Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-07-25
The submissive German Woman.

(Colonel Higginson in the Woman's Journall
The young western states, which
should naturally be the homes of all
progress, are filing up, on an enormous
scale, with a race OF men ia many re-
spects admirable, but accustomed to
views very close to barbarism, in all that
concerns the condition of women.
1t needs but to travel III Germany or
to converse with those recently returned
thence, to feel the Importance of this
fact. 1t is not long since a young
American traveller, talking with a Ger
man lady, asked her why there was so
much astonishment in boarding houses
whenever an American was seen to black
his own shoes? Because" she said,
''no German gentleman blacks his own
Shoes" 8 Who does it p ''His serv-
ant" ''Suppose he cannot afford to
keep q servant. "Then his wife does
it. " "Do you approve of that?" Seer
tainly do" was the final answer; twas
not woman created to be the servant of
man?"
All the theories Of social courtesy in
Germany, SO far as l have known, imply
Difference as due TO the man, not the
woman. A young physician lately from
Berlin was telling ire, the other day,
that at his boarding house there, soon
after arrival, he stepped aside to give
preference to q lady who, like himself,
was entering the dining room. She
begged him to precede her, and when he
declined, she sided reluctantly IN, keep
ing her face always deferentially turned
toward him, .as toward a crowned head
This happened two Or three times, until
she at last demonstrated with him, point
ing out that nobody else did as he did,
and that it made it awkward for her.
After this, observing that every other
man IN the family made his way into the
dining room and left the ladies to follow
as they could, he found it easier to do
the same, and 50 adopted the common
practice. But is 1t strange our young
Americans, after three OF four years of
such social training, return home to ad.
vocate. III the Popular Science Monthly,
the inferiority of women?
Mrs. Pitman IN her European
Breezes gives an amusing account of
the awkwardness of Hungarian army
officers at being asked to hold lady s
shawl for her; since their professional
uSbLC 1OIbllAS Il1CIl NStl1 lllS dLlN
in their hands. But the same is the
rule in all good society III Germany, and
if a gentleman and lady walk together
in the street, it is only the lady, not her
escort, whom propriety permits to carry
a parcel. To such paradoxical extent
doer this go, that lady once begged of
a young American to allow her, for her
own sake, to carry the bundle; it would
never do for her to be seen walking with
q man who would so degrade himself as
to take it. This throws light on the
story-which has always seemed a little
incredible-of Rev. DR.. Christlieb's re-
mark that the spirit of Christ must be
wanting in America, since he had more
than once seen a husband fetch his
wife's shawl for her. "Bear We one
apother's bnrdens was not to be found.
it seemed, in the good pastors Bible.
And as the Bible of German science
seems equally destitute of any such pas
sage, 1t looks as if the whole civilized
world were IN a fair way to be percepti-
bly, retarded through the curious back
wardness of one highly educated but
semi. civilized nation.