisch_, either poultry or roast +meat, and one of the _Mehlspeisen_ for which Bavaria is celebrated, +some dish, that is, made with eggs and flour. There was a great +variety of them, but I only remember one clearly, because I was +impressed by its disreputable name. It was some sort of small pancake +soaked in a wine sauce, and it was called _versoffene Jungfern_. Most +of these inns kept no servants, and except in the Kurhaus there was +not a black-coated waiter in the place. Our inn-keeper tilled his own +fields, grew his own hops, and brewed his own beer; and his wife, +wearing her peasant's costume, did all the cooking and cleaning, +assisted by a daughter or a cousin. When you met her out of doors she +would be carrying one of the immense loads peasant women do carry up +hill and down dale in Germany. She was hale and hearty in her middle +age, and always cheerful and obliging. At that inn, too, we never had +a meal indoors from May till October. Everything was brought out to a +summer-house, from which we looked straight down the village, its +irregular Noah's Ark-like houses, and its background of mountains and +forest. + +When you first get back to England from Germany, you have to pull +yourself together and remember that in your own country, even on a hot +still summer evening, you cannot sit in a garden where a band is +playing and have your dinner in the open air, unless you happen to be +within reach of Earl's Court. In German towns there are always numbers +of restaurants in which, according to the weather, meals can be served +indoors or out. You see what use people make of them if, for instance, +you happen to be in Hamburg on a hot summer night. All round the basin +of the Alster there are houses, hotels, and gardens, and every public +garden is so crowded that you wonder the waiters can pass to and fro. +Bands are playing, lights are flashing, the little sailing boats are +flitting about. The whole city after its day's work has turned out for +air and music and to talk with friends. And as you watch the scene you +know that in every city, even in every village of the empire, there is +some such gala going on: in gardens going down to the Rhine from the +old Rhenish towns; in the gardens of ancient castles set high above +the stifling air of valleys; in the forest that comes to the very edge +of so many little German towns; even in the streets of towns where a +table set on the pavement will be pleasanter than in a room on such a +night as this. You can sit at one of these restaurants and order +nothing but a cup of coffee or a glass of beer; or you can dine, for +the most part, well and cheaply. If you order a _halbe Portion_ of +any dish, as Germans do, you will be served with more than you can eat +of it. The variety offered by some of the restaurants in the big +cities, the excellence of the cooking, the civilisation of the +appointments, and the service, all show that the German must be the +most industrious creature in the world, and the thriftiest and one of +the cleverest. In London we have luxurious restaurants for people who +can spend a great deal of money, but in Berlin they have them for +people who cannot spend much. That is the difference between the two +cities. How Berlin does it is a mystery. In the restaurants I have +seen there is neither noise nor bustle nor garish colours nor rough +service nor any other of the miseries we find in our own cheap +eating-houses. In one of them the walls were done in some kind of +plain fumed wood with a frieze and ceiling of soft dull gold. In +another each room had a different scheme of colour. + +"So according to your _Stimmung_ you will choose your room," said the +friends who took me. "To-night we are rather cheerful. We will go to +the big room on the first floor. That is all pale green and ivory." + +"You have nothing like this in England," said the artist as we went up +the lift. "It is terrible in England. When I asked for my lunch at +three or four o'clock I was told that lunch was over. _Das hat keinen +Zweck_,--I want my lunch when I am hungry." + +"But you are terribly behindhand in some ways in Berlin," I said, for +I knew the artist liked an argument. "In London you can shop all +through the night by telephone. It is most convenient." + +"Have you ever done it?" + +"I'm not on the telephone, and I am generally asleep at night. But +other people...." + +"_Verrueckt_," said the artist. "Who in his senses wants to do shopping +at night? Now look at this room, and admit that you have nothing at +all like it." + +The first swift impression of the place was that Liberty had brought +his stuffs, his furniture, and his glass from London and set up as a +restaurateur in Berlin. The whole thing was certainly well done. It +was not as florid and fussy as our expensive restaurants. The colours +were quiet, and the necessary draperies plain. The glass was thin and +elegant; so were the coffee cups; and the table linen was white and +fine. Nothing about it, however, would be worth describing if it had +been expensive. But the menu, which covered four closely printed +pages, showed that the most expensive dish offered there cost one and +threepence, while the greater number cost ninepence, sixpence, or +threepence each. The hungry man would begin with crayfish, which were +offered to him prepared in ten various ways; for the Germans, like the +French, are extremely fond of crayfish. He would have them in soup, +for instance, or with asparagus, with salad or dressed with dill. Then +he would find the week's bill of fare on his card, three or four +dishes for each day, some cooked in small casseroles and served so to +any guest who orders one. If it was a Friday he could have a ragout of +chicken in the Bremen style, or a slice from a Hamburg leg of mutton +with cream sauce and celery salad, or ox-tongue cooked with young +turnips. If he was a Catholic he would find two kinds of fish ready +for him,--trout, cooked blue, and a ragout of crayfish with asparagus +and baked perch. But these are just the special dishes of the day, and +he is not bound to try them. There are seven kinds of soup, including +real turtle, and it is not for me to say how real turtle can be +supplied in Berlin for 30 pfennig. There are seven kinds of fish and +too many varieties of meat, poultry, salads, vegetables and sweets, +both hot and cold, to count. A man can have any kind of cooking he +fancies, too; his steak may be German, Austrian, or French; he can +have English roast beef, Russian caviare, a Maltese rice pudding, +apples from the Tyrol, wild strawberries from a German forest, all the +cheeses of France and England, a Welsh rarebit, and English celery. +The English celery is as mysterious as the real turtle, for it was +offered in June. Pheasants and partridges, I can honestly say, +however, were not offered. Under the head of game there were only +venison, geese, chickens, and pigeons. + +I am sorry now that when I dined at this restaurant I did not order +real turtle soup, _Roast beef Engl. mit Schmorkartoffeln_, celery, and +a Welsh rarebit, because then I should have discovered whether these +old British friends were recognisable in their Berlin environment. But +it was more amusing at the time to ask for ham cooked in champagne and +served with radish sauce, and other curious inviting combinations. + +"But at home," I said to the artist,--"at home we just eat to live. We +have a great contempt for people who pay much attention to food." + +"I stayed in an English house last year, and never did I hear so much +about food," said he. "One would eat nothing but grape-nuts and +cheese, and another swore by toast and hot water and little +_Pastetchen_ of beef, and the third would have large rice puddings, +and the fourth asked for fruit at every meal, and the fifth said all +the others were wrong and that he wanted a good dinner. The poor +hostess would have been distracted if she had not been one of those +who love a new fad and try each one in turn. Also there were two +eminent physicians in the house, and one of these drank champagne +every night, while the other would touch nothing but Perrier and said +champagne was poison. Directly we sat down we discussed these things, +... and everyone assured me that if I tried his regime I should +improve in health most marvellously." + +"Which did you try?" I asked. + +"The good dinner and the champagne, of course. But I did not find they +affected my health one way or the other." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +LIFE IN LODGINGS + + +As rents are high in Germany, it is usual for people of small means to +let off one or two rooms, either furnished or unfurnished. But it is +not usual to supply a lodger with any meal except his coffee and rolls +in the morning. If you wish to take lodgings in a German town, and +work through the long list of them in a local paper, you will probably +find no one willing to provide for you in the English fashion. + +"Cooking!" they say with horror,--"cooking! You want to eat in your +room. No. That can we not undertake. Coffee in the morning, yes; and +rolls with it and butter and even two eggs, but nothing further. Just +round the corner in the _Koenigstrasse_ are two very fine restaurants, +where the _Herrschaften_ can eat what they will at any hour of the +day, and for moderate prices." + +If you insist, the most they will promise, and that not willingly, is +to provide you with a knife and fork and a tablecloth for a pyramid of +courses sent hot from one of the very fine adjacent restaurants for 1 +mark or 1 mark 20 pf. Supper in Germany is the easiest meal in the day +to provide, as you buy the substantial part of it at a +_Delikatessenhandlung_, and find that even a German landlady will +condescend to get you rolls and butter and beer. This sounds like the +Simple Life, to be sure; but if you are in German lodgings for any +length of time you probably desire for one reason or the other to lead +it. The plan of having your dinner sent piping hot from a restaurant in +nice clean white dishes rather like monster souffle dishes is not a bad +one if the restaurant keeps faith with you. It is rather amusing to +begin at the top with soup and work through the various surprises and +temptations of the pyramid till you get to _Biskuit-Pudding mit Vanille +Sauce_ at the bottom. But in nine cases out of ten the restaurant fails +you, sends uneatable food, is absurdly unpunctual or says plainly it +can't be bothered. Then you have to wander about and out of doors for +your food in all weathers and all states of health. This is amusing for +a time, but not in the long run. It is astonishing how tired you can +get of the "very fine" restaurants within reach, of their waitresses, +their furniture, their menus, and their daily guests. At least, this is +so in a small town where the best restaurant is not "very fine," +although both food and service will be better than in an English town +of the same size. If you are in Berlin and can go to the good +restaurants, there you will be in danger of becoming a gourmet and +losing your natural affection for cold mutton. + +In a university or a big commercial town it is easy to get rooms for +less than we pay in England; but in a small _Residenz_ I have found it +difficult. There were rooms to let, but no one wanted us, because we +were not officers with soldier servants to wait on us; nor did we want +to engage rooms as the officers did for at least six months. In fact, +we found ourselves as unpopular as ladies are in a London suburb where +all the lodging-house keepers want "gentlemen in the city" who are +away all day and give no trouble. At last, after searching through +every likely street in the town, we found a dentist with exuberant +manners, who said he would overlook our shortcomings, and allow us to +inhabit his rooms at a high price on condition we gave no trouble. We +said we never gave trouble anywhere, and left both hotels and +lodging-houses with an excellent character, so the bargain was +concluded. I saw that his wife was not a party to it, but he overruled +her, and as he was a big red-faced noisy man, and she was a small rat +of a woman, I thought he would continue to do so. One is always making +these stupid elementary mistakes about one's fellow-creatures. But a +little later in the day I had occasion to call at the rooms to +complete some arrangement about luggage, and then the wife received me +alone. I asked her if she could put a small table into a room that +only had a big one. I forget why I wanted it. + +"Table!" she said rudely. "What can you want another table for? Isn't +that one enough?" + +"I should like another," I said,--"any little one would do." + +"I don't keep tables up my sleeve," said she. "You see what you can +have, ... just what is there. If it doesn't suit you...." + +"But it does suit me," I said hurriedly, for the search had been long +and exhausting, and the rooms were pleasant enough. I thought we need +not deal much with the woman. + +"No meals except coffee in the morning; you understand that?" she said +in a truculent tone. + +"Oh yes, I understand. We shall go out at midday and at night. +Afternoon tea I always make myself with a spirit lamp...." + +Never in my life have I been so startled. I thought the woman was +going to behave like a rat in a corner, and fly at me. She shook her +fist and shouted so loud that she brought the dentist on the scene. + +"_Spiritus_," she screamed. "_Spiritus--Spiritus leid' ich nicht._" + +"Bless us!" I said in English. "What's the matter?" + +"_Was ist's?_" said the dentist, and he looked downright frightened. + +"_Sie will kochen_," said his wife, shaking her fist at me again. "She +has a spirit lamp. She wants to turn my beautiful _bestes Zimmer_ into +a kitchen. She will take all the polish off my furniture, just as the +last people did when they cooked for themselves." + +"Cooked!" I said. "Who speaks of cooking?--I spoke of a cup of tea." + +"_Spiritus leid' ich nicht_," shrieked the woman. + +"No," said the dentist, "we can't have cooking here." + +"_Spiritus leid'_...." + +But I fled. Luckily, we had not paid any rent in advance. I made up my +mind that I would never confess to my small harmless Etna in German +lodgings again, and would bolt the door while I boiled water for tea +in it. We found rooms after another weary search, but they were +extremely noisy and uncomfortable. We had to take them for six weeks, +and could only endure them for a fortnight, and though we paid them +the full six weeks' rent when we left, they charged us for every jug +of hot water we had used, and added a _Trinkgeld_ for the servant. + +"We did not engage to pay extra either for hot water or for +_Trinkgeld_," we said, turning, as worms will even in a _Residenz_, +where everyone is a worm who is not _Militaer_. + +"But _Englaender_ never give a _Trinkgeld_. That is why we have put it +in the bill. The girl expects it, and has earned it." + +"The girl will have it," we said; "but we shall give it her ourselves. +And what have you to say about the hot water?" + +"Without coal it is impossible to have hot water. We let you our +rooms, but we did not let you our coal. It is quite simple. Have you +any other complaint to make?" + +We had, but we did not make them. We went to one of the big cities, +where the civilian is still a worm, but where he has a large number +and variety of other worms to keep him company. In Berlin or Hamburg +or Leipzig there are always furnished rooms delighted to receive you. +There may be a difficulty, however, if you are a musician. The police +come in with their regulations; or your fellow-lodgers may be students +of medicine or philosophy, and driven wild by your harmonies. I knew a +young musician who always took rooms in the noisiest street in Berlin, +and practised with his windows open. He said the din of electric +trams, overhead trains, motor cars, and heavy lorries helped his +landlady and her family to suffer a Beethoven sonata quite gladly. + +One of the insoluble mysteries of German life is the cheapness of +furnished lodgings as compared with the high rent and rates. To be +sure, the landlady does not cook for you, and the bed-sitting-room is +not considered sordid in Germany. In fact, the separate sitting-room +is almost unknown, though it is easy to arrange one by shifting some +furniture. The pattern of the room and its appointments hardly vary in +any part of Germany, though of course the size and quality vary with +the price. If you take a small room you have one straight window, and +if you take a large one you have several. Or you may have a broad +balcony window opening on to a balcony. You have the parqueted or +painted floor, the porcelain stove, the sofa, the table, the wooden +bedstead, and the wooden hanging cupboard wherever you are. It is +always sensible, comfortable furniture, and usually plain. When people +over there know no better they buy themselves tawdry horrors, just as +they do here. The German manufacturers flood the world with such +things. But people who let lodgings put their treasures in a sacred +room they call _das beste Zimmer_, and only use on festive occasions. +They fob you off with old-fashioned stuff they do not value, a roomy +solid cupboard, a family sofa, a chest of drawers black with age, and +a hanging mirror framed in old elm-wood; and if it were not for a +bright green rep tablecloth, snuff-coloured curtains, and a wall paper +with a brown background and yellow snakes on it, you would like your +quarters very well indeed. Rooms are usually let by the month, except +in watering-places, where weekly prices prevail. In Leipzig you can +get a room for 10s. a month. It will be a parterre or a fourth-floor +room, rather gloomy and rather shabby, but a possible room for a +student who happens to be hard up. For L1 a month you can get a room +on a higher floor, and better furnished, while for L1, 10s. a month in +Hamburg I myself have had two well-furnished rooms commanding a fine +view of the Alster, and one of them so large that in winter it was +nearly impossible to keep warm. Then my Hamburg friends told me I was +paying too much, and that they could have got better lodgings for less +money. They were nearer the sky than I should like in these days, but +the old German system of letting the higher flats in a good house for +a low rent benefits people who care about a "select" neighbourhood and +yet cannot pay very much. The modern system of lifts will gradually +make it impossible to get a flat or lodgings in a good street without +paying as much for the fifth floors as for the first. + +You do not see much of a German landlady, as she does not cater for +you. She is often a widow, and when you know the rent of a flat you +wonder how she squeezes a living out of what her lodgers pay her. She +cannot even nourish herself with their scraps, or warm herself at a +kitchen fire for which they pay. Some of them perform prodigies of +thrift, especially when they have children to feed and educate. At the +end of a long severe winter, when the Alster had been frozen for +months, I found out by chance that my landlady, a sad aged widow with +one little boy, had never lighted herself a fire. She let every room +of her large flat, except a kitchen and a _Kammer_ opening out of it. +The little food she needed she cooked on an oil stove, at night she +had a lamp, and of course she never by any chance opened a window. She +said she could not afford coals, and that her son and she managed to +keep warm. The miracle is that they both kept alive and well. Another +German landlady was of a different type, a big buxom bustling +creature, who spent most of the day in her husband's coal sheds, +helping him with his books and taking orders. Although she was so busy +she undertook to cook for me, and kept her promise honourably; and she +cooked for herself, her husband, and their work-people. She used +sometimes to show me the huge dishes of food they were about to +consume, food that was cheap to buy and nourishing to eat, but +troublesome to prepare. She did all her own washing too, and dried it +in the narrow slip of a room her husband and she used for all +purposes. I discovered this by going in to see her when she was ill +one day, and finding rows of wet clothes hung on strings right across +her bed. I made no comment, for nothing that is an outrage of the +first laws of hygiene will surprise you if you have gone here and +there in the byways of Germany. An English girl told me that when she +was recovering from a slight attack of cholera in a Rhenish _Pension_, +they were quite hurt because she refused stewed cranberries. "_Das +schadet nichts, das ist gesund_," they said. I could hear them say it. +Only the summer before a kindly hotel-keeper had brought me a ragout +of _Schweinefleisch_ and vanilla ice under similar circumstances. The +German constitution seems able to survive anything, even roast goose +at night at the age of three. + +A _Pension_ in Germany costs from L3 a month upwards. That is to say, +you will get offers of a room and full board for this sum, but I must +admit that I never tried one at so low a rate, and should not expect +it to be comfortable. Rent and food are too dear in the big towns to +make a reasonable profit possible on such terms, unless the household +is managed on starvation lines. To have a comfortable room and +sufficient food, you must pay from L5 to L7 a month, and then if you +choose carefully you will be satisfied. The society is usually +cosmopolitan in these establishments, and the German spoken is a +warning rather than a lesson. It is not really German life that you +see in this way, though the proprietress and her assistants may be +German. In most of the university towns some private families take +"paying guests," and when they are agreeable people this is a +pleasanter way of life than any _Pension_. + +Before you have been in Germany a fortnight the police expects to know +all about you. You have to give them your father's Christian and +surname, and tell them how he earned his living, and where he was +born; also your mother's Christian and maiden name, and where she was +born. You must declare your religion, and if you are married give your +husband's Christian and surname; also where he was born, and what he +does for a living. If you happen to do anything yourself, though, you +need not mention it. They do not expect a woman to be anything further +than married or single. But you must say when and where you were last +in Germany, and how often you have been, and why you have come now, +and what you are doing, and how long you propose to stay. They tell +you in London you