The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1879-01-04
Ghiugs abroad.
From the Nep York Observer.
MANNERS AMONG THE GERMANS.

DIR. Scribe had the chair tonight, and
did the honors TO the best Of his ability.
In the course Of the evening, he made al
lusion to the habits of Europeans at the table
in contrast with our own. This was the
substance of what be said
DR. ScRIBE.-The impression prevails
widely among the English, and perhaps
obtains TO some extent among the Cont
nentals, that the Americans are only about
half-civilized, and that they are mostly
Doors, even when travelling in foreign lands.
VIvENDUs.-Tell us, in all candor, if
you will DR.. Scribe, what people in Eu-
rope is the most civilized ?
DR. ScRIBE.--The extremes of civili-
zation and barbarism are probably more
completely exhibited in England than in
any other country in the world. 1t is a
problem that the statesman and phian-
thropist may study with advantage, but
it is the unsolyed mystery Of humanity,
that in the "tight little island" Of Great
Britain the human race has reached its
highest development, in its aristocratic
circles, while that class has done SO little
to exalt the ignorant and brutalized masses
of the people.
Mr.. JoHNs.-The Germans have a
system of public education that reaches
the whole people more thoroughly than
the schools Of England, yet the Germans
are not polished people. do not know
that good manners are included in the ell
ements Of civilization, in this matter-of.
fact age.
DONNIE UTREYT.-NO, Education in
the schools does not mend the manners Of
people. The Germans are the most
thoroughly taught, in books, of any people,
not excepting the Universal Yankee ma
ton, All children are compelled to 90 to
school, and are well instructed; aud Mrs.
Emily Pfeiffer, the wife of Prussian Of
fcer, after living twenty years in va
rious parts Of Germany, coming in con-
tact with the lower and the higher classes,
wrote book on "German Home Life, in
which she says;
"They leave the schools, hopelessly un-
couth, coarse in manner and unhandy at
their work, often iueorrigibly dirty, with
out aptitude or willingness to learn, and
doggedly satisfied with themselves.
She quotes sentence from writer in
the Contemporary ReUietc;
while have seen perfect manners, Of
their kind, in the peasants Of more than
one country, Eastern and Western, think
the worst maunered people in Europe
perhaps in the world-are the highly
taught Prussians."
PRoF. INDEX.-The German peasan-
try treat their wives better than British
husbands Of the same class treat theirs,
Germans do not brutalize themselves with
beer and gin as Rritons do. You rarely
read London newspaper without meeting
with the record Of some fond husband
amusing himself III drunken revel by
kicking his wife to death, and if she were
about to become the mother of his child
the luxury Of the murder is the greater
Germans drink incredible quantities Of
beer, but it is not so alcoholic as John
Bull brews. In Munich they drink 80
much beer that it amounts to seventeen
gallons year for each person in the city.
They have one immense brewery, where
all the beer made is drank on the premi-
ses mugs are provided each drinker
helps himself to a mug, gets it filed at the
flowing fountain of beer, seats himself at
the table, guzzels it, pays, and goes, Yet
there is less intemperance 10 Germany
than in England and Scotland.
Dr., SoRIBE.-The marriage laws and
customs of country are indications of its
degree of civilization. | do not know
how generally the law is extended over the
Empire, or whether the regulations are
not distinct in different German States,
but found in Bavaria, and it is doubtless
the same elsewhere, vile law in relation
to marrying. To obtain a license to mar
ry, parties must be able to show that they
have adequate means of support, so that
the family will not be charge upon the
State Young people relying ON their
industry and frugality would sustain them
selves aud their offspring, but German
frugality, with some Malthusian calcula-
ton, stops the progress of population, and
thus diminishes the poor rates The law
works the direst social evils, but habit aud
prejudice will not allow its modification.
PRoF. INDEx.-I have in the German
language an essay on the morals Of Mu-
mich, published there, in which it is said
that one-ffth Of all the women in Mu-
mich, between the ages Of 10 and As, are
bad women OF course, the men are
worse; they always are, everywhere.
"Forbidding to marry" is crime; and
the State that puts obstacles in the way Of
marriage, sins against its own people,
working their social degradation and bring
ing them toward the level Of brutes, Young,
persons being refused permission to marry,
live with each other for a while, and in
the course Of time prefer to separate on
slight pretexts the resulting vice and
misery are obvious. Even worse than
this: where it is difficult to marry, men
and women fall into the habits of licen.
tiousness, which become more and more
common as the cause continues; society is
corrupted; virtue ceases to be admired;
disgusting vice loses its deformity; the
people, good and bad, look upon the state
Of things with complacency, or care moth
ing about it, and all go in the scale Of
morals together.
DoMINIE UTRAYT.--Mrs. Pfeiffer says.
--"The husband is the king, the wife
merely the prime minister. He sits in his
armchair smoking and auditing, with all
the severity Of u Lycurgus, the poor little
woman's accounts. She is simply an up.
per servant; nay, Of many gentle born
and gently bred lady il may be said that
the dull drudgery of her life is such as nc
upper servant would endure. Have / not
seen the Baroness B. hanging out the
clothes, aud Frau Won c. ironing her
husbands shirt fronts all through a blaz.
ing afternoon, and others baking, boiling
pounding, sitting. Weighing, pooling n &c,
Beyond eating, drinking and sleeping
under Que root, the sexes have littic in
common. Tho woman is a slave Of the
ring; for the wife Is baking and brewing.
for the husband the cakes and ale; for her
the toillug and spinning; for him the beer
and skittles; for her the nippines and
screenings, for him the pipings and dan
cinoe.n &e Ne nd 49, - sI.s. -