THE GERMANS AT HOME.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 7

THE GERMANS AT HOME.

Whenever I go to Germany I am ■ather amazed by the evidences one , oW and then finds of a curious mismderatanding of everything English— , certain disposition to underrate- this x>nntry; to. suspect it; to regard it ns ■ither"arrogant or hypocritical. And dare say that Germans, when they sear a certain type of Englishman or rnkdishwoman discussing German life I'nd character, are equally surprised Ln d pained by a very obvious projulice. Books like this before mc are k .fll calculated to diminish these preudices. But this book will not- do so by oon■pjing tho false impression that Engand and Germany have not fundaaentally different institntions and tandpoints with regard tomost. things a life. As I read this book I am more 3ja, n confirmed in the impression I ilways get when I visit Germany—tho mpression that tho drill-sergeant, puru<* the German citizen from the army o all departments of life; that tlie lation remains a well-watched, wellrflled. and very docile army inside nmible barracks, and submitting to ron discipline all tho moments of its ife. The German carries his sense cf ho duty and the sphere of the State o lengths to which we cannot pretend 0 think of reaching. It is no wonder, ndeed, that Socialism should bo so owerful in Germany. Socialism r>aands that tho State should possess nd distribute all the things of life; he bitterest and narrowest German !onservative can only claim to differ 1 degree in this respect from tho jost advanced Socialist, and the eal difference really is not whether the;tate shall take all these tremendous nd universal responsibilities upon its nrdened shoulders, but whether the Itate that does so shall be a State uled by eoldiers and aristocrats or y working men and, perhaps, Socialisic professors. Before, however, I om« to the illustration of that point, :fc mc quote a passage which has struck ie, which I commend for serious reection, for it may help to correct those ulgar and perilous prejudices to which have already referred. Just as it •ould be absurd to judge Eggland from er Yellow Press and ite Constant apeals to racial hatreds and passions, so lso you must not judge Germany by er Anglophobes. "There are," says ur writer, "MANY GERMANTS." 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 ovir place in the world's markets, a model of municipal government and enterprise, a land where vice, poverty, idleness, and dirt are *all unknown. Wβ hear (so much of this praiseworthy bat almost unamiable Wunderkind amongst nations, that we generally forget the Germany wo know, the Germany etill there for our affection and delight, the dear country of quaint fancies, of music and of poetry. That Germany has .vanished, the wiseacres say, tho dreamy unworldy 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 aqd poetry that be 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, io 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 told 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 hare never shut your eyes and ears to the Germany that does not lore 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 allimportant or political. It flourished long before the Transvaal War was seized as a convenient stick to beat us with. In some measure the Anglicised Germane who love ue too well are responsible, for they do not always love wisely. They deny their descent and their country, and that jnstly offends their compatriots. I do not believe that the Englishman breathes who would ever wish to en 11 himself anything but English; while it is qnite'rare for Germans in Ensland, America, or France to take any pride in their blood. The second generation constantly denies it, changes its nome, assures you ti knows nothing of Germany. They have not the spirit of Touchstone, and in so far they do their country a wrong. This is a clever, and T think, a true diagnosis of those conflicting currents. GERMAN CHILDREN". I return to my point of tho larger share in the guidance .of life which every German attributes to and wishes in tho State. Yon find one result of this a certain limitation of individual initiative and independence as compared *ith habits in our own countries. You get the impression that everybody is more or less coddled, and you get that impression even with regard to the German baby that has just opened its eyes on this strange world; for this is *'hat happens to the newcomer:

. 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 Sieckkissen. a long bat: that confines its leys and body but not its arms. Tho bag is lined with wadding, and a German nurse, who was showing mc one with great pride, assured mc that while a child's bones were soft it was not safe to lift it in any other way. These bags aro

- . comparatively modern, and have succeeded the swaddling clothes still toed in some parts of Germany. They ; « are bandages wrapping the child ;, round like a mummy, and imprison- - .". ing its arms as well as it legs. A : ; . German, doctor told mc that as these S ' yickelkinder had never known freo--1...:"■:." aoin they did not miss it; but he | : • • e«emed to approve of the modern §::;'■ compromise that leaves the upper §£-'■ "ffll>s some power of movement. fe Similarly when the baby h;ts to go to #;-'' f , "* 1 there is coddling. * Tho German •#£•:"■ i !ler :m< ' mother would not follow that *f- " la l J li.v-go-luckv iiMth-wl oi tutrs which >■&:.. wows, the cliild into the public school ? Sii i Us * u*e a young puppy dog thrown Wk,:.

