I Seen in Germany Seen in Germany By Ray Stannard Baker Author of "Our New Prosperity," "The Boy's Book of Inventions" Original Drawings by GEORGE VARIAN London HARPER & BROTHERS 45, Albemarle Street, W. 1902 Printed at Tlie University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A. TO MY FATHER 239016 CONTENTS Page 1. Common Things Seen in Germany 3 How the German is governed in Small Affairs — The Omniscient Policeman — Bowing — Shops — Beer-Drinking — Barnum's Circus — Idea of Americans — Machinery Age II. The Kaiser ■> . 37 His Personality and his Passions III. The German Private Soldier 61 Who he is and How he is Made IV. A View of the German Workingman ... 97 His Daily Life, his Earnings, his Wife, his Food, his Clothing, his Problems, and his Relations with his Government V. A German Professor 133 Professor Ernst Haeckel of Jena VT. A Typical Scientific Institution 161 The Physical and Technical Institute at Charlotten- bure viii Contents Page VII. How THE Germans created a New Industry . 197 The Glass and Lens Manufactories of Jena \ III. A German Venture in Practical Philanthropy . 227 Professor Abbe and his Profit-Sharing System IX. How the Germans build Ships 237 The X'ulcan Shipyard of Stettin X. Some New Educational Ideas in Germany . . 273 A Commercial University — History-Teaching by Object- Lessons, School Gardens XI. A Glimpse of German Student Life .... 287 A Corps Duel at Wollnitz XII. The New Germany 313 Her Prosperity and her Problems ILLUSTRATIONS Page Frontispiece A German Policeman 9 Children's Sand Pile in Dresden, supported by the City . 13 Outdoor Drinking Resort for German Students . . 19 Woman and Dog as Beasts of Burden, a Familiar German Sight 23 A German Double-Deck Tram-Car 29 The German Kaiser 39 The Kaiser and Kaiserin 44 The German Crown Prince 47 The Kaiser among His Officers , . 50 Present Arms , 67 The Goose Step 69 Company Tailors 71 Drill on the Horizontal Bar 74 Bayonet Practice 77 Pontoon Bridge Building 79 Rifle Practice with Miniature Target ..... 82 Cavalrymen Tilting with Muffled Lances .... 85 Coat Inspection , . , . 88 The Soldier's Hour Off , . . . 90 Uniformed Street Sweepers loi X Illustrations Page Returning from Work — German Ship Yards . . . 105 Noon Hour iio A Typical German Workman 120 Public Bath House in Chemnitz 128 Hacckel's Laboratory, Jena 137 Haeckel at his Microscope 141 Schiller's Lane, Jena 144 Professor Ernst Haeckel, drawn from life by George Varian 149 Professor Haeckel lecturing in his Class Room . . 153 General View of the Reichsanstalt Building, in Char- lottenburg 167 Prof. Dr. Kohlrausch, President of the Reichsanstalt 173 Dr. Day Experimenting with Thermometers . . . 179 Professor Hagen, Director of the Technical Depart- ment of the Reichsanstalt 182 Testing Thermometers , 183 Measuring the Candle-Power of Electric Lamps . . 185 Making Crucibles 198 Removing the Crucible from the Eurnace .... 200 Pouring Molten Glass into Lens Mould .... 203 Putting Crucible into Cooling Furnace 206 Sealing up Cooling Eurnace 208 Polishing a Great Telescope Lens 210 In the Jena Glass Works. Blowing Chemical Glass 214 Blowing and Drawing Thermometer Tubes — the Most Perfect in the World 219 Professor Abbe 228 Shipping the Rudder ........... 238 Illustrations xi Pace The " Deutschland " six months after her keel was laid. Showing the keel, ribs, the second, or *' false" bottom, and the girders which are to support the decks 254 Bending a Ship's Rib 257 Captain Albers of the " Deutschland" 261 One of the Piston Heads of the "Deutschland" . . 267 Children at Work in School Garden 277 A Lesson in Tree Planting 281 In the Leipzig School Garden 283 The Inn at Wollnitz 289 Interior of a Corps Room where Drinking Bouts are held 295 An Outdoor " Mensur" or Duel 299 A University Corps House 305 SEEN IN GERMANY COMMON THINGS COMMON THINGS SEEN IN GERMANY How the German is governed in Small Affairs — The Omniscient PoHceman — Bowing — Shops — Beer- drinking — Barnum's Circus — Idea of Americans — Machinery Age THE American who travels in Germany soon makes the discovery that he has never known what it really means to be governed. He has always felt a calm assurance in the superiority of his system of public administration, and he has paid with liberality for the privilege of having a President, a Governor, a Mavor, and a Ward Boss, yet he has hardlv known that he was governed ! But there is no such uncertainty here in the Fatherland. For every pfennig that the German pays in taxes, he expects and receives a pfennig's worth of government. He enjoys being looked after, and if he fails to hear the whirring of the wheels of public administration, he feels that something has gone wrong. ^^ ; ■/■ ■'.;,, Sf;en in Germany From the nioment of landing on German soil, the American begins to feel a certain spirit of repression which seems to pervade the land. At first it gives him an uncomfortable impression of being watched ; he feels the Wild West in him slowly suffocating: he had not realized before that he was especially wild western. But he soon finds that his attitude of mind is undergoing a change. The brooding spirit of gov- ernment no longer harasses him, and he finds himself engaged in a humorous quest for what is " verboten."^ He begins to see the philosophy ot all this govern- ment ; it relieves him of a load of responsibility to have his conduct made clear for him by rules and regulations. He feels grateful to the government that informs him in a plainly printed sign that the water in this trough is for horses, not for men. In America he would be compelled to decide for himself, and he might make the mistake ot allowing his horse to drink from a man's trough. When he walks in the park it is a comfort to have the seats labeled clearly, " For Children," " For Nurses with Children Only," and " For Adults Only." Thus the stranger goes through Germany learning rules, and after a time it becomes a passion to trace out all the minute rami- fications of administrative supervision. One may travel a long time in Germany and go home with the comfortable feeling that there are still undiscovered ^ Ferboten, forbidden. Common Thin gs regulations awaiting another visit. There is one drawback, however, to the full enjoyment of the quest. It may be expressed in a simple rule: Always discover the " verboten " before you are discovered. This rule, if observed, will save the traveler much an- noyance. An absent-minded friend of mine crossed a bridge at Stettin on the left side, not knowing that this was one of the " verbotens." He was taken with much solemnity before a magistrate and fined fifty pfennigs (twelve cents). He felt that the experience was cheap at the price. The best way to discover " verbotens " is to ride on a bicycle; they appear painted large at every turn, and if you ride far enough you will con- clude that all the especially interesting by-ways are particularly " verboten " and that " verboten " is a kind of profanity used by German policemen. I never have seen the statute books of Germany, but they must be voluminous beyond comparison, for there is a law regulating almost every conceivable human activity. If a thing is not mentioned in the law books, it is to be presumed that it has no existence. As a consequence, odd things happen in Germany. Early in the year 1900 a company of capitalists began operating automobile 'buses in Berlin, big glittering caravans which tooted up and down the streets like so many steam locomotives, running at a rate of speed much greater than that of the ordinary trams. Theoretically, the German dislikes being hurried, 6 Seen in Germany but practically and individually he is quite as pleased as the American to save five or ten minutes on the journey to his office in the morning. As a result, the new automobiles did such a flourishing business that the other tram companies, which had long been compelled by stringent laws to limit the speed of their cars, made complaint to the police. There must have followed a great searching of the statute books. Every sort of vehicle from a wheel- barrow up was mentioned and regulated, but there was not a word about the automobile 'bus. Consequently there was nothing to do but to let it pursue its wild career until such time as a law could be devised and passed. And this, like everything in connection with the government, was a matter of deliberation, so that by the time authority was bestowed upon the police to limit the speed of the new vehicles, the automobile company had cut in on its competitors and had firmly established its position. Exactly the same thing happened when the bicycle was first introduced in Germany. For months bicycle riders rode when and where they pleased, tipped over pedestrians and generally demoralized the police ; now they are regu- lated out of all comfort. There is a great fortune awaiting the Yankee who will introduce flying ma- chines in Germanv, and sell out before the machinery of the law overtakes him. A stranger in Germany soon makes the acquaint- Common Things 7 ance of the police, little as he may desire it. A German socialist once said: "It takes half of all the Germans to control the other half," and one who sees Germany's immense army, her cloud of officials, great and small, and her omniscient police- man, is inclined to believe that the socialist was right. You have been in Germany a week, more or less, when the policeman calls. At first you cannot believe that he is really after you, and then your mind runs back guiltily over your past. He takes out his little book, one of a small library of little books which he carries in his blouse, and inquires your age, your nationality, and how long you intend to stay. You learn subsequently that a record of every person in the empire is carefully kept, with full details as to his occupation, material wealth, and social standing. If you move into a new house, you must notify the police ; if you move out, you must notify the police; if you hire a servant girl, you must purchase a yellow blank and report the fact, the girl also making a report. When she leaves, you must send in a green blank stating why she is dismissed, where she is going, and so on. If you fail in any one of these multitudinous requirements of the government, — and I have men- tioned only a few of them, — there is a fine to pay, each fine graduated to the enormity of the offence. There are offences graded as low as two cents. 8 Seen in Germany This paternal system of watchfulness and super- vision by the police has made every German neigh- borhood a sort of whispering gallery. Within a few days after you move into new apartments, you find that nearly every one in the block, from the milkman up, knows who you are, what your busi- ness is, and how long you expect to remain, and your place in the social scale is fixed once for all with mathematical precision. And directly you begin to pay taxes, for the police have learned, in some mysterious manner, just how much money you have in the bank, and where it comes from ; if you are earning a salary they also hear about that, and all these facts speedily reach your neigh- bors. A New England town with two sewing societies is not to be compared for an instant with a German neighborhood for sociability. On the other hand, the labeling and cataloguing of the population enables the police to watch the crimi- nal classes and to keep them in subjection to an extent quite astonishing. German cities are safer for strangers, perhaps, than any other in the world. In the same way, close police supervision in the matter of garbage-disposal, street litter, sewage, and so on, has been a factor in giving Germany a well-deserved reputation tor clean, healthy cities. I have seen a policeman stop a man, and order him to pick up a bit of paper which he had thrown into the street. A German Policeman lo Seen in Germany And there is this comforting thing to be said about the activity of the poHce. In America the other man is always elbowing you in street cars, crowding in ahead of you at the theatre ticket- window, and in general making city life uncomfort- able. But the German has regulated the other man into comparative respectability. For instance, each 'bus and car is plainly labeled on the outside with the number of seats that it contains, and signs on the front and rear platforms show how many persons may find standing room after the seats have all been occupied. And when once the car is filled, not another person is allowed to enter. You see, also, on the end of each car a little metallic rack with numbered compartments where smokers may leave their cigars as they enter. In the same methodical way the government opera- houses are provided with long passageways in front of the ticket-windows, just wide enough to admit one person, so that in case of a crush to buy tickets there is never any jostling or pushing, and the new-comer must always take his place at the foot of the line. Another rule in some cities requires an opera- goer who takes a cab to pay the driver his fare in advance, so that there may be no crowding and delays of the cabs at the door of the opera-house. Indeed, the whole cab-service of Germany is regu- Common Things i i lated in a way to make the American envious of German institutions. In most cities a large proportion of the cabs are provided with " tax- ameters " — little dials placed in front of the seat and so arranged that they indicate just how much the passenger owes at any given time. For instance, when you take a cab in Berlin the indicator shows a charge of fifty pfennigs (twelve cents) as soon as you take your seat, and as you drive the figures change, ten pfennigs at a time, and when you are ready to stop you pay the sum indicated by the dial, no more, no less. Thus there is no chance for extortion on the part of the cabman, and no dis- agreement as to charges, a feature of disagreeable prominence in London and Paris. And it may be said in passing, that the charges are generally very low compared with those in American cities. Indeed, there are not many things in Germany that the government does not own or control, or at least influence. When you travel, you must buy your ticket of the government, for the government owns all the railroad lines, you eat government sand- wiches at the station, you send a telegram over government wires. Your letters, of course, go by government post, but so do your express packages, and it may be said for the Germans that their con- veniences for sending packages and money by mail are much nearer perfect than ours. In America, 1 2 Seen in Germany the influence of those mighty corporations, the express companies, has prevented the development in the highest degree of our postal system. In Germany, one may send a package of almost any size by mail at rates astonishingly low compared with those of our express service. Packages may also be ordered and sent C. O. D. by mail, for a small fee, the postman collecting the money from the purchaser and returning it to the seller, — a system which greatly facilitates business in the empire by doing away with much letter-writing, and the expense of mailing bills and checks. In the same way the Germans have perfected an un- equaled svstem for the quick delivery of messages in large cities. In Berlin, one may purchase what is known as a rohr-postcard for twenty-five pfennigs (six cents), write a message containing as many words as the card will hold, and it will be specially delivered almost anywhere in the city within an hour. It is better by far and cheaper than the telephone, for only comparatively few people have telephones ; it is quicker and much less expensive than the telegraph. Indeed, there is probably no system in operation in the world which is at once so universally of service to rich and poor, so prompt and so cheap. It is much used for making all sorts of appointments and in all manner of business trans- actions. There is a great opportunity, certainly, Common Things 13 for such a convenience in American cities; hut the power and influence of our great telegraph and telephone corporations will probably prevent its Children s Sand Pile in Dresden, supported by the City introduction for a long time to come. It may be said in passing, also, that ordinary postal cards may be sent in German cities for two pfennigs — less than half a cent. In Germany, the government owns the greatest 14 Seen in Germany opera-houses, and if you would hear the best music, you must listen to musicians who are paid from the pubHc treasury. A government minister preaches in the government-owned church that you attend on Sunday, and if you are a student in a university, the professor who lectures to you is a government official. Sometimes you can even trace the govern- ment inspector's stamp on the chop served at your restaurant. And you are not at all surprised to see children playing in municipal sandpiles in the parks of Dresden. Then there are the cherries, — the big luscious red cherries which come when you order a compot with your meat. These, you hear, are called Reichskirschen, " Imperial Cherries," and you learn that the government has embarked, with rare frugality, in the business of fruit-raising. Along each side of the government railroad tracks there is a strip of land which is utilized in places by planting with rows of cherry-trees. These are culti- vated with care, and no improper little German boys ever climb up and steal the fruit. In the summer the empire or the kingdom gathers its cherry crop, and takes it to market, and later the imperial cherries appear as a compot to delight the German palate, and suggest the all-sufficiency of the governmental machinery. The profits are credited in the state revenues. I did hear that an account was kept with each separate cherry-tree, but one is not com- Common Things 15 pelled to believe all he hears, even though it be characteristic. All government in Germany smacks strongly of the military camp. Many of the officials, especially those of the lower grades, — such as policemen, firemen, and so on, — are old soldiers who have won their places in civil life by years ot faithful service as noncommis- sioned officers in the army. They have all the methodical habits of the barracks, and very naturally they look upon the public as a great awkward squad to be cajoled into subjection and proper discipline. The awkward squad in this case submits the more easily because every man in Germany has served his time in the army, and knows how to put up with the exactions of noncommissioned martinets. Indeed, the exactness and order, the minuteness of regulation, and the infinite detail of military life pervades the entire social fabric of Germany. Everything, from beer-drinking up, goes by rule, and most of these rules have been set forth in books or pamphlets with the characteristic thoroughness of the Teuton. I shall not soon forget the dazzling effect presented by a fine-looking, soldierly German whom I saw coming down Unter den Linden at noonday in a full dress suit, a tall hat, and white kid gloves. No one seemed at all surprised at his appearance, and I learned afterward that he was probably some new gov- ernment official going to pay his respects to his chief. 1 6 Seen in Germany and that every detail of his costume was prescribed in the written order chat summoned him. A foreigner in Germany is certain to make the most amusing mis- takes in the matter of formality and informality of dress. It may be said in passing that a German set dinner is a horror of formality, but it is quite worth while, for the excellence of the French cooking. On the other hand, a German beer-dinner is the acme of sociability and kindliness, a kind of easy familiarity and simple enjoyment, by the side of which almost any English or American dinner is icy with dignity. For the Germans know how to enjoy their food and drink. An English lady, the wife of a famous scientist, gave me an amusing account of her experience at a reception given by the wife of a German professor. As soon as she came into the room, she was invited to a place on a huge, soft sofa standing in a promi- nent place at one side of the room. She much preferred a chair, not only because it would be less conspicuous, but much more comfortable. But when she would have taken an empty chair, to her aston- ishment it was promptly removed and occupied by one of the German women, and she was finally com- pelled to take a seat on the sofa. Presently another English lady of rank appeared, and the wife of the scientist was promptly invited to leave the sofa and take a chair, and the new-comer, by hook and crook, was induced to occupy the sofa. Common Thines gs 17 Afterward all these proceedings were made plain : the sofa was the place of honor beyond all others, and it must be occupied by the most important lady pres- ent, whether she liked it or not. Then there is the fine art of bowing. In Germany, you lift your hat to men as well as to women. If you meet General Schmoller, you raise your hat high and bring it down to your knees with a full sweep of the arm; if you meet Herr Schmidt, who is your social equal, you tip your hat as much as he does his — and no more; whereas, if you meet your tailor you respond to his low bow by the merest touch of recognition. To the initiated every man proclaims his social position at every step, by his bowing. One must remove his hat when he enters a store, though, strangely enough, the same man who stands uncov- ered while he is purchasing a pair of gloves will wear his hat in the cafe next door. The Englishman, whose neck is proverbially stiff" in the matter of bowing, al- ways leaves behind him the smoke of offense when he leaves a German shop, for he has invariably forgotten to remove his hat. The German store-keeper is the soul of politeness. He rushes out to open the door for you when you leave, and whether you have bought anything or not, he has an appreciative "thank you " ready for you. Indeed, the spirit of thanks is one of the pleasant things that the stranger encounters in Germany. The elevator boy who takes you up to iS Seen in Germany your room thanks you heartily when you become his guest, the waiter thanks you when he takes your order, the barber thanks you when you sit down in his chair. And I am sure that this is not done merely with a view to ultimate tips, for many Germans tip very sparingly ; it seems to me that it proceeds rather from a very genuine friendliness which I have seen manifested in so many other pleasant ways in Ger- many. At least, I like to think so. Speaking of the shops of Germany, nothing could be finer than the window-displays of the book, art, and flower stores ; they are fine, even after Paris, especially in Munich and Dresden, and they are brilliant compared with the ugly displays in London. One walking up a city street in Berlin for the first time is irresistibly attracted by the splendid window- shows, not only of books and works of art, but of all sorts of other things, and by and by he is so far tempted that he enters the shop. And what a dis- appointment ! From the appearance of the window, he has anticipated greater glories within ; but here is a stufi\^, dim little shop, ill-arranged, over-crowded, and often dusty. And like as not he finds that a greater part of the merchant's stock is in the window, a part of that magnificent display, and that when he asks to see a piece of goods, the clerk must go crawl- ing into the window after it. Of course there are fine shops in Germany, but they are not plentiful. 