THE TRAVELLING-HUN.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 867, 16 February 1917, Page 6

THE TRAVELLING-HUN.

Anxious About the Future. "FpVERYONE who travelled on. tie -**--° Continent before the war can bear testimony to the uncouth manners, or want of manners, by which the average Hun tourist was, characterised. He ■ would spit on the floor, ho loathed the very idea of fresh air in a railway compartment or steamer cabin, he regarded the matutinal bath so dear to the cleanly Englishman's hear£ with mingled dei'ision and fear; ho would ,seize reserved seats with complete indifference to the rights of those who had booked and paid for them. Taken all round he was a most objectionable person. What will be the position of the Hun tourists after the war? This is a subject upon which the Hun himself, with all his sublime self-esteem, is beginning to have some doubts. Thus we find Professor Paul -Forster, of Berlin, recommending his countrymen after the war to confine their holi-' . day jaunts to Hunland. He evidently shares the Widespread feeling of uneasiness in Germany that when the war is over the. world, or at least threeparts of it which are the resorts • of travellers and tourists, may , not caTe very much for the presence of Germans. '.«.■.• » e German methods of warfare and the vileness and turpitude of the Hun mind, have undoubtedly and profoundly affected civilised humanity, and even to the thick-headed Hun Professor, the probability of a boycott has come home. This . Professor evidently realises that few nations will seek the fellowship of his countrymen, or feel any special pride in associating with them. And so we find him solemnly enjoining upon his 'fellow Germans that "in seeeking the beauties of nature, and the solace and refreshment of travel, they should travel in Germany. "Why " he asks, "rove in distant lands? Do you not see ' beauty close at hand?" And then Professor Forster quotes Arndt, that most patriotic of versifiers:' "Where God's sun first shone on you, where His stars of heaven first lighted, your, sky, where His lightnings first- revealed His almightiness to you, where His stormwinds first filled' your soul with holy \ fear —there is your love, there your Fatherlond." *.. '.#.■. :. # '■...#■ Whether Arndt, who. was a German of the decent period of German life and conduct, would ,be very proud of the Fatherland to-day is very doubtful. He was not, if our reading informs us rightly, the sort of man to approve of murder, rape, and rapine as justifiable and laudable war methods But even should . the Germans take Professor Forster's advice, the inhabitants of the other lands are not likely to complain. After the war the German should and very probably will be regarded as a pariah by the peoples of other countries than his own. Assuredly the blonde beast will get no welcome in New Zealand.