do not need a passport in Germany, and they tell you +in Berlin that you must either produce one or be handed over for +inquiry to your Embassy. Last year when I was there I produced one +twenty-three years old. I had not troubled to get a new one, but I +came across this, quite yellow with age, and I thought it might serve +to make some official happy; for I had once seen my husband get +himself, me, and our bicycles over the German frontier and into +Switzerland, and next morning back into Germany, by showing the +gendarmes on the bridge his C.T.C. ticket. I cannot say that my +ancient passport made my official exactly happy. Twenty-three years +ago he was certainly in a _Steckkissen_, and no doubt he felt that in +those days, in a world without him to set it right, anything might +happen. + +"Twenty-three years," he bellowed at the top of his voice, for he saw +that I was _fremd_, and wished to make himself clear. We are not the +only people who scream at foreigners that they may understand. +"Twenty-three years. But it is a lifetime." + +It was for him no doubt. I admitted that twenty-three years was--well, +twenty-three years, and explained that I had been told at a +_Reisebureau_ that a passport was unnecessary. + +"They know nothing in England," he said gloomily. "With us a passport +is necessary; but what is a passport twenty-three years old?" + +I admitted that, from the official point of view, it was not much, and +he made no further difficulties. As a rule you need not go to the +police bureau at all. The people you are with will get the necessary +papers, and fill them in for you; but I wanted to see whether the +German jack-in-office was as bad as his reputation makes him. Germans +themselves often complain bitterly of the treatment they receive at +the hands of these lower class officials. + +"I went to the police station," said a German lady who lived in +England, and was in her own country on a visit. "I went to _anmelden_ +myself, but not one of the men in the office troubled to look up. When +I had stood there till I was tired I said that I wished someone to +attend to me. Every pen stopped, every head was raised, astounded by +my impertinence. But no one took any notice of my request. I waited a +little longer, and then fetched myself a chair that someone had left +unoccupied. I did not do it to make a sensation. I was tired. But +every pen again stopped, and one in authority asked in a voice like +thunder what I made here. I said that I had come to _anmelden_ myself, +and he began to ask the usual questions with an air of suspicion that +was highly offensive. You can see for yourself that I do not look like +an anarchist or anything but what I am, a respectable married woman of +middle age. I told the man everything he wanted to know, and at every +item he grunted as if he knew it was a lie. In the end he asked me +very rudely how long a stay I meant to make in Germany. + +"Not a day longer than I can help," I said; "for your manners do not +please me." + +All the pens stopped again till I left the office, and when I got +back to my mother she wept bitterly; for she said that I should be +prosecuted for _Beamtenbeleidigung_ and put in prison. + +"But the really interesting fact about the system is that it doesn't +work," said a German to me; "when I wanted my papers a little while +ago I could not get them. Nothing about me could be discovered. +Officially I did not exist." + +Yet he had inherited a name famous all over the world, was a +distinguished scientific man himself, and had been born in the city +where his existence was not known to the police. + +"Take care you don't go in at an _Ausgang_ or out at an _Eingang_," +said an Englishman who had just come back from Berlin. "Take care you +don't try to buy stamps at the Post Office out of your turn. Remember +that you can't choose your cab when you arrive. A policeman gives you +a number, and you have to hunt amongst a crowd of cabs for that +number, even if it is pouring with rain. Remember that the police +decides that you must buy your opera tickets on a Sunday morning, and +stand _queue_ for hours till you get them. If you have a cold in your +head, stay at home. Last winter a man was arrested for sneezing +loudly. It was considered _Beamtenbeleidigung_. The Englishwoman who +walked on the grass in the Tiergarten was not arrested, because the +official who saw her died of shock at the sight, and could not perform +his duty." + +Wherever you go in Germany you hear stories of police interference and +petty tyranny, and it is mere luck if you do not innocently transgress +some of their fussy pedantic regulations. In South Germany I once put +a cream jug on my window-sill to keep a little milk cool for the +afternoon. The jug was so small and the window so high that it can +hardly have been visible from the street, but my landlady came to me +excitedly and said the police would be on her before the day was out +if the jug was left there. The police allowed nothing on a window-sill +in that town, lest it should fall on a citizen's head. Each town or +district has its own restrictions, its own crimes. In one you will +hear that a butcher boy is not allowed on the side-path carrying his +tray of meat. If a policeman catches him at it, he, or his employer, +is fined. In another town the awning from a shop window must not +exceed a certain length, and you are told of a poor widow, who, having +just had a new one put up at great expense, was compelled by the +police to take the whole thing down, because the flounce was a quarter +of an inch longer than the regulations prescribed. You hear of a poor +man laboriously building a toy brick wall round the garden in his +_Hof_, and having to pull it to pieces because "building" is not +allowed except with police permission. In some towns the length of a +woman's gown is decided in the _Polizeibureau_, and the officers fine +any woman whose skirt touches the ground. In one town you may take a +dog out without a muzzle; in another it is a crime. A merchant on his +way to his office, in a city where there was a muzzling order, found +to his annoyance, one morning, that his mother's dog had followed him +unmuzzled. He had no string with him, he could not persuade the dog to +return, and he could not go back with it, because he had an important +appointment. So he risked it and went on. Before long, however, he met +a policeman. The usual questions were asked, his name and address were +taken, and he was told that he would be fined. Hardly had he got to +the end of the street when he met a second policeman. He explained +that the matter was settled, but this was not the opinion of the +policeman. Was the dog not at large, unmuzzled, on his the +policeman's beat? With other policemen he had nothing to do. The dog +was his discovery, the name and address of the owner were required, +and there was no doubt, in the policeman's mind, that the owner would +have to pay a second fine. The merchant went his ways, still followed +by an unmuzzled unled dog. Before long he met a third policeman, gave +his name and address a third time, and was assured that he would have +to pay a third time. + +"_Dann war es mir zu bunt_," said the merchant, and he picked up the +dog and carried it the rest of the way to his office. When he got +there he sent it home in a cab. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SUMMER RESORTS + + +If you choose to leave the railroad you may still travel by diligence +in Germany, and rumble along the roads in its stuffy interior. As you +pass through a village the driver blows his horn, old and young run +out to enjoy the sensation of the day, the geese cackle and flutter +from you in the dust, you catch glimpses of a cobble-stoned +market-place, a square church-tower with a stork's nest on its summit, +Noah's Ark-like houses with thatched or gabled roofs, tumble-down +balconies, and outside staircases of wood. Sometimes when the official +coach is crowded you may have an open carriage given you without extra +charge, but you cannot expect that to happen often; nor will you often +be driven by postillion nowadays. Indeed, for all I know the last one +may have vanished and been replaced by a motor bus. You can take one +to a mountain inn in the Black Forest nowadays, over a pass I +travelled a few years ago in a mail coach. In those times it was a +jog-trot journey occupying the long lazy hours of a summer morning. I +suppose that now you whizz and hustle through the lovely forest +scenery pursued by clouds of dust and offended by the fumes of petrol, +but no doubt you get to your destination quicker than you used. The +pleasantest way to travel in Germany, if you are young and strong, is +on your feet. It is enchanting to walk day after day through the cool +scented forest and sleep at night in one of the clean country inns. +You must choose your district and your inn, for if you went right off +the traveller's track and came to a peasant's house you would find +nothing approaching the civilisation of an English farmhouse. But in +most of the beautiful country districts of Germany there are fine +inns, and there are invariably good roads leading to them. This way of +travelling is too tame for English people as a rule. They laugh at the +broad well-made path winding up the side of a German mountain, and +still more at the hotel or restaurant to be found at the top. From the +English point of view a walk of this kind is too tame and easy either +for health or pleasure. But the beauty of it, especially in early +summer, can never be forgotten; and so it is worth while, even if you +are young and cherish a proper scorn for broad roads and good dinners. +You would probably come across some dinners that were not good, tough +veal, for instance, and greasy vegetables. The roads you would have to +accept, and walk them if you choose in tennis shoes. Indeed, you would +forget the road and eat the dinner unattending; for all that's made +would be a green thought in a green shade for you by the end of the +day, and as you shut your eyes at night you would see forest, forest +with the sunlight on the young tips of the pines, forest unfolding +itself from earth to sky as you climbed hour after hour close to the +ferns and boulders of the foaming mountain stream your pathway +followed, forest too on the opposite side of the valley, with wastes +of golden broom here and there, and fields of rye and barley swept +gently by the breeze. You may walk day by day in Germany through such +a paradise as this, and meet no one but a couple of children gathering +wild strawberries, or an old peasant carrying faggots, or the +goose-girl herding her fussy flock. You may even spend your summer +holiday in a crowded watering-place, and yet escape quite easily into +the heart of the forest where the crowd never comes. The crowd sits +about on benches planted by a _Verschoenerungsverein_ within a mile of +their hotel, or on the verandah of the hotel itself. Some of the +benches will command a view, and these will be most in demand. Those +that are nearly a mile away will be reached by energetic elderly +ladies, and at dinner you will hear that they have been to the +Rabenstein this morning, and that the _Aussicht_ was _prachtvoll_ and +the _Luft herrlich_, but that they must decline to go farther afield +this afternoon as the morning's exertions have tired them. But some of +_die Herren_ say they are ready for anything, and even propose to +scale the mountain behind the hotel and drink a glass of beer at the +top. You readily agree to go with them, for by this time you know that +even if you are a poor walker you can toddle half way up a German hill +and down again; and the hotel itself has been built high above the +valley. But after dinner you find that nearly everyone disappears for +a siesta, while the few who keep outside are asleep over their coffee +and cigar. Even _Skat_ hardly keeps awake the three _Herren_ who +proposed a walk; and your friend the Frau Geheimrath Schultze warns +you solemnly against the insanity of stirring a step before sundown; +for summer in South Germany is summer indeed. The sun comes suddenly +with power and glory, bursting every sheathed bud and ripening crops +in such a hurry that you walk through new mown hayfields while your +English calendar tells you it is still spring. Later in the year the +heat is often intense all through the middle of the day, and the young +men who make their excursions on foot start at dawn, so that they may +arrive at a resting place by ten or eleven. "For many years our boys +have wandered cheaply and simply through their German Fatherland," +says a leaflet advertising a society that organises walking tours for +girls; Saturday afternoon walks, Sunday walks, and holiday walks +extending over six or eight days. "Simplicity, cheerful friendly +intercourse, gaiety in fresh air, these are the companions of our +pilgrimage.... We wish to provide the German nation with mothers who +are at home in woods and meadows, who have learned to observe the +beauties of nature, who have strengthened their health and their +perceptions of everything that is great and beautiful by happy +walks.... Anyone _wanderfroh_ who has been at a higher school or who +is still attending one is eligible. The card of membership only costs +3 marks for a single member and 4 marks for a whole family. Some of +the excursions are planned to include brother pilgrims, and their +character is gay and cheerful, without flirting or coquetry, a genuine +friendly intercourse between girls and boys, young men and maidens, a +pure and beautiful companionship such as no dancing lesson and no +ballroom can create, and which is nevertheless the best training for +life." So nowadays gangs of girls, and even mixed gangs of boys and +girls, are to swarm through the pleasant forests of Germany, ascend +the easy pathways of her mountains, and fill her country inns to +overflowing. How horrified the little _Backfisch_ would have been at +such a suggestion, how unmaidenly her excellent aunt would have deemed +it, how profoundly they would both have disapproved of any exercise +that heightens the colour or disturbs the neatness of a young lady's +toilet. I myself have heard German men become quite violent in their +condemnation of Englishwomen who play games or take walks that make +them temporarily dishevelled. It never seemed to occur to them that a +woman might think their displeasure at her appearance of less account +than her own enjoyment. "No," they said, "ask not that we should +admire Miss Smith. She has just come in from a six hours' walk with +her brother. Her face is as red as a poppy, her blouse is torn, and +her boots are thick and muddy." + +As a matter of fact, I had not asked them to admire Miss Smith. I knew +that the lady they admired was arch, and had a persuasive giggle. +Nevertheless I tried to break a lance for my countrywoman. + +"You will see," I assured them, "she will remove the torn blouse and +the muddy boots; and when she comes down her face will be quite pale." + +"But she often looks like that," said one of the men. "At least once a +day she plays a game or takes a walk that is more of a strain on her +appearance than it should be. A young woman must always consider what +effect things have on her appearance." + +"Why?" + +"Why?--Because she is a woman. There is no sense in a question like +that. It goes back to the beginning of all things. It is unanswerable. +Every young woman wishes to please." + +"But is it not conceivable," I asked, "that a young woman may +sometimes wish to please herself even at the expense of her +appearance. Miss Smith assures me that she enjoys long walks and +games,--oh, games that you have not seen her play here--hockey, for +instance, and cricket." + +"_Verrueckt!_" said the men in chorus. "A young woman should not think +of herself at all. The Almighty has created her to please us, and it +does not please us when she wears muddy boots and is as red as a +poppy; at least, not while she is young. When she is married, and her +place is in the kitchen, she may be as red as she pleases. That is a +different matter." + +"Is it?" I said, and I wanted to ask why again; but I held my tongue. +Some questions, as they said, lead one too far afield. + +The majority of visitors at a German watering-place take very little +exercise of any kind. They sit about the forest as our seaside +visitors sit about the sands, and though they cannot fill in their +mornings by sea bathing, there are often medicinal baths that take as +much time. Then the _Badearzt_ probably prescribes so many glasses of +water from his favourite spring each day, and a short walk after each +glass, and a long rest after the midday dinner. Dinner is the really +serious business of the day, and often occupies two hours. Where there +is still a _table d'hote_ it is a tedious, noisy affair, conducted in +a stuffy room, and even if you are greedy enough to like the good +things brought round you wish very soon that you were on a Cumberland +fell-side with a mutton sandwich and a mountain stream. You wish it +even although you hate mutton sandwiches and like meringues filled +with Alpine strawberries and whipped cream; for the clatter and the +clack going on around you, and the asphyxiating air, bring on a +demoralising somnolence that you despise and cannot easily throw off. +You sit about as lazily as anyone else half through the golden +afternoon, drink a cup of coffee at four o'clock, look at mountains of +cake, and then start for the restaurant, which is said to be _eine +gute Stunde_ from the hotel. You find, as you expected, that you +saunter gently uphill on a broad winding road through the forest, and +that you have a charming walk, but not what anyone in this country +would call exercise till they were about seventy. In case you should +be weary you pass seats every hundred yards or so, and when you have +made your ascent you are received by a bustling waiter or a waitress +in costume, who expects to serve you with beer or coffee before you +venture down the hill again. By the time you get back to the hotel +everyone is streaming in to supper, which is not as long as dinner, +but quite as noisy. After supper everyone sits about the verandah or +the garden. The men play cards, and smoke and drink coffee and Kirsch, +the married women talk and do embroidery, the maidens stroll about in +twos and threes or sit down to Halma. There are never many young men +in these summer hotels, and the few there are herd with the older men +or with each other more than young men do in this country. What we +understand by flirtation is not encouraged, unless it is almost sure +to lead to marriage; and what the Germans understand by flirtation is +justly considered scandalous and reprehensible. For the Germans have +taken the word into use, but taken away the levity and innocence of +its meaning. They make it a term of serious reproach, and those who +dislike us condemn the shocking prevalence of Flirt (they make a noun +of the verb) in our decadent society. + +The _Pension_ price at a German summer hotel varies from four to +fifteen marks, according to the general style of the establishment and +the position of the rooms engaged. In one frequented by Germans the +sitting-rooms are bare and formal, and as English visitors are not +expected no English papers are taken. The season begins in June and +lasts till the end of September, and you must be a successful +hotel-keeper yourself to understand how so much can be provided for so +little, miles away from any market. Many of these summer hotels have +been built high up in the forest, and with no others near them. Some +are run as a speculation by doctors. There is hardly a woman or girl +in Germany who has not needed a _Kur_ at some time of her life, or who +does not need one every year if she has money and pretty gowns. The +_Badereise_ and everything connected with it serves the German +professional humorist much as the mother-in-law and the drop too much +serve the English one, perennially and faithfully. For the wife is +determined to have her _Badereise_, and the husband is not inclined to +pay for it, and the family doctor is called in to prescribe it. The +artifices and complications arising suggest themselves, and to judge +by the postcards and farces of Germany never weary the public they are +designed to amuse. + +In Berlin, when the hot weather comes, you see the family luggage and +bedding going off to the sea-coast, for people who take a house take +part of their bedding with them. There is so little seaside and so +much Berlin that prices rule high wherever there is civilised +accommodation. In Ruegen L1 a week per room is usual, and the room you +get for that may be a very poor one. In most German watering-places, +both on the coast and in the forest, you can have furnished rooms if +you prefer them to hotel life, but as a rule you must either cook your +own dinner or go out to a hotel for it. The cooking landlady is as +rare in the country as in the town. Then in some places, at Oberhof, +for instance, high upon the hills above Gotha, there are charming +little furnished bungalows. Friends of mine go there or to one of the +neighbouring villages every year, and never enter a hotel. They either +take a servant with them, or find someone on the spot to do what is +necessary. When there are no mineral waters or sea baths to give a +place importance, Germans say they have come there to do a _Luftkur_. +A delightful Frenchwoman who has written about England lately is +amused by our everlasting babble about a "change." This one needs a +change, she says, and that one is away for a change, and the other +means to have a change next week. So the Germans amuse us by their +eternal "cures." One tries air, and the other water, and the next +iron, and the fourth sulphur, while the number and variety of nerve +cures, _Blutarmut_ cures, diet cures, and obesity cures are +bewildering. It is difficult to believe that life in a hotel can cure +anyone anywhere. However, in Germany, if you are under a capable +_Badearzt_, there may be some salvation for you, since he orders your +baths, measures your walks, and limits your diet so strictly. At one +of the well-known places where people who eat too much all the year +round go to reduce their figures, there is in the chief hotels a table +known as the _Corpulententisch_, and a man who sits there is not +allowed an ounce of bread beyond what his physician has prescribed. + +But the German _Luxusbad_, the fashionable watering-place where the +guests are cosmopolitan and the prices high--Marienbad, Homburg, +Karlsbad, Schwalbach, Wiesbaden--all