5^ 2b Seen in Germany One day in a German book-store I picked up a book of rules for drinking beer ; it was a good thick book, and it must have required not a little study to master it. Afterwards I found how thoroughly some of these rules were observed. There are reg- ular formula; of words to be followed, all set down in clear type, so that even a wayfarer, though a fool, may properly express his sentiments to his beer-drink- ing companions. When you wish to drink with a friend you say. " prosit," and you look him in the eye. If he feels thirsty, he says, " I come immediately ; " if he wishes to delay the response, he says, " I come soon," but he must not forget you ; when next he drinks, you are the friend with whom he " comes." And sometimes the German rises to propose the company, and he says, " I drink my bloom," where- upon the entire company drinks the bloom ; or if he be exceedingly thirsty, he says, " I drink my bloom, and that which hangs thereto " — and he empties his glass. There may be small men in the party to whom " that which hangs thereto " may be more than sufficient, but if they wish to be strictly polite they must not leave a drop. These are only a few among hundreds of rules, observed most rigidly among the students and in the drinking clubs. One evening I walked out to a little tavern among the Thuringian hills, one of those quiet places at the end of a beautiful stroll which the German loves. It Common Things 21 was a curious old place, smoky-raftered and hung with prints half a century old. The long tables were filled with men and women and a sprinkling of children, and the beer flowed free. Along in the evening a white-bearded old man came around and distributed a leaflet on which was printed a German song. After every one was supplied, the old man struck a gong, and at once the whole party began to sing with right good-will, — joyously and unaffectedly. There were, as I knew, solid German citizens and business men in the company, as well as students and workmen with their wives ; for a German beer resort is nothing if not democratic. All these sang together and enjoyed it well, stopping at places indicated in the song by the words, " beer- pause," and after a long look into the tall wooden mugs, they sang again. It was really delightful enough in its entire simplicity and complete socia- bility, but the sentiment of the songs — and there were many of them — was amusing enough to a stranger. They were not singing love ditties or national hymns, nor yet music-hall ballads. Each song was the work of a local poet, and it expressed in highflown language the glories of this particular beer-place, — how good the beer was, how jolly and benevolent and honest the host was, what a splendid view there was from the windows, how sweet the bar- maid looked, and such sausages as she served ! And 2 2 Seen in Germany business men and all, they sang the glories of the place for an hour or more, and then they walked home in the cool of the evening, sober but sociable. One could not help thinking how shy an American or an English gathering would have been in express- ing such warm sentiments for a host ; they would have felt that they were being used for advertising purposes ; and there is nothing that sooner stings the dignity of your American. The German has not reached the point of revolt against advertising. Like everything else, advertising is limited by law ; the cities provide certain large wooden columns at street intersections upon which placards may be pasted, and the streets are not dis- figured by dead-walls bearing patent-medicine adver- tisements. One coming into New York or any other American city must perforce be impressed with the virtues of somebody's soap or pain-killer painted in letters that seem to fill the landscape, and in London the trams and 'buses are one mass of traveling adver- tisements. This disfigurement is unknown in Ger- many, and yet the Germans have their own effective methods of proclaiming the excellence of their wares. Look at the gimcrack toy which your boy is playing with, and you will find upon it the words, " Made in Germany," and if you travel in Germany you will find that you are very persistently plied with circulars and pamphlets by post and otherwise. Last summer <>1 s 5 24 Seen in Germany Barnuni's circus visited Germany for the first time, and brought with it American methods of advertis- ing. I am not exaggerating when I say that Barnum paralyzed the Germans, — both paralyzed and scan- dalized them. They did n't think it possible for any business enterprise to make so much noise ; it was positively undignified. For Barnum bought up store- windows and store-fronts by the hundreds, and his enormous colored prints, such as had never before been seen in Germany, told the wonders of the show to gaping multitudes. They disapproved of all this, but they went to the show. I heard complaints afterwards that the circus was too big ; they, felt that they were losing money when there were perform- ances in three rings, and they could see only one at a time. The Germans, as a rule, disapprove of all for- eigners, especially the English and French, and dur- ing our Spanish war they hated us most ardently. I don't know that the Germans are peculiar in this respect ; every country thinks best of its own. But the individual German ordinarily treats a stranger with the greatest kindness and hospitality. I have had a hundred examples of this. Curiously enough, the ordinary German — I do not refer to the edu- cated classes — cannot tell foreigners apart, not even a Frenchman from an Englishman, except, of course, those Germans who live on the French border. Common Things 25 The reason for this is simple. Unlike New York, for instance, where all the races of the earth dwell together in unity, Berlin, and most other German cities, are most uncosmopolitan. The proportion of foreign residents is exceedingly small, so that the Germans have had little experience in distinguishing nationalities. Recently, however, Italians have ap- peared in Germany, to do such hard manual labor as they do in New York. The German experiences especial difficulty in dis- tinguishing Americans from Englishmen. Several times during the Boer war, when the anti-British feeling was strongest, street boys called after us, " English, English, poison-throwers," — no doubt re- ferring to the throwing of lyddite shells by the British forces in South Africa. But I heard of one German who knew an Ameri- can every time he saw him. He was a professor of ethnology, — a gentle, absent-minded old man who wore thick prism glasses that made his eyes stare out blue and big, giving him a look of perpetual aston- ishment. He had made a study of the craniums of his American students, and it was amusing enough to find that he looked upon Americans as a class, as incipient red Indians. He had formed the curious theory that all Americans, owing to the nature of their climate, and other conditions of environment, were gradually acquiring the characteristics of the 26 Seen in Germany Indian aborigines, — high cheek-bones, straight, coarse hair, and a bronze-colored complexion. I learned that he sometimes stopped Americans on the streets and requested the privilege of examining their cheek-bones, always with a look of humorous astonishment. 1 suppose that in time we shall have a voluminous and learned monograph on the sub- ject, done as only a German professor can do it. The ordinary German has a rather hazy idea of America and Americans, although it is perhaps as clear as the ordinary English idea. He knows Milwaukee, for he has a cousin there ; he knows Hoboken, for that is where the German ships land ; and he has heard of Niagara Falls and Chicago. The only Americans 1 ever heard mentioned, not of course among the educated people, who are toler- ably familiar with things American, were Carl Schurz, Dewey, and McKinley. The Spanish-American war did more than anything else has ever done to educate Europe on American affairs. Previous to 1898, they heard of our lynchings, train-robberies, political dis- honesty, and international marriages, which confirmed them in the view that we were vulgar, energetic, and rich ; but now the papers contain a good deal of American news. All Americans, it may be said in passing, are still regarded as rich. An English-speaking stranger in Germany is as- tonished by the wide knowledge of his language, and Common Thin gs 27 not only among hotel porters, waiters, and others who have special need to cater to the tourist element, hut among business men who seldom meet tourists, shop- keepers, barbers, and, of course, professors, military officers, and so on. An ordinary tourist who wishes merely to see the country, has little need of knowl- edge of the German language. English is the great- est of commercial languages, with a world-wide use, and it is quite necessary to business enterprise, es- pecially in foreign countries, for the German to be able to speak English fluently. As a result, thou- sands of young Germans go to Great Britain every year and serve an apprenticeship in English business- houses, barber-shops, restaurants, hotels, and the like, gaining a knowledge of the language and of the weights and measures, and at the same time studying business methods generally. Indeed, England has unintentionallv given much of the instruction that has enabled the German to win some of his greatest business triumphs of recent years, so that the pupil now threatens the commercial supremacy of the master. During this preliminary service in England, the German is willing to work for little or nothing, considering his occupation in the light of an educa- tional course. Thus London is brimful of Germans, — barber-shops with only an English-speaking pro- prietor, restaurants that swarm with German waiters, and shops that employ German workmen. Of late 28 Seen in Germany years many German boys go to Ireland to learn the language, and acquire at the same time the Irish middle-class opinion of England, which they cherish and propagate on their return to their native land. Perhaps that is one of the sources of Ger- man dislike for the Englishman. Another thing that the German boy acquires in Ireland is a rich and varied brogue, and one of the most amusing things one hears in Germany is the waiter who speaks German-Irish-Enplish. A music-hall comedian who could adequately imitate this combination as I have frequently heard it, would certainly make his for- tune. Next to this in ludicrousness is the Cock- ney English of many porters and waiters, learned, I have no doubt, within the sound of Bow Bells. Much of the language acquirements of the waiter- class is, however, barely skin deep. Talk about food, forks, and fees, and the waiter understands in- stantly ; but ask him a question outside of the realm of the dining-room, and he is lost, and so are you. Some Germans of the better class come to America to learn the language ; but this, as I understand, is looked upon with disfavor, for many of those who come never return, finding undreamed-of business chances here, to say nothing of plenty of German society. I met a young German, the son of a general in the imperial army, who was, moreover, a " von." He had been in New York for nearly Common Things 29 two years, he spoke English fluently, and he was returning to do his final service of four weeks in the army. A military career in Germany was open to A German Double-Deck Tram-Car him, and it had been his intention in America merely to learn the language; but he liked American life so well that he had decided to return and make his home in New York. A hundred and one small things point significantly 30 Seen in German^ to the recent remarkable developments in Germany, and they are quite as convincing as the difficult gov- ernment statistics of industrial progress, exports, and growth of population. In no fewer than three hotels at which I stopped, I was lighted to bed with an old-fashioned candle in a quaint brass candlestick, and in each case the porter apologized, and ex- plained that they were just then fitting the building with electricity, and that in another month or more every room would have its own incandescent lamps. We in America have been content to take our pro- gress more slowly. From the candle-stage we rose to the kerosene-oil lamp, and from that we drifted to the gaslight-stage, and that in turn was superseded by electricity. But the German has made a swift leap from dim candlehood to the blaze of electric- light-hood, — and not only in hotels, but in private houses and business buildings. In the same way, the transit system of many German cities has been sud- denly transformed from crude lumbering 'buses dravvn by horses, to the most approved electric cars and automobiles, skipping entirely the intermediary stages of horse cars, cable cars, and often passing even the trolley stage, and springing at once to the underground wire or storage system. When the German made up his mind to advance, he advanced all the way ; he took no half measures. An Amer- ican engineer who was visiting Germany after an Common Things 3 1 absence of three years, told me that the great cities, especially Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremberg, and a few others, actually seemed made over in the short time since his last visit. *' Lightning has literally struck Germany," he said, and he pointed out how the cities blazed with electricity, — streets, show-windows, hotels, restau- rants, and private dwellings. Berlin is brilliant com- pared with London. Indeed, no country in the world, not even the United States, is advancing more rapidly in electrical development than Germany. Then there is the matter of the development of the mechanical sense among the people at large. I sometimes think that we Americans are becoming a race of mechanics ; we are surrounded by machines of more or less intricate mechanism, and we learn to operate them, take them apart and repair them. The principles of machinery are coming to us with our grammar and geography. We have bicy- cles, sewing-machines, phonographs ; we play on pianos by machinery ; our farmers are literally sur- rounded by machines ; we talk by telephone and use call bells; we speak of currents and cut-offs, dynamos and batteries, with easy familiarity ; we ride in ma- chines and we write with machines. And Germany seems to be following in the same direction. Nearly every town of any consequence in Germany has one or more agencies for American sewing-machines and 32 Seen in Germany for the American kodak. Bicycles and tricycles are everywhere, and motor-carriages can be seen in the streets of most of the cities. All large new buildings are being fitted with elevators and call-bell systems, though in most cases the elevators are very tame affairs in the matter of speed. Indeed, so new is the elevator that there exists a humorous confusion of names. In some places it goes by the English name " lift ; " in some, by the American name " elevator ; " in others, by the French term ; while the patriotic Germans call it in some instances, " fahrstuhl," and in others, " aufzug." The slot machine has also had a remarkable development in Germany. At many railway stations, if one wishes to go out on the plat- form to meet a friend, he must perforce drop a ten- pfennig piece (two and a half cents) in a slot machine and draw a ticket. He may buy unlimited postal cards, candy, and gimcracks at slot-machines ; he may drop the equivalent of a penny in the slot and hear phonographic music, or see moving pictures. But the most notable development of all is the automatic restaurant. There are several of these curious institutions in Berlin, two very fine ones in Friedrich Strasse, and they are also to be found in other German cities. They are large, brilliantly fitted rooms, with metal and glass walls which con- tain a great number of pockets and slots. Supposing you wish a glass of beer and a sandwich, you drop Common Things 33 your twenty-pfennig piece in the proper beer-place, and having set a glass underneath a spout, you turn a handle and immediately your glass is foaming full. Then you cross the room to the sandwich depart- ment, where, through a glass wall, you may see all the varieties of sandwiches in stock. When you have selected the kind you wish, a coin in the slot will cause it to drop out on a little shelf, and thence to a plate or into your hand. Should you desire coffee, milk, salad, cold meat, preserves, and in some cases warm dishes, they are all to be had for the dropping of a coin, and the food furnished is well cooked and fresh. Tables are provided at which one may stand or sit and eat his lunch. One would think that such institutions would in nowise attract the leisurely German, who loves to sit long over his beer and sausages; but they are quite as popular as our own quick-lunch restaurants, being especially crowded in the evenings. There are many other evidences that the German is deep in the dust and grime of the machinery age. In more than one great manufacturing estab- lishment hundreds of labor-saving machines of Amer- ican make are to-day in operation, whole plants, indeed, being fitted with them throughout. I had the pleasure while in Berlin of visiting the factory where the Mauser rifle, the best known of military small arms, is made. It is a huge plant, 3 34 Seen in Germany fitted with hundreds of lathes, boring machines, screw-making machines, and so on, and what was my astonishment to see on nearly all of the machines the name of a well-known Connecticut manufacturer. These Connecticut machines made the rifles with which the Spaniards shot our soldiers at San Juan and El Caney. Indeed a great manufacturing estab- lishment in Berlin is engaged solely in the manufac- ture of machinery of various sorts from American models. In science we have learned much from the Germans ; in machinery the Germans are learning much from us. And this introduction of labor- saving devices is going on all over the empire to a degree that can hardly be realized by a foreigner ; it is one of the causes of the greatly increased output of German factories. II THE KAISER II THE KAISER His Personality and his Passions THE American visitor who sees William II. of Germany for the first time is curi- ously impressed with the influence of the comic paper. He discovers that his im- agination in picturing the Kaiser has followed the exaggerations of the caricaturist rather than the sober reality of the photograph. For the German Kaiser is not at all what his caricaturists, at least his foreign caricaturists, make him. In the first place, he is not a large man, neither tall, nor inordinately broad of shoulders. Somehow it is the natural bent of the human mind to associate majesty with physical bigness. I believe the old Egyptians represented their Ptolemys and Rameses as giants. And William, who knows the psychology of royalty to the seventh shading, has built high on this feeling. Any one of the seventy-eight court photographers, more or less, in Berlin, will tell you how carefully William always arranges the groupings when he is 38 Seen in Germany to have his picture taken in company with others ; and a study of the resulting photographs will show how, almost invariably, William looms tall above the shorter men who surround him. A favorite picture represents the Kaiser standing side by side with the famous artist, Menzel, whose four feet, something, of stature gives William the frame of a Goth. In one of the galleries there is a por- trait of the Kaiser in full naval uniform, standing on the bridge of one of his ships of war. The canvas, which is so hung as to strike the visitor