Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-07-31
COURTSHIP In GERMANY.

The Berlin correspondent of the Lon
don Daily News discourses about court
ship in Germany to the following effect:
ut is not OF much consequence how
the parties first become acquainted; (;
there are plenty of ways in which q
young man with trade and dozen
linen collars may come to know mothers
with marriageable daughters, and then
the daughters themselves. Even if the
young man has no thought of marriage,
the society Of the young ladies is likely
to be not quite without interest. Ger
man girls are not so handsome as Eng
lish, so graceful as the French, or so
clever as Americans; but they generally
look healthy and fresh, and they have
'Hauslichkeit' Now, there is no other
quality that German men of the middle
class prize in their wives as 'Hauslich
keit, or domesticity. Look through the
popular literature of the country, ro-
nance and poetry, and it will appear
that this is the sum of wifely virtues.
The young girls are very carefully trained
in this respect by their mothers, and at
the age at which they marry they are
nearly always equal to the domestic
duties of their position. They know how
to knit mems hose, and to deal out
rations to the servants. In the little
parties at the beer house or garden, the
young lady is expected to make the
necessary display of her domestic ac-
complishments, aided, of course, by ju-
dicious hints from the mother. If the
objective man be an industrious artisan
or thrifty tradesman, the maiden drinks
sparingly Of beer, eats piece of ham or
sausage instead of beefsteak, and knits
on some useful and substantial garment.
If he be bankers son, belonging say
one grade higher socially, but attracted
by pretty face, the tactics are different.
The girl is permitted to be a little more
forward: Instead Of knitting she works
at some light embroidery; she takes not
only a beefsteak but beefsteak aux
champions; she chatters a good deal
about the opera, and even about Renz's
circus andIn short her whole manner is
lighter and freer. If the first class of
candidates are to be captured by the
steady, persistent work of infantry, the
movement for the rich catches is more
like cavalry charge.
AN observant young man can gener-
ally tell by the second evening at the
beer garden if he is persona grata with
the mother. If on his appearance the
second evening at the rendezvous she
iunocently offers him place beside the
daughter, or accidentally makes place
for him, as il we're in the confusion of
the moment, he knows at once that one
formidable outpost is carried, and worse
than that, if he be himself Indifferent, he
knows that sharp matron is filling his
path with traps and pitfalls. Perhaps
the most interesting scene is a mother
who, at public place like that, has three
or four daughters to adjust among as
many ardent and reluctant suitors. |
can compare it to nothing but a cook
watching half dozen beefsteaks in diff
ferent degrees ofpreparation. From the
pair who are most advanced in their
wooing and may be left pretty much to
themselves, to the pair who least har-
monize and consequently need the most
discreet attention and encouragement
from one of these extremes to the other,
along the intermediate grades of connu-
bial readiness, the care of this watchful
mother ranges and operates. The young
ladies play their parts demurely, but
with a good deal of skill
I'm default of a public announcement
Of betrothal, people in the habit of
watching the actors from evening to
evening may tell by one infallible sign
when the happy climax is reached. As
soon as the swain begins to pay the
young ladies reckoning in addition to
his own, depend on it they are engaged.
Up to that time the maiden gansebraten
has been reckoned at the close of every
evening with the account of the family,
and paid for by the fond parent; but now
the burden has been lightened. The
future son-in.law meets his sweetheart's
but them alone. Even if there
be nobody else with them but the mother,
she always pays her own bill. Night
after night one may see at the same
restaurants young man pay for himself
and his sweetheart, while the worthy
matron Just as regularly is left to the
Of her ewn purse. If the three
visit the theatre, be purchases stall for