Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-21
GERMAN ETlOUETTE.
Some Of the Rules that Americans arc
Forever Disregarding.

German etiquette Is very minute. IL does
not stop with the ordinary rules for eating
drinking. calling. and receiving. IL proscribvs
mazes of trivial details which would 81 so
many fat volumes that even the Germans have
not had the courage 30 write them. 1t directs
a man what to say just before beginning to
drink glass of beer and just before finishing
1t Ii tells him the exact words he must use in
insulting stranger. IL graduates nicely the
depth of the bows that are due TO the privy
councillor. the court councillor. the tutor. the
judge. the tradesman. the barber. aud the res
fanrateur. IL explains why the Clergyman
should bow first TO the Herr Baron and last TO
the Herr Banker. 1t describes Just how man
must Kiss woman's hand in the drawing
room and Just why he need not give her his
sest IN horse car. IL even prescribes the
circle In which a man may waltz at a ball
Perhaps the best criterion of the minuteness
OF German etiquette is the little unwritten code
on pocket manners. German good form is
shocked by the helter-skelter condition OF the
American pocket. A well-hred German never
allows MS Keys and his jackknife. his small
change, his shoe buttoner, and his cigar cutter
TO jingle about loosely in his trousers pocket
naked cigar protruding from a waistcoat
pocket shocks the modesSy of German good
form much more than a dozen or more of Ru-
bens strapping Dutch goddesses. The greatest
carry small silver coins loose in the pocket
German lieutenant may have only half a
dollar TO his name. but Ne carries as big a purse
as if be owned all the notes of the imperial
relchsbank. In paying for five cents worth OF
beer he goes down into his trousers and draws
cut his fabby pocketbook with dignity. thank
ing heaven ne is a mannerly. high-born Prus-
sian and not a vulgar tradosman like the Amer
lean at his side, who has just slapped down ON
the table a mess of gold. silver KEYS and man.
annarafns he =
boy is not even allowed to carry his car fare
without purse. The servant girl. who earns
but $40 year, would not carry the price of a
loaf OF black bread through the street in her
hand
Every reputable smoker in Germany has his
"cigar-etuis." He prepares TO smoke by
emptylng out all his three-cent cigars on the
table before him and laying the case aside.
Then he draws a little cigar-clipper from
another case. removes the tip of the least
ofenslye-looking cigar. and drops the small
bit of tobacco into tiny box which he carries
IN his waistcoast pocket. At the end of each
smokers year he sends all these cigar tips 20
charitable institution in his province. Two
years ago the asylums in the little province of
brunswick received 400 marks worth of to-
bacco in this wise. After slowing away the
orphans share of the cigar. the smoker
takes knife from its chamois-skin bag
and finishes the job which the clipper be-
gan case containing a cigarette holder
and leather match safe are the last
articles which the well-bred German about to
smoke adds 10 the collection of small bags and
cases on the table before him. OF course all
this elaborate preparation TO smoke one three
cent cigar strikes the American tourist as a
trihe ridiculous. A German. however. regards
1t as indicative of the breeding of the smoker.
He looks upon the rough-and-ready manner in
which an American carries his cigars. matches
and knife much as an American looks upon a
man who travels without a toothbrush and
night-shirt.
The little code of pocket manners is enforced
just as tyrannically by German public opinion
as other branches of German etiquette. Ameri-
cans, who consider such minnie matters all
bosh and say so. are apt 10 be roughly cor
rected or altogether abandoned by their more
fastidious friends. Like the Inspector in The
Moonstone." German etiquette holds that there
are no trifies, aud any foreigner who holds
otherwise cannot cut much of figure in Ger
man society