as he enters the doorway, is of enormous size and the figure of the emperor stands out of it with gigantic impressiveness. Even in many of his smaller pictures, the cabinet photographs, the camera has been moved so close that the Kaiser's face nearly fills the plate, thereby giving an extraordinary impression of hugeness. The caricaturists have naturally exaggerated the suggestions given by these various portraits, and it is with something of a shock that one realizes, for the first time, that the Kaiser is, after all, only a man of common stature, or less. In other ways, also, a first view of the Kaiser impresses one. A photograph gives no hint of color. The Kaiser is a brown-faced man, the brown of wind and weather, of fierce riding on land and of a glaring sun on the sea. His face is thinner than The German Kaiser 40 Seen in Germany one has pictured and there is a hint of weariness about the eyes. His hair gives the impression of being thin, and his famous moustache is not so long nor so jauntily fierce as one has imagined. There is many a dry-goods clerk in Berlin who has out- Kaisered the Kaiser in growing a moustache. But, owing to the sin of retouching, there is one thing that few of William's photographs show to advantage, and it is the most impressive character- istic of his face. And that is its singular sternness in repose. Square, iron jaws, thin, firm lips, a certain sharpness and leanness of visage, a penetra- ting eye, all speak of invincible determination, pride, dignity. Indeed, herein lies the force of personal majesty, for William, however much one may smile at his passion for royal display, has many of those splendid attributes of character which would make a man great in any sphere of life. It would be a large company of Germans, indeed, among whom one would fail to select him instinctively as the leader. A first impression, therefore, may thus be summed up : The Kaiser is less a great king than one has imagined, and more a great man. The longer one remains in Germany, and the more he learns of William and his extraordinary activities, the deeper grows this impression. We Americans have never quite overcome our first prejudices against the Kaiser, bred during the early days of his reign, when the The Kaiser 41 mantle of royalty — and the Hohenzollern mantle at that — was new to his shoulders, and he said and did strange things ; but in Europe, where they have grown accustomed to his vagaries, now, indeed, much less pronounced in their manifestations, and have set them down as the expressions of a strong and original individuality, the Kaiser occupies a place of high and genuine esteem. An American who remains long in Germany feels this change in sentiment strongly and when the Kaiser passes he raises his hat with all the others, not merely be- cause this is royalty, but because it is character and strength of purpose. As might be expected, the Kaiser is most popular in his capital. One hearing a commotion on Unter den Linden, with a flash of white plumes in the dis- tance, and the swift clatter of hoofs, may well crowd up to see. A pair of splendid horses, traveling like the wind, two richly uniformed men on the box, and the Kaiser, the Kaiserin, and another lady in the open carriage behind. You observe that the Kaiser sits with his back to the horses, giving the place of honor to his wife, for William has set the highest ideals in courtesy to women — the Anglo-Saxon ideals, which often form a strong contrast to the rougher Teutonic customs. He wears a glistening silver helmet, which he touches with military precision as the people on the streets shout and litt their hats. 42 Seen in Germany No cavalcade of guards accompanies the carriage, and there is apparently no effort to guard the lives of its occupants, except in so far as they are protected by the terrific speed at which the horses are always driven. It is one of William's pleasures to show himselt and his family frequently to his people and the royal carriage may be seen at all hours in the streets of Berlin. The Kaiser's departure from the palace is always signalled by the fall of a flag, which serves as a notification to the people to prepare for his ap- pearance among them. Nearly every afternoon he rides out, usually in uniform, with some of his staff officers, galloping down the Linden and into the Thiergarten, where he often spends an hour in exercise. The Kaiser appears to better advantage on horse- back than when standing, being tall of body. He has a great variety of uniforms and one may see him many times and never see him clothed twice alike. This diversity of dress is one manifestation of his well-known love of display and pageantry. He loves the outward manifestation of royalty, the sym- bols of power, and he uses them without stint. Not long ago an American professor attended a reception in the royal palace given by the Kaiser to an associa- tion of scientists, at which William appeared in the gorgeous robes of royalty preceded by liveried cham- berlains bearing the crown and insignia. It was a The Kaiser 43 most impressive display, and when the professor came away he said to a friend : " I am a republican to the backbone, but I believe that if monarchs are necessary they should be monarchs to the last bit of gold lace, just as William is Kaiser." The next day this friend had an audience with the Kaiser, and in the course of the conversation told him what the American professor had said. The Kaiser laughed heartily. " That is exactly what I believe," he said. "Dom Pedro of Brazil illustrated the folly of trying to be a republican on a throne." The pictures of the Kaiser and his family form an admirable indication of the degree of his popularity in various parts of the empire. It is said that the different photographs of the Kaiser now number far into the thousands. At a single shop which I visited in Berlin, there were no fewer than two hundred and sixty-seven different pictures of the Kaiser and this did not include the scores upon scores of groups and family pictures in which the Kaiser appears. It is said that the Kaiser averages a picture a day, year in and year out. Of course weeks will pass when no photograph is taken, at least no official photograph, and then there comes a time when a dozen of them are made in an afternoon. In Berlin, one cannot possibly escape the Kaiser's face : it is everywhere, in the hotel room where you sleep, in the restaurant T^he Kaiser arid Kaiserin The Kaiser 45 where you eat, in almost every shop window, in the picture galleries, in the churches, in the public build- ings, and in every illustrated paper. No American presidential candidate ever had his likeness so widely displayed even at his home town in campaign time. And not only photographs, but paintings, busts in marble, bronze, and bisque, cheap colored prints, medals, bas-reliefs, and every other known form of representation of the human face. This is in Berlin, the centre of Prussian loyalty. In the northern provinces of Germany, especially in Pomerania, the pictures of the Kaiser are not so plentiful, and yet they are very numerous. One may see thousands of them in Stettin, where there are tens in Dresden. Indeed, as one goes south from Berlin the Kaiser's pictures grow fewer in number, until at Munich one rarely sees any of them displayed, — certainly the best evidence of the aloofness of the Bavarians. Judged by the number of his pictures on view, the Kaiser is more popular to-day in Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle, in the half-French Rhine coun- try, than he is in Bavaria. Indeed, one who hears everything in the Kaiser's praise in north Germany will get a glimpse of the reverse opinion in south Germany. In many places, like such crowded manu- facturing cities as Chemnitz, one hears much said against the Kaiser, although it is not so much against William as it is against the form of government which 46 Seen in Germany he represents. And if William fears anything in the world it is the spirit of socialism which grows rank in these factory towns : in more than one of his speeches he has mentioned socialism as one of the things which Germans must concjuer with a strong hand. The greatest criticism of the Kaiser made by his people is that he talks too much. One hears that everywhere. 1 think the Germans rather admire William for thinking as he does but they blame him for saying aloud all he thinks. That is charac- teristic of the German ; he is born a free thinker, but his institutions and the watchful eye of the omniscient police forever keep the lid shut down upon his genu- ine sentiments ; he is slow of anger and unrivaled in his reverence for authority. It so happens, therefore, that while the Kaiser may often be expressing the real sentiment of his people he is expressing it too loudly to suit the cautious German type of diplomacy. An- other criticism, which is not now heard as frequently, perhaps, as it was a few years ago, condemns what the Germans imagine to be a pro-English attitude on the part of the Kaiser. They cannot forget that their sov- ereign is by birth half an Englishman ; and many there are who look with only half-concealed suspicion on the cordial relations that existed for so many years between the Kaiser and his grandmother, the late Queen, and suspect his present friendship with his uncle, King F-dward VII. It was once said that the "The German CroTvn Prince 48 Seen in Germany Kaiser was more sensitive to this criticism than to al- most any other, and the story of his famous reply when injured at a regatta some years ago is still told in Ger- many. As he saw the blood flowing he said grimly : "Well, there goes the last drop of my English blood." In the light of this sentiment one wonders how the average German regards the recent display of friend- liness between the Kaiser and the King, during the funeral ceremonies of the Queen, as well as the ap- parent agreement regarding the Chinese question. The Kaiser is an excellent English student, speak- ing and reading the language perfectly and following English models in many of his most important de- partures. One does not forget that the Kaiser as a boy was especially fond of Captain Marryat's tales of the sea, and that in more recent years he was one of the most enthusiastic admirers of our own Captain Mahan's great book, " The Influence of Sea Power," — a book which he has used as one of his strongest arguments for a more powerful German navy. The Kaiser is much too great a man and the claims of his country are too insistent, to permit him to specialize in any great degree in his interests, and yet he is but a man and certain lines of activity engross his attention more than others. Upon his accession to the throne his enthusiasms were chiefly military ; he loved his army and he longed passionately to use it. This interest still continues to a degree, and yet The Kaiser 49 it may be said that at present the Kaiser's greatest hobby is his new navy. He has enough English blood in him to make him passionately fond of the sea and of sea Hfe, and his leanings toward all that is martial make him the natural sponsor of a great navy. And it has required all the determination, tact, and enthusiasm of William the man, as well as all the immense power of William the Kaiser, to convince the Germans that a great navy is a necessity to the nation and then to persuade them to pay for it. If William were an American he would be classed in politics as a republican with strong sentiments of im- perialism and expansion, a supporter of the doctrine of high protective tariffs and sound money, and a steady champion of a larger army and navy. His en- emies might even accuse him of a fondness for trusts. He has been compared in character and aims to Theodore Roosevelt, and the similarity of the two men in restless energy, honesty, wide general culture, and information and admiration of things martial, is cer- tainly most striking. Years ago the Kaiser began studying the naval question in every one of its phases, and thus he continued until he was intimately familiar with the navies of the world as well as with the naval attitude of each nation. Indeed, he is said to know by name the chief war vessels of every country with the tonnage, armament, and equipment of each. With this knowledge in hand he began a mighty 4 •§ t> The Kaiser 51 campaign of education among his people. He invited members of the Reichstag repeatedly to the palace, showed them lantern pictures of the great vessels of the world, and gave them lectures on naval affairs, and the moral that he invariably preached was : " Germany must have a great navy." He argued from the point of view of commerce, of industry, of expansion, of sentiment and patriotism, and he finally succeeded in getting nearly all he wanted, only to find that he wanted more; and so the work is still going forward. War anywhere in the world mounts like strong wine to William's head. He hears afar the sounds of strife, anci he longs to be there to see. And some- times he grows so excited that, like a small boy at a fire, he can't help shouting, and then the world won- ders over his curious cablegrams of sympathy or en- couragement. There was no more fascinated observer of our war with Spain than William of Germany ; he watched every phase, he studied every maneuver, and later he used this information well in persuading his obdurate legislators that Germany must at least have a navy equal to that of the United States. More recently he has been interested in submarine boats, and when the English pounded the old " Belle Isle " to pieces he was one of the most eager of inquirers as to the exact effect of the shells on the sides of the old hulk and in her hold. Indeed, as soon as the bare report of the tests had been tele- 52 Seen in Germany graphed to Berlin, William was discussing them eagerly with the foreign military attaches. He is, by the way, a great favorite with the foreign attaches. He treats them with bluff bonhomie, entertains them frequently, pumps them dry, and sends them away in all their lean emptiness, feeling that William is the greatest man on earth. At his palace at Potsdam, he has many conspicuous naval ornaments, among them models of battle ships, Krupp guns, and so on. He has painted a picture of merit, " Fight between Battle Ships," and it has seemed sometimes as if he lived and moved and had his being in ships. And not only ships of war enlist his enthusiasm, and ships of pleasure, for he is a great yachtsman, but there is no stronger supporter of the new and wonderfully pro- gressive merchant navy of Germany than the Kaiser. He knows to the last sheer-legs the equipment of every German ship yard. In the winter of 1900 he was present at the launching of the splendid new fast liner the " Deutschland," at Stettin, and when she ran on a bar he hurried to send war ships to drag her off. We find the emperor visiting the Berlin decorator who was making the interior furnishings of the new vessel, and giving his suggestions for changes. He telegraphs his sympathy to the North German Lloyd Company when its New York docks are burned, he encourages subsidies for German ships, and he plans for their instant conversion in case of The Kaiser 53 war to powerful cruisers — for in the end everything stands upon its serviceability to Germany in arms. No detail escapes him or fails to interest him. 1 shall not soon forget a little anecdote told me by Captain Albers. When the great liner the " Furst Bismarck " was finished, the Kaiser came on board with Prince Henry to inspect her. He approved everything until he saw the tables in the dining room. Then he said to Captain Albers : " I should think a man who had been at sea as long as you would not allow a cabinet maker to give you square-cornered tables on shipboard." After the Kaiser left, the table corners were quickly rounded off. Two years later the Kaiser again came aboard the vessel ; and when he saw the tables he said : " I see you have rounded off the corners. That is good." He had not forgotten even a thing as small as this. The German navy and the advance of German shipping are without doubt the Kaiser's strongest interests at present. Connected with this hobby, and growing out of it, is his deep enthusiasm for what is now the most striking feature of German develop- ment — commercial and industrial expansion. No monarch in Europe takes such a keen interest in the industrial affairs and in the extension of the export business of his domain as William. This interest has arisen largely from the Kaiser's notable talent for taking a broad view of affairs, a talent developed by 54 Seen in Germany travel in other countries and by persistently endeav- oring to look upon Germany through foreign eyes. He and other great Germans have not been slow to see that the future prosperity of the country, with its ever growing population and its ever insufficient agricultural production, must needs depend largely on its success as manufacturer and trader. Hence the Kaiser has taken the greatest interest in spread- ing industrial and technical education. Not long ago he shocked the conservative educational elements of the German universities by paying special respect and attention to the technical schools. For years without number all academic honors and degrees have fallen to the men who have come from the universities. Now degrees are given to certain tech- nical school graduates, and they are placed on the same level in many respects with the aristocrats of the uni- versities. The Kaiser himself attended the recent cele- bration of this departure at the famous technical High School at Charlottenburg. Those who know how conservative Germany is in educational affairs appre- ciate the almost revolutionary effect of this departure. Besides encouraging more skilled workmen, the Kaiser is not less interested in finding places where the goods which they manufacture may find profit- able sale. Hence the strenuous efforts to encourage the building of merchant ships to carry German goods, and the all but feverish desire on the part of The Kaiser 55 the Kaiser for foreign possessions and foreign spheres of influence. The Kaiser is a shrewd and far- sighted man, and he sees clearly that the great coming struggle among the nations is a struggle for com- merce. Virgin continents and islands have now all been occupied ; the United States has at last supplied her own vast necessities, and is preparing to enter the foreign market with huge surpluses of manufactured goods; and that nation will prosper most which secures and holds the best markets. Hence the scramble for China; hence the Kaiser's eagerness for more territory, no matter where located. One of the most significant and impressive recent movements in .Germany is the colonial exhibition. Nearly every town of any prominence has had one of these exhibitions or is about to have one. They are given under the auspices of the best families of the place with the ladies of society in charge of the booths. I attended one of the exhibitions at Jena. It occupied a large hall and it consisted of sample products from German colonies, of maps showing the location of foreign German possessions, and of innumerable photographs of scenery, colonial life, and so on. Special attention was given to the men who were governing the colonies, large portraits of each occupying a prominent place in the exhibit. Circulars describing the colonies, inviting immigra- tion, and giving all manner of statistical information 56 Seen in Germany were distributed free. As a side department there was a naval and shipping exhibit which made the usual strong plea for more ships, giving in colored diagrams all manner of statistical information as to German exports and imports, and as to German ships, with comparisons with the activities of other countries. It is probable that no other country ever made such a campaign of education in commerce and industrial expansion. And behind it all looms the irrepressibly active Kaiser with his vast schemes for the advancement of his country. He will have a great navy, and great shipping interests, and great colonial possessions, if he has to bring every peasant in the empire to his palace and convince him with lantern pictures and chalk talks. For the common citizen of Germany who pays the taxes must first be convinced — at least that is the theory ! These two things — his navy, and his desire for commercial expansion — must be set down as the Kaiser's greatest interests. William has been accused of having a universal interest, of being a sort of kingly dabbler in everything. An emperor must of necessity possess wide interests, and yet one who watches the Kaiser's activities will soon perceive that, after all, he is like other men ; he has his great pas- sions and his lesser ones. He cares little, for in- stance, for science or for horse-racing. He loves travel ; he entertains high respect for religion, a The Kaiser 57 religion of his own stern Mosaic kind ; he dabbles in art and music ; he cares nothing for social affairs unless they have some specific purpose or unless they reach the stage of pageantry in which he is the central figure. But among all his lesser likings nothing occupies such a place as statuary. He is preeminently a monument-lover. Not long ago he said to a friend : " There are thirty-four sculptors in Berlin." He knew every one of them personally and he knew all about their work. Nothing pleases him better than to visit them and to be photo- graphed among the litter of the studio. Every one knows of his astonishing adornment of the great central drive through the Thiergarten with a mag- nificent row of statuary, each group representing one of his ancestors and two of that ancestor's foremost counsellors. This statuary is all in white marble, magnificently done, and erected at the Kaiser's per- sonal expense. Indeed, the Kaiser has watched and criticised each statue as it grew under the sculp- tor's hand, and has presided at the unveiling of each. It is characteristic, also, of the Kaiser that he has selected a place for a statue of himself which shall match those of his ancestors. This work has been done not only because the Kaiser is a lover of statuary, but because he loves his capital city and wishes to see it beautified, and, more than that, he believes that such representations 58 Seen in German^ of the great men of the nation have a profound educational influence on the people. They are visible symbols of what patriotic men can do. The Kaiser is ever a profound educator. I shall not soon forget my visit to one of these new statues on a Friday afternoon. From afar I saw a great crowd of children gathered around it, and as I approached I saw that it was a school class, and the master was standing there in front, telling the story of the king and his two counsellors, while the mute statues gave his words a reality that must have impressed them indelibly upon their minds. 