North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1867-12-25
WHOLE No. 5e4.
Sunday In Germany.

Rev. Prof. Rhodes, Of Cleveland, Ohio
at present travelling in Germany, is writ
ing communications to a Cleveland paper
In one Of his letters from Berlin, he says
No young American, who intends to
study in Germany, should come here soon.
er than before he has gone through his
education in one of our (American) col.
leges because the German Universities
will lead him into wider fields of knowl-
edge, and commence where our colleges
have ceased. The German Universities
are unirersal, they embrace every knowl.
edge, and our best colleges cannot stand a
comparison with them, however this fact
may hurt our vanity.
do not expect to appear as unpatriotic
when in examining the two Museums here
| deplore the entire want Of anything OF
the kind in America. Yea, in all the Unit
ed States there is in spite of the boast of
wealth, not a single place, where scholars
or the people have an opportunity to see
with their own eyes these legacies Of a
former culture. But as we are growing
older and wiser, we probably shall con-
quer the mania which only worships gold
and material prosperity, and will as other
people direct our attention to subjects
that promote culture and stimulate the ac-
quirement of knowledge.
l am here in nominally Protestant
country, whose capital is Berlin; but Pro-
testantism here is an entirely different
plant than in America. The Sunday re-
sembles here the Sunday in Catholic coun-
tries. The forenoon is nominally cohse-
Grated to the church, but the afternoon to
raornntIpv, ord IN $h0
ings the theatres and the opera houses are
crowded, and concerts and balls are given
in various localities. The church has, in
truth, no living hold, at least not upon the
men, and the principal difference between
Catholic and Protestant countries is only
that they live in the first without religion
though they dare not die without it, while
in Protestant countries men live and
die without the church, relying entirely
upon their philosophy. Here in Ger
many often the most learned men of
the Universities are no friends to the
church, and it is nothing strange or extra
ordinary to see them spend their Sunday
afternoons and evenings in q beer garden,
listening to the excellent music, smoke
their pipes, and at the same time, per-
haps, discover new scientific truths and
systems.
Horrible will you say? Of course to
all who have been educated in puritanic
rigor, this will appear horrible but it
would betray narrow mind if we were
to condemn what don't harmonize with
our own ideas. The world is wide, and
civilization is not the property of only one
language, and of one people, but is the
common property Of all nations, and eve-
ry people have their own peculiarities.
Who in looking at the life here, as pub
lie opinion, approved by the best and wis
est men, sanctions it, will better under
stand the enmity of large class of our
German fellow citizens against the at
tempts to disturb them in the enjoyment
of certain customs and habits, which they
consider jast as sacred as we do in Amer
lea our religion. do not write as the ad-
vocate of German ideas, give only facts,
as they appear to every intelligent trav-
eler."