The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1897-04-22
GOOD LITTLE GERMANS.
Small Boys Who Have Not the Instinct
to De1trOy.

to Destroy.
The writer has, during the last fort
night Or so, been engaged in comparing
country life in England with that in
Germany. 1t was an extremely inter-
esting occupation, in the fine weather,
especially to anyone with love of
natural history. For the sentimental
German is extremely fond of wild
things; or is it that the boys are less
malicious than those OF England?
The little garden birds, particularly
that prime favorite of Germans, the
chafinch, afford by their tameless strik-
ingtestimony to- the harm1essness Of the
knaben. When enc met them return
ing from school in little parties, they
were not, as village urchins here would
have been, exercising hand and eye by
aiming stones at the small warblers.
Nor did they seem to pull their clothes
to tatters by climbing trees, or make
their boots muddy by hunting ditch
and streamlet for stickleback and min
now. To put it all in a nutshell, they
are not born into that atmosphere of
sport which surrounds an English boy,
and their familiar pastimes do not, as
much as with US, take the form of hunt
ing something. AS far as one could
learn from conversing (not over fluent
ly) with the small farmers, they regard
game purely and simply as pests. Rab-
bits especially are esteemed mere YER
min, and not looked upon as delightful
creatures to shoot, chase and eat in pie
the rural view with us to great ex.
tent. So the love of mischief inherent
in juveniles does not develop so much in
the love of killing.
But whether this be altogether good
for the German youth or not raises
quite another question. Of course, we
have not word to say against anything
that tends to greater kindness and con-
sideration for animals; but then, what
sort of men will be turned out in the
long run by abstinence from all hard
out OF door exercise? Despite the en-.
thusiasm of English residents and Wis.
itors for cricket, football and the rest OF
our manly open-air pastimes, one very
rarely sees the German youth taking to
these. What contrast between the
outskirts of one of our own manufac.
turing towns and a similar German
city! In one you see the youngsters
scurrying about on their bicycles or ex.
ercising themselves at some manly and
hardy game; in the other there are
scarcely any playing fields, and the in.
curry naturally suggests itself whether
the better men will be produced by Wig
orous and occasionally brutal exercise,
or by skittles and cards and soaking
lager in bierhalle orgarten. A taste
for music is fine thing, but rather
enervating if there is too much of it.
Despite all that has been said about
German competition, the observer of
national habits is bound to doubt its i'm
portance.
Another point that thrusts itself upon
ones notice, though it is pretty widely
known already, is that the weakness OF
Germany is in the towns. The country
people live a harder life, but they are
not better off than the same class with
ourselves, only their necessities are
small and they form the most contented
part of the country. It is-and this is
a serious danger-in the centers of in.
dustry that discomfort is rife and So
cialism, with it's coefficients, fiourishes
Pail Mall Gazette. =.