1 learned that this method of teaching German history was pursued to a great extent in Berlin ; and whatever may be said of the Kaiser's vanity in thus setting up a row of his ancestors for worship, one cannot but feel that he had another and a profoundly useful purpose in the work. i 'I'M'' Ill THE GERMAN PRIVATE SOLDIER Ill THE GERMAN PRIVATE SOLDIER Who he is and How he is Made |HREE words, the facets of the same idea, will express the national atmosphere of Germany : order, system, discipline. From the mo- ment one sets foot on the soil of the Fatherland, particularly if he enters by way of the French border, he feels this atmosphere. It radiates from the soldierly rail- road guard who stands sharply at ," attention " at the crossing as the train rushes past; he feels it in 'the forests all planted properly in rows, and in the neatly kept railroad grounds and rights of way; he feels it in the policeman who demands his address, his nationality, his business, and how long he is going to stay, so that he may be properly tagged and pigeon- holed; and, above all, he feels it in the endless system 62 Seen in Germany — and it is nothing short of a system — of military and civil uniforms, which helps to relieve him of the responsibility of being a judge of character, for almost every other German wears his character on his back. rAnd this national atmosphere of Germany is, in reality, the atmosphere of the military camp, as the spirit of the government is the military spirit. In- deed, every German is a soldierTj I do not mean, of course, that every German actually drills and studies the tactics of war every year; but until he is beyond the years of militarv service he is always on call, and he looks upon himself as a soldier of the empire. Indeed, after the German has finished his regular compulsory service, he is called back from time to time for a few weeks to keep him in training, to drill him in the new formations, or to give him a clear un- derstanding of new arms and ammunition. His life is divided into exact periods — the actual service period, the reserve period, the landwehr period, and the landsturm period ; and the military authorities always know just where to find him and at what call he must shoulder arms. As he grows older, there is less likelihood that the government will put its finger on him ; but in cases of great danger even the old landsturm must march forth. Every boy is born a soldier, his birth is registered with the authorities, and twenty years later, with automatic precision, he is called upon to do duty. As a consequence, when The German Private Soldier 63 one speaks of the making of a German soldier, he deals to a large extent, at least, with the greater sub- ject of the making ot a German citizen, and indeed with the making ot the German nation. Germany has no regular army in the sense in which that term is used in America and in England. There are no regular private soldiers who enlist for long periods of time and make soldiery a business. Ger- many is wholly without a counterpart of that pictur- esque character, Tommy Atkins, who has served everywhere in the world, and who knows no life outside of the army ; nor has she any type corre- sponding to our own hard-riding, dare-devil regulars. Although a country of soldiers, it is a curious fact that Germany has produced little or no soldier-boy literature — literature in which the English language is so rich. There is little glamour in soldier life to the German, no heroes adorn the service ; soldiery is simply one of the plain duties of life — if pleasant, to be enjoyed; if disagreeable, to be endured. And so, although Germany is a nation of soldiers, the soldier does not exist. Even the noncommissioned officers, although they serve for longer terms than the privates, and learn more of the business of soldiery, do it not so much for the love of the service or because it has irresistible attraction for them, as in the case of the English or the American " noncom," but with the definite purpose of making it a step to better 64 Seen in Germany things in civil life. For after all is said, the German has no Irish blood in him ; he is not a natural-born fighter. And yet he does his duty in his German way with absolute faithfulness, serves his time and is proud of it afterward. But because he does not be- come intoxicated with the military life like the French- man, there is no reason why he should not be a good fighter. It is curious that a nation thus deficient in mili- tary enthusiasm should become, by common consent, the greatest of military powers, with the most per- fectly organized fighting system and the most per- fectly trained individual soldier. The German army, like the German nation, has been squeezed into existence. Germany, open on every side to attack, has been the great battle- ground of Europe through all the centuries ; and by constant pressure within and without, the army has had its growth. It was the result of stern necessity for defense. It was defense or death ; and that, in spite of the commonly reported military aspirations of the German Kaiser^ is the keynote of the system. The army must be made powerful enough to defend the country from the attacks of any one power or all of them together. If it is necessary to march into France in the course of such a war, well and good; but that is not the fundamental purpose of the army. And this idea of defending the Fatherland is, sig- The German Private Soldier 65 nificantly enough, the idea which animates every citi- zen German. In France, the popular attitude is just the reverse. There an army is for attack, it is a weapon for offense, and whenever the army becomes about so strong, or when an ambitious officer arises, immediately there is talk of war with England or Germany or some other nation. There have been signs recently that the attitude of Germany, in high official circles at least, was changing, that a new spirit of conquest and extension had been born (witness the Chinese expedition) ; but if that is so, it has not yet affected the German citizen-soldier. To the old " inevitables," death and taxes, the German adds a third, military service. From the time he is old enough to go to school, he looks for- ward and plans for it. It is said that the first great event in the life of a German boy is his confirma- tion, and the second his first week as a soldier. A huge red placard appears one day on the bill-posting tower so familiar to German towns. It contains a list of the names of all the young men in the district who have reached military age, and his is among them. He has been expecting it,and he knows that the author- ities never forget. Already he and his parents have decided one important question regarding his service, and that is, whether he shall enter as an einj'dhrige freiwillige^ or volunteer to serve for one year only, or whether he must take the full service of two years. 5 66 Seen in Germany It is safe to say that every German boy has an ambi- tion to be a freiwi/Iige, hut with the greater majority of them it is an impossibility. For 3. freiwil/ige must have had a certain amount of schooHng, or his men- tal training must be sufficient to enable him to pass a specified examination ; and then, more difficult still, his parents must be financially able to support him while he is in the service, even to the extent of paying for his board and clothing. It is the demand of the government that every boy must serve, be his family rich or poor, noble or common ; but the gov- ernment assumes that the bright, capable boy will learn the drill and the instructions more quickly than the dull peasant boy, and, besides, the freiwillige system relieves the government of the support of a large number of soldiers, and, as I shall show later, economy is a cardinal virtue in the German military system. The physicians reject great numbers of the bovs the first year, because they are not yet large or strong enough to bear the rigors of the service, and they are called again the next year. Boys with serious physi- cal defects, such as the loss of the trigger finger, or color-blindness, or curvature of the spine, are rejected entirely, usually to their keen regret. A few others also escape — cases in which a boy is the sole support of a widowed mother, and similar instances. But the authorities always keep a jealous eye on those The German Private Soldier 67 who slip through, and should their conditions of lite per- mit, within a reasonable num- ber of years, they must do their service with the others. So few Germans escape ser- vice entirely that it is a matter tor mild suspicion and inquiry when a man says he has not served. The first question that a would-be em- ployer asks a man is, " Have you done your service, and where?" If the answer is in the negative, the next ques- tion is, "Why not? " for it is argued that if this man es- caped he must have some grave physical defect or else he must be cumbered with a family to support. Indeed, the sentiment of Germany is strongly against the man who has not served his time, and the boy who finds himself rejected by the examining physicians for any reason is frequently heart-broken, al- Present Arms 68 Seen in Germany though, of course, there are many who would will- ingly escape with any excuse. Under certain conditions the freiwiliige men and sometimes the two-year men may choose the regiment in which they wish to serve, for some regiments are more aristocratic than others, and they may some- times select the branch of the service which they pre- fer, whether infantry, cavalry, artillery, or engineers, although the great proportion of the men are assigned at the will of the officers. Service in the cavalry and artillery requires three years but there are men who are fond of horses and who choose the cavalry because it is schneidig, a word best translated in Eng- lish slang " swell," although the work in the cavalry is more severe. A regiment is never made up entirely of new men. In the first place there is the skeleton framework of the noncommissioned officers (I am not considering here the commissioned officers) and usually a large residue of men who have already served one year. To these the new draft, awkward, callow, apparentlv hopelessly stupid, is added, and the officers are con- fronted with the discouraging task, old as armies, of beating this raw material into shape. The new recruit spends his first few weeks pretty closely in barracks. His old suit of clothes is packed up, labelled, and stored away, to be kept and returned to him when he finishes his service. He is fitted from The Gooie Step JO Seen in Germany among the oldest uniforms in the possession of the regiment, and he is set to such dispiriting tasks as clean- ing barracks and other duties quite as disagreeable to a boy who has been brought up in fairly good surround- ings. Such tasks as these are anything but a pleasant introduction to military life, but here comes in the national spirit of order and obedience to authority, and he obeys. The greatest man in the world to him just now is his corporal, whose business it is to knock off his rough corners, and none too gently. His first sergeant, the " mother of the regiment," is a planet as yet a little out of his orbit, and his captain is a fixed and distant star to be looked upon with awe and wonder. One of his first duties is to learn the " soldier marks " — the distinguishing uniform of his officers and how he must salute his superiors. In Germany, the code of etiquette as between officers and men is very rigid. The private is taught that he must obey every order of a superior absolutely and unquestioningly, and that he must invariably salute in exactly the proper way. Any one who visits Germany will see this saluting process on any corner. A sentinel comes to present arms, and fol- lows his officer with his eyes like a faithful dog until he is out of sight. A marching squad goes through that difficult, and, to the uninitiated, that amusing performance known in olden times as the " goose step.' Each man in the line raises his legs, thrusts out his The German Private Soldier 71 foot vigorously in front, and brings it down with a sharp stroke on the pavement. And thus " goose stepping," he marches until the officer has dis- appeared. Company Tailors The recruit is also taught the purpose of each article in his uniform and how it must be kept, and, what is more, he is held strictly responsible for every damage. Every button is looked after in a way which would astonish an American regular, who, by the way, is the most costly and careless soldier 72 Seen in Germany in the world. One has only to watch a coat or boot inspection which sometimes lasts for an hour, and to see the officers examine every seam and wrinkle, to be persuaded of the care taken. Not only are there regimental tailors and shoemakers de- tailed from among the men of those trades, but each young soldier is taught how to mend his clothing and to patch his boots, so that they always look well. Many regimental commanders take so keen a pride in preserving the uniforms of their men that they pile up great stocks of clothing in store. I heard of one regiment that possessed six complete uniforms for every man. As a consequence of this rigid supervis- ion, there is no soldier who looks neater and cleaner on all occasions than the German ; and I think it has had a profound effect on the whole German nation, for it is rare in Germany to see an untidy, ragged, and dirty man, however poor, whereas such specimens swarm the poorer districts of London and New York. After the recruit has become familiar with his bar- racks, his uniforms, and his officers, he is ready to begin active drilling, at first without a rifle. And this is hard work. Many of the boys are fresh from farm labor, and are already more or less stiff and awk- ward ; and frequently those from the cities, while more active, are not so strong. The exercise con- sists in throwing back the arms violently, expanding The German Private Soldier 73 the chest, lowering and elevating the body by bend- ing the knees, and many similar movements calcu- lated to strengthen and render supple all the muscles ot the body. Then there is the famous " long step." A whole company may be seen strutting across the parade ground, rising on one foot, and balancing there with the other leg extended until the order comes. Then down with the suspended foot in as long a step as possible, and up with the other. This seems simple enough, but when a recruit has been at it half an hour or more he wishes devoutly for some- thing else. The long step is said to make the Ger- mans good marchers, to assist in giving them that quality of strength and endurance which, during the Franco- Prussian war, " marched the French to death." It is a favorite punishment for petty misdemeanors to force a soldier to go through these exercises for so many minutes or hours. A little later, and, indeed, all through the service of the German soldier, there is constant drilling in all manner of athletic feats, particularly in jumping and climbing. I saw a squad of recruits practising the running high jump. They were all clad in old canvas uniforms of cheap make, their working clothes, and they stood in a line and jumped at the order of the officer. Everv one of them was a strapping, round- faced tellow of evident strength, and yet some of them actually could not jump over a string two feet Drill oti the Horizontal Bar The German Private Soldier y^ high. They had had no training, and they possessed no idea of how to utiHze their muscles. But with a year or two of steady training they make good jumpers. More advanced squads are set to work on the horizontal bar; the training here is very practical, with little attempt to teach the high swings and fancy movements. Then there are vaulting exercises and scaling exercises, in which a squad of men are sent charging at a sheer board wall fifteen or twenty feet high, made to represent a fort, and up they go on one another's knees and backs, rifles and all, until every man is on top ; and it is astonishing to see how well and how quickly it is all done. In watch- ing these men at their work, one is impressed with the sober earnestness with which every task is per- formed. There is rarely a smile, never anything like a cheer, and no apparent appreciation of the fact that these exercises are sometimes practised as sport. To these men it is a serious duty, not especially enjoy- able, but endurable. No recruits in the world are worked so hard as the Germans ; for hours they are kept at this physical training, one exercise after an- other. Some men it has killed by its severity, but most of them thrive under it, so that at the end of a year many a frail stripling of a lad has become a brawny, bronzed-faced soldier, able to stand any hardship. There can be no doubt that this vigorous military training has had a profound effect on the 76 Seen in Germany German people. The German is by nature physic- ally indolent : he has little love for violent sports such as the Englishman and the American enjoy ; he pre- fers to sit quietly in some little back-yard forest of evergreens growing in tubs and sip his beer. The military training in a measure stirs him out of this lethargy, and gives him the physical strength that he needs. After several weeks of preliminary training, the re- cruit is given his rifle. He is required to learn every- thing about it, the purpose of each part, and how it should be cleaned and kept. Then begins the long training in the manual of arms, a branch in which the Germans are especially proficient. The drill is car- ried even to practice with the bayonet and bayonet tournaments, the bayonets, of course, being rendered harmless by a clot of cloth wound around the point. 