these places are as well known to +English people as their own Bath and Buxton. Homburg they have +swallowed, and I have somewhere come across a paragraph from an +English newspaper objecting to the presence of Germans there. It is +the quiet German watering-place where no English come that is +interesting and not impossible to find. During the summer I spent in a +Bavarian forest village I only saw one English person the whole time, +except my own two or three friends. I heard the other day that the +village and the life there have hardly altered at all, but that some +English people have discovered the trout streams and come every year +for fishing. In my time no one seemed to care about fishing. You went +for walks in the forest. There was nothing else to do, unless you +played _Kegel_ and drank beer; for it was only a _Luftkur_. There was +no _Badearzt_ and no mineral water. To be sure, there were caves, huge +limestone caves that you visited with a guide the day after you +arrived, and never thought about again. There were various ruined +castles, too, in the neighbourhood that made a goal for a drive in +cases where there was a restaurant attached, and not far off there was +a curious network of underground beer-cellars that I did not see, but +which seemed to attract the men of our party sometimes. There were +several inns in the straggling village, for the place lay high up +amongst the dolomite hills of Upper Franconia, and people came there +from the neighbouring towns for _Waldluft_. The summer I was there +Richard Wagner passed through with his family, and we saw him more +than once. He stayed at the Kurhaus, a hotel of more pretentions than +the village inns, for it had a good sized garden and did not entertain +peasants. My inn, recommended by an old Nuremberg friend, was owned +and managed by a peasant proprietor, his wife, their elderly daughter, +and two charming orphan grandchildren in their early teens. The +peasant customers had as usual a large rough room to themselves, the +town guests had their plain bare _Speisesaal_, and we Britishers +possessed the summer house; so we were all happy. The whole glory of +the place was in the forest; for it was not flat sandy forest that has +no undergrowth, and wearies you very soon with its sameness and its +still, oppressive air. It was up hill and down dale forest, full of +lovely glades, broken by massive dolomite rocks; the trees not set in +serried rows, but growing for the most part as the birds and the wind +planted them; a varied natural forest tended but not dragooned by man. +The flowers there were a delight to us, for we arrived early enough in +the year to find lilies of the valley growing in great quantities +amongst the rocks, while a little later the stream and pathways were +bordered by oak and beech fern and by many wild orchises that are rare +now with us. It was not here, however, but in another German forest, +where, one day when I had no time to linger, I met people with great +bunches of the _Cypripedium calceolus_ that they had gathered as we +gather primroses. At the Bavarian watering-place we had the whole +forest as much to ourselves as the summer house, for no one seemed to +wander farther than the seats placed amongst the trees by the +_Verschoenerungsverein_. + + "Warum willst du weiter schweifen + Sieh das Gute liegt so nah," + +says Goethe, and most Germans out for their summer holiday seem to +take his advice in the most literal way, and find their happiness as +near home as they possibly can. + +When you begin to think about the actual process of travelling in +Germany, the tiresome business of getting from the city to the forest +village, for instance, you at once remember both the many complaints +you have heard Germans make of our system, or rather want of system, +and the bitter scorn poured on German fussiness by travelling Britons. +The ways of one nation are certainly not the ways of another in this +respect. Directly I cross the German frontier I know that I am safe +from muddle and mistakes, that I need not look after myself or my +luggage, that I cannot get into a wrong train or alight at a wrong +station, or suffer any injury through carelessness or mismanagement. +Everything is managed for me, and on long journeys in the corridor +trains things are well managed. But your carriage is far more likely +to be unpleasantly crowded in Germany than in England; and as +hand-luggage is not charged for, the public takes all it can, and +fills the racks, the seats, and the floor with heavy bags and +portmanteaux. In bygone years the saying was that none travelled first +class save fools and Englishmen, but nowadays Germans travel in their +own first-class carriages a good deal. The third-class accommodation +is wretched, more fit for animals than men. In some districts there +are fourth-class uncovered seats on the roof of the carriages, but I +have only seen these used in summer. When I was last in Germany a year +ago there was much excitement and indignation over certain changes +that were to make travelling dearer for everyone. All luggage in the +van was to be paid for in future, first-class fares were to be raised, +and no return tickets issued. + +But you must not think that when you have bought a ticket from one +place to another you can get to it by any train you please. "I want +the 10.15 to Entepfuhl," you say to the nearest and biggest official +you can see; and he looks at your ticket. + +"_Personenzug_," he says in a withering way,--"the 10.15 is an +express." + +You say humbly that you like an express. + +"Then you must get an extra ticket," he says, "This one only admits +you to slow trains." + +So you get your extra ticket, and then you wait with everyone else in +a big room where most people are eating and drinking to wile away the +time. Don't imagine that you can find your empty train, choose your +corner, and settle yourself comfortably for your journey as you can in +England. You are well looked after, but if you are used to England +you never quite lose the impression in Germany that if you are not an +official or a soldier you must be a criminal, and that if you move an +inch to right or left of what is prescribed you will hear of it. Just +before the train starts the warders open your prison doors and shout +out the chief places the train travels to. So you hustle along with +everyone else, and get the best place you can, and are hauled out by a +watchful conductor when you arrive. If it is a small station there is +sure to be a dearth of porters, but you get your luggage by going to +the proper office and giving up the slip of paper you received when it +was weighed. Never forget, as I have known English people do, that you +cannot travel in Germany without having your luggage weighed and +receiving the _Schein_ for it. If you lose the _Schein_ you are +undone. I cannot tell you exactly what would happen, because it would +be a tragedy without precedent, but it is impossible that German +officials would surrender a trunk without receiving a _Schein_ in +exchange; at least, not without months of rigmarole and delay. Even +when it is the official who blunders the public suffers for it. We +were travelling some years ago from Leipzig to London when the guard +examining our tickets let one blow away. Luckily some German gentlemen +in the carriage with us saw what happened, gave us their addresses, +and offered to help us in any way they could. But we had to buy a +fresh ticket and trust to getting our money back by correspondence. +Six months later we did get it back, and this is an exact translation +of the letter accompanying it:-- + + "In answer to your gracious letter of the 26th September, we + inform your wellbornship, respectfully, that the Ticket + Office here is directed, in regard to the ticket by you on + the 23rd of September taken, by the guard in checking lost + ticket Leipzig-London via Calais 2nd class, the for the + distance Hanover to London outpaid fare of 71 m. 40 pf. by + post to you to refund." + +One must admire the mind that can compose a sentence like that without +either losing its way or turning dizzy. + +But if you want to see what Germans can give you in the way of order +and comfort you must leave the railroad and travel in one of their big +American liners. Even if you are not going to America, but only from +Hamburg to Dover, it is well worth doing. The interest of it begins +the day before, when you take your trunks to the docks and see the +steerage passengers assembled for their start. They are a strange +gipsy-looking folk, for the most part from the eastern frontier of +Germany, bare-footed and wearing scraps of brighter colours than +western people choose. When we arrived the doctor was examining their +eyes in an open shed, and we saw them huddled together in families +waiting their turn. There was no weeping and wailing as there is when +the Irish leave their shores. These people looked scared by the bustle +of departure, and concerned for the little children with them, and for +their poor bundles of clothes; but they did not seem unhappy. In the +luggage bureau itself you came across the emigrant upsides with +fortune, the successful business German returning to America after a +summer holiday in his native land, and speaking the most hideously +corrupt and vulgar English ever heard. The most harsh and nasal +American is heavenly music compared with nasal American spoken by a +German tongue. The great ship was crowded with people of this type, +and the resources of Europe could hardly supply them with the +luxuries they wanted. We had a special train next day to Cuxhaven, and +an army of blue-coated white-gloved stewards to meet us on the +platform, and a band to play us on board. Our private rooms were hung +with pale blue silk and painted with white enamel and furnished with +satin-wood; the passages had marble floors; there were quantities of +flowers everywhere, and books, and the electric light. In fact, it was +the luxurious floating hotel a modern liner must be to entice such +people as those I saw in the luggage bureau to travel in it. The meals +were most elaborate and excellent; and I feel sure that any royal +family happening to travel incognito on the ship would have been +satisfied with them. But my neighbours at table were not. "We shall +not dine down here again," said one of them, speaking with the twang I +have described. "After to-night we shall have all our meals in the +Ritz Restaurant." I looked at her reflectively, and next day after +breakfast I stood on the bridge and looked at the other emigrants. The +women were singing an interminable droning mass, the men sat about on +sacks and played cards, the bare-footed children scuttled to and fro. + +"One day some of these people will come back in a _Luxus_ cabin," said +a German acquaintance to me. + +"And they will dine in the Ritz Restaurant, because our dinner is not +good enough for them," I prophesied. + +Directly we got to Dover every feature of our arrival helped us to +feel at home. There was a batch of large good-natured looking +policemen, whose function I cannot explain, but it was agreeable to +see them again. There was no order or organisation of any kind to +protect and annoy you. The authorities had thoughtfully painted the +letters of the alphabet on the platform where the luggage was +deposited, and you were supposed to find your own trunks in front of +your own letter. I, full of German ideas still, waited a weary time +near my letter. "You'll never get them that way," said an English +friend. "You'd much better go to the end of the platform and pick them +out as you can." So I went, and found a huge pile of luggage pitched +anyhow, anywhere, and picked out my own, seized a porter, made him +shoulder things, and followed him at risk to life and limb. All the +luggage leaving Dover was being tumbled about at our feet, and when we +tried to escape it we fell over what had arrived. Porters were rushing +to and fro with trunks, just as disturbed ants do with eggs, but in +this case it was the German passengers who felt disturbed. They were +not used to such ways. When they had to duck under a rope to reach the +waiting train they grew quite angry, and said they did not think much +of the British Empire. But there was worse to come for us all. +Breakfast on board had been early and a fog had delayed our arrival. +We were all hungry and streamed into the refreshment room. We filled +it. + +"What is there to eat?" said one. + +The young woman with the hauteur and detachment of her calling did not +speak, but just glanced at a glass dish under a glass cover. There +were two stale looking ham sandwiches. + +"Well," says my Englishman, when I tell him this true story--"we are +not a greedy nation." + +"But how about the trunks that were not under their right letters?" I +ask. + +"Who in his senses wants to find trunks under letters?" says he. "The +proper place for trunks is the end of the platform. Then you can tear +out of the train and find yours first and get off quickly. When you +are all dragooned and drilled an ass comes off as well as anyone else. +You place a premium on stupidity." + +"But that is an advantage to the ass," I say; "and in a civilised +State why should the ass not have as good a chance as anyone else?" + +The argument that ensues is familiar, exhausting, and interminable. +"An ass is an ass wherever he lives," says someone at last; and +everyone is delighted to have a proposition put forward to which he +can honestly agree. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +PEASANT LIFE + + +The peasant proprietors of Southern Germany are a comfortable, +prosperous class. "A rich peasant" begins your comic story as often as +"a rich Jew." The peasants own their farms and a bit of forest, as +well as a vineyard or a hop garden. They never pretend to be anything +but peasants; but when they can afford it they like to have a son who +is a doctor, a schoolmaster, or a pastor. Unless you have special +opportunities you can only watch peasant life from outside in Germany, +for you could not stay in a Bauernhaus as you would in a farmhouse in +England. At least, you could not live with the family. In some of the +summer resorts the peasants make money by furnishing bedrooms and +letting them to _Herrschaften_, but the _Herrschaften_ have to get +their meals at the nearest inn. The inner life of the peasant family +is rougher than the inner life of the farmer's family in England, +though their level of prosperity is as high, possibly higher. You +cannot imagine the English farmer and his wife putting on costly and +picturesque mediaeval costumes every Sunday and solemnly marching to +church in them; but the German Bauer still does this quite simply and +proudly. In some parts of the Black Forest every valley has its own +costume, so that you know where a man lives by the clothes he wears. +There is one valley where all the girls are pretty, and on festive +occasions or for church they wear charming transparent black caps with +wings to them. There is another valley where the men are big-boned and +blackavised, with square shaven chins and spare bodies, rather like +our English legal type; and they go to church in scarlet breeches, +long black velvet coats, and black three-cornered hats. Their +women-folk wear gay-coloured skirts and mushroom hats loaded with +heavy poms-poms. In Cassel there are most curious costumes to be seen +still on high days and holidays; from Berlin, people go to the +Spreewald to see the Wendish peasants, and in Bavaria there is still +some colour and variety of costume. But everywhere you hear that these +costumes are dying out. The new generation does not care to label +itself, for it finds _staedtische Kleider_ cheaper and more convenient. +The Wendish girls seem to abide by the ways of their forefathers, for +they go to service in Berlin on purpose to save money for clothes. +They buy or are presented with two or three costumes each year, and +when they marry they have a stock that will last a lifetime and will +provide them with the variety their pride demands. For they like to +have a special rig-out for every occasion, and a great many changes +for church on Sundays. In Catholic Germany a procession on a saint's +day seems to have stepped down from a stained-glass window, the +women's gowns are so vivid and their bodies so stiff and angular. But +to see the German peasantry in full dress you must go to a +_Kirchweih_, a dance, or a wedding. + +You can hardly be in Germany in summer without seeing something of +peasants' weddings, and of the elaborate rites observed at them. +Different parts of the empire have different ways, and even in one +district you will find much variety. We saw several peasant weddings +in the Black Forest one summer, and no two were quite alike. Sometimes +when we were walking through the forest we met a _Brautwagen_: the +great open cart loaded with the furniture and wedding presents the +bride was taking as part of her dowry to her new home. It would be +piled with bedding, wooden bedsteads, chests of drawers, and pots and +pans; and gay-coloured ribbons would be floating from each point of +vantage. Sometimes the bridal pair was with the cart, the young +husband in his wedding clothes walking beside the horse, the bride +seated amongst her possessions. Sometimes a couple of men in working +clothes, probably the bridegroom and a friend, were carrying the +things beforehand, so that the new home should be ready directly after +the wedding. We happened to be staying in the Black Forest when our +inn-keeper's daughter was going to marry a young doctor, the son of a +rich peasant in a neighbouring valley, and we were asked to the +wedding. Our landlord ran two inns, the one in which we stayed and +another a dozen miles away, which was managed by his wife and +daughters. The wife's hotel was in a fashionable watering-place, and +offered a smarter background for a wedding than the one in our +out-of-the-world little town. It is the proper moment now for you to +object that this could not have been a "peasant" wedding at all, and +has no place in a picture of peasant life; and I concede that the +bride and bridegroom, their parents, and certain of their friends all +wore _staedtische Kleider_. The bride was in black silk, and the +bridegroom in his professional black coat. But nearly all the guests +were peasants, and wore peasant costume; and the heavy long-spun +festivities were those usual at a peasant's wedding. We started with +our bicycles at six o'clock in the morning, and soon found ourselves +in a straggling procession of carts and pedestrians come from all the +valleys round. The main road was like a road on a fair day. Everyone +knew that there was to be a _Hochzeit_ at R., a big splendid +_Hochzeit_, and everyone who could afford the time and the money was +going to eat and drink and dance at it. Everyone was in a holiday +mood, and all along the lovely forest road we exchanged greetings with +our fellow-guests and gathered scraps of information about the feast +we were on our way to join. Every inn we passed had set out extra +tables, and expected extra custom that day, and when we got to one +within a mile of R. we found the garden crowded. People were ready by +this time for their second breakfast, and were having it here before +making their appearance at the wedding. We were hungry and thirsty +ourselves, so we sat down under the shade of trees and ate _belegtes +Butterbrot_ and drank Pilsener as our neighbours did. We arrived at R. +just in time to remove the dust of the road, and then walk, as we +found our hosts expected us to do, in the wedding procession. First +came the bride and bridegroom, and then a long crocodile of +bridesmaids, all wearing the curious high bead wreaths possessed by +every village girl of standing in this part of Germany. We witnessed +the civil ceremony, but though I have been present at several German +civil weddings I remember as little about them as about a visit to the +English District Council Office where I have sometimes been to pay +taxes. In both cases there is a bare room, an indifferent official, +some production of official papers, and the thing is done. When the +bride and bridegroom had been made legally man and wife they headed +the waiting procession again, and proceeded to the church for the +real, the religious ceremony. It was packed with people, and the +service, which was Catholic, lasted a long time. When it was over +everyone streamed back to the hotel, and as soon as possible the +_Hochzeitsmahl_ began; but though we were politely bidden to it we +politely excused ourselves, for we knew that the feast would last for +hours and would be more than we could bear. Till evening, they said, +it would last, and there would be many speeches, and it was a broiling +summer day. The guests we perceived to be a mixed company of peasants +in costume, of inn-keepers and their families in ordinary clothes, and +of university students in black coats who were removed from the +peasantry by their education, but not by birth and affection. The +invited guests sat down to dinner in the _Speisesaal_, but the hotel +garden was crowded with country people who paid for what they +consumed. The dinner served to us and to others out here was an +unusually good one, so we discovered that people who attend a wedding +unasked get a spectacle, a dance, and extra fine food for their money. +Towards the end of the afternoon before we left R. we looked in at the +ballroom, where dancing had begun already. + +At another peasant's wedding in the Black Forest we saw some quaint +customs observed that were omitted at R. In this case the bride and +bridegroom were themselves peasants, and wore the costume of their +valley. The bride was said to be well endowed, but she was extremely +plain. Amongst German peasants, however, beauty hardly counts. What a +woman is worth to a man, he reckons partly in hard cash and partly in +the work she can do. There were two charmingly pretty girls in the +Bavarian village where we once spent a summer, but we were told that +they had not the faintest chance of marriage, because, though they +belonged to a respectable family, they were orphans and dowerless. +Auerbach's enchanting story of _Barfuessele_, in which the village +Cinderella marries the rich peasant, is a fairy story and not a +picture of real life. The feast at this second wedding we saw must +have cost a good deal, for it was prepared at our hotel for a large +crowd of guests and lasted for hours. It was an agitating wedding in +some of its aspects. The day before we had been startled at irregular +but