The record-union., 1894-08-25

OF recent years the German princes.
big and little, have learned to see that
wealth is necessity, and that not enough
can come from the ancient and honored
great farms of mobiles. Titles were GIN
gerly granted to shop-keepers, who imi-
tated Field in Chicago and A. T. Stewart
in New York in combining many retail
stores into great caravanseries. Others,
also. builders of railroads, Successful
bankers, etc., have received the recogni-
ton, foolish to US, but such as will have
the effect here of making the business
career an avenue to distinction, moro
often to be chosen by able young men, or
by their fathers Tor them. Then perhaps
the cringipg bankers, who now in many
places act like a servant before the tour
ist with a letter OF credit, will stand erect
ike man.
Lest some wrong impressions should
be got from the observations SO broadly
generalized above, will hasten to add
that self-respect is found in every rank of
society with which / have come in con-
tact, and my endeavor, when here as a
student two years ago, was to meet men
in all stations OF life. a shoemaker re-
spects himself more, | think, than he
would if he emigrated TO the New World,
but be assumes an erect position only in
his own little tier of society. Then,
among the other tradesmen of manual
tolerably vain, and will nurse petty
scorn for the unskilled laborer. So the
humblest minded banker, in his sphere
of society, will carry in his person and
face the pride of position and the insular
disrespect of the lower strata. | have
heard a servant boast of the fact that lie
served a man Of rank. not q mere rich
man. But Thackeray has shown US the
snobbishness of servants. All that /
mean TO say is that men here do not look
to rank as men among men. Only III
very small towns do business men of
great success presume to "moye' among
army officers, and then only will officers
submit to the contamination of trade.
And most people are content with the
sharp divisions. They never reflect that
there may be more brains and even more
culture beneath than above them. IF
they did they would alter The disposi-
Jlon of the business, for brains and edu-
catien are highly respected in intellectual
Germany. Those who desire brains viii
sometimes mix it with their blood-if
they cannot get gold.
Another point to be made is that in all
the tendencies made to alter old things,
to substitute new, and to adapt what was
to the needs Of what is To be, the Ger
mans are showing great care to preserve
the beauties of the past Next TO the in
PRODUCTION of modern improvements, I
think there is nothing else on the surface
so striking as the efforts to renovate and
restore the old. Houses of other centuries
are being rebuilt and repainted, cleaned
inside and out, and all with trained skill
directed to keep the form, color and gen.
eral effect of the antique. This, more
over, is not the work of conservatism; it
is simply that healthy respect which all
sound minds have for what was we'll
done at any time, Again, it is the Gov
ernment that is taking the lead. Berlin is
buying up for its own glorifcation many
OF the old works of art, wood cutting,
book binding, painting, carving, etc., and
for the glory of the history of the country
at large it is inspiring the buyers to care
for the remains of the dead ages. The
BUYERS themselves are we'll aware of the
commercial value TO the city of works of
art which attract travellers, and in some
cities they individually care for what is
their property. Usually, however, it is
the Government that must bear the costs.
Recently III Bremen citizen refused to
take care OF a beautiful old house that be-
came his by inheritance, and the town
had the work done as cost of 10000
marks (about $4,000.
There remains for another letter other
significant tendencies, political and intel
lectual, with which / hope to interest
you. In them the Government is not
leader and the healthy, common sense
conservatism is not SO omnipresent. 1t
is the rude rip and tear spirit that is so
characteristic of the brutal democracy of
which we have so much at home the
spirit that makes young liberals avoid
association with the army of the pro-
gressionists who damn their own cause;
that spirit, in short, which would tear
down the old houses, blow up the streets,
burn the works of art, and then sleep out