1 have seen two men, shielded with breast padding and cage masks, fight with much vigor and precision, and give each other some pretty vigorous thrusts. If a modern battle should by any remote possibility reach the point of a face-to-face bayonet struggle, these big German soldiers, trained as they are, would unquestionably make short work of their adversaries. And now comes the drill in formation, which is not unlike that in other countries, except, probably, in its minute thoroughness. Indeed, thoroughness is the very essence of the German training. Not Bayonet Practice yS Seen in Germany long ago I read a criticism in an Knglish paper, anent the South African war, to the effect that the KngHsh commissioned officers left too much of the prelim- inary training, and indeed of regular drill work, to their subordinates, the sergeants and the corporals. In the German army this is not the case; the com- missioned officer is never far off, and he is constantly at work with his men, teaching and training them. A familiar sight on a German drill ground is a cap- tain or a lieutenant talking to his company to the length almost of a lecture, advising and instructing. The casual visitor in a German city, who sees the German officers strolling about of an afternoon in their fine uniforms, with their sabre scabbards mirror- bright in the sunshine and their spurs clinking, is quite likely to set these men down as " tin soldiers," rich men's sons who have found an easy and showy career in the army. But if this visitor takes pains to inquire, he will find that most of these officers were out at five o'clock in the morning or before, and that by the time the ordinary citizen is out of bed, they have been for hours at hard work. Indeed, it is the principle ot the German military system to work its men hard, to inure them to all the hardships of war, so that in case they are called sud- denly into the field, a forced march will not send them all to hospital. One hot June day I saw several companies go charging across a drill ground Pontoon Bridge Biiildi?ig Seen in Germany in heavy marching order. They were clad in blue flannel, with metal helmets, and they must have carried at least fifty pounds each on their backs. Every man was dripping with perspiration and chok- ing with dust, but no mercy was shown. They were carrying every pound that would have been carried in a campaign, and they were being trained by hard service to stand it. Besides the company, battalion, and regimental drill, which is kept up constantly during the entire time of the soldiers' service, there are, every year and sometimes oftener, great gatherings of soldiers from all parts of the empire at what is known as the spring or tall maneuvers. The Kaiser himself, than whom there is no more enthusiastic soldier in the empire, is fond of the pageantry of these great gatherings. Here the men are trained as though on an active campaign, maneuvered in divisions and corps, often in sham battle, some fighting from trenches, some skirmishing in the open, others bridging rivers and effecting crossings as if under fire. The three arms of the service are trained together, so that the in- fantry will work in perfect harmony with the cavalry and the cavalry with the artillery. In no other army in the world, perhaps, is so much attention paid to training the men, and especially the officers, in these great and necessary evolutions. Many officers can handle a regiment perfectly, but when it comes to The German Private Soldier 8i disposing a division in a masterly manner they fall short. And in the German army the ideal soldier is Von Moltke, " the battle-thinker," the man who can dispose great forces with wisdom, not the daring hero who rides recklessly at the head of his men and foolishly risks his life. In this respect the Germans are totally different from the French or the Anglo- Saxons, who dearly love the hero — the man of great personal bravery — and who are quite likely to clamor that such a man be rewarded with a high command regardless of his fitness as a " battle-thinker." It has been said by critics that the weakest point in the German army is its marksmanship. Thou- sands of German boys entering service, perhaps a majority of them, have never touched a rifle until it is placed in their hands for drilling. In general, a German is not born with the love of a gun, like an American ; and he rarely has an opportunity to use a rifle outside of the service. In America every farmer's boy begins to shoot rabbits as soon as he can hold the old shot gun without wobbling ; and as he grows older the love of shooting grows with him, but in Germany there is no such natural training, and the military training is limited, owing to the very great cost of ammunition. And still, the Ger- man soldier does much target shooting. He begins with a specially made rifle, in weight and general appearance exactly like the Mauser, but so arranged 82 Seen in Germany that it fires a small cartridge, having a bullet hardly larger than a pea. A miniature target is set up only ten to twenty feet away from the ftrer, and here he Rifle Practice 775 Argand lamps 1,700 to 1,900 Gold melts 1,065 Mercury boils 350 Water boils 100 Water freezes o Liquid air boils 192 The history of the scientific attempts to determine the exact melting-point of gold would fill a good sized volume. Seven years of investigation have been given to it at the Reichsanstalt alone, and the figure above given nearly approaches absolute accuracy. The work of the second department in testing thermometers and other heat-measuring devices will l82 Seen in Germany show what a practical hold the Reichsanstalt already has on the manufacturers of Germany and of the Professor Hagen, Director of the Technical Department of the Reichsanstalt world. Director Hagen, who was for years an asso- ciate of von Helm hoi tz, told me that in 1899 the A Typical Scientific Institution 183 Reichsanstalt tested over 77,000 physician's thermom- eters, sent to them by thermometer manufacturers, 17,000 at the home institute and 60,000 at a branch in Ihiienau. Thousands of other thermometers of various kinds were also tested. The work consists 'Testing T/iermometers in careful and accurate comparisons of thermometers submitted for examination with two or more standard thermometers, the observations being calculated by an assistant. When the comparisons are finally made, the letters P. T. R. (Physikalisch Technischer Reichs- anstalt) with the number of the instrument is etched 184 Seen in Germany on the glass, and a certificate is provided giving the corrections necessary to make accurate readings. All this is done for a fee of from 60 pfennigs to one mark (14 to 24 cents) for each thermometer, — merely a nominal charge compared with the value of the in- struments. As a result of this certification and the prestige which it has given to German instruments for heat-measurement, the annual export of physician's thermometers from Germany has increased more than threefold since the Reichsanstalt was organized. It is significant that the certificates furnished with the thermometers are printed in nine different languages, — certainly an evidence of the world-wide influence of this almost unknown German institution. Another important work of the Reichsanstalt is the effort to establish new or more accurate units of meas- urement. For instance, physicists say that the unit for the measurement of temperature, one degree, shall be the degree of heat required to expand a certain amount of hydrogen gas ^js o^ its volume. This is as close an approximation to an absolute unit as science can make, for, having hydrogen gas and the necessary in- struments, the unit can always be obtained. But in measuring light there is no such satisfactory scientific method of measurement, and Professor Lummer has been engaged in trying to establish one. His ex- periments are as interesting to the scientist as they are complex to the layman. Briefly, he has attempted A Typical Scientific Institution 185 to measure the heat radiated by one square centi- meter of pure platinum, — platinum being the most nearly perfect metal, — when heated just to the melt- ing-point. But platinum is a very hard metal to melt, and when it does reach the melting-point, it is still Measuring the Candle-Po-xver of Electric Lamps more difficult to measure its radiation. As yet, there- fore, the question is unsolved. The second department, on the other hand, has so improved the existing means of measuring light that its work is accepted the world over. As I have al- ready mentioned, our own government, through its war 1 86 Seen in Germany department, has submitted electric lamps to be tested here and American manufacturers have repeatedly had standard lamps sent from the Reichsanstalt to furnish a basis of measurement tor their own product. Indi- rectly, therefore, the Reichsanstalt assures the accu- racy of the candle-power on many incandescent lamps as they come from the American dealer. The old way of measuring light was to compare it with an actual candle of a certain size made of certain fixed materials. At best this process was ex- ceedingly uncertain, as any one may conjecture who has seen a candle puffed about by every wave of air. So Hefner, a German scientist, invented a lamp having a certain kind of wick and burning amylacetate. When the flame was 40 millimeters high it was said to equal one candle-power. The Hefner lamp, being the most accurate standard now at the disposal of scientists, is the present standard of measurement; but the Reichs- anstalt, finding that the burning of this lamp was uncer- tain and likely to be affected by drafts, devised a small electric lamp of exactly the same power. This, with proper control of the electrical current, burns steadily and continuously, — a nearly perfect unit for meas- urements. To the Reichsanstalt also the manufac- turers mav send their lamps to ascertain at what strength of current they will burn longest, and at the same time give the most light, to see what kind of filaments are best, and so on, — all facts of great prac- A Typical Scientilic Institution 187 tical importance if the manufacturer would make his wares perfect. In this connection Professor Lummer has made a series of determinations of the cost per candle-power of the various kinds of light in common use (see table on following page). The results obtained are of great practical and economic value, inasmuch as every one is a light- user. Here are his determina- tions, the unit candle-power being the Hefner lamp. When the price of materials or energy is cheaper or dearer than indicated in the table, the price per hour for candle-power would of course be cheaper or dearer. Another series of inquiries, while having great practical value, leads the way to the solution of some of the deepest and most interesting problems of science. These are experiments in the conductivity of heat and electricity by various metals. In the first place the Reichsanstalt secured rods of the metals which by chemical and other methods had been wrought to a condition approximating absolute purity. I saw these rods of gold, platinum, silver, and so on, — the purest metals, probably, in the world. They were cylindrical in shape, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and over a foot long. They will probably long remain the standard of purity. Begin- ning with these pure metals, the experimenters sought to learn all they could about the effect of heat and i88 Seen in Germany o . t/ t/i r/ ir (A t/i \fi V) c c ^ c c C c c ■J u V U lU 9J u aj u u i) 00 tn M VO u-l ^1 o M M r< ^ to VO t^ o 1" d 6 d d d d d d ^ f !,„• 4J u! u. ^J ^ t/) 4J J3 h c 1) 3 JS JS " "S 5 u S e£ JS *^ P! *-• IS IS ^j IS U. 3 «J a 3 rt 3 3 rt o »x ti cr > ^ ix§ so W-v "4- t^ £ S^*'^ t-^ ro 1/-1 c 6 t-t M Tf U] ij C 4) >^ O .ti a. d" N 1 1 3 lo 1 ^ T3 c^ 1 r) 1 fl vo C ^ < 1 M ■"u 1 el • '^^ ^■^ ,— -— , ^-•^ ^'— V — ■tJ c .2 TZl u ci 772 »- ^• ^ ^ l^"S " V ■^ § 3 cr -^ § — ,1) 15 3 - 1) g ° s fc -f 1) T aj 1> U 1 1) Cu CU Ji r ^ vo 3 3 .0 ^ 0- ti un 3 • cu ^ M (4 , .__ I-H 1 .c •5 * -0 1) .2 M J ho C ^ e 3 ^ feet broad, 44 feet deep with a record speed of over 23 knots (about 26^2 miles) an hour. In order to force such an enormous mass of steel, machinery, and coal through the water, the builders must of a necessity construct engines such as no other ship ever had, — indeed, the greatest engines in the world, either on land or on sea. Few people will realize what that means. It requires 33,000 horse- power to drive the " Deutschland " so that she will make a fraction of a knot more of speed than the " Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse " or the " Campania." The greatest German warship, the " Kaiser Friedrich III.," has only 18,000 horse-power ; the " Oceanic," the greatest of ships in size, has only 27,000 horse- power; the " Campania " has 30,000 horse-power. It was therefore unknown ground that the Vulcan builders covered when they undertook to build the world's greatest engines. But there was no uncer- tainty about it. Indeed, in ship-building almost everything depends on experience. The builders knew to almost the last detail just what was necessary to the construction and operation of such enormous machinery, the strength of every bit of metal, the sizes of the parts that would give the greatest effi- ciency, and yet occupy the smallest space, the proper location in the ship of the vast weights of the boilers. How the Germans build Ships 247 the coal bunkers, and so on, — all of these facts had been established by years of experience with smaller craft. And yet it seems a marvel that such a ship with its hundreds of engines and pumps, its electrical system, its air-power system, its cunning devices for preventing accidents, and its thousand and one other important details could be planned complete in six months' time. It required the continuous work of over a score of draughtsmen to do it, to say nothing of the greater work of the men in whose brains the beautiful lines of the ship were first traced, and who planned the engines and solved to a nicety those wonderful problems of strains, and of vibration and balance, a single mistake in which might have ruined the entire creation. When one realizes how com- pletely a great ship must be built in a man's brain before it rises in steel within its wooden scaffolding, one feels like calling this monster the mightiest work of human conception, — a work involving in its lines the highest type of beauty and symmetry and in its construction the deepest scientific and mechanical knowledge. A ship — man's greatest mechanical ac- complishment I Nothing could better gauge the height of a nation's industrial accomplishment than the state of her ship-craft. I have felt, therefore, that in giving a clear idea of what was required in brain, brawn, and material resource in constructing the world's fastest and costliest merchant ship, I 248 Seen in Germany should go far toward interpreting the genius of German builders. As in other branches of art, the ship-builder must work within certain circumscribed limits. He is walled in by the practical and the expedient. If he might suit his own fancy, what a wonder of a ship might he build ! But there are certain inexorable laws of nature as well as laws of man which he must ob- serve. They are like the rules of a race which every ship-builder, be he German or English, must observe, and if he makes his extra half-knot in spite of the rules, he is the greater genius. For instance, if the ship-builder could make his vessel of any depth he might build much larger and there would be practically no limit to his speed ; 40 knots would be almost as easy as 23. But he must construct his ship so that it will float into the harbor at New York and Liverpool and Hamburg, where the channels are hardly beyond jo feet in depth. At the same time, if he would have her make a high speed he must fit her with enormous engines, and yet if his engines are too large his vessel wdl not carry enough coal to get her across the Atlantic and leave any room for passengers. If he increases breadth to make her carry a larger load, — in other words, if he makes her " tubby," — he cannot drive her through the water at the required speed. On the other hand, if he makes her too long in propor- How the Germans build Ships 249 tion to her breadth and depth, she will break her back with the enormous weights which she carries and the thrust of her machinery. And yet one is astonished at the immense length of the great liners in proportion to their width. Builders have been increasing length year after year with practically no increase in width. One standing on the bridge of nearly any of the greater ships, if he have a keen eye, may see her body bending with every wave like a huge bow, — only a little, but bending. This is not a sign of weakness, but a tribute to the skill of the builder, for a ship built so as to be absolutely rigid, if that were possible, might soon be racked apart. These are only a few of the difficulties with which the builder must wrestle, but they will serve to indi- cate fiintly the delicacy and intricacy of the art — the necessity of striking just the proper proportions of depth, length, breadth, weight, so that the vessel will derive the greatest possible speed from the work of her engines. After these problems of size and proportion are settled there is the further difficulty of the balancing of the great ship. The layman, seeing some such vessel as the " Deutschland " afloat with the line of her red bottom just level with the green line of the sea, little appreciates what problems have been sur- mounted in producing such splendid steadiness. 250 Seen in Germany Here are engines and boilers weighing thousands of tons ; here are bunkers which must be loaded with other thousands of tons of coal ; here are hundreds of tons of other machinery, water tanks, cargo, and so on. They must all be so arranged in the long narrow shell of the ship that she lists neither to right nor to left, and so that throughout her whole 700 feet of length, more or less, she never sinks more than a few feet deeper at one end than at the other. Then there is the problem of preventing the vibration of the propellers as nearly as may be from shaking the ship, of ventilation, and of providing a strong draught of air to the furnaces forty or fifty feet be- low the upper deck, — all these, and many other problems quite as difficult, must be solved before the first plate of steel for the ship is ordered. Then there are other handicaps. The marine in- surance companies — the Lloyds — must be placated to the last degree, for their men are on hand to watch every step in the building of the ship. She must conform, for .instance, to the hundred and one rules of safety ; her forward ribs must be especially strong to resist ice or collision, she must have so many pumps, so much fire-fighting apparatus, so many water-tight compartments, and so on, else insurance cannot be obtained for her. Next there are two gov- ernments to step in and make further regulations which must be obeyed. Few people realize with How the Germans build Ships 251 what jealousy a government watches its ship-builders to see that proper accommodations are made for pas- sengers and crews and that the vessel is provided with safety appHances. The laws of Germany on this subject fill a small book, and the regulations are iron- clad, even to minute details. For instance, the law specifies the size of berths ; they must be at least so long and so broad, so high from the floor, and so far from the ceiling. There must be 2.8 square feet of room for each passenger on the promenade deck and so many cubic yards of space in each state-room. There must be a boat of a certain specified size for every 100 passengers, and a life-belt of a certain buoyancy for every person. The law specifies the minimum limit of medicines, provisions, and water that must be carried, and sufficient room must be made for all of these things. The window ports must be a certain distance above the water line, so that they may be opened in good weather ; the stair- ways must be at least so broad ; there must be hospi- tals for each class of passengers with four beds for every 100 persons, and so many ventilators for pro- viding fresh air for the cabins and steerage. And when all the German regulations are complied with, the American laws go still further and demand hand- fire-pumps and a drifting anchor, so that the ship may be steered in the remote possibility of a loss of both her propellers and her rudder. 252 Seen in Germany In addition to all this handicapping in the race for speed, the imperial government of Germany steps in and demands the military accessories and equipment to which I have already alluded. With such formidable limitations before him the ship-builder must plan his vessel, and if he succeeds at the last in making a beautiful ship and a record speed, great must be his honor, and great the honor of the nation to which he belongs. The casual visitor at a great ship-building estab- lishment is rarely aware of the importance of this preliminary work in which the genius of the supreme craftsman has its keenest expression. He sees a few absorbed men in a loft bending over desks and drawing tables or making computations. They are not particularly impressive, especially when his eyes still see green from the light of great forges, and his ears still ring with the thunder of sledges. And yet it is here that the ship is first built — finished to the last rivet in plan and blue-print before the first block of the bed is laid in place. A score of men directed by the brains of the master engineers and designers have created a ship in six months which will require the labor of 1,500 men for nearly two years to body forth in steel. And yet the brawn of the ship-builder is not less important than the brain — and its manifestations are much more fascinating to the visitor. For here How the Germans build Ships 253 are the realities which the senses may grasp, — huge- ness, power, toil, noise, heat, dust. These are the impressions that lay deep hold upon a man, and fix in his mind forever afterward the meaning of a great ship. Here are red plates of steel and angle irons, huge raw castings of bronze, brass, copper, steel ; here is lumber, tow, hawsers, paints. They lie in shapeless piles just as they came from the mills and factories. They are without meaning — a chaotic aggregation of material. Seven thousand men in blue blouses and wooden-soled shoes, each working at his own minute task, — the beveling of the raw edge of a plate, the driving of rivet holes one by one, the stirring of white-hot forges, the endless striking on red metal with sledges, lifting, fitting, fastening, and in twenty months' time there stands forth a great ship, — a thing of matchless beauty, sym- metry, power, speed, so coherent and perfect that one man by a turn of the wrist can control the move- ments of all her vast mass. The River Oder at Bredow is only a narrow stream without tides or perceptible current. When I saw it first the water was a murky brown blotched with bits of rotten ice. Where the Vulcan works spread along its shore, the bank rises at a gentle slope, and here stands the scaffolding for seven ships. So narrow is the river that three of these cradles have been placed at a sharp angle to the water in order that when the 254 Seen in Germany greatest ships are launched they may not crush into the opposite bank. A ship's scaffolding at a distance The ^^ Deutsc/iland^'six months after her keel nvas laid. Shoaving the keel, ribs, the second, or " false ^' bottom, and the girders ^uhich are to support the decks resembles a gigantic basket, one end of which rests in the edge of the water, while the other reaches How the Germans build Ships 255 high up on the bank. On nearer approach, the sides of this basket resolve themselves into an intri- cate maze of timbers of enormous proportions. Here the ship is born. The interior of the basket has been cunningly fashioned by the artificer until it follows the lines of the future vessel, — a sort of huge wooden mould. At the bottom runs a long low ridge of stout timbers, called the bed, sloping down to the water's edge. This is to sup- port the backbone or keel of the ship. In one of the cradles the keel-pieces of a new warship had just been laid. A crew of riveters were at work, fastening the vertical keel-piece to the horizontal keel. Imagine a machine as tall as a man, and having the shape of your thumb and finger when fashioned in the form of a C. A boy at a hand forge throws a bursting red rivet. Another work- man seizes it with tongs and drops it into a hole in the ship's spine. There is a shout and a quick signal ; the giant thumb and finger of the machine close in and come deliberately together, one at each end of the rivet. There is no sound, but when the machine opens again and draws away, the lower end of that rod of iron, as thick as a man's two thumbs, has been crushed like so much putty into a rounded head. This rivet shrinks in cooling and draws the beams of steel together until they are like one solid piece. And that is the daily work of the pneuma- tic riveting machine. 