frequent intervals by loud gunshots, and we were told that these +were fired in welcome of the wedding guests as they arrived. When the +bride appeared with her _Brautwagen_ and an escort of young men there +was a volley in her honour. We did not go to church to see that +wedding, as we were not attracted by the bridal pair; but we watched +the crowd from our windows, and as it was a wet day, endured the +sounds of revelry that lasted for hours after the feast began. There +was no dancing at this marriage, and as each batch of guests departed +a brass band just outside our rooms played them a send-off. It was a +jerky irritating performance, because the instant the object of their +attentions disappeared round the turn of the hill they stopped short, +and only began a new tune when there was a new departure. We were +rather glad when the day came to an end. In the Black Forest you +always know where there is a wedding, because two small fir trees are +brought from the forest decked with flying coloured streamers of paper +or ribbon, and set on either side of the bride's front door. + +The German peasant loves his pipe and his beer, and on a Sunday +afternoon his game of _Kegel_; but on high days and holidays he likes +to be dancing. He and she will trudge for miles to dance at some +distant village inn. You meet them dressed in their best clothes, +walking barefoot and carrying clean boots and stockings. How they can +dance in tight boots after a long hot walk on a dusty road, you must +be a German peasant yourself to understand. The dance I remember best +took place in a barn belonging to a village inn in Bavaria. I went +with several English friends to look on at it, and the men of our +party danced with some of the village girls. The room was only lighted +by a few candles, and it was so crowded that while everyone was +dancing everyone was hustled. But we were told that anyone who chose +could "buy the floor" for a time by giving sixpence or a shilling to +the band. Two of the Englishmen did this, and the crowd looked on in +solemn approval while they waltzed once or twice round with the pretty +granddaughters of our hosts. It was a scene I have often wished I +could paint, the crowd was so dense, and the faces, from our point of +view, so foreign. The candles only lifted the semi-darkness here and +there, but where their light fell it flashed on the bright-coloured +handkerchiefs which the women of this village twisted round their +heads like turbans, and pinned across their bosoms. I think it is +absurd, though, to say that German peasants dance well. They enjoy the +exercise immensely, but are heavy and loutish in their movements, and +they flounder about in a grotesque way with their hands on each +other's shoulders. At a _Kirchweih_ they dance in the open air. + +A _Kirchweih_ is a feast to celebrate the foundations of the village +church, and it takes the form of a fair. The preparations begin the +day before, when the roundabouts and shooting booths are put up in the +appointed field. On the day before the _Kirchweih_ in our Bavarian +village I found the inn-keeper's wife cooking what we call Berlin +pancakes in a cauldron of boiling fat, the like of which I have never +seen before or since for size. It must have held gallons. All day long +she stood there throwing in the cinnamon flavoured batter, and taking +out the little crisp brown balls. They are, it seems, a favourite +dainty at a Bavarian _Kirchweih_, and must be provided in large +quantities. On the fair field itself the food offered by the +stall-keepers seemed to be chiefly enormous slabs of shiny gingerbread +made in fanciful shapes, such as hearts, lyres, and garlands, cheap +sweetmeats, and the small boiled sausages the artless German eats in +public without a knife and fork. + +The _Kirchweih_ is the chief event of the summer in a German village, +and is talked of for weeks beforehand. The peasants stream in from all +the villages near, and join in the dancing and the shooting matches. +When the day is fine and the fair field has a background of wooded +hills, you see where the librettists of pre-Wagnerian days went for +their stage effects. All the characters of many a German opera are +there correctly dressed, joining in the songs and dances, shooting for +wagers, making love, sometimes coming to blows. But you may look on at +a _Kirchweih_ from morning till night without seeing either horseplay +or drunkenness. Not that the German peasant is an opera hero in his +inner life. He is a hard-working man, God-fearing on the whole, stupid +and stolid often, narrowly shrewd often, having his eye on the main +chance. When he is stupid but not God-fearing he dresses himself and +his wife in their best clothes, puts his insurance papers in his +pockets, sets his thatched house on fire, and goes for a walk. Then he +is surprised that he is caught and punished. Fires are frequent in +German villages, and in a high wind and where the roofs are of straw +destruction is complete sometimes. You often come across the blackened +remains of houses, and you always feel anxious about the new +buildings that will replace them. It is a good deal to say, but I +believe our own jerry-builders are outdone in florid vulgarity by +German villadom, and the German atrocities will last longer than ours, +because the building laws are more stringent. But the old _Bauernhaus_ +still to be seen in most parts of the Black Forest is dignified and +beautiful. The Swiss chalet is a poor gim-crack thing in comparison. +Sometimes the German house has a shingled roof, and sometimes a +thatched roof dark with age, and it has drooping eaves and an outside +staircase and balcony of wood. It shelters the farm cattle in the +stables on the ground floor, and the family on the upper floor, and in +the roof there are granaries. But the beautiful old thatched roofs are +gradually giving place to the slate ones, because they burn so easily, +and fire, when it comes, is the village tragedy. I can remember when a +fire in a big German commercial town was proclaimed by a beating drum, +the noisy parade of fire-men, the clanging of bells, and all the +hullaballoo that panic and curiosity could make. But last year, in +Berlin, looking at houses like the tower of Babel, I said something of +fire, and was told that no one felt nervous nowadays, the arrangements +for dealing with it were so complete. + +"People just look out of the window, see that there is a fire next +door, or above or beneath them, and go about their business," said my +hosts. "They know that the fire brigade will do their business and put +it out." + +I did not see a fire in Berlin, so I had no opportunity of witnessing +the remarkable coolness of the Berliner in circumstances the ordinary +man finds trying; but I saw a fire in my Bavarian village, and there +were not many cool people there. The summons came in the middle of the +night with the hoarse insistent clanging of the church bell, the +sudden start into life of the sleeping village, the sounds in the +house and in the street of people astir and terrified. Then there came +the brilliant reflection of the flames in the opposite windows, and +the roar and crackle of fire no one at first knew where. It was only a +barn after all, a barn luckily detached from other buildings. Yet when +we got into the street we found most of the population removing its +treasures, as if danger was imminent. All the beds and chairs and pots +and pans of the place seemed to be on the cobble-stones, and the women +wailed and the children wept. "But the village is not on fire," we +said. "It may be at any moment," they assured us, and were scandalised +by our cold-bloodedness. For we had not carted our trunks into the +street, but hastened towards the burning barn to see if we could help +the men and boys carrying water. The weather was still and the barn +isolated, so we knew there was no danger of the fire spreading. But +the villagers were too excitable and too panic-stricken to be +convinced of this. All their lives they had dreaded fire, and when the +flames broke out so near them they thought that their houses were +doomed. + +Next to fire the German peasant hates beggars and gipsies. We were six +months in the Black Forest and only met one beggar the whole time, and +he was a decent-looking old man who seemed to ask alms unwillingly. +But in some parts of Germany there are a great many most +unpleasant-looking tramps. The village council puts up a notice that +forbids begging, and has a general fund from which it sends tramps on +their way. But it does not seem able to deal with the caravans of +gipsies that come from Hungary and Bohemia. In a Thuringian village we +came down one morning to find our inn locked and barricaded as if a +riot was expected, and an attack. Even the shutters were drawn and +bolted. "_Was ist denn los?_" we asked in amazement, and were told +that the gipsies were coming. + +"But will they do you any harm?" we asked. + +"They will steal all they can lay hands on," our landlady assured us. +She was a widow, and her brewer, the only man in her employ, was, we +supposed, standing guard over his own house. We thought the panic +seemed extreme, but we had never encountered Hungarian gipsies on the +warpath, and we did not know how many were coming. So, after assuring +our excited little Frau that we would stand by her as well as we +could, we went to an upper window to watch for the enemy. Presently +the procession began, a straggling procession of the dirtiest, +meanest-looking ruffians ever seen. There was waggon after waggon, +swarming with ragamuffins of both sexes and all ages. The men were +mostly on foot, casting furtive glances to right and left, evident +snappers-up of unconsidered trifles, truculent, ragged, wearing +evil-looking knives by their sides. During their transit the village +had shut itself up, as Coventry did for Godiva's ride. When we all +ventured forth again the talk was of missing poultry and rifled fruit +trees. The geese had luckily started for their day on the high +pastures before the bad folk came; for in a German village there is +always a gooseherd. Sometimes it is a little boy or girl, sometimes an +old woman, and early in the morning whoever has the post collects the +whole flock, drives it to a chosen feeding ground, spends the day +there, and brings it back at night. It must be a contemplative life, +and in dry weather pleasant. I think it would suit a philosopher if he +could choose his days. In our Franconian village the gooseherd was a +little boy, vastly proud of his job. Every morning, long before we +were up, he would stride past our windows piping the same tune, and at +the sound of it every goose in the village would waddle out from her +night quarters and join the cackling fussy crowd at his heels. Every +evening as dusk fell he came back again, still piping the same tune, +and then the geese would detach themselves in little groups from the +main body and find their own homes as surely as cows do. + +Every rural district of Germany has its own novelist. Fritz Reuter, +Frenssen, Rosegger, Sudermann all write of country life in the places +they know best. In Hauptmann's beautiful plays you see the peasant +through a veil of poetry and mysticism. Auerbach, I am told, is out of +fashion. His stories end well mostly, his construction one must admit +is childish, and his characters change their natures with the +suddenness of a thunderbolt to suit his plot. Yet when I have +_Sehnsucht_ for Germany, and cannot go there in reality, I love to go +in fancy where Auerbach leads. He takes you to a house in the Black +Forest, and you sit at breakfast with the family eating _Haferbrei_ +out of one bowl. You know the people gathered there as well as if you +had been with them all the summer, and you know them now in winter +time when the roads are deep in snow and a wolf is abroad in the +forest. The story I am thinking of was published in 1860, and I +believe that there are no wolves now in the Black Forest. But as far +as one outside peasant life can judge, I doubt whether anything else +has changed much. You hear the history of the _Grossbauer_, the rich +farmer of the district whose breed is as strong and daring as the +breed of the Volsungs. Seven years ago the only son and heir of this +forest magnate, Adam Roettman, loved a poor girl called Martina, and +their child Joseph is now six years old. Adam is still faithful to +Martina, but his parents will not consent to their marriage, and +insists on betrothing him to an heiress as rich as he will be, +Heidenmueller's Toni. The whole village looks on at the romance and +sides with Martina; for Adam's mother, _die wilde Roettmaennin_, is one +of those stormy viragoes I myself have met amongst German women. She +masters her husband and son with her temper. She is so rich that she +has more _Schmalz_ than she can use, and so mean that she would rather +let it go bad than give it to the poor. At midnight, when the roads +are deep in snow, she sends for the _Pfarrer_, and when he risks his +life and goes because he thinks she is dying, he finds she is merely +bored and wanted his company; for she has been used to think that she +could tyrannise over all men because she was richer and more +determined than most. Next day she gets up, orders her husband and son +to put on Sunday clothes, and well wrapped up in _Betten_ drives with +them to the _Heidenmuehle_, where Adam is formally betrothed to Toni. +The girl knows all about Martina, but she consents because she would +marry anyone to escape from her stepmother, who treats her cruelly, +and in order to hurt her feelings has given her mother's cup to the +_Knecht_. After the betrothal the two fathers sit together and drink +hot spiced wine, the two mothers gossip together, and the _Brautpaar_ +talk sadly about Martina, who should be Adam's wife, and Joseph who is +his child. At last Adam could bear it no longer. He would go straight +to Martina, he said, and he would be with Toni again before the +Christmas tree was lighted; and then he would either break with Toni +or feel free to marry her. "The bride stared at Adam with amazement as +he put on his grey cloak and his fur cap and seized his pointed stick. +He looked both handsome and terrible." For he is one of the heroes +Germans love, a giant who once held a bull by its horns while Martina +escaped from it, who is called the _Gaul_, because for a wager he once +carried the cart and the load a cart horse should have carried, and +who on this wild winter night meets the wolf in the forest and kills +it with his stick. So you see him striding through the snow-bound +forest to the village where Martina lives, dragging the wolf after +him, as strong as Siegfried, as credulous as a child, ready to believe +that the voices of his father and his child both looking for him in +the snow are witches' voices. But when he gets to the village he finds +that his child, so long disowned and disregarded, is really lost, and +is looking for him in the snow. The hatter who tramps from village to +village hung with hats met him, and tried to turn him back. But the +child said he had come out to find his father, and must go on. Then +every man in the village assembles at the _Pfarrhaus_, and, led by the +_Pfarrer's_ brother-in-law (an eventual husband for Heidenmueller's +Toni), sets out to find Joseph in the snow. Before they start Adam +vows before the whole community that whether the child is alive or +dead nothing shall ever part him again from Martina, and when he has +made this vow you see the whole company depart in various directions +carrying torches, ladders, axes, and long ropes. Meanwhile the child, +after some alarms and excursions, meets three angels (children +masquerading), who take him with them to the mill where Toni has just +lighted the Christmas tree. She rescues Joseph from _die wilde +Roettmaennin_, and that same night, her father dying of his carouse, she +becomes a rich heiress and free of her wicked stepmother. Joseph's +hostile grandfathers, after a fight in the snow, make friends, the +obliging _Pfarrer_ marries Adam and Martina at midnight, and soon +after the _wilde Roettmaennin_ who will not be reconciled leaves this +world. So everyone who deserves happiness gets it. But though you only +half believe in the story you have been in the very heart of the Black +Forest, the companion of its people, the observer of their most +intimate talk and ways. You have heard the women gossip at the well, +you have made friends with Leegart the seamstress, who believes that +quite against her will she is gifted with supernatural powers. There +is Haespele, too, who made Joseph his new boots, and would marry +Martina if he could; and there is David, the father of Martina, who +was hardly kept from murdering his daughter when she came home in +disgrace, and whose grandson becomes the apple of his eye. The whole +picture of these people is vivid and enchanting, touched with quaint +detail, veined with the tragedy of their lives, glowing with the warm +human qualities that knit them to each other. The South German loves +to tell you that his country is _ein gesegnetes Land_, a blessed +country, flowing with milk and honey; and whether you are reading +Auerbach's peasant stories or actually staying amongst his peasant +folk, you get this impression of their natural surroundings. Nature is +kind here, grows forest for her people on the hill-tops, and wine, +fruit and corn in her sheltered valleys, ripens their fruit in summer, +gives them heavy crops of hay, and sends soft warm rain as well as sun +to enrich their pastures. + +In the eastern provinces of Germany the conditions of life amongst the +poor are most unhappy. Here the land belongs to large proprietors, and +until modern times the people born on the land belonged to the +landlords too. No man could leave the village where he was born +without permission, and he had to work for his masters without pay. +Even in the memory of living men the whip was quite commonly used. In +her most interesting account of a Silesian village,[3] Gertrud +Dyhrenfurth says that the present condition of the peasantry in this +region compares favourably with former times, but she admits that they +are still miserably overworked and underpaid. They are no longer +legally obliged to submit to corporal punishment, nor can they be +forced to live where they were born, and as they emigrate in large +numbers, scarcity of labour has brought about slightly improved +conditions for those remaining. But a man's wage is still a mark a day +in summer and 90 pf. in winter. A woman earns 60 pf. in summer and 50 +pf. in winter. Besides receiving these wages, a family regularly +employed lives rent free and gets a fixed amount of coal, and at +harvest time some corn and brandy. You cannot say the family has a +house or cottage to itself, because the system is to build long +bare-looking barracks in which numbers of working families herd like +rabbits in a warren. In modern times each family has a kitchen to +itself, so there is one warm room where the small children can be kept +alive. In former times there was a general kitchen, and in the rooms +appointed to each family no heating apparatus; therefore, if the +children were not to die of cold, they had to be carried every morning +to the kitchen, where there was a fire. The present plan has grave +disadvantages, as in one room the whole family has to sleep, eat, +wash, and cook for themselves and for the animals in their care. The +furniture consists of two or three bedsteads with straw mattresses and +feather plumeaux, shelves for pots and pans, a china cupboard with +glass doors, a table in the window, and wooden benches with backs. +This installation is quite luxurious compared with that of a +milkmaid's or a stablemaid's surroundings sixty or seventy years ago. +"Her home consisted of a plank slung from the stable roof and +furnished with a sack of straw and a plumeau. Her small belongings +were in a little trunk in a wooden niche, her clothes in a chest that +stood in the garret." Here is the life history of an unmarried working +woman of eighty-six born in a Silesian village. When she left school +she was apprenticed to a thrasher, with a yearly wage of four thalers, +besides two chemises and two aprons as a Christmas present. Even in +those days this money did not suffice for clothing, although even in +winter the women wore no warm under-garments. Quite unprotected, they +waded up to the middle in snow.... In summer the girl was in the barn +and at work by dawn; in winter they threshed by artificial light. A +bit of bread taken in the pocket served as breakfast. The first warm +meal was taken at midday. When the farm work was finished there was +spinning to do till 10 o'clock. + +This woman "bettered herself" as she grew older till she was earning +35 thalers (L5, 5s. 0d.) a year; she accustomed herself to live on +this sum, and when wages increased, to put by the surplus. So in her +old age she is a capitalist, has saved enough for a decent funeral, +for certain small legacies, and for such an amazing luxury as a tin +foot-warmer. The family she faithfully served for so many years allows +her coal, milk and potatoes, and when necessary pays for doctor and +medicine. Her weekly budget is as follows-- + + Pf. + Rent 50 + Bread 25 + Rolls 5 + __ + Carried forward 80 + + Pf. + Brought forward 80 + 1/4 lb. butter 25 + 1/4 lb. coffee and chicory 25 + Sugar 15 + 1 lb. flour 14 + Salt 1 + Light 10 + Washing 5 + ------ + 1m. 75 + ====== + +Meat is of course out of the question, and in discussing another +budget Fraeulein Dyhrenfurth shows that a family of eight people could +only afford three quarters of a pound a week. Their yearly expenses +amounted to 455 m. 26 pf., so each one of the eight had to be fed and +clothed for about 1s. 1d. a week. Women are still terribly overworked +in the fields. They used to begin at four o'clock in the morning, and +go on till nine at night,--a working day, that is, of seventeen hours +for a wife and the mother of a family. When the family at the mansion +had the great half-yearly wash, the village women called in to help +began at midnight, and stood at the washtub till eight o'clock next +evening, twenty hours, that is, on end. In 1880 the working day was +shortened, and only lasts now from five in the morning till seven at +night, with a two hours' pause for dinner and shorter pauses for +breakfast and vesper. But, on the other hand, women do work now that +only men did in former times. The threshing of corn has fallen +entirely into their hands, and they follow a plough yoked with oxen. +Both kinds of work are heavy and unpleasant. But women are glad to get +the threshing in winter time when other work fails, and it is often on +this account that the proprietors do not introduce threshing machines. + +At certain times of the year Poles swarm over the frontier into the +eastern provinces of Germany, but Fraeulein Dyhrenfurth says that they +do not work for lower wages. The women have no house-keeping to do, +and can therefore give more hours to field labour. One woman prepares +a meal for a whole gang of her country people, and they live almost +entirely on bread, potatoes, and brandy. They do not mix with the +Germans, but spend their evenings and Sundays in playing the +harmonium, dancing, and drinking. They return every year, are always +foreigners in Germany, and are very industrious, religious, contented, +and cheerful, but inclined to drink and fight. