GERMAN CHILDREN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 2

GERMAN CHILDREN.

(By Katharine Tynan.) Whatever the Germans may be in later life the: children are adoralble. Nothing of the violent mixture of violent color which" the Germans affect can do away with their charm. It is a country where mucin has been inside of the children—the country of Santa Glaus and the Christmas tree, and the fairy tales and the toys, and the children have, thriven in the sun and grown quaintly charming. Sometimes the colors are unexpectedly right. A' little girl of seven gave me her seat in a tram in Cologne the other day. She wore a little- saffron jumper tied at the neck with green 'fords, and a bright green skirt. Her little colorless', sweetly composed face was the very face of Albreeht Duirers Blessed Mary in the Temple. Her pale hair was divided neatly from brow tc nape, plaited in two plaits, which made little rosettes about her small ears. 1 ached to paint her. The other day I saw a little boy of about four in the street. He wore the absurd little shirt and breeches held up by shoulder-straps of the German child, and! his fair head reminded one of Shock-Headed Peter. He was feeding a very big horse under a dray with .single blades of hay, which the horse received and nibbled, with the patient politeness of an animal. Ho can hardly have tasted the blade. The little boy was so small that he had' to pull himself up by the mouth-piece to insert that single blade between the moving lips of the horse. Apparently the child was quite safe; no one noticed or thought of interfering; but again, one ached for the camera, at least. The German children walk about with absurd little dogs on a string. dachshunds or toy terriers, or a mixture of both. Even the German small boy is infinitely patient with the animal, as he is with the baby. Very often you see a. small boy or girl v. charge of the baby and the dog. In these narrow congested streets the dog and the baby must be held on to at all costs. So the slightly elder child, it may be, pushes the pram with one hand and leads the dog with the other. When the dog gets tied up or the baby needs its pillows shaken, it is ail anxious moment for the one in charge. I beheld the other day the incredible sight of a big German man solemnly trundling by means of a string a toy cart behind him. There is a deal of the child in the German, more even than in the men of other nations, but this seemed excess of childishness. No one seemed surprised, but while one stared the infant who had lagged behind came and recovered his cart. The children are always in evidence. They go to nil the fetes with their parents. They precede them into the restaurant and feed with them. Sometimes an intrepid infant will scramble from a chair and make a journey around the restaurant. The narents seem oblivious. The restaurant is full of big dogs and little dogs, all on strings. The big dojzs arc usually what are called German shepherd dogs. They look hut one remove from the wolf, but there is no collision, not even when the rCnglische cat. left behind from the occupation, and her lialf-Englische kitten claim their right to enter. Sometimes a waiter stops the small adventurer on the very edge of the street, or the Herr Papa makes a few steps Forward, picks up his wandering off■•■M'ing, and restores it to its chair. They are the very children of the fairy tales. Very often the German family only drinks beer. They all drink beer — Papa and Mamma, and the son and the daughter and the daughter's betrothed and the various friends who join them. T do not know if "das kleine'' gets a little, as the English babies in a certnin class get a taste of what ever is going. Hut to see the Herr Papa greet his • 'iingest after even a little absence—to hear him murmur "das kleine!" is to recognise that whatever else may be urged against him, be is a tender !' i ther

Italy has this summer been suffering from a prolonged drought, and Mr Chat?. Hatfield, known in America as n "rain-maker," lias accepted the invitation of the- Italian Government to try his apparatus in Naples. where practically no rain lias fallen since last March. Mr Hatfield' hats been in the rain-mnkhig business for the last lo years. with varying success. The Californian fruit fanners have several timet, enlisted liis services, and are always ready to give him a testimonial; bill in some otbfc-r places l lie, lias been unlucky. One year he was appointed rain-maker to the Yukon Territory, al a. salary of lO.OOOdals.. provided a certain amount of rain fell. Hut fate was against him, nmd at the end of two months, he wiis retired without pension or salary, the rainfall' having been actually below the average. Lack of knowledge of geography—not to say history since 191-1 —displayed by certain learned scholastic concerns in the United States, ha* caused' the University of Strasbourg to make known its marked displeasure. It appears that these concerns persist in sending their bulletin* and publications to the Strasbourg University, addressed "Strasbourg. Germany." Among the offenders still employing wrappers whereon i?i printed "Strasbourg. Germany," are

Chicago. Vale, and Princeton Universities.