2c6 Seen in Germany The ribs of the ship come from the mills in long, straight L-shaped beams which must be bent to the delicate curves of the ship's body. A wide iron floor full of equidistant holes, a furnace 65 feet long, — of a length great enough to hold and heat the ship's longest rib, — a force of workmen waiting for the furnace door to open, — that is where the ribs are shaped. The master workman has pegged out the curve of a rib by fitting iron pins in the holes of the floor. When the signal is given, the furnace door bursts open, emitting a blinding glare of light and fervid heat. A single dark figure, black against the glow, grapples with huge pincers in the furnace mouth ; the workmen, but a moment before standing inert and lax of muscle, now bend their shoulders to a hawser, and the bar of metal, so hot that its edges bear no definite outline, is dragged forth. With in- finite deftness and fearlessness, with swiftness and yet without hurry, this flaming bar is crowded against the pegs of the curve, the workmen smiting it with hammers, driving other pegs, straining at levers, and smiting again. Once the steel wrinkled, in bending, like a blotting-pad, as if reluctant to submit. A brawny giant, his face glowing from the upward glare of the metal and dripping with perspiration, drove down upon it with a great sledge until it was flattened again into submission. In two minutes' time a simple L of iron had become a ship's rib, curving in the Bending a S/ii/>''s Rib 258 Seen in Germany shape of the hull and ready for service except for rivet-holes. In ways just as fascinating the steel plates which are to form the outer skin of the ship are fashioned. They come from the rolling mills of Westphalia or from England in the form of square or rectangular plates of varying thickness ; and they must be bent and trimmed to the necessary shapes to fit the ship. Here is a pair of enormous rollers of steel like the rollers of a laundress's wringer. Between them a plate of steel as large as two dining-tables is fed, leaving part of it sticking straight out. At just the proper moment, a third roller rises from below, pushed upward by the resistless force of hydraulic pressure. When it reaches the plate, we start back, expecting to see the cold steel snap like glass ; but instead it bends upward as easily as though it were pasteboard, until it is almost L-shaped. Then the noiseless but mighty roller that has done the work slips back again. Such is the quality of the steel that goes into a modern ship, — it must stand the strain while cold of being bent almost double with- out breaking. Around the head of each cradle at the Vulcan yards there is a cluster of machines covered with umbrella-like canopies of corrugated iron. There are thick, saw-like shears that trim the steel plates three-quarters of an inch thick, as a little girl would How the Germans build Ships 259 snip the corners of a bit of calico cloth. Other machines there are that bore endless numbers of rivet- holes in beams, girders, and plates, others countersink these holes ; still others level off the edges of the plates, and then a huge crane lifts them over into the scaffolding, dangles them, though they weigh ten tons each, just where they are to be placed, and the work- men fit and fasten them in. One year from the time that the keel of the " Deutschland " was laid, her hull was finished. It loomed huge and brown through the scaffolding which still protected and supported it, and it was ready to take the sea. In January, T900, the Em- peror came up from Berlin with a brilliant guard of officers. Count von Biilow pulled the silken cord, champagne was spattered on the great ship's stern, and she shot forward into the water, almost filling the little river. There she stood exposed for the first time, unfinished indeed, but bearing the promise of her future beauty. This shell of steel weighed up- ward of 9,200 tons, and had cost all of a million and a quarter of dollars. There was yet to be added the engines and the fittings which would bring her total weight to over 16,500 tons, and her total cost to over 13,000,000. In the Vulcan shipyards one tool stands supreme in importance over all others. It goes by the highly expressive title of " shear-legs," a kind of crane. 260 Seen in Germany The greatest pair of shear-legs at the Vulcan works is mounted on twin pontoons, the legs rising in the form of an enormous inverted letter V to the height of 150 feet above the water. From the top hangs heavy chain tackle which will lift a hundred tons — 200,000 pounds — as easily as a boy would pick up a penny. There is something majestic in its power, its perfect poise and sufficiency. We saw it drop its great hooks down over one of the " Deutschland's " steel pistons which weighed something over five tons. It reminded one of the leisurely sweep of an ele- phant's trunk. The hooks were made fast, a dwarf of a man blew a whistle, and the piston was heaved into the air, swung out over the water and low- ered into the dark chasm of the " Deutschland's " hold. And this is the way all of the heavy interior fittings — the engines, pumps, boilers, stacks, masts, and so on — are placed in the ship. For a clear reali- zation of the perfect supremacy of man over matter, one has only to watch the splendid power and docility of this great crane. It might have taken fifty men a week to do what the shear-legs did easily in ten min- utes — if men alone could have done it at all. With Captain Alberr ' : whom fell the honor of taking the " Deutschlana on her first voyage, Mr. Varian and I went up the broad plank gangway which led from the river bank to the promenade deck of the vessel. Fifteen hundred men were there at work How the Germans build Ships 261 on her, hammering, sawing, planing, fitting; and yet so huge was she that the force seemed small, and there were whole areas where not a man was to be seen. Captain Alhers of the '■'■ Deutschland'''' These men of the Vulcan works possess their own peculiar interest to the American visitor. They are not quite so foreign as he expects : he sees the strong cousinship of sweat and grime and strength. But 262 Seen in Germany for a little more, perhaps, of stoop and stolidity, a little more of patience in their faces, these might be the men of an American shop. There is work done here by strength of shoulder — heaving and hammering and lifting, that in America would be done by steam or electricity, and yet as long as man-muscle is cheaper than steam so long will it be employed. In dress, the German workmen strongly resemble the Ameri- can, except in the shoes, many of which are heelless with thick wooden soles. There is also the unfa- miliar German blue blouse falling from a yoke at the shoulders and hanging loose around the waist, which some of the workmen wear. The German works longer hours and earns much less money than the American ; but while food commodities are higher for the most part in Germany than in the United States, he lives much cheaper than the American, because he is willing to live on poorer fare and in homelier quar- ters. He does not as rule save much money, for he must have his beer and his lottery ticket ; but he pays regtdarly for insurance against accident, sickness, and old age, and he also contributes regularly to a burial fund so that he may be decently interred when he dies. And yet he is industrious, skilful, pains- taking, and even dully ambitious. In a preceding chapter, on the German workingman, I have given other interesting facts in regard to these ship-builders of Stettin. How the Germans build Ships 263 The space over the " Deutschland's " engines still gaped wide open at the time of our first visit, sug- gesting from the upper deck an enormous grimy pit. The cylinders for the main engines were still open at the top, the largest being nearly nine feet in diameter, with a weight of 45 tons, — larger than the funnels of many a large steamer. Having gone down three stories of decks, we descended a ladder fully 30 feet long, into the depths of the vessel. One may read indefinitely the cold figures relative to the size of the engines and boilers in an ocean-steamer, and still he will not realize their greatness. But let him get down, pygmy-like, among the machinery itself and look up, and he will receive an impression of size and power such as he will never forget, — and espe- cially if he visits this greatest of all engines. When we had stooped through dark passage-ways, and climbed obscure ladders through the under parts of the enormous machinery, we came to a little door in what seemed the side of the ship. Once through it, we straightened up, and there before us another vast machine reared itself. It was the other engine, the engine that propelled the second of the twin screws, exactly like the other in every respect. It was as if one had reached the very limit of his capacity for comprehending bigness, and had then suddenly been called upon to double his impressions. After that it was interesting, but not really consequential, to know 264 Seen in Germany that there were eight miles of pipes in the sixteen boilers, that there were 128 cylinders in the engines, and that the ship had nearly a third of a mile of rail- road track for carrying her coal from the bunkers to the furnaces. It was interesting to hear Captain Albers explain how the great ship was balanced, the engine just aft of amidship, boilers forward, fresh water in great tanks on each side just balancing each other, coal in the bunkers around the boilers so that in case of war the enemy's shot could not pierce to the ship's vitals, and how water could be let in from the sea to this or that compartment to balance the coal burned away. This was all interesting, but we felt more deeply impressed by the strange, cold, dark, resound- ing hole in the extreme stern and at the bottom of the great ship, which we reached through a door in a steel wall. Here in silence and almost without human attention, works the mighty rudder arm of the ship. It travels in a cogged quadrant, and it is so big that the engine which runs it is perched on top of it, and rides back and forth as the rudder answers the touch of the steersman's finger on the bridge a fifth of a mile away. Once every watch, a man looks in at this piece of mechanism, and once a day it is newly provided with oil ; otherwise it works alone in the dark. If you crowd to one corner of this room, and look up through a steel well of apparently incal- How the Germans build Ships 265 culable height, you may possibly see a bit of light. That hole may be said to have been made especially for the young Emperor of Germany. Once he said : " Suppose this ship became a cruiser, and suppose she met the enemy, and then suppose her bridge were carried away by a shot. How then could she be steered ? " So that steel hole was made from the top of the ship to the bottom. A narrow ladder runs down its side, — you can see the faint daylight glint on the rounds, — and when the bridge of the " Deutschland " is shot away, the men in blue will go down the ladder and steer the ship from below, where shots cannot come. The " Deutschland" may be said to be twenty-one ships in one. In passing up the vessel from stern to stem, we crept through numerous gangways of steel, the doors of which could be instantly closed, and so screwed down on rubber battens as to be impervious to both water and air. In case of an accident at sea, two men spring instantly to each of these doors and close them fast, and the ship, a moment before a single great apartment, becomes twenty-one separate rooms, having no connection below decks. If one or two, or even five, of these compartments fill with water, the ship will still float with the buoyancy of those remaining. And each compartment has its own pumps and its own means of escape for passen- gers, so that even though there is a yawning hole in 266 Seen in Germany the ship's bottom, she may yet sail safely into port. No modern improvement has done more to render safe a passage of the sea than this. The " Deutsch- land " also has two bottoms. It is surprising enough to be walking on what seems to be the solid floor of the ship, to feel that the water is only the thickness of a steel plate from your feet, and then suddenly to come upon what seems a hole in the bottom of the ship, and to see dark, oily water a few feet below. The real bottom of the ship lies from four to eight feet beneath the false bottom ; both are almost equally strong, so that if a hidden reef bursts through the outer plates, there will still remain a firm, dry inner bottom to keep out the water. This wide space — it might be called the sub-basement of the vessel — has also its own separate compartments into which water can be let at will to balance the ship, if she does not ride evenly. After the ship's engines and boilers, perhaps the most impressive pieces of mechanism are the shafts, which reach from the engine out through the stern of the vessel, where they drive the propellers. In many respects, also, these shafts are the most difficult of any part of the ship to produce. They are made of a special, high-priced nickel steel. Each of them is 215 feet long, longer than many good-sized ships, and twice as large around as a man's body. They must needs have strength to drive such a weight of How the Germans build Ships 267 steel through the water at such a speed. Each bears on its tip end outside the ship a screw-propeller of manganese bronze, each blade of which weighs four and one-half tons. They are the work of that great One of the Piston Heads of the " Deutschland^'' German, Herr Krupp, of Essen, and they represent the acme of the art of steel-making. Upon its ar- rival from the mills, each shaft is in five parts, and it looks rough and coarse. But the workmen at the Vulcan fit the pieces one by one into an enormous lathe, and plane them down as a cabinet-maker would 268 Seen in Germany turn the leg of a chair. We saw such a lathe at work, and picked up fine shavings of nickel steel, curled and strong as a spring. Such a vessel as the " Deutschland " would have been an impossibility a few years ago, not only for mechan- ical reasons, but because she could not have been made to pay. The " Deutschland " will carry no freight and almost no express. She is wholly a passenger and mail steamer — and she is now a possibility because people are richer and every year more of them travel back and forth between Europe and America. And to make such a speed as that of the " Deutschland " means that so much room is required by the power- producing machinery and coal that there really is n't any space for a large cargo. But for her purpose — that of carrying 1,328 passengers across the Atlantic in the least possible space of time and with the great- est luxury — the " Deutschland" is the perfection of the ship-builder's art. Never before was a ship fitted with such elegance. There will be not only single staterooms, but suites of rooms, each with its own bath, and berths that close like those in a Pullman car; there will be private dining-rooms, a special grill- room on the upper deck; there will be dumb-waiters, electric fans in many of the rooms, a special play- room and gymnasium for children, and other new conveniences. Some few facts about the new ship may help to a How the Germans build Ships 269 realization of what a great modern ocean-Jiner really is, of how absolutely complete she must be made in every particular. The " Deutschland," for instance, has a complete refrigerating plant, four hospitals, a safety deposit vault tor the immense quantities of gold and silver which pass between the banks of Europe and America, eight kitchens, a complete post-office with German and American clerks, thirty electrical motors, thirty-six pumps, most of them of Ameri- can and English make, no fewer than seventy-two steam-engines, a complete drug-store, a complete fire department with pumps, hose, and other fire-fighting machinery, a library, 2,600 electric lights, two barber- shops, room for an orchestra and brass band, a tele- graph system, a telephone system, a complete printing establishment, a photographic dark room, a cigar-store, an electric fire-alarm system, and a special refrigerator for flowers. And she Is one of the two great foreign liners having four funnels; the other is the" Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse." That is the way that these two leviathans may be known from all other ships. She also has the usual two masts. They look stubby enough when mounted on her vast bulk, and yet they are so tall that the " Deutschland " could not get under the Brooklyn Bridge at New York, and so large around that while they are building a man lies inside of them driving rivets. As the " Deutschland " lay completed at the Vulcan 270 Seen in Germany yards, she sank so deep into the water that she could not of her own power get out to the Baltic Sea. The River Oder was too shallow to permit her passage. As a consequence, it was necessary to litt her over the bars by means of a number of great steel boxes or pontoons. An equal number of these pontoons were arranged on each side of the vessel, and as they lay there filled with water, enormous chains were passed between them and under the ship's keel. Then the water was pumped from the pontoons, and as they grew lighter they lifted the " Deutschland " with them, just as a life-preserver raises a man out of the water. But in spite of these measures, the " Deutschland " ran aground on a bar when partway out to sea. With characteristic vigor, the Kaiser, when he heard of the accident, sent one of the vessels of the imperial navy to help drag her off, showing the keen interest which the government takes in the welfare of her merchant marine. As we last saw the " Deutschland " at the Vulcan yards, she was within a few weeks of her first sailing. She had not been painted, but dabs of red and chalk- marks covered her steel sides from stem to stern, and down close to the water near the bow, where she would first touch salt water, some German workman, with feel- ing for the monster on whom he had so long been toil- ing, had scrawled in big letters, " Gliick auf," " Good luck." X SOME NEW EDUCATIONAL IDEAS IN GERMANY X SOME NEW EDUCATIONAL IDEAS IN GERMANY A Commercial University — History-Teaching by Object- Lessons, School Gardens IT is now a good many years since the world began going to Germany for educational ideas, and Ger- many seems to be provided always with a new supply. The Germans have apparently devel- oped an instinct in the matter of education. Having originated a new industry, or built an especially inter- esting building or piece of statuary, the next step, as a matter of course, is to utilize this new material for educational purposes, either to advance the new in- dustry, or to impart the significance of the new build- ing. The educator is never more than a step behind the manufacturer and business man ; he is nothing if not intensely practical. The manufacturing spirit of Germany gave birth to the best and greatest tech- nical schools in the world, and they in turn have stimulated the spirit which produced them. In the same way, when Germany rose in power as a com- mercial nation, her educators at once began devising means for training young men in those branches of i8 274 Seen in Germany special knowledge which would fit them for promot- ing in the highest possible degree this new develop- ment of German activity. The German has learned the profound lesson that a specially educated man is invariably more valuable in any given line of activity than a man who has merely a general education. Even a horseshoer is better for a thorough educa- tion in his especial art, — hence the famous horse- shoeing school at Dresden. I visited the new Commercial High School (Han- delshochschule) at Leipzig and had the pleasure of an interview with its director, Professor H. Raydt. It was interesting to learn how this school came into existence, for no recent educational enterprise is more significant of the alertness of the New Germany in grasping future necessities and in providing means for supplying them. In the first place, there was the great fact that Germany was building up an enormous foreign commerce, and that every year a large number of trained men was needed to carry on this business. For some years Germany had possessed commercial schools of two different