Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-02
THE GERMAN WOMAN.
How She Lives from Maid to Wife, with
Incidents Of Courtship.

From the London Globe.
The German woman is neither the excellent
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 candied fruits, and she is quite match
for Faust when she meets him. In fact the
German girl Of to-day, especially in Berlin, is
not 80 much like the Marguerite of Goethe as
the Loulou of "Gyp."
German school life is a serious business. II
begins at seven years old, and the two subjects
OF study which are specially in favor with all
classes OF people Of any pretensions are French
and the piano II do not think it is an exag-
geration," says the writer, 'to say that 95 per
cent of the daughters of parents in easy cir
cumstances play the piano and 80 per cent
speak French"
AS soon as girl has been confirmed her edu-
cation 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 ball. Courtship, the
preliminaries to which generally 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 band on the ice is inaugu-
rated thus: If the young man means business
he calls on the young lady's parents one Sun
day and breaks the ice. He will then be asked
to dinner and a ceremoniOus exchange of little
sentimental presents will take place between
tences-always in French.
When an engagement has been definitely an
nounced the young people are allowed quite an
English amount of freedom in their intercourse.
Indeed, If We may believe the writer, their man.
ners and customs are considerably more frankly
free than ours in this country, for, she saws,
they do not scruple to kiss each other in pub
lie as often as they feel inclined, and there is
nothing more disagreeable at a soiree than the
spectacle of one Of these sentimental couples ~
Before marriage the German girl is mighty
reader of novels her capacity for sentimental
stories being simply inexhaustible 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 occu-
pied the same place as does the French woman
by reason of the total absence of any senti-
ment of chivalry and romance in the treatment
OF woman by man in Germany. True, the sons.
the husbands, the brothers of the women of Ger
many deserve our respect for their energy, their
character-all that supplies a nation with its
force. But how disastrous is that force for the
women. Force is more fatal to grace than
even to right. What hardLess in that dignity!
What carelessness, what supreme indifference
| on the part OF those proud and selfish heroes
who do not ask their companions of the other
sex to understand them and appreciate them,
but only to keep house satisfactorily and to
bear number of Dchildren! SO far, indeed,
does the German husband carry his want of
gallantry that he absolutely dislikes to see his
wife make use of any of those advantages of
the toilet the results Of which are comprised
in the epithet scornfully applied to a WELL
dressed woman-emparisenne.
The state Of Intellectual moral and social
| 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 the utmost of which
she is capable, and even in initiating she is
slow. The German woman, in word is
crushed beneath the overwhelming superiority
of her lord and master. The famous '.deutches
weib," who is the traditional type Of the Ger
man woman, is just the Germana of Tacitus-
the servant of man.