The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-24
THE GERMAN WOMAN.
How She Lives from Maid to Wife
with Incidents OF Courtship.
From the London Globe.

From the London Globe
! The German woman is neither the excel
| lent housewife which she processes TO be
nor the bluestocking she is often thought
Gretchen" exists no longer, except on the
| lids Of the boxes Of candy fruits, and she is
| quite a match for Faust when she meets
him. In fact, the German girl of to-day,
especially in Berlin, is not so much ike the
Marguerite of Goethe, as the Loulou of
"Gyp"
German school life is a serious business.
! At begins at seven years old, and the two
| subjects of study which are specially in
favor with ali classes of people of any pre-
tentlons are French aud the piano II do
not think il is an exaggerationn saws the
writer, ito say that 95 per cent of the
daughters of parents in easy circumstances
play the piano, and 80 per cent speak
As soon as girl has been confirmed her
education is generally concluded, unless she
goes IN for special higher branches of study.
her parents begin to think of getting her
married, and she goes to her first pall
Courtshlp, the preliminaries to which gen
orally take place on the floor Of the ball
room, or, in the winter, to the rhythm of
the same waltz time played by the same
military bardOn the ice is inaugurated thus:
IL the young man means business he calls
on the young lady's parents one Sunday and
breaks the ice, He will then be asked to
dinner, and a ceremonious exchange of little
sentimental presents will take place be-
tween the pair, in eTlarded with sentiment
tai sentences-always in French.
When an engagement has been definitely
announced the yourg people are allowed
quite an English amount of freedom i'll their
intercourse. Indeed, If we may believe the
writer their manners and customs are con-
slderably more frankly free than ours IN
this country, for, she says, they do not
scruple to kiss each other in pu bile as often
as they feel inclined, and there is nothing
more dlsagreeable at a SOiree than the spec
tacle of one of these sentimental couples "
Before marriage the German girl is a
mighty reader Of novels, her capacity for
sentimental stories being simply inexhaust-
lble. Rarely, however, does marriage in
Germany prove the realization of any of the
dreams in which her girlish fancy has
taken delight.
The German married woman has never
occupied the same place as does the French
woman, by reasons of the total absence of any
sentiment of chivalry and romance in the
treatment OF woman by man in Germany.
True, the sons, the husbands, the brothers
OF the women of Germany deserve our
respect for their energy, their character. all
SAoS oupplApS a udlIOu Wlpu lIS FORCE. DuG
how disastrous is that force for the woman.
Force is more fatal to grace than even to
right. What hardness is that dignity!
What carelesSness what supreme indiffer-
ence on the part of of those proud and sci
fish heroes who do not ask their compan-
ions Of the other sex to understand them
and appreciate them, but only to keep
house satisfactorily and to bear number
of children! So far indeed, does the Ger
man husband carry his wants of gallantrv
that he absolutely dislikes to see his wife
make use of any of those advantages of the
toilet. the result of which are comprised in
the epithet scornfully applied to we'll
dressed neutrality-suspicious. n
The state of intellectual, moral and social 4
subsection of the German woman naturally
does not tend to develop any originality in
her. She never starts new idea or a new
fashion. Imitation, not invention, is tn
utmost of which she is capable, and even in
initiating she is slow The German woman,
in a word, is crushed beneath the over
whelming superiority of her lord and
master. The famous 'deutchers webb
who is the traditional type OF the German
woman, is just the Germana of Tacitus-the
servant of man.