ranks, namely, the "commer- cial continuation schools " (Fortbildungsschulen), in- tended to give elementarv education to young clerks, especially those employed in the retail trade, and the so-called " commercial schools " (Handelsschulen), similar to the commercial colleges in this country, offering a thorough practical education in the require- Some New Educational Ideas 275 ments of a commercial career, such as knowledge of modern languages, book-keeping, banking, commer- cial arithmetic, geography, and so on. But these schools, good as they were, did not supply such high class men as were needed for waging the bitter strug- gles for commercial supremacy in foreign lands, — meeting the alert American and the experienced Englishman. This need must be supplied. In 1896, a number of members of the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce began the movement for the establishment of a new school, which should be in effect a commercial university. They worked so vigorously that in a short time they had interested all the other Chambers in Saxony in the scheme, and a united appeal was made to the Saxon government. There was no delay ; it was a good work and the administration at once provided for the establishment of a school, to be supervised by a senate thus com- posed : one representative of the Saxon government, one representative of the city of Leipzig, the president and two other representatives of the Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig, three professors in Leipzig University, two teachers in the old commercial school at Leipzig, and the director of the new school. With characteristic German caution, the school was started at a minimum of cost. Teachers were mostly provided from the University of Leipzig, and the total outlay did not exceed :^2,ooo a year, of which 2/6 Seen in Germany 11,250 was guaranteed by the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce and I750 by the Saxon government. The Handelshochschule was opened on April 25, 1898, and the first students were graduated at Easter, 1900. The course is two years in length, but stu- dents may enter at any time and remain as long as they see fit. As in the German Universities, the Handels- hochschule has two classes of matriculates, first the regular students (die Studierenden) and the " lec- ture visitors " (Horer), The average cost to students is about ^50 a year, and board and lodging in Leip- zig can be had at a low price. It was not expected that more than fifty students would attend the school during the first year, but there were ninety-seven enrolled during the opening semester, and at the time of my visit in the spring of 1900 there were more than two hundred and fifty students in attendance, and they came not only from Germany, but from many foreign nations — especially from Austria, Belgium, and Russia. Some of them were men of maturity, over thirty years of age, who yet wished to fit themselves for a commercial life ; the average age of students, however, was about twenty years. The course of instruction is eminently practical, including such subjects as economics, public finance, commercial and maritime law, the history of trade, colonial history, theory of modern socialism, inter- 278 Seen in Germany national law, statistics, social questions, commercial geography, modern political history, economic and constitutional history, chemical technology, corre- spondence and book-keeping, stenography, typewrit- ing, and practical training in the Chinese, French, Italian, English, Spanish, and Russian languages. Especial attention is given to the languages, with the intention of making every student proficient in ordinary correspondence and letter-writing, — such knowledge as will be of practical value to the man of affairs. The students are also allowed to select courses in the University of Leipzig, and they have all the other opportunities which that famous old institution can provide. Every student is allowed to choose his own course. It is expected that the school will fit a man to engage in any of the growing German export and import industries, giving him such a knowledge of foreign language and law that he can fight a thorough- going business battle anywhere in the world. Cer- tainly, such an addition yearly of trained men to the ranks of business cannot fail to have a profound effect in winning commerce for Germany, especially in view of the fact that most Americans and English- men embark in business without any special training. The struggle among the nations of the future is to be commercial rather than military, and Germany has gone into the work of thorough preparation, in away Some New Educational Ideas 279 to make her rivals pause and take thought. It is by no means wise for Americans to count too much on their splendid natural resources and the energy of their workingman ; science and thorough education, such as Germany is bringing to the struggle, must not be neglected. Another new idea in education, which, while of less importance than the commercial high school, is yet significant of the trend of educational development. It was in Germany that the system of teaching from object-lessons, of which the laboratory method is an outgrowth, had its beginnings. Every year sees the value of this system more clearly proved, every year shows striking new developments. One bright after- noon in the Thiergarten in Berlin I saw a large class of girls marching up one of the walks with the master at the head. Out of curiosity I followed slowly. They stopped finally before one of the splendid new groups of statuary which the Kaiser is building to commemorate the deeds of his forefathers — the Hohenzollern family. Each group represents a king and his two chief councillors, graven in marble and of life size. The master gathered his class around him and began telling the story of the king and of the characters of his two advisers, and of the great deeds they did. It was a good story, and with the marble faces there before them this bit of German history must have remained fixed in each pupil's 280 Seen in Germany mind, besides giving her a new idea of the glory of the German nation. I learned that visits to the various statues and new buildings were a regular feature of school life in Berlin and other German cities ; one cannot help comparing it with the old method ot history-teaching. A similar development is the school-garden system that has grown up in a number of German cities, notably Plauen in Saxony and Leipzig, where I visited the gardens. The plan is exceedingly simple. A plot of ground within easy reach of the schools has been set aside for the growing of all sorts of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and weeds. It is under the direction of an expert gardener who is also more or less of a botanist. On Wednesdays and Fridays large classes of boys and girls may be seen marching through the streets to visit the gardens, — a kind of outing that is both vacation and schooling. The master accom- panies his class and directs a lesson in transplanting trees, sowing all the various kinds of vegetable seeds, trimming the fruit vines, cultivating the ground, gathering the crop, and lastly, preparing and fertiliz- ing the soil for the crop of another year. The advancing season brings a new lesson each week, from the methods of killing cabbage butterflies in spring, to the testing of a melon to see if it is ripe in the fall. Here, also, in certain places weeds are allowed to grow, that each boy and girl may learn to Some New Educational Ideas 281 know his garden enemies and how to exterminate them. Poison ivy and other poisonous plants are grown in a plot by themselves, and they, too, are A Lesson in Tree Planting studied, so that they may be instantly recognized and avoided in the woods. Nor is the information all practical ; while the pupil is learning gardening, the teacher also instructs him in botany, zoology, and entomology. It is wonderfully interesting on a bright 282 Seen in Germany afternoon to see this Leipzig garden with its swarm of children, — some chasing cabbage butterflies and learning why they are butterflies and not moths, where they lay their eggs, and how they pass through their various stages ; others picking strawberries, while the teacher explains what strawberries are botanically, how they put out runners, and how they may be trans- planted. Others are hoeing and raking and learning how the pulverization of the soil admits air to the roots of the plants, and so on, combining science and prac- tice in a way that not only Hxes the facts in the pupil's mind, but gives them significance and importance. The school garden at Leipzig is beautiful as a bit of landscape-gardening; it has a charming pond full of water plants, with a pavilion near at hand under which the pupils may seek shelter in case of rain. To these beauties the German boy and girl bring a natural love for flowers and out-door life, and the instruction m artistic arrangement, floral effects, and so on comes easily and naturally. All this not only brings vigor and interest to the pupils, but it inspires them to start little gardens at home, where they take the greatest interest in putting their learning into practice. German children go to school longer during the year than Americans, having only four weeks of vacation in summer, although they have two weeks at Christmas, two at Easter, and a fall vacation of two weeks in October; so that these Some New Educational Ideas 283 school gardens help to give them more out-door life. Every two weeks the gardener has a circular printed and distributed, telHng what plants are in bloom, f :,<■ 'w^?. ^M^m;' ^1^^.^ ^ W W^t' f T-r-^s '■' , f x iteaiiL^£r . x'Vi . \^,-- -ur^^^' ■ -■f^^- HBulL^^ fi ' ' -^ i-'i - • — ^ — ^ . In the Leipzig School Garden what fruits are ripe, and the like, so that every child may see them, in this way learning botany by actual observation on the ground. This is the more necessary because German city children have very little opportunity of seeing how the wild plants grow, 284 Seen in Germany because most of the forests and fields that are uninhabited are posted with notices forbidding any one to enter. The school gardens are open all day long and every day but Sundays and holidays, and they are very carefully attended by skilled gardeners, so that they may be models of perfection for the children to follow. These gardens are found in many German, Swedish, and French towns, and there are a few elsewhere in Europe; but the Americans have not yet taken up the idea, and American boys and girls lose one of the great joys of school life. XI A GLIMPSE OF GERMAN STUDENT LIFE XI A GLIMPSE OF GERMAN STUDENT LIFE A Corps Duel at Wollnitz WE were informed that the duelling would begin at eight o'clock in the morning, but that if we wished to see a really good and bloody duel it would be better to come a little later. For this particular day's fighting the Hanoverian corps — Hanoverian being quite as good a name as the true one — had chosen the dorf of Wollnitz, famous for some hundred years as the scene of student duels. Wollnitz is a quaint bit of red-roofed village, with fat ducks rocking about the street in the sunshine. Early in the morning the inhabitants go up to the green toy farms which lie tip-tilted on the mountain side, and on Saturday the students come to fight duels. We reached Wollnitz at half-past nine. It had been a drive of something more than three miles from the University, — a drive of surpassing beauty, for the mountains were white with May blossoms, and in the valley we caught glimpses of a thread of water among spreading green meadows. A turn in the 288 Seen in Germany steep road brought us suddenly upon the gasthof of WoUnitz, an odd-gabled and ancient building bearing the emblazonment of the Grand Duchy. Across the street some eighty students in gay colored caps sat quietly drinking beer. The president of the Han- overian corps met us at the steps, clicked his heels, and bowed solemnly. Then all of the other Hano- verians arose, lifted their caps, clicked their heels, and bowed, also with solemnity. We took our places on the president's right. A huge tin pot of beer stood in the middle of the table, and we were served with squat wooden mugs, having curious flapper tops ornamented with initials and the mvsterious geo- metric symbols of the corps. The president lifted his mug and said, " Prosit." We all lifted our mugs in response, and the initial ceremony was over. The German student is a man of many formalities. At first we had seen no evidences of the duels which we had come to see. Everything seemed perfectly amicable and tranquil. A rosy-cheeked maid was serving sausages and rye bread, and the students were joking her good-naturedly. Appar- ently there was not even any talk of duelling. But presently a student surgeon came in wearing a long white blouse. His blue visor cap — the cap of his corps — was cocked jauntily on the back of his head and his arms, bare to the elbows, were blotched with blood. A little later still other surgeons appeared. \> 290 Seen in Germany- all more or less bloody, and then we saw a student with sundry patches of cotton on his head and face, bound down with black bandages fastened under his chin. The portions of his face left exposed were ashy pale, but he walked steadily and wore his corps cap with spirit, if a bit comically, on top of his bandages. These students took their places at the various tables without eliciting especial interest. It so happened that the wounded duellist belonged to the Hanoverians, and when he took his place at our table his fellow-corpsmen raised their mugs ceremoni- ously in his honor, and he responded promptlv, drinking as long as the best of them. We were informed that it had been a good duel ; a Hano- verian explained with some show of pride that the other duellist was not yet able to appear. All of which was illuminating. It seemed that we had arrived in the recess be- tween two duels. After a hard battle it takes some time for the surgeons to do their work, and while this is going on the other duellists and their friends en- gage in solemn merriment with beer across the street. Everything proceeds with decency and in order. A fighting committee composed of a member from each student corps arranges the programme of duels, and there is never any hitch in the performances. On this particular Saturday extra interest had been aroused by the presence of three scarred and vet- A Glimpse of German Student Life 291 eran fighters from the University of Berlin, who had come down, like the knights of old, to fight any one who dared to meet them, with or without offence. They wore red caps and sat in a fir corner of the pavilion. It was understood that they had all been matched — for the honor of the University. There was also a Heidelberg man, but the programme was already so well filled that he could not be accorded the honor of any more scars. The next duel was to be fought between champions of two of the other corps, — the Hanoverians fur- nishing only the umpire. Of these two the Tyroleans wore green caps with green and white ribbons across their chests, and the other, the Bavarians, wore purple caps with purple, white, and black ribbons. The "foxes" — that is, the freshmen — of the green-cap corps were clad in brilliant green coats with long tails and brass buttons, and instead of the regulation visor hats, they wore milk-white fatigue caps of an old-fash- ioned military type. Our own Hanoverians wore still different colors, both in caps and in ribbons. These brilliant color-contrasts gave the scene its own strikingly unique interest. At last the bloody surgeons having each eaten a sausage and consumed a mug of the pale beer, a tall student, beer-mug in hand, walked out of the pavil- ion, crossed the street, and entered the inn. The two corps most directly concerned in the duel soon 292 Seen in Germany followed him, and we who were merely spectators came last of all. The duelling hall was a long, low, raftered room set about with tables and benches. In the centre there was a strip of black canvas, well sanded, on which the duellists were to stand. Blood was spattered everywhere, on the whitewashed ceil- ing above, on the walls and windows at each side, and there was fresh evidence of the last duel on the floor. The spectators formed a ring about a sword's length from the place where the contestants were to stand, those behind mounting on the benches and tables, until the whole room was walled in with human faces, and most of those faces bore the gashes and scars of just such conflicts as the one we were now to see. Two surgeons came in bringing a bowl of some antiseptic solution, a roll of absorbent cotton, and a bundle of bandages. They had added oil- cloth aprons to their white surgeon's blouses. A student in a purple cap arranged a chair at each end of the canvas strip, the backs facing. And now came the duellists themselves with their seconds. An American university crowd would have cheered madly, each corps for its favorite fighter ; but there was no sign of excitement or enthusiasm here, although every eye was fixed on the combatants. They were both powerfully built men, so tall that when they raised their swords the points barely escaped touching the ceiling. Both bore the scars A Glimpse of German Student Life 293 of past duels, and both had the reputation of being hard fighters. The seconds and the other attendants looked narrowly to the adjustment of the armor. And such armor as this was ! A knight of the old crusades could hardly have been more completely protected. Thick leathern stocks or collars covered each com- batant's throat, holding his chin squarely in place and preventing the possible severing of the jugular vein. Thickly upholstered pads covered the shoul- ders. The front of the body, from just above the heart downward, was protected by a shield not unlike that worn by an American baseball catcher, only much heavier and thicker. The shields worn by both of these duellists had a peculiar bronzed appear- ance, which we took at first glance to be the natural shade of burnished leather. On closer examination, however, we discovered that this color was the result of the blood of many battles, — the same armor doing service in the duels of an entire corps. Heavy, out-jutting spectacles protected the eyes of the duellists. They were held in place by stout straps which, in passing around the head, bound the ears firmly back. We observed, however, that parts of the ears protruded above and below the straps, a fact accounting satisfactorily for the fashion among ad- vanced German students of wearing their ears squared either at top or bottom or both. All the combat- 294 Seen in Germany ants' heads, therefore, except the eyes and part of the ears, were entirely unprotected, although, as we after- wards learned, in some duels there is an agreement to permit the covering of the nose, some students preferring to retain their noses intact. It is the sole purpose of each duellist to cut his opponent some- where in the face or head, else the scars will not show and much good honor will go to waste. This is the chief purpose of the thorough protection ot the body and the exposure ot the face. We observed that each second gave especial atten- tion to the covering of his chief's sword-arm, which consisted of a heavy cloth pad extending from the shoulder down to the wrist. The stress of many duels had cut the outer covering of this portion of each duellist's armor into picturesque and bloody tatters. And now the opponents are faced, looking squarely into each other's eyes, and vet making no sign of recognition, and saying nothing, not even to their seconds. It is a point of honor that there must be no show of emotion. Each wore the gay cap of his corps, visor turned behind. As they raised their arms, each second stepped quickly forward and fitted his chief's gloved hand into the basket handle of the sword. A most disagreeable weapon is this sword ! Somewhat shorter than a fencing rapier and flatter and thinner, square at the point, and as sharp as a razor. % ^M HIL&^__. ^ rE.:.