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] _Ein schlesisches Dorf und Rittergut_, von Gertrud Dyhrenfurth. +Leipzig, Duncker und Humblot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +HOW THE POOR LIVE + + +Poverty in German cities puts on a more respectable face than it does +in London or Manchester. It herds in the cellars and courtyards of +houses that have an imposing frontage; and when it walks out of doors +it does not walk in rags. But you only have to look at the pinched +faces of the children in the poorer quarters of any city to know that +it is there. They are tidier and cleaner than English slum children, +but they make you wish just as ardently that you were the Pied Piper +and could pipe them all with you to a land of plenty. It would require +more experience and wider facts than I possess to compare the +condition of the poor in England and Germany, especially as the +professed economists and philanthropists who make it their business to +understand such things disagree with each other about every detail. If +you talk to Englishmen, one will tell you that the German starves on +rye bread and horse sausage because he is oppressed by an iniquitous +tariff; and the next will assure you that the German flourishes and +fattens on the high wages and prosperous trade he owes entirely to his +admirable protective laws. If you talk to the Anglophobe, he will tell +you that the dirt, drunkenness, disease, and extravagance of the +English lower classes are the sin and scandal of the civilised world; +that it is useless for you to ask where the poor live in Berlin, +because there are no poor. Everyone in Germany is clean, virtuous, +well housed, and well-to-do. If you talk to an honest, reasonable +German, he will recognise that each country has its own difficulties +and its own shortcomings, and that both countries make valiant efforts +to fight their own dragons. He will tell you of the suffering that +exists amongst the German poor crowded into these houses with the +imposing fronts, and of all that statecraft and philanthropy are +patiently trying to accomplish. Doctor Shadwell, in his most valuable +and interesting book _Industrial Efficiency_, says that the American +has to pay twice as much rent as the English working man, and that +rents in Germany are nearer the American than the English level. As +wages are lower in Germany than in England, and as meat and groceries +are decidedly dearer, it is plain that the working man cannot live in +clover. Doctor Shadwell gives an example of a smith earning 1050 +marks, and having to pay 280 for rent. He had a wife and two children, +and Doctor Shadwell reckoned that the family to make two ends meet +must live on 37 pf. per head per day; the prison scale per head being +80 pf. I know a respectable German charwoman who earns 41 marks a +month, and pays 25 marks a month for her parterre flat in the _Hof_. +She lets off all her rooms except the kitchen, and she sleeps in a +place that is only fit for a coal-hole. A work-girl pays her 6 marks a +month for a clean tidy bedroom furnished with a solid wooden bedstead, +a chest of drawers, a sofa, and a table. This girl works from 7.30 to +6 in a shop, she pays the charwoman 10 pf. for her breakfast, 10 pf. +weekly for her lamp, and another 10 pf. for the use and comfort of the +kitchen fire at night. Her dinner of soup, meat, and vegetables the +girl gets at a _Privatkueche_ for 40 pf. So the workgirl's weekly +expenses for food, fire, and lodging are 5 marks 20 pf., but this does +not give her an evening meal or afternoon coffee. The charwoman +reckoned that she herself only had 15 marks a month for food, fire, +light, and clothes; but she got nearly all her food with the families +for whom she worked. She was a cheerful, honest body, and though she +slept in a coal-hole was apparently quite healthy. She looked forward +to her old age with tranquillity, because before long she would be in +receipt of a pension from the State, a weekly sum that with her habits +of thrift and industry would enable her to live. + +A German lady who chooses to teach in a _Volksschule_, because she +thinks the _Volk_ more interesting than Higher Daughters, described a +home to me from which one of her pupils came. The parents had eight +children, and the family of ten lived in two rooms. That is a state of +things we can match in England, unhappily. But my friend described +this home, not on account of its misery, but for the extraordinary +neatness and comfort the mother maintained in it. "Every time I go +there," said my friend, who lived with her father and sister in a +charming flat,--"every time I go there I say to the woman, if only it +looked like this in my home"; and there was no need for me to see the +rooms to understand what she meant; for I know the air of order and +even of solidity with which the poorest Germans will surround +themselves if they are respectable. They have very few pieces of +furniture, but those few will stand wear and tear; they prefer a clean +painted floor to a filthy carpet, and they are so poor that they have +no pence to spend on plush photograph frames. I cannot remember what +weekly wage this family existed on, but I know that it seemed quite +inadequate, and when I asked if the children were healthy as well as +clean and tidy, my friend admitted that they were not. In spite of the +brave struggle made by the parents, it was impossible to bring up a +large family on such means, and the maladies arising from insufficient +food, fire, and clothing afflicted them. The case is, I think, a +typical one. English people are always impressed when they visit +German cities by the tidy clothes poor people wear, and if they are +shown the right interiors, by their clean tidy homes. But you need +most carefully and widely collected facts and figures to judge how far +the children of a nation are suffering from poverty. It was found, for +instance, in one German city, that out of 1472 children examined in +the elementary schools, 63 per cent. of the girls and 60 per cent. of +the boys were _nicht voellig normal_. + +Moreover, there are whole classes of poor people in Germany whose +homes are not tidy and comfortable, who are crowded into cellars and +courtyards, and who have neither time nor strength for the decencies +of life. The "Sweater" flourishes in Berlin as well as in London, and +his victims are as overworked as they are here. He is usually a Jew, +it is said in Berlin, but I will not guarantee the truth of that, for +I have not observed that the Jew is anywhere a harder task-master than +the Christian. As Berlin grew, these spiders of society increased in +numbers, finding it easy and profitable to employ home workers and +spare themselves the expenses of factories and of insurance. Women who +could not go out to work were tempted by the chance offered them of +earning a trifle at home, and woman-like never paused to reckon +whether it was worth earning. As the city gets larger every evil +connected with the system increases. The worst paid are naturally the +incompetent rough peasant women who swarm into Berlin from the +country districts, because they think that it will be easier to sit at +a machine than to labour in the fields. These people have to buy their +machines and their cotton at high prices from their employers, and +then they get 10 pf. for making a blouse. A lady who spends her life +in working amongst poor people told me that many of them worked for +nothing in reality, because the trifle they earned only just paid the +difference between the food they had to buy ready cooked and the food +they might with more leisure prepare at home. They pay high rents for +wretched homes, L15, for instance, for a kitchen and one room in a +dark courtyard. Under L13 it is impossible to get anything in the +poorest quarter of Berlin. + +"The house itself looked respectable enough from outside," says Frau +Buchholz, when she went to see a girl who had just married a poor man; +"but oh! those steep narrow stairs that I had to mount, those wretched +entrances on each floor, the miserable door handles, the sickly +bluish-grey walls, the shaky banisters! It was easy to see that the +outside had been devised with a view to investors, and the inside for +poverty." In houses of this class there are often three courtyards, +one behind each other, all noisy and badly kept. The conditions of +life in such circumstances are no better than in our own notorious +slums, but a slum seven storeys high, and presenting a decent front to +the world, does not suggest the real misery behind its regular row of +windows, nor does the quiet well-swept street give any picture of the +rabbit warren in the courtyards at the back. In the enormous +"confection" trade of Berlin the home-workers are nearly all widows +and mothers of families, as the unmarried girls prefer to go to +factories. A skilled hand can earn a fair wage at certain seasons of +the year, as the demand for skilled work in this department always +exceeds the supply. But the average wage of the unskilled worker is +only 10 marks a week, while it sinks as low as 4 marks for petticoats, +aprons, and woollen goods. A corset maker, who has learned her trade, +can only make from 8 to 10 marks a week in a factory, while a woman +who sits at home and covers umbrellas gets 1 mark 50 pf. _a dozen_ +when the coverings are of stuff, and slightly more when they are of +silk. The extreme poverty of these home-workers is a constant subject +of inquiry and legislation, but for various reasons it is most +difficult to combat. The market is always over-crowded, because, badly +paid as it is, the work is popular. Women push into it from the middle +classes for the sake of pocket-money, and from the agrarian classes +because they fancy a city life. Efforts are being made to organise +them, and especially to train the daughters of these women to more +healthy and profitable trades. I went over a small _Volkskueche_ in +Berlin, and was told that there were many like it established by +various charitable agencies, and that the effect of them was to make +the children ready to go into service; a life that has some drawbacks, +but should at any rate be wholesome and civilising,--a better +preparation for marriage, too, than to sit like a slattern over a +machine all day, and buy scraps of expensive ready-made food, because +both time and skill are wanting for anything more palatable. In the +kitchen I visited there were sixteen children from the poorest +families in the neighbourhood, and, assisted by a superintendent and +two teachers, they were preparing a dinner that cost 30 pf. a head for +250 people. The rooms were clean and plainly furnished. A small +laundry business was run in connection with the kitchen, so that the +girls should be thoroughly trained to wash and iron as well as to +cook. Of late years the working classes of Berlin have adopted what +they call _Englische Tischzeit_, and no one who knows the ways of the +English artisan will guess that the German means _late dinner_. He now +does his long day's work, I am told, on bread alone, and has the one +solid meal in the twenty-four hours when he gets home at night. _Durch +Arbeiten_, he calls it, and people interested in the welfare of the +poor say it is bad for all concerned, but especially bad for the +children, who come in too exhausted to eat, and for the women, who +have to cook and clean up when the day's business should be nearly +done. It is quite characteristic of some kinds of modern Germans that +they should in a breath condemn us, imitate us, and completely +misunderstand our ways. + +The business women of Germany have organised themselves. _Der +Kaufmaennische Verband fuer Weibliche Angestellte_ was founded by Herr +Julius Meyer in 1889, and, beginning with 50 members, numbered 17,000 +in 1904. Its aim has been to improve the conditions of life for women +working in shops and businesses, to carry on their education, and to +help them when ill or out of work. It began by opening commercial +schools for women, where they could receive a thorough training in +book-keeping, shorthand, typewriting, and other branches of office +work. These have been a great success, have been imitated all over +Germany, and have led to an expansion of the law enforcing on girls +attendance at the State continuation schools. The society was founded +to remedy some crying abuses amongst women employed in shops and +offices, a working day of seventeen hours, for instance, dismissal +without notice, no rest on Sundays, no summer holiday, and not only a +want of seats but an actual prohibition to sit down even when +unemployed. All these matters the society, which has become a powerful +one, has gradually set right. A ten-hours' day for grown-up women, +and eight hours for those under age, the provision of seats, an 8 +o'clock closing rule, a month's notice on either side, some hours of +rest on Sunday, and a summer holiday are all secured to members of the +organisation. The system of "living in" does not obtain in Germany. +Shops may only open for five hours on Sundays now, and large numbers +do not open at all. They may only keep open after ten on twenty days +in the year. Other reforms the society hopes to bring about in time; +and meanwhile it occupies itself both in finding work for members who +are out of place, and in protecting those who are sick and destitute. + +The ladies of Germany have taken to philanthropic work with +characteristic energy and thoroughness. There is one society in Berlin +that has 700 members, some of whom devote their whole time to their +poor neighbours. I am not going to give the name of the society; so I +may describe one of its secretaries, who personified the best modern +type of German woman. She was about 27, a dark-haired, slim, +serious-looking person with delicate Jewish features and beautiful +grey eyes; a girl belonging to the wealthy classes, and able if she +had chosen to lead a life of frivolity and pleasure. But she had +chosen instead to give herself to the sick, the afflicted, the needy, +and even to the sinning; for she was a moving spirit of the +organisation that dives down into the depths of the great city, and +rescues those who have gone under. Her society also does a great deal +for the children of the very poor, not only for babies in creches, but +for those who go to school. The members help these older ones with +their school work, and when the children are free teach them to wash, +cook, and sew, and to play open-air games. They teach the blind, they +look after the deserted families of men in prison, and the older +members act as guardians to illegitimate children; for in Germany +every illegitimate child must have a guardian, and women are now +allowed to act in this capacity. The secretary said they found no +difficulty in getting both married and single women to take up these +good works. + +"What do the parents say when their daughters take it up?" I asked, +for I could not picture the German girl as I had always known her +going out into the highways and byways of the city, leaving her +cooking, her music, her embroidery, and her sentiment, and battling +with the hideous realities of life amongst the sick, the poor, and the +more or less wicked of the earth. + +"The parents don't like it," my girl with the honest eyes admitted. +"When girls have worked for us some time they often refuse to marry; +at least, they refuse the arranged marriages proposed to them. But we +cannot stop on that account. If a girl does not wish to marry in this +way it is better that she should not. No good can come of it." + +Then she went on to tell me how well it was that a child born to +utmost shame and poverty should have a woman of the better classes +interested from the beginning in its welfare, and responsible for its +decent upbringing. It implied contact with various officials, of +course, but she said that the ladies who took this work in hand met +with courtesy and support everywhere. + +You have only to place this type of young woman beside the +_Backfisch_, who represents an older type quite fairly, to understand +how far the modern German girl has travelled from the traditional +lines. If you can imagine the _Backfisch_ married and mentally little +altered in her middle age, you can also imagine that she would find a +daughter with the new ideas upsetting. At present both types are +living side by side, for there are still numbers of women of the old +school in Germany, women who passively accept the life made for them +by their surroundings, whether it suits their needs or not; and who +would never strike out a path for themselves, even if by doing so they +could forget their own troubles in the troubles of others. + +The State and Municipal establishments for the poor and sick have been +so much described lately, that everyone in England must be acquainted +with all that Berlin does for its struggling citizens. There are, of +course, large hospitals and sanatoriums for consumption; and the +admirable system of national insurance secures help in sickness to +every working man and woman, as well as a pension in old age. "The +club doctor and dispensary as we have them here do not exist," say the +Birmingham Brassworkers in their pamphlet. "In their stead leading +doctors and specialists (with very few exceptions) are at the service +of the working man or woman." + +"Yes," said a leading doctor to me when I quoted this; "we get about +three half-pence for a consultation, and we find them the most +impossible people in the community to satisfy. As they get medical +advice for nothing they run from one doctor to another, and consult a +dozen about some simple ailment that a student could set right. We all +suffer from them." So that is the other side of the question. + +But Berlin certainly manages its Submerged Tenth both more humanely +and more wisely than we manage ours. It begins, as one thinks any +civilised country must, by separating those who will not work from +those who cannot. The able-bodied beggar, the drunkard, and other +vagrants are sent to a house of correction and made to work. The +respectable poor are not driven to herd with these people in Germany. +They receive shelter and assistance at institutions reserved for the +deserving. In one of these old married people who cannot support +themselves are allowed to spend the evening of their lives together. +Anyone desiring to know more about the charitable institutions of +Berlin will find a most interesting account of them in the pamphlet +written by the Birmingham Brassworkers, and published by P.S. King & +Son. The bias of the authors is so strongly German that when you have +read to the end you begin to lean in the opposite direction, and look +for the things we manage better over here. "In 1900," they say, "there +was such a shortage of houses (in Berlin) that 1500 families had to be +sheltered in the Municipal Refuge for Homeless People." That is surely +a worse state of affairs than in London. But when you walk through +London or a London suburb in winter, and are pestered at every +crossing and corner by able-bodied young beggars of both sexes, you +begin to agree with the brassworkers. Berlin is clear of beggars and +crossing-sweepers all the year round, and you know that as far as +possible they are classified and treated according to their deserts. +It is not possible for the individual bent on his own business to know +at a glance whether he will encourage vice by giving alms or behave +brutally to a deserving case by withholding them. The decision should +never be forced upon him as it is in England every day of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +BERLIN + + +Once upon a time a German got hold of Aladdin's lamp, and he summoned +the Djinn attendant on the lamp. "Build me a city of broad airy +streets," he bade him, "and where several streets meet see that there +is an open place set with trees and statues and fountains." All the +houses, even those that the poor inhabit, are to be big and white and +shining, like palaces; but the real palaces where princes shall live +may be plain and grey. There are to be pleasure grounds in the midst +of the city, but they are to be woods rather than parks, because even +you and the lamp cannot make grass grow in this soil and climate. In +the pleasure grounds, and especially on either side of one broad +avenue, there are to be sculptured figures of kings and heroes, larger +than life and as white as snow. The Djinn said it would be easy to +build the city in a night as the German desired, but that the +sculpture could not be hurried in this way, because artists would have +to make it, and artists were people who would not work to order or to +time. The German, however, said he was master of the lamp, and that +the city must be ready when he wanted it early next morning. So the +Djinn set to work and got the city ready in a night, sculpture and +all. But when he had finished he had not used half the figures and +garlands and other stone ornaments he had made. If he had been in +England he might have reduced them in size, and given them to an +Italian hawker to carry about on his head on a tray. But he knew that +hawkers would not be allowed in the city he had built. So, as he was +rather tired and anxious to be done, he quickly made one more long, +broad street stretching all the way from the pleasure ground in the +centre of the city to the forest that begins where the city ends; and +on every house in the street he put figures and garlands and gilded +balconies and ornamental turrets, as many as he could. The effect when +he had finished pleased him vastly, and he said it was the finest +street in the city, and should be called the _Kurfuerstendamm_. His +master and all the Germans who came to live in it