National Republican., 1883-06-28
w. B. MATTHEWS.
THE ORIGIN OF THE KINDERGARTEN.
10 Lhk Esfikor

TO he Editor.
That article in your respected paper of last
Saturday under the heading, "Dueling and
Street Fighting" giving definition of the
word Niger" niger" &c, was to me a
pleasant resound of the explanation which |
often had occasion to give my colored friends,
with the addition, however, that this word is
just as inoffensive as the word Dutchman is,
because the people whom you call Germans
call themselves Deutsche from Doitche, and
the word Deutsch can according TO English
orthoepy not bo pronounced otherwise than
Dutch, while the name German neither is nor
ever has been popular in Germany, because il
is in fact nickname imposed upon that ma
tion by the Romans in honor to their general,
Germanicus, who after tho defeat of many
other generals succeeded in subduing them
for q short period.
The English language is however, very
pliable, always ready to adopt foreign words,
and even to violate the rules of English syn
tax. When studied the English language at
home in Germany, the teacher and other
friends acquainted with it called especial at
| tention TO the fact that the English were very
scrupulous in tho correct logical use of the
lenses of verbs They would never as the
French and the Germans do, confound the
present with tho future tense as the king
goes next summer to Wisbaden; but now the
newspapers are using such illogical phrases
quite commonly. Such pliablity is sad
proof of disrespect to the dignity of the
national character You can hardly open the
dictionary for the definition of some word
that your eyes should not fall upon the
words, "a corruption of the French, German,
Itolian word soand so;" for instance, the word
surgeon, contraction of tho word cherurgus
Only think of such an illogical corruption.
Not less queer is the abuse of the word
Kindergarten instead ofinfant school. Kind
ergarten means ChildTens garden. You may
therefore imagine how ridiculous il is to n
German to see signboard high up in the
second story of a house inscribed kindergar.
ten. Allow me to give you the true history of
the origin of the childrens gardens in Ger
many. There was up to the year 1912 ham
let near Stettin by the name of Tourney,
but being within the cannon range it was
during the siege of tho city destroyed by fire.
Though the property holders were indemni-
fed when peace was restored, they
were not permitted to rebuild their
houses, or stables, &C., but aanother
outside the cannon range. Thus a new vil-
lage was formed by the name of the New
Tourney. This was soon peopled by the
working class of people who went to their
work in the city. The mothers of infants in
trusted them to the care of their neighbor, q
tailor. l think his name was Minter, who
tried his best to keep the babies comfortable,
playing for them on his fiddle, making them
dance, and sing "A, B, G, ID, L, +, G." &c.,
and whenever tho season permitted he took
them out in his garden, made them jump and
run, or gather flowers, or dig. SOW, plant, &C.
The installed village teacher having learned
of tho tailor's benevolence assisted him by
furnishing him spelling boards and toys,
and acquainted also the city ladies'
society (Louisebund) with the tailor's
magnanimity. They not only So.
cured him regular salary from the city
treasury, but caused more such institutions to
be established in other parts of thesuburbs sur
rounding the city. The example of the
Sedinienses was soon followed by other cities
and thus the institution of the kindergarten
has spread all over Germany, and the Ameri-
cans are now pleased to use that name for in
fant schools, contaminating the English Lam
guage unnecessarily with another foreign
word. A. p.