-;z: a°Bril|Q|%Xi-V'lH a^ 296 Seen in Germany The combatants step deliberately toward each other on the black canvas, until they are exactly a sword's length apart. One might almost have touched the other with his hand ; they were so near, indeed, that we who were uninitiated could hardly understand how, with such swords, they could escape cutting each other all to pieces. With ceremony the umpire mounted a bench at one side with a school boy's slate in his hand. The two sec- onds, both of whom were armored almost as effectively as their chiefs, especially about the eyes and shoul- ders, lifted their hats and bowed. The umpire lifted his hat. The duellists said nothing at all, but looked into each other's eyes. At a word from the umpire the seconds removed the corps caps of the duellists, so that they stood bareheaded. This is the sign that there is no withdrawal. The seconds now spring to their places with feet wide-spread, each just at the left of his chief. The spectators crowd back a pace, for sometimes the points of these swords fly far. Each duellist clenches his left hand behind him in the lacings of his armor. Up go the swords with a flash, the points nearly touching the ceiling. There is a moment's pause, distressing enough to one not inured to duels. Then one second shouts : " Bind swords." Instantly each of the seconds rests the point of his sword behind that of his chief, so that he may not A Glimpse of German Student Life 297 strike until the final word is given. " Bound," comes the reply, followed immediately by the shouted word, " Los " (loose). There was a downward rush of black-padded arms, a flash of swords, a din of clashing steel, and then, before the battle seemed fairly begun, there was a shouted " Halt," and the seconds rushed in with their swords and threw up the blades of the fighters. So quickly was it over with that one imagined there must have been some mistake, but this was merely the first round. It had lasted perhaps five seconds, and there had not been to exceed four swift strokes and parries of each duellist's sword. The chief sur- geons came up and examined the duellists' heads in the most matter-of-fact and business-like manner. There were no wounds. A fellow-corpsman lifted the sword-arm of each fighter, holding it out horizon- tally, and another supported each sword. A duel imposes a hard strain on the fighter's sword-arm, heavily padded as it is, and it must be thus held up between rounds. Everything had been done with so much serious- ness and formality, especially the examination of the surgeons, and the round had been so short and so bloodless, that an outsider could not help feel- ing that a German student duel had its irresistibly humorous side. A moment sufficed for the rest. Again the swords 298 Seen in Germany went up, again the seconds shouted, and again at the word " Los " the clashing of swords began, this time more swiftly and fiercely. Suddenly we saw a lock of hair shoot from the head of one of the fighters, instantly followed by the shouted " Halt " of the seconds and the upward sweep of the swords. The hair had fallen from the purple — Bavarian ; the um- pire marked down credits for the green — Tyrolean. Again the surgeons made an examination. There were no wounds, but there needed no other evidence as to the keenness of the blades than the smoothness and closeness with which that lock of hair had been clipped. We could see the bare place above the Bavarian's ear where it had been. The Tyrolean corpsman was slightly taller than his opponent, though not so powerful of build. He wore a heavy black moustache. The Bavarian had been slightly pale from the first, but absolutely unwavering. The third round was already beginning with that peculiarly shrill " Los." Apparently there were only two fierce flashes of the swords before the shouted " Halt " of the seconds. But this time the surgeons hurried forward more eagerly. Across the Bavarian's cheek, from the ear nearlv to the corner of the mouth, there was a long, livid line, just beginning to drip. The sword had cut almost through the cheek. Both duellists stepped back, and the chairs were advanced so that they could lean against the backs : a duellist's 300 Seen in Germany armor Is too stiff for him to sit down comfortably. We saw now where all the blood came from. The doctors were busy with cotton, but they did not at- tempt to put on bandages. We were just beginning to feel relieved that blood had at last been shed, and that the duel was well over with, when the combatants again advanced, measuring a sword's distance between them and lifting their blades. Again there were the shouted signals, and the fourth round began with the din of parried blows. We had quite mistaken the nature of a German student duel in thinking that first blood counted in any way except on the umpire's slate. In the fifth round, the Bavarian returned the cut, slashing the Tyrolean across the scalp, so deeply that the blood instantly gushed down over his forehead and from his spectacles to the floor. Again there was a rest on the chairs. This wound was so deep that not only was cotton applied, but a narrow leather disk was passed across it and fastened down to the ear-straps on each side. This did not seem, however, to stop the flow of the blood. Indeed, the surgeons in these duels never attempt to quench the wounds, for the excellence of the performance depends on a liberal flow of blood. After each wound, the swords were wiped with cot- ton dipped in the antiseptic solution, for the German duellist is nothing if he is not scientific. As the A Glimpse of German Student Life 301 rounds progressed, we saw more clearly how the fight- ing was done. There was none of the movement and activity of the ordinary swordsman's conflict, none of the splendid clash and parry, or advance and retreat. The duellists stood stock-still : it was dishonor to give way by an inch ; it was dishonor to move the head in the least, or to dodge a blow, no matter how severe the wound. The entire contest consisted in holding up the sword-arm, and in so using the hand and wrist that the point of the sword would slash the opponent's head. Much depends on the strength and endurance of the right forearm, for upon it fall most of the blows, and if it gives way a wound almost cer- tainly follows. An old fighter becomes exceedingly strong and dextrous with both wrist and forearm ; and yet one cannot but reflect that all this training would go for nothing if one of these duellists were called upon to defend himself from an ordinary sword at- tack, such as a soldier might have to meet. The whole training is special, an outgrowth of the student duel. It was plain that the Tyrolean was the better fighter of the two. The longer the duel progressed the fiercer became his onslaughts, and in nearly every round he struck the Bavarian somewhere on the head or face. Blood was spattered everywhere, on the floor, on the clothing of the seconds, and on the surgeons. As for the duellists themselves, they were literally bathed 302 Seen in Germany in it; it even ran down their bared backs under their armor lacings. Once the Bavarian removed a bit of tooth which had been broken off as the Tyrolean's sword ripped through his cheek. These things are not pleasant to relate, nor pleasant to see, but without them one cannot arrive at an understanding of what a student duel really is. Nor were the wounds and the blood the least dis- tressing features ot the fight. It was a warm morn- ing. The room was packed to suffocation with students, and, astonishing as it mav seem, not one of the win- dows was open, and the single small door was blocked with spectators. Add to the stifling atmosphere much tobacco smoke and the rank smell of beer and blood, and a faint conception ot the condition of the room may be formed. The spectators suffered enough from the heat and bad air, but it must have been nothing as compared with the torture of the duellists. For both of them were muffled in thick padded armor, especially at the throat, where its effect would be most painful, and at the same time they were exercising violently under intense excitement. Both dripped with perspi- ration and there were frequent calls for water. The Bavarian was ashy pale where the blood had not blurred out all view of his face, and it seemed at the close of every round that he must certainlv drop, but he came up cheerfully at each cry of " Los," and went at the Tyrolean with vigor and sometimes with effect. The A Glimpse of German Student Life 303 swords flew with incredible swiftness, and the range of the duellists was by no means confined to each other. After one of the rounds we saw the Bava- rian's second clap his hand to the back of his head, and when he took it away again out came the blood. It sometimes happens that the seconds are as seriously wounded as the duellists themselves. Indeed, a stu- dent may thus obtain a very conspicuous and honorable scar without having to go to the trouble and pain of a regular duel. At last, at the end of fifteen rounds, the duellists were led back and their armor was loosened so that they could sit down. We were just congratulating ourselves that it was well over with, when we were informed that this was only the first half; there were fifteen rounds more to fight. The surgeons were very busy now for a time, and the fellow-corpsmen of each duellist crowded up to give him advice as to how he could best defend himself or overreach his opponent. The intermission lasted only a few minutes, and then, at the cry of the umpire, the men came back to their posts. Both walked steadily ; it is a dis- honor to waver or flinch. And then the hacking began again. One of the oddest phases of the duel was the non- chalant attitude of the students who came as specta- tors. At no time was there a cheer, or a protest, or any other manifestation of enthusiasm or excitement, 304 Seen in Germany although once there was general laughter over the retort of one of the seconds as to a charge of foul. Many of the students had brought their wooden beer mugs into the duelling-room with them, and they could be seen drinking from time to time, and even proposing in a loud voice the health of some one across the room. A bar-maid was continually pushing her way in and out among the crowd, sometimes at the very elbows of the seconds, and once we saw her coming into the room with a plate of sausage, cabbage, and rye bread. Some one had actually ordered lunch in this room of blood. The closing fifteen rounds dragged themselves slowly along. They were even more bloody than the first. It was difficult to understand how the Bavarian stood it to the end, for nearly every round brought him a new wound or laid open an old one. Toward the end he began to pant with heat and ex- haustion, and one ot the surgeons examined his heart with some care ; and evidently feeling that there was danger from this source, he wet a towel in cold water and placed it over the heart and just under the edge of the armor, and then the fighting went forward again with its usual vigor. At the close of the duel, astonishing as it may- seem, both contestants were able to walk upstairs to the dressing-room, although the Bavarian looked A Uni'-versitj' Corps House 306 Seen in Germany every moment as if he would go down. His appear- ance is not to be described in this place. An hour later we saw the Tyrolean walking about, uncon- cernedly smoking a cigarette, his colored cap perched on top of his bandages. He had not been seriously wounded, except for the single cut on top of his head. The Bavarian did not appear. The duel had lasted in all about forty minutes. After it was over, we walked up the crooked road of the village between the quaint old houses. The air was sweet and fresh with spring and lilac blossoms, and the valley, which stretched out before us, lay green and peaceful in the sunshine. We saw the ancient brewery where the weak white beer that the students drink at their bouts is made ; we caught the cool, sour smell as we passed the door. And it occurred to us now that it was all over, to inquire what was the cause of the bloody battle we had seen. Surely these men must have been mortal enemies ; there must have been an unforgivable offence, possi- bly a romance behind it all. But never were we more mistaken. This was merely an arranged duel, we were informed. Of course there might have been an offence ; it occasionally happened that there was really an offence. But this was a regular Satur- day duel. The two men had been picked by the committee, matched according to their physical strength and condition, as well as by their past per- A Glimpse of German Student Life 307 formances, and a time had been set for them to fight. And they could not escape fighting without dishonor. A student who dons the colored cap of a corps, vir- tually offers a challenge to meet any comer with swords, and a student who does not join a corps must expect none of the glories and honors and con- sideration of the social side of a university career. He is nobody. The fighting goes on every Saturday in some of the little towns around the University, so many duels each week. The University actually pro- vides and pays a teacher of swordsmanship, from whom the students learn the art of duelling, and then, by constant practising, they secure some degree of skill. And yet many duels are fought by new men who have had little or no practice, and it is merely a matter of standing up and taking a bloody slashing. We heard one student encouraging another who was to fight a duel. It was, "Come, go in and get some good scars " ; it was not, " Go in and give the other man some good scars." Scars are curiously regarded by the German student. If they argue anything at all, they certainly argue a woful lack of skill at swordsmanship, for a really good swordsman should so defend himself that he would receive no wounds. Yet every scar is a badge of the greatest honor. Many duellists who are unfortunate in receiving all the wounds on the scalp where the hair covers them, go with close-cropped head so that their honor may 308 Seen in Germany be apparent. The scar most prized is the long, deep cut across the cheek, just such a one as the Bavarian fighter had received in the duel which we had seen. We heard it whispered that sometimes a student came by his scars in roundabout ways, — little accidents with razors ; but one scarcely credits such a story, because it is much too simple a matter to obtain scars by the legitimate and highly honorable method ot the duel. All this blood and slashing is accompanied by the most excruciating pain in healing, especially in cases where the cheek is cut through, and sometimes a student is compelled to wear bandages and a black cap, and eat porridge for weeks ; but he may comfort himself in his suffering with the assurance that there is no higher badge of honor than the black " duel hat." Is a duellist ever killed ? In one of the corps houses of this University hangs a picture of a young student, with the point of a duelling sword framed near it. During the duel the sword had snapped, and the razor-like point had been driven into the duellist's heart. But a killing in a duel is comparatively rare. The greatest danger arises from blood-poisoning, the surgeons being only medical students, and often ill-equipped for dealing with such surgical cases. There have also been deaths from heart failure, due to over-exertion, heat, and loss of blood. A Glimpse of German Student Life 309 Duelling has now obtained such a hold on German student life that, although laws against it are in exis- tence, little or no attempt is made to enforce them. There is an impression, born, perhaps, of the military spirit, that duelling produces strong and brave men. Formerly there was always a sentinel to report the coming of the police, and that formality is still observed in many cases, because it gives an added spice to the sport. If there is really an offence between the duellists, and occasionally there is, the fight may be with sabres and half-bare arms. This is considerably more serious than the sword duels, and it is understood that the police will try to prevent it. At the duels we saw, not the slightest precautions were taken in the way of sentinels, and any one who had an acquaintanceship among the students was perfectly at liberty to come in and see the battle. In fact, there were a number of spectators, evidently residents of the town, whose presence could have been explained only by the fact that they have been on hand at the time and had invested twenty pfennigs in a mug of the gasthof beer. When we returned to our places at the beer table in the pavilion, the students were singing a rollicking student song and the surgeons were just coming in from their work on the poor Bavarian. We remained for one more duel, and then, although the perform- ance continued until late in the afternoon, — that is. 3 I o Seen in Germany all day long, — we had enough ot it, and were glad to get away. The last we saw ot our friend, the presi- dent of the Hanoverians, was on the stairway of the inn, his face gashed and indescribably bloody. He, too, had fought. XII THE NEW GERMANY, HER PROSPERITY AND HER PROBLEMS XII THE NEW GERMANY Her Prosperity and Her Problems THE new Germany, as a whole, gives an observer the impression of tremendous activity and vitality, of change and im- provement. One who visits the ancient town of Nuremberg looking only for the quaint evidences of mediaeval grandeur and power will be astonished by the signs of present-day enterprise, — the smoking chimneys, the roaring street traffic, the busy shops, the brilliant lights. Nuremberg is western and progressive — and yet nof; more so than the other great cities of Germany. Berlin has been growing more rapidly in the last decade than Chicago. In the twenty years from 1875 ^° ^^9 Si ^^^ ^'^^Y 'Tioi*e than doubled its popu- lation ; while Hamburg gained 146 per cent., Munich 140 per cent., and Leipzig, famed once for its sleepy streets and ancient university, made the remarkable gain of 263 per cent. Expansion and prosperity are 314 Seen in Germany everywhere ; splendid new buildings and factories, new ships, new canals, new railroads. No man of the present age is more fuUv alive to his own powers, his interests, his weaknesses, than the German, and none is struggling harder to advance along all lines of human development. The Englishman has gone to sleep content with his own commercial supremacy and greatness ; the American is not yet fully awake to his own power; the Frenchman frets himself with visions of a greatness that is gone ; but the German is fully alive to every world-condition, establishing banks and business in South America, buying islands of Spain, boldly taking the lead in the Chinese troubles, extending his colonies in Africa, preparing to absorb Austria and possibly Asia Minor, building a splendid new navv, stretching the lines ot his merchant marine around the world, and putting his manufactured products into the homes of every nation on earth. Germany has laid the foundation of her industries on the bed-rock of science and thorough technical education, to a degree equaled by no other nation. Thirty years ago coal-tar was almost unknown to German industrv ; between 1877 and 1890 no fewer than 800 patents were taken out on coal-tar derivatives, and in 1898 the industries connected with the utilization of coal-tar — a former waste material — yielded over $17,000,000 in prod- ucts. That is a sample of what the intelligent prac- The New Germany 3 i 5 tical application of science has done. Fifty years ago the German was the world's typical dreamer, musician, poet, scholar ; then he became the world's philosopher, scientist, and educator, and now he is appearing as a great man of affairs, of world politics, of giant industries. Yet no other great nation in the world to-day is per- plexed with such weighty and difficult problems, re- lating both to external and internal affairs, as Germany. No other great nation is torn by such diversities of opinion regarding economic and political questions, or presents such seemingly irreconcilable contrasts and changing relationships. In the cities, for instance, there exists a fierce socialistic and often revolu- tionary spirit, and opposed to this is the obsti- nate conservatism of the aristocratic Agrarians or land-owners (Yunkers), the latter demanding pro- tection to agriculture with higher duties on imported food-stuffs, and the former, the wage-workers, demand- ing free trade and cheaper food. Between these two powerful opponents in the social and political scale, there lies seemingly a bottomless chasm, and it needs all the astuteness and power of the government, even with such a man as the young emperor at its head, to keep them together until Germany shall have de- veloped a large and sensible middle class. Here also is the old German tendency to free thought and high culture set over against a government that will not 3 1 6 Seen in Germany permit free speech, a free press, or free assemblage for the discussion of certain questions of administra- tion and politics, — a government that punishes with an iron hand for " lese-majeste." Here is a vast and bloated militarism standing in contrast to a pro- fessed desire and a real need of peace, a huge army and navy costing millions in taxes and taking half a million men from agriculture and the industries, when there are not enough laborers to till the fields. Yet an army Germany must have, for jealous enemies crowd close on every side. The nation itself is hardly yet a nation ; it is made up of many states, each more or less jealous of the others; the Catholics of the south distrust the Lutherans of the north, the Saxon dislikes the Prussian, and the Bavarian sus- pects both ; then there are half-loyal Poles in East Germany, French in the Rhine country, Danes in Schleswig-Holstein. From all these diverse elements of population, loyalty, if it proceed not from desire, is demanded by force. It is a constant struggle between the centrifugal force exerted by twenty-five states, which only thirty years ago were separate sovereignties, and the centripetal force of the power- ful Prussian monarchy, with an iron-handed Hohen- zoUern at its head. More than one prophet during the past thirty years, who has seen all these dark problems, has predicted the speedy downfall of German political institutions ; yet Germany still The New Germany 3 1 7 stands, a great and powerful nation, and one cannot but teel that the sober and practical sense of the German citizen, combined with an intelligent and powerful administration, will ultimately prevail, and that Germany will continue to go forward and upward. THE END RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (415)642-6233 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW MftYl W? i^: JUN061991 tJUN 2 1 RECD V 1 -mnrrmr I YD 08909 GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. 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