agreed with him. +They gave large rents for a flat in one of the houses, and when they +went to London and saw the smoky dwarfish houses there they came away +as quickly as possible and rubbed their hands and were happy, and said +to each other, "How beautiful is our _Kurfuerstendamm_. We have as many +turrets as we have chimneys, and we have garlands on our balconies of +green or gilded iron, and some of us have angelic figures made of red +brick, so that the angelic faces are checked with white where the +bricks are joined together." + +"But it does not become anyone from England to criticise the +architecture and sculpture of a foreign country," I said to the artist +who told me the story of the lamp. "Our own is notoriously bad." + +"It is not you who will criticise ours," he answered. "By your own +confession, you know nothing whatever of architecture and sculpture, +and when people know nothing they should either keep silence or ask +for information in the best quarter. You have my authority for saying +that the architects and sculptors of Berlin would have been better +employed building dog-kennels." + +"But I rather like your wide cheerful streets," I objected, "and your +tall clean houses. Our houses...." + +"Your houses are little black boxes in which people eat and sleep. +They do not pretend to anything. Ours pretend to be beautiful, and are +ridiculous. Moreover, in England there are men who can build beautiful +houses. You do not employ them much. You prefer your ugly little +boxes. But they are there. I know their names and their work." + +"But what do you think of our statues?" I asked him. + +"I don't think of them," he said; "I prefer to think of something +pleasant. When I am in London I spend every hour I have at the docks." + +"I like the _Sieges-Allee_," I said boldly,--"it is so clean and +cheerful." + +"It was made for people who look at sculpture from that point of +view," said my friend. + +I hardly know where an artist finds inspiration in the streets of +Berlin. It really makes the impression of a city that has sprung up in +a night, and that is kept clean by invisible forces. The great breadth +of the streets, the avenues of trees everywhere, and the many open +places make it pleasant; but you look in vain for the narrow lanes and +gabled houses still to be found in other German towns, and you are not +surprised when Americans compare it with Chicago, because it is so new +and busy. It is indeed the city of the modern German spirit, and what +it has of old tradition and old social life lies beneath the surface, +hidden from the eye of the stranger. There is Sans-Souci, to be sure, +and Frederick the Great, and the Grosser Kurfuerst. There is the double +line of princes on either side of the _Sieges-Allee_. But modern +Berlin dates from 1870, and so do all good Berliners, whatever their +age may be. They are proud of their young empire and of their big +city, and of doing everything in the best possible way. There is +unceasing flux and growth in Berlin, so that descriptions written a +few years ago are as out of date as these impressions must be soon. +For instance, I had counted steadfastly on finding three things there +that I cannot find at home: first and second-class cabs, hordes of +soldiers everywhere, and policemen who would run a sword through you +if you looked at them; and of all these I was more or less +disappointed. + +I did get hold of a second-class cab on my arrival in Berlin, but it +nearly came to pieces on the way, and I never saw another during my +stay there. The cabs are all provided with the taximeter now, so that +the fare knows to a fraction what is due to the driver; and the +drivers are of the first class, and wear white hats. Anyone who wished +to see a second-class cab would have to make inquiries, and find a +stand where some still languish, but before long the last of them will +probably be preserved in a museum. Cabs are not much used in Berlin, +because communication by the electric cars is so well organised. The +whole population travels by them, the whole city is possessed by them. +If it is to convey a true impression, a description of Berlin should +run to the moan of them as they glide everlastingly to and fro. You +can hardly escape their noise, and not for long their sight. Even the +Tiergarten, the Hyde Park of Berlin, is traversed by them, which is as +it should be in a municipal republic. This is what the Germans call +their city, for they are not conscious themselves of living under an +autocracy or of being in any sense of the word less free than, let us +say, the English, a point of view most puzzling to an English person, +who is conscious from the moment he crosses the German frontier of +being governed for his good. But it is pleasant on a summer morning +to be carried through the shady avenues of the Tiergarten in an open +car, whether it is an autocracy or a republic that arranges it for +you; and you reflect that in this and a thousand other ways Germany is +an agreeable country even if it is not a free one; especially for "the +people" who have small means, and are able to drive through the chief +pleasure ground of their city for a penny. The conductors of the cars +are obliged to announce the name of the next halting-place, so that +passengers alighting may get up in time and step off directly, but on +no account before the car stops. Nothing is left to chance or muddle +in Berlin, and unless you are a born fool you cannot go astray. If you +are a born fool you ask a policeman, as you would at home, and find +another dear illusion shattered. He does not draw his sword, he is +neither gruff nor disobliging. He greets you with the military salute, +and calls you gracious lady. Then he answers your question if he can. +If not he gets out the little guide book he carries, and patiently +hunts up the street or the building you want. He is usually a +good-natured rosy faced young man with a fair moustache, and he will +do anything in the world for you except control the traffic. That with +the best will in the world he cannot do. So he stands in the midst of +it and smiles. Sometimes he sits amidst it on a horse and looks +solemn. But he never impresses himself on it. There is a story of a +policeman who went to London to learn from our men what to do, and who +bemoaned his fate when he got back. "I hold up my hand in just the +same way," he said, "and then the people run and the horses run, and +there's a smash and I get put in prison." The Berliners themselves say +that they are not accustomed yet, as we have been for years, to regard +the police as their well-liked and trusted servants, and to obey +their directions willingly. However this may be, there is at present +only one safe way of getting to the opposite side of a busy street in +Berlin, and that is to wait till a crowd gathers and charges across it +in a bunch like a swarm of bees. + +Berlin is never asleep, and it is as light by night as by day. It is +much pleasanter for a woman without escort to come out of the theatre +there than in London. She will find crowds of respectable people with +her, and they will not depart in their own cabs and carriages. They +will crowd into the electric cars, and she must know which car she +wants and crowd with them. The worst that can happen to her will be to +find her car over-crowded, and in that case she must not expect a man +to give her his seat. I have seen a young German lady make an old lady +take her place, but I have never known men yield their seats to women. +You do not see as many private carriages in Berlin in a week as you do +in some parts of London in an hour. Even in front of the Opera House +very few will be in waiting; and there is no fashionable hour for +riding and driving in the Tiergarten. I know too little about horses +to judge of those that were being ridden, or driven in private +carriages; but the miserable beasts in cabs and carts force the most +ignorant person to observe and pity them. They look as if they were on +their way to the knacker's yard, and very often as if they must sink +beneath the load they are compelled to carry. It is comforting to +reflect that horses will doubtless soon be too old-fashioned for +Berlin, and that all the cabs and vans of the future will be motors. +The cars run early enough in the morning for the workmen, and late +enough at night for people who have had supper at a popular restaurant +after the theatre or a glass of beer at one of the _Zelten_, the +garden restaurants that in the time of Frederick the Great were really +tents, and where the Berliners flocked then as they do now to hear a +band, look at the trees of the Tiergarten, and enjoy light +refreshments. When you get back to your house from such gaieties you +find it locked and in darkness, but though there is a "portier" you do +not disturb him by calling out your name as you would in Paris. In +modern houses there is electric light outside each floor that you +switch on for yourself, and you have a race with it that you lose +unless you are active; but you soon learn to feel your way up to the +next light when you are left in darkness. The Berlin "portier" is not +as much in evidence as the Paris concierge. He opens the door to +strangers, but if you stay or live in the house you are expected to +carry two heavy keys about with you, one for the street door and one +for the flat. The modern doors have some machinery by which they shut +themselves noiselessly after you. You hear a great deal more said +about "nerves" in Germany than in England, and yet Germans seem to be +amazingly indifferent to noise. They will not tolerate the brass bands +and barrel-organs that pester us, but that is because they are fond of +music. Screaming voices, banging doors, and the clatter of kitchens +and business premises seem not to trouble them at all. Most houses in +Berlin are five or six storeys high, and are built round the four +sides of a small paved court. No one who has not lived in such a +house, and in a room giving on the court, can understand how every +sound increases and reverberates. Footsteps at dawn sound as if the +seven-leagued boots had come, and were shod with iron. You whisper +that the kitchen on a lower floor in an opposite corner looks well +kept, and the maid hears what you say and looks at you smiling. I +knew that the back premises of these big German hives might harbour +any social grade and almost any industry, and for a long time I vowed +that some one must live in our court whose business it was to hammer +tin, and that he hammered it most late at night and early in the +morning. I had not heard anything like the noise since I had lived in +a high narrow German street paved with cobble-stones, and occupied +just opposite my windows by a brewer whose vans returned to him at +daybreak and tumbled empty casks at his door. But I never discovered +my tin merchant in Berlin, and in time I had to admit that my hosts +were right. The noise I complained of was made by the cook washing up +in the opposite kitchen. I should not have noticed it if I had been a +sensible person, and slept with my curtains drawn and my double +windows tight shut. + +Of course, there are some quiet streets in Berlin, and there are +charming homes in the "garden-houses." Some of the quadrangles are +built round a garden instead of a paved yard, and then you can get a +quiet pleasant flat with a balcony that looks on a garden instead of a +street. The traditional plan of a Berlin flat is most inconvenient and +unpractical. In old-fashioned houses, and even in houses built sixteen +years ago or less, you find that one of the chief rooms is the only +thoroughfare between the bedrooms near the kitchen premises and the +rooms near the front door. Anyone occupying one of these back rooms, +which are often good ones, can only get to the front door by way of +this thoroughfare, where he will usually find the family gathered +together; the maid, too, must pass through every time the door bell +rings, and when she goes about her business in the front regions her +brooms and pails must pass through with her. The window of this room, +which is known as a _Berliner Zimmer_, is always in one corner and +lights it insufficiently. The Berliners themselves recognise its +disadvantages, but I like to describe it, because I observe amongst the +Germans of to-day a fierce determination to destroy and deny everything +a foreigner might call a little absurd, even if it is characteristic; +so I feel sure that if I go to Berlin a few years hence there will not +be a _Berliner Zimmer_ left in the city, and no Berliner will ever have +seen or heard of one; nor will the flat doors have the quaint little +peepholes through which the maid's eye may be seen appraising you +before she lets you in. The newest houses, those in the +_Kurfuerstendamm_, for instance, have every "improvement"--central +heating, lifts, gas cooking stoves, sinks for washing up, and bathrooms +that are a reality and not a mere appearance. These bathrooms, I am +assured, can be used without several hours' notice and the anxious +superintendence of the only person, the head of the family as a rule, +who understands the heating apparatus. Berlin, like Mr. Barrie's +Admirable Crichton, has found out how to lay on hot and cold. It has +found out about electric light too, and it might teach London how to +use the telephone. Berlin talks to its friends by telephone as a matter +of course, asks them how they are, if they enjoyed the _Fest_ last +night, whether if you call on Tuesday they will be at home. Perhaps +when Mr. Wells goes to Berlin he will forsee a reaction, a revolt +against the incessant insistent bell that respects no occupation and +allows no undisturbed rest. It is a hurried generation that uses the +telephone so much, for the letter boxes are emptied eighteen times in +twenty-four hours, and if the post is not quick enough or a telegram +too expensive for all you want to say you can send a card by the tube +post. + +Berlin is not the city of soldiers that the English fancy pictures it. +English people, English little boys, for instance, who would like to +see all their lead soldiers come to life, must go to one of the +smaller garrison towns, where in every street and every square they +will watch men on the march and at drill. In those quarters of Berlin +not occupied by barracks the population is civilian. You see the grey +and the dark blue uniforms everywhere, but not in masses and not at +work. The people rush like children to follow the guard changed at the +Schloss every day; just as they might in London, where soldiers are a +rare spectacle. In a smaller town the army is more evidently in +possession. It fills the restaurants, occupies the front row of the +stalls at the opera, prevails in public gardens, and holds the +pavement against the world. But Berlin to all appearances belongs to +its citizens, and provides for their profit and convenience. They fill +its multitude of houses. They say they make its laws and order its +progress. At any rate they live in an agreeable, well-managed city, +full of air and light, and kept so clean that most other cities seem +slovenly and grimy by comparison. To go suddenly from Berlin to +Hamburg, for instance, gives you a shock; though Hamburg is +incomparably more attractive and delightful. But in Hamburg you may +see bits of paper lying about, and dust on the pavement. In Berlin +there is no dust, and no one has ever seen an untidy bit of paper +there. It is to be hoped that no one ever travels direct from Berlin +to London. What would he think of Covent Garden Market? There are +markets in Berlin, at least a dozen of them, but by midday they are +swept and garnished. You would not find a leaf of parsley or an end of +string to tell you where one had been. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +ODDS AND ENDS + + +The most amusing columns in German daily papers are those devoted to +family advertisement. There you find the prolix intimate announcements +of domestic events compared with which the first column of the _Times_ +is so bare, so _nichtssagend_. + + "The birth of a second son is announced with joy by Dr + Johann Weber and Wife Martha, born Hansen."--Dresden, + 22 May 1907. + + "Emil Harzdorf and wife Magdalene, born Klaus, have the + honour to announce the birth of a strong + girl."--Hamburg, 26 May 1907. + +Boy babies are nearly always _stramm_, the girl babies are _kraeftig_, +and the parents are _hocherfreut_, as they should be. Engagements and +marriages are advertised more simply, and your eye is not caught by +them as it is by the big black bordered paragraphs that inform the +world that someone has just left it. + + "To-day, in consequence of a stroke of apoplexy, my deeply + loved husband, our dear father, grandfather, + father-in-law, brother, and uncle fell asleep. In the + name of the survivors, Olga Wagner, born + Richter.--Leipzig, 23 May 1907." + +This is a curt announcement compared with many. When the deceased has +occupied any kind of official post, or has been an employer of labour, +a long register of his many virtues accompanies the advertisement of +his death. "He who has just passed away was an exemplary chief, a +fatherly friend and adviser, who by his benevolence erected an +everlasting monument to himself in the hearts of his colleagues and +subordinates." He who had just passed away had been the head of a +small soap factory, and this advertisement was put in by the factory +hands just beneath the one signed by all the family. Another +advertisement on the same page expresses thanks for sympathy, "on the +death of my dear wife, our good mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, +aunt, sister-in-law, and cousin, Frau Angelika Pankow, born Salbach." + +A German friend who had to undergo an operation last year wrote just +before to tell me she expected to come through safely. "If not," she +said, "you'll receive a card like this"-- + + "Yesterday passed away + Adelaide Deminski, born Weigert, + Her heart-broken + Husband + Grandmother + Father + Mother + Sons + Daughters + Sons-in-law + Daughters-in-law + Brothers + Sisters + Brothers-in-law + Sisters-in-law + Uncles + Aunts + Cousins"; + +for Germans themselves laugh at these advertisements, and assure the +inquiring foreigner that their vogue has had its day. But if the +inquiring foreigner looks at the right papers he will find as many as +ever. You will also find matrimonial advertisements in papers that are +considered respectable. + +But when you turn to the news columns for details of some event that +is startling the world, whether it is a crime, an earthquake, a +battle, or a royal wedding, you find a few lines that vex you with +their insufficiency. Our English papers have pages about a German +coronation, German manoeuvres, German high jinks at Koepenick. But when +I wanted to see what happened in London on our day of Diamond Jubilee +I found five lines about Queen Victoria having driven to St. Paul's +accompanied by her family and some royal guests. I was in a country +inn at the time, and the paper taken there was one taken everywhere in +the duchy. It is a great mistake to think that German newspaper +hostility to England dates from the Transvaal War. The same journal +that spared five lines to the Jubilee gave a column to a question +asked by one of our parliamentary cranks about the ill-treatment of +natives by Britons in India. The question was met by a complete and +convincing denial, but we had to turn to our English papers to find +that recorded. The ---- _Tageblatt_ printed the question with +comments, and suppressed the denial. As long ago as 1883, when there +was cholera in Egypt, a little Thuringian paper we saw weekly had +frenzied articles about the evil English who were doing all they could +to bring the scourge to Germany. I think we had refused some form of +quarantine that modern medical science considers worse than useless. +The tone of the press all through the Transvaal War did attract some +attention in this country, and since then from time to time we are +presented with quotations from abusive articles about our greed, our +perfidy, and our presumption. I am not writing as a journalist, for I +know nothing whatever of journalism; but as a member of the general +public I believe that we are inclined to overrate the importance of +these amenities, because we overrate the part played by the newspaper +in the average German household. One can only speak from personal +experience, but I should say that it hardly plays a part at all. +Whatever Tageblatt is in favour with the _Hausherr_ comes in every +morning, and is stowed away tidily in a corner till he has time to +look at it while he drinks his coffee and smokes his cigar. If the +ladies of the household are inclined that way they look at it too. But +there really is not much to look at as a rule. These paragraphs about +the wicked British that seem so pugnacious when they are printed on +solid English paper in plain English words, are often in a corner with +other political paragraphs about other wicked nations. At times of +crisis, when the leading papers are attacking us at great length, the +Germans themselves will talk of _Zeitungsgeschrei_ and shrug their +shoulders. It is absurd to deny the existence of Anglophobia in +Germany, because you can hardly travel there without coming across +isolated instances of it. But these isolated instances will stand out +against a crowded background of people from whom you have received the +utmost kindness and friendship; and of other people with whom your +relations have been fleeting, but who have been invariably civil. +Unfortunately the German Anglophobe is a creature of the meanest +breed, and he impresses himself on the memory like a pain; so that one +of him looms larger than fifty others, just as the moment will when +you had your last tooth out, and not the summer day that went before +and after. The truth is, that we are on the nerves of certain +Germans. You may live for ever in an English family and never hear a +German mentioned. You would assuredly not hear the nation +everlastingly discussed and scolded. As far as we are concerned, they +are welcome to their own manners, their own ways, and their own +opinions. If they would only take their stand on these and leave ours +alone we could meet on equal terms. But that is the one thing this +particular breed of German cannot do. He must be always arguing with +you about the superiority of his nation to yours, and you soon think +him the most tiresome and offensive creature you ever met. In private +life you can usually avoid him and seek out those charming German +people who, even if their Tageblatt teaches them that they should hate +England, will never extend their hatred to the English stranger within +their gates, and who will admit you readily and kindly to their +pleasant unaffected lives. Germany is full of such people, whatever +the German newspapers are saying. + +Presumably every country has the press that suits it, and in one +respect German journalism is more dignified and estimable than our +own. It does not publish columns of silly society gossip, or of +fashions that only a duchess can follow and only a kitchen-maid can +read. Nor would the poorest, smallest provincial Tageblatt descend to +the depths of musical criticism in which one of our popular dailies +complacently flounders all through the London season. + +"I cannot tell you much about last night's Wagner opera, because to my +great annoyance the auditorium was dark nearly all the time. Once when +we were allowed to see each other for a moment I noticed that the +Duchess of Whitechapel was in her box, looking so lovely in cabbage +green. Mrs. 