into the water to learn to swim. And in one respect 1 admire the Gcnnan rather than the En-liYh ideal. There is no sentence in this book which pleased r.u> more or jinvo ire a opinion of Germans than thLs sentence with -which one chapter OT-ms, -German children po to day sohwis." it phases our author. "The German mother, ' she writes, "docs not sot rid of her boys and girls for months together. , . . They arc with her all the year round—tho br>ys til] they fro to a university, tho girls till they marry." And very primly thc.se mites are brought up, remaining thus always under the eyes of their parents. '-The little frirls still drop you a pretty curtsey when they greet you : the' little, boys come and shake hands at unexpected times—when tln-y arrive from school and before they go out for a walk.'' Jn Germany no parent has to ho forced to educate his child; that thirst for education is universal. '"There, are no people in the world.' writes our authorrr-s, "who iired driving to school loss than the Germans." A teacher in an elementary school was once telling mc 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 chooses to RO to school in honseshoes. he is sent straight home ajrain. . . ." "But do the parents mind that?" I' asked from my Engli.-.h point of view. .. . "In Germany even the poorest of tho poor do care, and to refuse a child admission to school is an effective punishment." i The result is that wiLh the exception of the Slavs in.sido tho German Empire, the illiterate amount to only one in ten thousand. Similarly, it would be entirely contrary to that ideal of State control and vigiiance that a child should be allowed to remain in school hungry. Though in this case the State does not supply the food, it gives freo reijrn to philanthropic societies to do so; they provide children who need it with a breakfast of bread and milk in winter, and it ii gratifying to find, nnd gives you a hi<rh idea of German self-respect that no child would apply for this if his, parents were not destitute." School books are supplied freo to children; education is practically froo; ohoral einging 's taught in every school; and there is free and const-ant modic-i-I inspection. .Another institution whiVTi brircrs it 1 this extraordinary and incessant vigilance of the German Stat-" is. the oivnair school for weak and sickly children. is a description of ov n nf those schools—Known as tho WfietWchule—or the, school in the wood. Tt is onon every day, Sunday included, from the end rf April to tho middle of October, md educates two -hundred and forty delicate children :— We arrived as the c*"ldren were going to sit down to their afternoon meal of bread and milk. and each child was fetching its own rang .banging on a numbered hook. The. meals in fine weather ire taken

We arrived as the r^'- l--dren were going to sit down to their afternoon meal of bread and milk. and each child was fetching its own mug .banging on a numbered hook. The. meals in fine weather arc taken at long tables in tho open air. When it rains they arc served in big shelters closed on three sddes. Dotted about tho forest there' wore mush-room-shaped shelters wiM , . arid tables beneath them, sufficient cover in slicTit showers; av.fl there \. oj - e well-lighted, well-aired class-roonis. whore the children aro taught tor twenty-fivo minutes at a time.

Tin's is a pretty nicture; there is even a prettier that follows:— There was not a dirty or untidy child to be seen, nor one with rouch manners. They aro allowed to piny in tho light, sandy soil of tho fomst. much as English children play at tho seaside, and wo saw tho beginning of an elaborate chain of fortresses defended by toy trims avd decora with flowers. Wo heard a lesson in mental arithmetic given >in one of the class-rooms, the boys sitting on one sida of tho room and the girls on tho other; and wo found that these young sickly children were admirably taught and well advanced for their ago. To be a teacher in one of these open-air schools is .hard work, the strain is never wholly relaxed. All day long, and a German day is very long, tho cHldre-n must be watched and guarded, sheltered from changes in the weather, and provented from over-tiring themselves. Many of them come from poor, cramped homes, and to spond tho whole summer in tho forest moro at play than at work, maltes th«"i most liar'iv

.... They get a training that must shape their whole future, moral ;ind physical, a training that changes many unsound citizens into sound ones every year for the German Empire.