The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-25
Americans ILL At ease
Travelling In Germany Made Unplcas-
ant by Unsupplicd Wants.
THINGS you CAN'T GET THERE
There Are Many Articles OF Food aud
Comfort Which Americans Yearn for
In vain When in tho Father.
handsome Citations.

In the Old World, writes Berlin cor
respondent of the Sun. one is supposed
10 be able to secure all the comforts
and luXuries Of life IL one has the
wherewithal which commands them,
but ! have discovered that even marks
and groschen win not procure in Ger
many some of the things that dollars
and dimes will In America. Take the
things one likes to eat and doesn't gel.
The German certainly excel in cooking
vegetables and all sorts of farnaceous
foods, but they haven't the remotest
idea of how to prepare beefsteak or u
roast. They consider the English ana
Americans utterly barbarous because OF
their preference for rarely done meats.
Their own are always cooked to dark
brown color. and mutton and beef are
not to be distinguished from each other
by the sense of taste. Their favorite
meat aside from sausages, seems to
be hare, a dry. tasteless food. which
suggests stewed chips about as much
as anything.
oysters you may secure in midwinter,
but they are very small and very ex-
pensive. A German girl said to me one
day, as we passed u restaurant where
austern We're advertised for sale: ,"Ha-
ben sic austern In Amerika schon ge-
gessen?" and she was surprised when
replied that we could have them almost
any day in New York. She had tasted
them once.
PIES ARE UNKNOWN.
1t is difficult to celebrate Thanksgiv-
ing Day in Germany in II very ortho-
doX American way, for the cranberriGs
and the mnce pies are not always
Forthcoming. cranberries one can get
sometimes in Dresden, but they are a
poor little imitation of the real Ameri-
can article. Pie seems to be a Yankee
ism. German cooks have not been ini-
tiated into the mystery of compound
Ing tiakey pie crusts. They learn oc-
casionally how to make the indigestible
inside of Il mince pie. but they have no
artistic appreciation of the qualities
of an upper ana under crust. In their
hands, a pie crust is a mere piece of
heavy prosaic dough, in which a shape
less mass OF mince meat gets def
mite symmetrical form.
German bakery shops are a paradise
of tOothsome sweets. There one can
find all sorts of sweet breads and cakes
sugared and cinnamoned on the out
side and filled with plum jam or choco
late cream. but one can't get there a
pie or u loaf of Boston brown bread. a
skillful cook may learn to concoct a
kind of Berlin brown bread but it will
never have the superior qualities of the
American article, because one cant get
molasses In Germany and is obliged to
use very inferior sort of syrup. AS
for baking-powder biscuits, they are
quite out of the question. The Ger
man, however, make an excellent roll
Or brOdchen--covered with poppy or
caraway seeds. which Is very good
substitute for hot biscuits and prob
ably more wholesome.
Among other hygenic articles of
American diet of which the Germans
are still In ignorance may be mentioned
fruit cake. Sponge cake they have
heard about from English novels, like
Mrs Gaskell's Crawford" and some Of
them have tasted ''angel food" at par
ties in the American colony. They
know about lemonade, but they seldom
drink it. as wine or beer Is always
provided IN Il German mouse. I was
greatly amused at a young German Of
ficer whom ] met one evening at an
American reception. He had manful-
ly done his duty toward the coffee and
the salads and the ices before he dis
covered the lemonade. The Germans
usually begin any social. festivity with
dinner. After couple of tiresome
hours at a very long table, where an
fncessant clatter of tongues and glasses
the dance begins. Our American fash
ion of letting each man help himself
and his fair friends in an informal
but modest way between the dances is
new to them. They appear to consider
themselves In duty bound to make out
full meal, but under the discomfort
of standing up to do it and of waiting
on themselves. Still, they conscient-
lously perform that duty, though it
take all evening to do it.
LEMONADE A SURPRISE,
The German officer on this occasion
showed his appreciation of the lemon
ade by imbibing large quantities of it.
lie held his glass up to the light and
critically squinted one eye at it. He
asked II lemonade was q fayorite Amer
lean beverage, and he wanted to know
what II was made of. / really believe
that he had never tasted It before. Cir
Gus lemonade and its Accomplishments
of peanuts and popcorn have no claim
on the popular heart as they have in
America. What German would stop to
experiment on red lemonade when there
was the assured and blessed certainty
of enjoyment In glass OF Munich beer,
for the same price? Peanuts do not
appear to be appreciated by even the
juvenile German In the way that they
deserve. A man who sold tons of pea
nuts at the Worlds Fair brought ship
loads Of them over to the exposition
at Antwerp. hoping to dispose OF them
to his profit. Alas. he couldn't dispose
of them at all. and returned a sadder
but wiser man to the Western hemi-
sphere. 1t was the same way when
Buffalo Bill was in Berlin. The little