'Dicky' Fitzwegschwein was in the stalls with a ruby +necklace and a marvellous coat of rose velours spangled in diamonds, +and on the grand tier I saw Lady 'Bobby' Holloway, who is of course +the daughter-in-law of Lord Islington, in black net over silver, quite +the dernier cri this season, and looking radiant over her sister Lady +Yolande's engagement to the Duke of Bilgewater. Richter conducted with +his usual brilliance, and the new Wotan sang with great elan, although +he was obviously suffering from a cold in his head." + +It is impossible to imagine Berlin waking some winter morning to find +such a "criticism" as this on its breakfast table. In Germany, people +who understand music write about music, and people who understand +about fashions write about fashions, and the two subjects, both of +them interesting and important, are kept apart. Society journalists +who write about Lady Bobbies and Mrs. Fitzwegschweins do not exist yet +in Germany, and so far the empire seems to worry along quite +comfortably without them. I once asked a well-known English journalist +who is of German birth, why one of our newspaper kings did not set up +a huge, gossipy, frivolous paper in Berlin, and it was explained to me +that it would be impossible, because the editor and his staff would +probably find themselves in prison in a week. What we understand by +Freedom of the Press does not exist there. + +On the other hand, books and pamphlets are circulated in Germany that +would be suppressed here; and the stage is freer than our own. _Monna +Vanna_ had a great success in Berlin, where Mme. Maeterlinck played +the part to crowded audiences. _Salome_ is now holding the stage both +as a play and with Richard Strauss' music as an opera; Gorky's +_Nachtasyl_ is played year after year in Berlin. Both French and +German plays are acted all over Germany that could not be produced in +England, both because the censor would refuse to pass them and because +public opinion would not tolerate them, unless, to be sure, they were +played in their own tongues. It is most difficult to explain our +attitude to Germans who have been in London, because they know what +vulgar and vicious farces and musical comedies pass muster with us, +and indeed are extremely popular. It is only when a play touches the +deeps of life and shows signs of thought and of poetry that we take +fright, and by the lips of our chosen official cry, "This will never +do." Tolstoy, Ibsen, Gorky, Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Hauptmann, and +Otto Ernst are the modern names I find on one week's programme cut +from a Berlin paper late in spring when the theatrical season was +nearly over. Besides plays by these authors, one of the State theatres +announced tragedies by Goethe, Schiller, and a comedy by Moliere. _The +Merchant of Venice_ was being played at one theatre and _A Midsummer +Night's Dream_ at another; there were farces and light operas for some +people, and Wagner, Gluck, and Beethoven at the Royal Opera House for +others. The theatre in Germany is a part of national life and of +national education, and it is largely supported by the State; so that +even in small towns you get good music and acting. The Meiningen +players are celebrated all over the world, and everyone who has read +Goethe's Life will remember how actively and constantly he was +interested in the Weimar stage. At a _Stadt-Theater_ in a small town +two or three operas are given every week, and two or three plays. Most +people subscribe for seats once or twice a week all through the +winter, and they go between coffee and supper in their ordinary +clothes. Even in Berlin women do not wear full dress at any theatre. +In the little towns you may any evening meet or join the leisurely +stream of playgoers, and if you enter the theatre with them you will +find that the women leave their hats with an attendant. You are in no +danger in Germany of having the whole stage hidden from you by flowers +and feathers. + +Shakespeare is as much played as Goethe and Schiller, and it is most +interesting and yet most disappointing to hear the poetry you know +line upon line spoken in a foreign tongue. Germans say that their +translation is more beautiful and satisfying than the original +English; but I actually knew a German who kept Bayard Taylor's _Faust_ +by his bedside because he preferred it to Goethe's. I think there is +something the matter with people who prefer translated to original +poetry, but I will leave a critic of standing to explain what ails +them. I have never met a German who would admit that Shakespeare was +an Englishman. They say that his birth at Stratford-on-Avon was a +little accident, and that he belongs to the world. They say this out +of politeness, because what they really believe is that he belongs to +Germany, and that as a matter of fact Byron is the only great poet +England has ever had. I am not joking. I am not even exaggerating. +This is the real opinion of the German man in the street, and it is +taught in lessons in literature. An English girl went to one of the +best-known teachers in Berlin for lessons in German, and found, as she +found elsewhere, that the talk incessantly turned on the crimes of +England and the inferiority of England. + +"You have had two great names," said the teacher,--"two and no more. +That is, if one can in any sense of the word call Shakespeare an +English name ... Shakespeare and Byron, ... then you have finished. +You have never had anyone else, and Shakespeare has always belonged +more to us than to you." + +The English girl gasped, for she knew something of her own literature. + +"But have you never heard about Chaucer," she asked, "or of the +Elizabethans, or of Milton, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth...?" + +"_Reden Sie nicht, reden Sie nicht!_" cried the teacher,--"I never +allow my pupils to argue with me. Shakespeare and Byron ... no, Byron +only, ... then England has done." + +You still find Byron in every German household where English is read +at all, and no one seems to have found out what fustian most of his +poetry really was. Ruskin and Oscar Wilde are the two popular modern +authors, and the novel-reading public chooses, so several booksellers +assured me, Marion Crawford and Mrs. Croker. I could not hear a word +anywhere of Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, but I did come across one +person who had enjoyed _Richard Feverel_. + +"Your English novels are rather better than they used to be, are they +not?" said a lady to me in good faith, and I found it a difficult +question to answer, because I had always believed that we had a long +roll of great novelists; but then, I had also thought that England had +a few poets. + +The most popular German novels are mostly translated into English, and +all German novels of importance are reviewed in our papers. So English +people who read German know what a strong reaction there is against +the moonshine of fifty years ago. The novels most in vogue exhibit the +same coarse, but often thoughtful and impressive, realism that +prevails on the stage and in the conversation and conduct of some sets +of people in the big cities. The _Tagebuch einer Verlorenen_ has sold +75,000 copies, and it is the story of a German _Kamelliendame_ +compared with whom Dumas' lady is moonshine. It is a haunting picture +of a woman sinning against the moral and social law, and no one with +the least sense or judgment could put it on the low level of certain +English novels that sell because they are offensive, and for no other +reason in the world. _Aus guter Familie_, by Gabrielle Reuter, is +another remarkable novel, and I believe it has never been translated +into English. It presents the poignant tragedy of a woman's life +suffocated by the social conditions obtaining in a small German town +where a woman has no hope but marriage, and if she is poor no chance +of marriage. It is one of the most sincere books I ever read. _Das +Taegliche Brot_, Klara Viebig's story of servant-life in Berlin, is +another typical novel of the present day, and that has been translated +for those amongst us who do not read German. I choose these three +novels for mention because they are written by women, and because they +are brilliant examples of the modern tone amongst women. If you want +the traditional German qualities of sentiment, poetry, formlessness, +and dreamy childlike charm, you must read novels written by men. + +I have said very little about music in Germany, because we all know +and admit that it reaches heights there no other nation can approach. +An Englishman writing about Germany lately says that you often hear +very bad music there, but I think his experience must have been +exceptional and unfortunate. I am sure that Germans do not tolerate +the vapid dreary drawing-room songs we listen to complacently in this +country; for in England people often have beautiful voices without any +musical understanding, or technical facility without charm. I suppose +such cases must occur amongst Germans too, and in the end one speaks +of a foreign nation partly from personal experience, which must be +narrow, and partly from hearsay. I have met Germans who were not +musical, but I have never met any who were pleased with downright bad +music. On the whole, it is the art they understand best, the one in +which their instinctive taste is sure and good. You would not find +that the Byron amongst composers, whoever he may be, was the one they +set up for worship. Nor do you find the street of a German city or +suburb infested with barrel-organs. There is some kind of low dancing +saloon or _cafe chantant_ called a Tingl-Tangl where I imagine they +have organs and gramaphones and suchlike horrors, but then unless you +chance to pass their open windows you need not endure their strains. +In England, even if we are fond of music, and therefore sensitive to +jarring sounds and maudlin melodies, yet in the street we cannot +escape the barrel-organ nor in the house the drawing-room songs. As if +these were not enough, we now invite each other to listen to the +pianotist and the pianola. + +"I will explain my country to you," said the artist one day when I had +expressed myself puzzled by the curious gaps in German taste, and even +in German knowledge; by their enthusiasm for the second rate in poetry +and literature, and by their amazing uncertain mixture of information +and blank complacent ignorance. For when an Englishman says "Goethe! +Schiller!--Was is das?" you are not surprised. It is just what you +expect of an Englishman, and for all that he may know how to build +bridges and keep his temper in games and argument. But when a German +teacher of literature tells you Byron is the only English poet, and +when the whole nation neglects some of our big men but runs wild over +certain little ones, you listen eagerly for any explanation +forthcoming. "We have _Wissen_," said the artist, "we have _Kunst_; +but we have no _Kultur_." + +I did not recover from the shock he gave me till the evening, when I +saw the professor of philosophy and aesthetics. + +"The artist says that you have no _Kultur_," I told him; for I wanted +to see how he received a shock. + +"The artist speaks the truth," said the professor calmly. I have never +met anyone more civilised and scholarly then he was himself; and I set +a high value on his opinion. + +"What is _Kultur_?" I asked. + +"One result of it is a fine discrimination," he replied, "a fine +discrimination in art, in conduct, and in manner." + +"Are you not the most intellectual people in the world?" I said +reproachfully. + +He seemed to think that had nothing to do with it. + +"Are you still worrying your head about _Kultur_?" said the artist +next time I saw him. "Then I will explain a little more to you. I, as +you know, am extremely _anti-Semite_." + +"I am sure that is not a proof of _Kultur_," I said hurriedly. + +"It is not a proof of anything. It is a result. Nevertheless I +perceive that if it were not for the Jews there would be neither art +nor literature in Germany. They create, they appreciate, they support, +and although we affect to despise them we invariably follow them like +sheep. What they admire we admire; what they discover we see to be +good. But ... I told you I was _anti-Semite_, ... though they have +most of the brains in the country, they have little _Kultur_. One of +us who is as stupid as an ox, ... most of us are as stupid as oxen, +... may have more, ... but because he is stupid he cannot impose his +opinion on the multitude." + +"Do you mean that the Jews set the fashion in art and literature, and +that they sometimes set a bad one?" I asked + +"That is exactly what I mean." + +It was a curious theory, and I will not be responsible for its truth. +But there is no doubt that in every German town artistic and literary +society has its centre amongst the educated Jews. They are most +generous hosts, and it is their pleasure to gather round them an +aristocracy of genius. The aristocracy that is perfectly happy without +genius would as a rule not enter a Jew's house; though the poorer +members of the aristocracy often marry a Jew's daughter. Where there +is inter-marriage some social intercourse is presumably inevitable. +But the social crusade against Jews is carried on in Germany to an +extent we do not dream of here. The Christian clubs and hostels +exclude them, Christian families avoid them, and Christian insults are +offered to them from the day of their birth. "What do you use those +long lances for?" said the wife of a Jewish professor to a young man +in a cavalry regiment. "_Damit hetzen wir die Juden_," said he, with +the snarl of his kind; and he knew very well that the lady's husband +was a Jew. I have been told a story of a Jewish girl being asked to a +Court ball by the Emperor Frederick, and finding that none of the men +present would consent to dance with her. I have heard of girls who +wished to ask a Jewish schoolmate to a dance, and discovered that +their Christian friends flatly refused to meet anyone of her race. How +any Christians contrive to avoid it I do not understand, for wherever +you go in Germany some of the great scholars, doctors, men of science, +art, and literature, are men of Jewish blood. The press is almost +entirely in their hands, and when there is a scurrilous artist or a +coarse picture your friends explain it by saying that the tone of +that special paper is _juedisch_. The modern campaign against Jews +began nearly thirty years ago, when a Court chaplain called Stoecker +startled the world by the violence of his invective. But the fire he +stirred to flame must have been smouldering. He and his followers gave +the most ingenuous reasons for curtailing Jewish rights and privileges +in Germany, one of which was the provoking fact that Jewish boys did +more brilliantly at school than Christians. The subject bristles with +difficulties, and no one who knows the German Jew intimately will wish +to pose him as a persecuted saint. The Christian certainly makes it +unpleasant for him socially, but in one way or the other he holds his +own. I have seen him vexed and offended by some brutal slight, but his +keen sense of humour helps him over most stiles. So no doubt does his +sense of power. "They will not admit me to their clubs or ask my +daughters to their dances," said a Jewish friend, "but they come to me +for money for their charities." And I knew that half the starving poor +in the town came to his wife for charity, and that she never sent one +empty away. + +When a very clever, sensitive, numerically small race has lived for +hundreds of years cheek by jowl with a dense brutal race that has +never ceased to insult and humiliate it, you cannot be surprised if +those clever but highly sensitive ones become imbued in course of time +with a painful undesirable conviction that the brutes are their +superiors. So you have the spectacle in Germany of Jews seeking +Christian society instead of avoiding it; and you hear them boast +quite artlessly of their _christlicher Umgang_. They would really +serve their people and even themselves more if they refused all +_christlicher Umgang_ until the Christians had learned to behave +themselves. An Englishwoman living in Berlin told me that once as she +came out of a concert hall an officer standing in the crowd stared at +her and said, so that everyone could hear: "At last! a single face +that is not a _juedischer Fratz_." The concert, you will understand, +must have been a good one, and therefore largely attended by a Jewish +audience. Possibly the officer who so much disliked his surroundings +had married a Jewish heiress and was waiting for his wife. Such things +happen. During the worst times of Stoecker's campaign a woman with +Jewish features could hardly go out unescorted; and even now, though +it is not openly expressed, you can hardly fail to catch some note of +sympathy with the Russian persecution of the Jews. The deep helpless +genuine horror felt in England at the pogroms is felt in a fainter way +in Northern Germany. + +Meanwhile the Jewish woman of the upper classes takes her revenge by +knowing how to dress. In German cities, when you see a woman who is +"exquisite," slim that is and graceful, dainty from head to foot and +finely clad, then you may vow by all the gods that she has Jewish +blood in her. + + + + +APPENDIX + + Page 4, l. 26. _Wunderkind_: a prodigy. + + Page 8, l. 5. _Wickelkinder_: infants in swaddling clothes. + + Page 9, l. 26. _Mamsell_: supervising housekeeper. + + Page 11, l. 13. _Die Kunst im Leben des Kindes_: art in the life + of the child. + + Page 12, l. 14. _Pestalozzi Froebel Haus_: named for the two great + educators, Pestalozzi and Froebel. + + Page 12, l. 31. _pf._: _pfennig_, a quarter of a cent. + + Page 13, l. 22. _Das Recht des Kindes_: the right of the child. + + Page 16, l. 2. _Gymnasium_: school where Latin and Greek are + taught (humanistic education). + + Page 16, l. 2. _Real-Gymnasium_: school where Latin, modern + languages, mathematics, science, and history are taught. No + Greek. + + Page 16, l. 3. _Ober-Real Schule_: school where mathematics, + science, history, French, and English are taught. + + Page 16, l. 3. _Real-Schule_: a school which prepares for + practical life, not for the university; modern languages are + included in the curriculum. + + Page 17, l. 7. _Abiturienten_: graduates from a Gymnasium or + Ober-Real Schule. + + Page 17, l. 14. _mark_: a quarter of a dollar. + + Page 17, l. 19. _Flachsmann als Erzieher_: Flachsmann as a + pedagogue. + + Page 19, l. 8. _Evangelisch_: Protestant. + + Page 20, l. 19. _Schauspielhaus_: theatre. + + Page 20, l. 21. _Was ist das?_ what is that? + + Page 20, l. 26. _Hoehere Toechterschule_: high school for girls. + + Page 21, l. 33. _Ober Lehrerin_: high grade teacher. + + Page 22, l. 14. _Lyceen_: school where Latin and Greek is taught. + + Page 22, l. 14. _Ober-Lyceen_: school preparing for the + university. + + Page 22, l. 31. _Allgemeine deutsche Frauenverein_: Universal + League of German Women. + + Page 23, l. 10. _Allgemeine deutsche Lehrerinnen-Verein_: + Universal League of German Teachers. + + Page 23, l. 13. _Real-Kurse fuer Maedchen und Frauen_: courses for + girls and women outside of those found in the school system, and + preparing for the university. + + Page 24, l. 11. _Gymnasialkurse_: the above plan organised into + preparatory schools for women for the university. + + Page 26, l. 12. _Stift_: private or state school with board and + residence. Also an endowed home for gentlewomen, with certain + privileges--either with or without a school for girls. + + Page 30, l. 7. _Volkschule_: public school. + + Page 30, l. 9. _Nicht voellig normal_: rather weak intellectually, + abnormal. + + Page 32, l. 24. _Schulrat_: superintendent of schools. + + Page 33, l. 12. _Waldschule_: forest school in open air. + + Page 34, l. 16. _Griesbrei_: porridge made of farina. + + Page 34, l. 21. _Nudelsuppe_: soup of noodles. Vermicelli soup. + + Page 36, l. 8. _Ich liebe einen Backfisch_: I love a girl in her + teens. + + Page 36, l. 20. _Backfisch-Moden_: fashions for misses. + + Page 38, l. 33. _Backfischen's Leiden und Freuden_: Sorrows and + Joys of a Backfisch. + + Page 41, l. 12. _Jawohl, liebe Tante_: yes, certainly, dear aunt. + + Page 43, l. 34. _Sie geniren sich gewiss_: you are surely too shy. + + Page 44, l. 34. _Braut_: betrothed. + + Page 45, l. 9. _Ein junges Maedchen muss immer heiter sein_: young + girl must always be cheerful. + + Page 48, l. 13. _Privatdocenten_: private lecturer. + + Page 51, l. 9. _Volkslieder_: folk songs. + + Page 51, l. 9. _Trinklieder_: drinking songs. + + Page 51, l. 34. _Burschenschaft_: students' corporation. + + Page 52, l. 8. _Alte Herren Abende_: old gentlemen's (former + students) evenings. + + Page 53, l. 14. "_Auf die Mensur_": Ready, begin! + + Page 54, l. 9. _raisonniren_: to reason, to argue, to dispute, to + scold about. + + Page 54, l. 9. _geniren_: to embarrass, to trouble. + + Page 54, l. 13. _Der Bier Comment_: beer drinking custom; the + commanding phrase for a drink called Salamander. + + Page 54, l. 20. _Bierdurst_: beer thirst. + + Page 54, l. 23. _Kneiptafel_: a kind of club table, where men + generally spend evenings drinking beer and joining in songs. + + Page 55, l. 27. "_Silentium fuer einen Biergalopp, ich bitte den + noetigen Staff anzuschaffen_": Silence for a beer gallop; please + provide the necessary stuff. + + Page 56, l. 19. _Kommers_: students' festival evening, drinking + bout. + + Page 56, l. 22. _In vollem Wichs_: in full dress. + + Page 56, l. 27. "_Sauft alle mit einander_": Drink all together. + + Page 65, l. 2. _Stammtisch_: a club table, where every member has + a reserved seat. + + Page 67, l. 15. "_Man soll_," etc.: "One ought to so bring up + women," said Siegfried, the champion, "that they omit all + unnecessary talk. Forbid it your wife. I will do the same with + mine. Really I am ashamed of such an arrogant custom." + + Page 67, l. 22. "_Das hat mich_," etc.: "I repented it + immediately," said the noble woman. "On this account he beat my + body black and blue; because I talked too much he was disturbed + in his spirit: this did revenge the champion wise and good." + + Page 69, l. 22 _Ritterschaft_: knighthood. + + Page 71, l. 31. _Lette Verein_: Lette Association. + + Page 72, l. 21. _Leipziger Allerlei_: a kind of mixed pickles. + + Page 73, l. 25. _eine Stuetze_: a helper for the housewife. + + Page 78, l. 1. _Memoiren einer Idealistin_: Memoirs of an + Idealist. + + Page 80, l. 24. _Schadchan_: Jewish business match-maker or + marriage broker. + + Page 82, l. 8. _Aus guter Familie_: of good family. + + Page 83, l. 15. _In freier Ehe_: in free love. + + Page 85, l. 7. _Alte Schloss_: old castle. + + Page 85, l. 8. _nicht wahr?