, 1890-12-25
DR.. KOCH'S DAILY LIFE
All His Tastes Are Simple
Frugal and.
The HOUSE WHERE He LIVES
Physicians and Patients Flooking
to Berlin From All Parts
of the World.


of the Bruckenstrasse, lives DR..
Koch, the consumption curer," or,
as somebody called him here today
the Faust Of the nineteenth cell
tury. The Bruckenstrasse Is by no
means an aristocratic thoroulghfarc,
though any one who does not know
the secrets Of the "new Berlin"
which has sprung up around tue
town during the last twenty years
would mt fl, st sight imagine that oil
those high white-stone buildings
with balconies, carvings and other
ornamentations were 80 many
palaces of the rich. In reality they
are nothiug more than rather super
ior houses Of the type which the
Bcrliner sweepingly calls "Miets'
kasernen" (hire-barracks). In the
basement live cobblers, tailors and
small shopkeepers, and in the froht
windows of the ground floor hum.
ble flower-pots, and here and there
a hyacinth In a glass. with a
big paper night-cap over the sprout,
ing top, to keep the light OIL, stand
In row. The second floor, the bel
etage, is the show floor, for which
most rent is paid, and to which
balcony, and occasionally u bow
window, belongs. But DIR. Koch
lives not OH any of these floors; his
quarters are higher still, up three
flights of steps, covered with the
regulation cocoanut mating. And
there he has only one side of the
house, with three front windows
looking upon the opposite side OF
the street, where the houses are still
In the course of erection, and with a
pleasant view from the side windows
over an empty space to where the
roof of the Bellevue palace looks
over the bare trees. "Dr. II. Koch
Is printed on the small china plate
above the letter.box on the door,
behind which, on entering, you find
a dark little vestibule-again just as
thousands of Berlin flats.
THE DOCTORS WIFE.
Three doors lead into the vesti-
bule, the one nearest to the front
door admitting to the DOCTORS cosy
and comfortable study, the chief
ornament in which Is fine large
marble bust of the old Emperor
William l., rising above a group of
healthy looking foliage plants. Ev-
erything IL of that spotless cleanli-
uess which Is the German house.
wife's greatest gride, and the Frau
Professor in herself Is exactly the
woman one would imagine to be
the presiding genius over the estab-
lishment. She Is of medium height,
and a very simple dark dress, held
at the throat with gold ornament,
fits closely round her slight and ele-
CANT figure. Her complexion is
fresh and healthy, and her fair hair,
which is sim ply parted I'm the center
in the way which Is now often
playfully called the "Madonna
coitiure," is just beginning to turn
gray.
A LION IN HIS DEN.
Sometimes, however, the family
servant, middle aged woman in
whom the simplicity and neatness
and even the slight nervousness of
the "Fruu Professor" are repeated, =,
comes out and bids the visitor enter.
The hours of the early afternoon
and again the pleasant time from o
p. NJ. to midnight are the visiting
hours In DIR. Koch's household. The
morning callers find him pleasant
enough and courteous, with the ease
of "a man of the world, but much
more than kindness and geniality
of that parsonage. But 1t is only at
night, when the work of the day IL
over, that he gives himself fully up
to social pleasures. 1t is then that
his friends drop in, often to share
his ample meal during which he
often takes a great deal of soda
water, but very little OF any alcoho-
lie drink, and more frequently
after supper. Up to midnight the
conversation flows on; the professor,
who Is an excellent talker and COM
panion, being never weary of en-
tertaining his guests.
In the morning DIR. Koch likes to
remain undisturbed till about 0
o'clock, when he rises and dresses,
carefully and rather slowly, and
come to breakfast ready to go out,
except that, instead of the usual
morning coat, he wears q garment
at the sight of which one is at frs.
almost inclined to turn away and
hide wicked smile. This Is q long,
loose coat, not unlike lady's dress
ing-gown, and 1t is quite sleeveless
Its extreme comfort Is plainly its
one advantage; and attired In it,,
and unconscious of its wild peculiar
tiles, DIR. Koch sits down to his
breakfast. No coffee for him, nor
any other cup that cheers, but ill.,
stead a rather uninviting-looking,
thick white soup, into which he
puts any amount of little squares Of
toasted brown bread. Then he
changes his coat, starts off by the
Stadtbahn to Hygienic Institute,
where we shall presently see him at
work, and Is seen no more till,
punctually at +. NJ, he returns
home to the most frugal of dinners,
consisting of one course of meat and
vegetables, one light sweet dish, and
to finish up with plate of soup.
DIR. Koch's anusements are intel.
lectual rather than physical, but he
is not for nothing professor of hy-
giene at the Berlin university, and
he knows we'll that after hunting
and breeding and studying bacilli
for four hours he is in duty bound
to take some bodily exercise. This
he does faithfully every afternoon.
When the clock strikes 3 there comes
hobbling up the Bruckenstrasse, and
led by u sturdy subaltern of the
newest bait stables, IA comfortable
loolxiup daDDle-pIay The animal