_ is that not so? + + Page 85, l. 26. _Ausflug_ or _Landpartie_: excursion trip in the + country. + + Page 86, l. 13. "_Die Verlobung_," etc.: The engagement of their + daughter Pauline to Mr. Henry Schmidt, barrister Dr. jur., in + Berlin, is announced respectfully by Privy Counsellor of + Government Dr. Eugene Brand, Royal Director of Gymnase, and Mrs. + Helene, born Engel. Stuttgart, in June, 1906. 7 Tiergarten. + + Page 86, l. 23. "_Meine Verlobung_," etc.: I have the honor + respectfully to announce my engagement with Miss Pauline Brand, + daughter of the Royal Director of Gymnase, Privy Counsellor of + Government Dr. Eugen Brand and his honorable wife Helene, born + Engel. Dr. jur. Heinrich Schmidt, barrister Referendar. Berlin, + in June, 1906. Kurfuerstendam 2000. + + Page 88, l. 2. _Brautpaar_: bride and bridegroom on the wedding + day, betrothed couple. + + Page 88, l. 12. _Wilkommen, du glueckseliges Kind_: Welcome, you + happy child. + + Page 88, l. 15. _ruehrend_: touching. + + Page 88, l. 15. _innig_: hearty, fervent. + + Page 89, l. 16. _Aussteurer_: trousseau, also household endowment + of money. + + Page 91, l. 2. "Wir winden dir": + + THE FREE SHOOTER + + The bridal wreath for thee we bind, + With silken thread of azure; + In wedded days, oh, mayst thou find + Full store of hope and pleasure. + + I've planted thyme and myrtle sweet, + They grew in my garden; + But when shall I my true love meet, + How long will he delay yet? + + Full seven years the maiden span, + The snow-white web augmenting; + The veil is clear like a web, + And green the wreath in her hair. + + When lo! her true love came at last, + When seven years had passed, + Because her lover married her + She has deserved her wreath. + + Page 94, l. 7. _Freie Trauungen_: free marriages. + + Page 94, l. 20. _Sozialdemokratischer Verband_: society of + democratic socialists. + + Page 98, l. 1. _Tafel-Lieder_: table songs. + + Page 98, l. 22. _Hoch_: Hurrah. + + Page 99, l. 8. _"Wie ist doch,"_ etc.: + + How highly is the Uncle blest; + To-day the bridal wreath adorns the aunt. + + Page 99, l. 11. "_Liebe Gaeste_," etc.: + + Dear guests, will you all + Arise with pleasure-- + Hail to the bridal pair-- + May they prosper. + + Page 99, l. 25. _Hochzeits-Tafel_: wedding meal. + + Page 101, l. 2. "_Geschiedene Leute scheiden fort und fort_": + divorced people sever forever. + + Page 101, l. 14. _unwirtlichen_: inhospitable, barren. + + Page 102, l. 11. "_Buergerliches Gesetzbuch_": citizen's law book, + code. + + Page 103, l. 10. _Wohnzimmer_: living room. + + Page 104, l. 5. _Hof_: court; yard. + + Page 105, l. 9. _Wie Herrlich_: how splendid. + + Page 106, l. 26. _Fuellofen_: stove, a self-feeder. + + Page 109, l. 13. _Landeskirche_: National church. + + Page 110, l. 7. _Nichtraucher_: no smoking allowed. + + Page 110, l. 7. _Damen-Coupe_: for ladies only (in railway). + + Page 110, l. 12. _Aber ich bitte, meine Dame: es zieht, ja, ja, es + zieht_: but please, madame, there is a draught, yes, yes, there + is a draught. + + Page 112, l. 25. _Magen_: stomach. + + Page 113, l. 24. _Mein armer Karl_: My poor Charles. + + Page 113, l. 24. _Kueken mit Spargel_: spring chicken with + asparagus. + + Page 114, l. 13. _Frikassee von Haehnchen mit Krebsen_: fricassee + of chicken with crabs. + + Page 114, l. 23. _perfekte Koechin_: experienced cook. + + Page 116, l. 12. "_Dienen lerne_," etc.: + + Early a woman should learn to serve, for that is her calling; + Since through service alone she finally comes to governing, + Comes to the due command that is hers of right in the household. + Early the sister must wait on her brother, and wait on her parents; + Life must be always with her a perpetual coming and going, + Or be a lifting and carrying, making and doing for others. + Happy for her be she accustomed to think no way is too grievous, + And if the hours of the night be to her as the hours of the daytime; + If she find never a needle too fine, nor a labour too trifling; + Wholly forgetful of self, and caring to live but in others! + + Page 117, l. 31. "_Par une recontre_," etc.: "By a strange + chance," says Monsieur Taine, "women are more feminine and men + more masculine here than elsewhere. The two natures go to + extremes, the one to boldness, to a spirit of enterprise and + opposition, to a character that is warlike, imperious, and + rough; the other to gentleness, self-denial, patience, + inexhaustible affection. Here woman yields completely, a thing + unknown in foreign lands, especially in France, and looks upon + obedience, pardon, adoration as an honour and a duty, without + desiring or striving for anything beyond subordinating herself + and becoming daily more absorbed in him whom she has chosen of + her own accord and for all time. It is this instinct, an old + Germanic instinct, that those great delineators of instinct all + paint in a high light!... The spirit of this race is at once + primitive and serious. Among women simplicity lasts longer than + it does elsewhere. They are slower in losing respect, and in + weighing values and characters; they are less ready to suspect + evil and to analyse their husbands.... They have not the + cleverness, the advanced ideas, the assured behaviour, the + precocity which with us turns a young girl into a sophisticated + woman and a queen of society in six months. A secluded life and + obedience are easier for them. More yielding and more sedentary, + they are at once more reserved, more self-centred, more disposed + to gaze upon the noble dream that they call duty." + + Page 118, l. 28. "_Voir la peinture_," etc.: "Depiction of this + character is to be seen in all English and German literature," + he says in a footnote. "The closest of observers, Stendhal, + thoroughly impregnated with Italian and French ideas and + customs, is amazed at sight of it. He understands nothing of + this kind of devotion, 'of this slavery which English husbands + have had the cleverness to impose upon their wives under the + name of duty.' These are 'customs of the seraglio.'" + + Page 121, l. 5. _lese majeste_: high treason. + + Page 124, l. 5. _ordentliche Frau_: respectable woman. + + Page 127, l. 8. "_Mir ist ein Greuel_": it is a horror for me. + + Page 127, l. 23. _Frau Wirklichergeheimerober regierungsrath_: + Mrs. privy chief counsellor of government. + + Page 130, l. 26. _dumm_: silly, stupid. + + Page 133, l. 22. _Tuechtigkeit_: capability. + + Page 134, l. 7. "_Wie die Kueche_," etc.: when the kitchen is + clean, the whole house is clean. Neat indoors, neat outdoors. + + Page 134, l. 10. "_Trautes Heim_," etc.: + + There is no place like home. + My home is my castle. + + Page 141, l. 6. _Unsinn ... Quatsch_: nonsense, rubbish. + + Page 141, l. 9. _Das hat keinen Zweck_: that is of no use. + + Page 141, l. 27. _Herrschaft_: master and mistress and their + family. + + Page 143, l. 21. _Gesinde-Dienstbuch_: servant's book of + reference. + + For Anna Schmidt. + From Rheinbeck. + Age (geboren, born) June 20, 1885. + Stature, slender. + Eyes, gray. + Nose and mouth ordinary. + Hair, dark blond. + Especial characteristics. + +---------------+-----------+--------+-------+------------+------------ +NAME, VOCATION,| |DAY OF |DAY OF |REASON OF |CERTIFICATE +AND ADDRESS OF |BEARER IS |ENTERING|LEAVING|LEAVING-- |AND REMARKS +THE EMPLOYER |ACCEPTED AS|SERVICE |SERVICE|REFERENCE |OF POLICE +---------------+-----------+--------+-------+------------+------------ +Widow Auguste |Servant |Oct. 20,|Jan. 2,|Wished a |Seen +Knoblauch | |1901 |1902 |change |(_Place and + | | | |Conduct | date, with + | | | |good |official + | | | | |stamp and + | | | | |signature_) +---------------+-----------+--------+-------+------------+------------ +Boretzky, Post |Housemaid |Feb. 2, |Oct. 2,|Is dismissed| +Restaurant, 2 | |1902 |1904 |because of | +Baeren Street | | | |unbecoming | + | | | |behaviour, | + | | | |but is | + | | | |diligent and| + | | | |honest | +---------------+-----------+--------+-------+------------+------------ + + Page 148, l. 3. _Speiseschrank_: pantry. + + Page 151, l. 23. _Kammer_: little chamber. + + Page 159, l. 11. _eine jute Jabe Jottes_: a good gift of God. + + Page 164, l. 5. _Mehlspeise_: farinaceous dish. + + Page 164, l. 5. _Spetzerle_: a sort of dumpling. + + Page 164, l. 9. _Leibgericht_: favourite dish. + + Page 164, l. 9. _Rote Gruetze_: literally "red gruel." + + Page 168, l. 7. _Torten_: tarts. + + Page 169, l. 15. _Beamtenbeleidigung_: offence against an + official. + + Page 170, l. 19. _Baumkuchen_: cake baked on a spit. + + Page 179, l. 26. _Das Maedchen aus der Fremde_: the Strange Maiden. + + Page 179, l. 27. _Der Tod und das Maedchen_: Death and the Maiden. + + Page 180, l. 10. _gemuetlich_: comfortable, agreeable, cosy. + + Page 180, l. 25. _kraeftige Kost_: nourishing food. + + Page 181, l. 7. _Heuchelei_: hypocrisy. + + Page 182, l. 22. _tuechtige Hausfrau_: experienced housewife. + + Page 183, l. 12. _Gesellschaft_: society, a "party." + + Page 183, l. 28. _Gott sei Dank_: God be thanked. + + Page 183, l. 33. _Guten Tag_: good day. + + Page 187, l. 22. _Steinkohlen_: mineral coal, anthracite. + + Page 187, l. 22. _Braunkohlen_: lignite, brown coal. + + Page 189, l. 8. _gehacktes Schweinefleisch_: choppy pork. + + Page 195, l. 21. _Reform-Kleider_: reform dresses. + + Page 195, l. 34. _Elles s'habillent si mal_: they dress so badly. + + Page 200, l. 4. _Spruch_: motto. + + Page 200, l. 16. _Meringuetorte_: pastry with whipped cream. + + Page 201, l. 29. _Bowle_: punch. + + Page 201, l. 33. _Kaffee-Klatsch mit Schleppe_ (train): a coffee + party in grand style. + + Page 203, l. 16. _Gefrorenes_: ice cream. + + Page 203, l. 35. _Pumpernickel_: Westphalian rye bread. + + Page 207, l. 8. _Katzenjammer_: moral depression--the + blues--seediness after drunken debauch. + + Page 207, l. 27. _Hier koennen Familien Kaffee kochen_: here + families are allowed to cook coffee. + + Page 216, l. 17. _ein falsches Volk_: false people. + + Page 222, l. 16. _Schenkwirte_: tavern keepers. + + Page 223, l. 15. _Schoppen_: a pint. + + Page 227, l. 3. _Oberkellner_: head waiter, head steward. + + Page 231, l. I. _frisch angesteckt_: fresh on tap. + + Page 231, l. 20. _Rindfleisch_: boiled beef. + + Page 231, l. 26. _versoffene Jungfern_: drunken maidens. + + Page 233, l. 1. _halbe Portion_: half a portion. + + Page 233, l. 20. _Stimmung_: mood, humour. + + Page 233, l. 27. _Das hat keinen Zweck_: of no use, end, etc.; + what difference does that make? + + Page 234, l. i. _Verrueckt_: crazy, mad. + + Page 235, l. 16. _Schmorkartoffeln_: stewed potatoes baked in + butter. + + Page 235, l. 28. _Pastetchen_: small pies, patties. + + Page 237, l. 13. _Koenigstrasse_: King's Road. + + Page 237, l. 14. _Herrschaften_: patrons. + + Page 237, l. 23. _Delikatessenhandlung_: delicatessen shop. + + Page 240, l. 3. _Spiritus leid' ich nicht_: I will not allow + alcohol. + + Page 240, l. 29. _Trinkgeld_: tips. + + Page 242, l. 10. _das beste Zimmer_: best room, salon. + + Page 244, l. 8. _Das schadet nichts, das ist gesund_: never mind, + it is healthful. + + Page 245, l. 27. _fremd_: strange. + + Page 245, l. 33. _Reisebureau_: office of information for + travellers. + + Page 246, l. 14. _anmelden_: announce, report. + + Page 247, l. 13. _Ausgang_: exit. + + Page 247, l. 14. _Eingang_: entrance. + + Page 249, l. 10. _Dann war es mir zu bunt_: it was too much for + me, it goes too far. + + Page 252, l. 6. _Verschoenerungsverein_: society for + embellishments. + + Page 252, l. 13. _Aussicht_: view. + + Page 252, l. 13 _prachtvoll_: splendid. + + Page 252, l. 13. _Luft herrlich_: lovely air. + + Page 252, l. 16. _die Herren_: the gentlemen. + + Page 253, l. 15. _wanderfroh_: fond of travelling. + + Page 255, l. 13. _Badearzt_: physician of a watering place. + + Page 255, l. 31. _eine gute Stunde_: a good hour's walk. + + Page 257, l. 3. _Kur_: medical treatment. + + Page 257, l. 5. _Badereise_: sojourn at a bathing place for the + benefit of the waters. + + Page 258, l. 1. _Luftkur_: open air cure. + + Page 258, l. 9. _Blutarmut_: anaemia. + + Page 258, l. 18. _Corpulententisch_: table of the corpulents. + + Page 259, l. 4. _Kegel_: ninepins. + + Page 259, l. 17. _Waldluft_: forest air. + + Page 259, l. 28. _Speisesaal_: dining room. + + Page 260, l. 16. "_Warum willst_," etc.: + + Why do you wander elsewhere + When happiness is so near? + + Page 261, l. 25. _Personenzug_: local train. + + Page 262, l. 16. _Schein_: bill, receipt. + + Page 268, l. 17. _staedtische Kleider_: city dress. + + Page 268, l. 31. _Kirchweih_: annual festival in commemoration of + the consecration of church. + + Page 269, l. 4. _Brautwagen_: wedding coach. + + Page 270, l. 6. _Hochzeit_: wedding. + + Page 270, l. 19. _belegtes Butterbrot_: sandwiches. + + Page 271, l. 5. _Hochzeitsmahl_: wedding meal. + + Page 271, l. 16. _Speisesaal_: dining room. + + Page 277, l. 2. _Was ist denn los?_ what is the matter? + + Page 278, l. 18. _Sehnsucht_: yearning. + + Page 278, l. 21. _Haferbrei_: oat meal. + + Page 279, l. 8. _Schmalz_: suet, lard. + + Page 279, l. 11. _Pfarrer_: priest, clergyman, parson. + + Page 279, l. 18. _Betten_: beds. + + Page 279, l. 19. _Heidenmuehle_: mill on the heath. + + Page 279, l. 24. _Knecht_: manservant. + + Page 291, l. 19. _Volkskueche_: public kitchen. + + Page 292, l. 2. _Tischzeit_: hours for meals. + + Page 292, l. 6. _Durch Arbeiten_: through work. + + Page 292, l. 16. _Der Kaufmaennische Verband fuer Weibliche + Angestellte_: Merchant Association for Employed Women. + + Page 298, l. 13. _Kurfuerstendam_: elector's dyke. + + Page 303, l. 1. _Zelten_: tents. + + Page 305, l. 1. _Berliner Zimmer_: a room with one window. + + Page 307, l. 5. _nichtssagend_: trifling, of little value. + + Page 307, l. 12. _stramm_: robust, vigorous. + + Page 307, l. 13. _kraeftig_: strong, healthy, sturdy. + + Page 307, l. 13. _hocherfreut_: delighted, highly pleased. + + Page 310, l. 21. _Zeitungsgeschrei_: newspaper clamour. + + Page 315, l. 8. _Reden sie nicht_: don't talk. + + Page 318, l. 2. _Kultur_: culture. + + Page 319, l. 22. _Damit hetzen wir die Juden_: therewith we stir + up the Jews. + + Page 320, l. 33. _christlicher Umgang_: to be in company of + Christians. + + Page 321, l. 5. _juedischer Fratz_: Jewish phiz. + + + + +INDEX + +Advertisements, 85, 307 + +Allotment gardens, 207 + +Anglophobia, 5, 119, 130, 184, 309-311 + +Art in the nursery, 11 + +Auerbach, 272-278 + + +_Backfischen's Leiden und Freuden_, 38-43 + +Baden, 6, 22 (see also Black Forest) + +_Badereise_, 255-260 + +Bathrooms, 103, 305 + +Bavaria, 228, 231, 258, 273, 275 + +Beds, 124, 229 + +Beggars, 276, 295 + +Berlin-- + Electric cars, 300 + Fire-brigade, 275 + Flats and houses, 103-108 + Froebel Haus, 12 + Ladies' clubs, 75 + Philanthropy, 293 + Registry offices, 142 + Restaurants, 233 + Sculptures, 297 + Shops, 167-170, 174 + Students, 57 + Sunday excursions, 207 + Taxes, 109 + +_Berliner Zimmer_, 305 + +_Bestes Zimmer_, 242 + +Betham-Edwards, Miss, 36 + +Betrothals, 85-91 + +_Bier Comment_, 54-56 + +Birmingham brass workers, 295 + +Black Forest, 162, 171, 205, 220, 267 ff., 276 + +_Brautpaar_, 87 + +Budgets, household, 187-194, 283 + +_Buergerliches Gesetzbuch_, 102 + +_Burschenschaft_, 51 + +Byron, 38, 314 + + +Cellar-shops, 170 + +Charlottenberg Forest School, 32 + +Christmas, 176 + +Church tax, 109 + +Confirmation, 78-80 + +Cooking classes, 72 + +_Corps-Studenten_, 51-53 + +Cotta, Frl. v., 21 + +Cottbus Market, 174 + +_Creches_, 10, 33 + + +_Dienstbuch_, 142-145 + +Divorce, 100 + +Doctors, 9, 31, 72, 295 + +Doecker system, 33 + +Drawing-rooms, 126 + +Drunkenness, 206 + +Duels, students', 51-53 + +Dyhrenfurth, Gertrud, 282 + + +Economy, 130, 178, 188, 243, 287 + +Eltzbacher, O., 93, 185 + +Emigration, 185, 263 + +Emperor Wilhelm II., 70, 218, 220 + +Empress Friedrich, 21, 71 + + +Family life, 61, 65, 128 + +_Flachsmann als Erzieher_, 17 + +Flats, 103, 123, 130, 304 + +Food-- + Family meals, 154 + Fish, 161 + Free food, 31, 50 + Goose, 162 + Meat, 160 + _Mehlspeisen_, 164, 231 + _Nudeln_, 159 + _Ochsenfleisch_, 155 + Recipes, 159-165 + _Rothe Gruetze_, 164 + Supper, 158, 203 + Tea, 158 + Vegetables, 163 + +Freiburg Market, 173 + +Fuel, 106, 187 + +Furniture, 123-126 + + +"Garden houses," 304 + +Gardens, 104 + +"German Home Life," 8, 93 + +Gipsies, 276 + +Goethe, 116, 260 + +_Gymnasium_, 15-19 + +Gymnastics, 31, 34, 220 + + +Hamburg-- + Life, 105, 155, 232 + Lodgings, 242 + Markets, 174 + Servants' dress, 138 + Sports, 219 + +Heidelberg, 51-53 + +_Hof_, the, 104, 108 + +Home-workers, 289-291 + +Hospitality, 43, 196 ff., 210 + +Hospitals, 295 + +Housekeeping budgets, 187-194, 283 + +House-porter, 108, 303 + + +_Idealistin, Memoiren einer_, 78, 125, 131, 139, 180, 212-214 + +Illegitimate children, 93, 294 + +Incomes, 48, 177; + and see Economy + +Inns and Innkeepers, 227-232 + + +Jews, 50, 80, 289, 319-321 + +_Joseph im Schnee_, 278-281 + + +_Kaffee Klatsch_, 90, 200-202 + +_Kindergarten_, 12-14 + +_Kirchweih_, 273 + +Kitchens, 34, 107, 132-134, 146 + +_Kneipe_, 54-56, 64, 128 + +_Kommers_, 56 + + +Ladies' clubs, 75-77 + +_Landes_ tax, 109 + +Lange, Frl. Helene, 22-27 + +Laundry work, 136 + +_Leipziger Messe_, 175 + +_Lette-Verein_, 71-75 + +Linen, 135-137 + +Lodgings, 237 ff. + +Loeper-Housselle, Marie, 23 + +Luggage on railways, 261 + +Lyceum Club, 76 + +Lyceum, Victoria, 21 + + +Marketing, 133-228 + +Markets, 173-176, 306 + +Marriage-- + Arranged, 68, 80-82 + Ceremony, 94 ff. + Proposal, 84 + Revolt against, 66, 83 + +Muenchhausen, Frau K., 167 + +Music, 31, 206, 303, 316 + + +Newspapers, 307-312 + +Novels, 315 + +Nurseries, 9-11 + + +Oberhof, 257 + +Opera, 209 + +Outdoor life, 222 + + +Peasants' costume, 268 + Dances, 272-274 + Weddings, 269-272 + +Pensions, old age, 30, 150 + +Pestalozzi Froebel Haus, 12 + +Philanthropy, 293-296 + +Police regulations, 108, 151, 169, 245-249 + +_Polterabend_, 92 + +Professors' salaries, 48 + +Prussia-- + Cost of schools, 17 + Free schools, 31 + Taxes, 109 + + +Railway travelling, 260-263 + +Religious teaching, 19 + +Religious belief, 211-216 + +Rents, 103 + +Restaurants, 233-235 + +Reuter, Gabrielle, 82 + +Riehl on women, 57 ff. + +Ruegen, 257 + + +_Salamander_, 56 + +Saxony, 108 + +Scenery, 250 ff. + +Schadchan, 80 + +Schlegel, Caroline, 95 + +Schmidt, Auguste, 23 + +Schools-- + Cost of, 17 + Elementary, 29-31 + Forest, 32-35 + Kinds of, 16, 20, 22 + Lessons, 18 + Medical inspection, 31, 34 + Music in, 31 + Religious teaching in, 19 + +Servants-- + Bedrooms, 151 + Costumes, 10, 138, 183 + Dances, 148 + Gratuities, 145, 149 + Meals, 147 + Pensions, 150 + Wages, 140, 145 + +Shadwell, Dr., 287 + +Shakespeare, 314 + +Shops-- + Cellar, 170 + In Berlin, 167-170 + In Black Forest, 171 + +Silesian village, 282-285 + +Skittles, 222 + +Sofa, 126 + +Sports, winter, 220 + +State tax, 109 + +_Steckkissen_, 7 + +_Stifte_, 27, 69-71, 76 + +Stoves, 106-108 + +Students, 47 ff. + +_Stuetze der Hausfrau_, 73, 151 + +Summer resorts, 250 ff. + +Sundays, 205 ff. + +"Sweating," 289-291 + +Swimming-baths, 219 + + +_Tafel-Lieder_, 97-99 + +Taine, M., 117, 149 + +Taxes, 108 + +Teachers' seminaries, 21 + +Theatres, 208-210, 312-314 + +Thuringia, 229, 276 + +Tidiness, 37, 128-130, 135, 306 + +Titles, 126 + +Toys, 11 + +_Trousseaux_, 89, 123, 140 + + +Universities, 47 ff. + + +_Verein_, 221 + +Victoria Lyceum, 21 + +Viebig, Klara, 141, 170, 316 + +Village fires, 274-276 + +Visits, 196-200 + +_Volkskueche_, 291 + + +Walking tours, organised, 253 + +Weddings, 92 ff., 268-272 + +_Weibliche Angestellte_, 292 + +Wertheim, 167-170 + +_Wickelkinder_, 8 + +Windows, 105 + +Winter sports, 220 + +Women-- + Dress, 154, 195 + Legal position, 101 + Modern, 66, 82-84 + Riehl on, 57 ff. + Single, 60-62, 75, 81 + Treatment of, 60, 63, 65, 117-122 + Working, 287 ff. + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 23: Allegemeine replaced with Allgemeine | + | Page 71: '400,000 odd women' replaced with | + | '400,000-odd women' | + | Page 94: bridgroom replaced with bridegroom | + | Page 127: 'It it not easy' replaced with | + | 'It is not easy' | + | Page 141: knowledgable replaced with knowledgeable | + | Page 164: Rothe Gruetze replaced with Rote Gruetze | + | Page 184: extremly replaced with extremely | + | Page 191: 'fairly comfortably income' replaced with | + | 'fairly comfortable income' | + | Page 223: Brauehaus replaced with Braeuhaus | + | Page 253: preceptions replaced with perceptions | + | Page 277: amazment replaced with amazement | + | Page 301: 'it is an autocracy or are public' replaced | + | with 'it is an autocracy or a republic' | + | Page 318: anti-Semit replaced with anti-Semite | + | Page 327: Burgerliches replaced with Buergerliches | + | Page 330: Braunkolen replaced with Braunkohlen | + | Page 330: gahacktes replaced with gehacktes | + | Page 331: Delicatessenhandlung replaced with | + | Page 334: Dyrenfurth replaced with Dyhrenfurth | + | Page 336: 'Stueze der Hausfrau' replaced with | + | 'Stuetze der Hausfrau' | + | Page 336: Ruegen replaced with Ruegen | + | Page 336: Vereine replaced with Verein | + | Page 336: Weibliche Angestelle replaced with | + | Weibliche Angestellte | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Home Life in Germany, by Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME LIFE IN GERMANY *** + +***** This file should be named 28432.txt or 28432.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/4/3/28432/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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