The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-11-26


Possible Pay-Shop Girls Get ~ a
Month, Housemaids $3 = In Her
Native State the German Woman
Is the Most Self-Denying Crea-
ture in the World t
Doubtless no American traveller in Ger
many has failed to remark, as one of
the characteristic features of the land.
the peculiar position, or lack of position,
tnat Ieutonic WomankiEd holds. In get
Ting into the country the first glimpse
from car window makes it easy to un-
derstand why the German speaks joking
ly of ''the weaker sex" Deep in his
heart he means himself. The women
work in the fields, not like the mer, but
like the beasts: they are. the backbone
Of the nations economy Then, in the
first city. the thing is emphasized says
a Munich letter to the New York Sun
An American, after the primal shock he
gets from the aspect of the mems trous-
ers, which are built IN Germany upon
the pattern of section Of sheet-iron
stovepipe, is most strongly Impressed by
the fact that the women seemingly do
all the work-or all the work that is
hard enough to be called so. In place
Like this, perhaps the most typical of
German cities of the old style, one min
ute's walk from the hotel shows that the
hod-carriers are all women, that the
laborers on the street car lines are like
wise women, that large proportion of
the conveyances in the streets are small
carts pulled by women in partnership
with dogs, that most of the wood choppers
are women, and that everywhere, under
most circumstances in which the labor
is rough and mental, the woman is doing
the bulk of the work. while the man,
tom fy,cr to 1o1y1 i~ 43v,1x
cupied in watching her efforts with ap-
probation.
1t is not only in the lower walks of
life that the proposition is to be remarked
peasant or noble, the destiny of the
German woman Is work. Whether it be
manual labor, or merely the vexing de-
tails of practical housekeeping, few Ger
the work is ill-adapted to woman's
strength and often injurious to health,
on the other it is none the less exacting
and Wearying. But it is, according to
the German CODE obligatory. Woman is
not supposed to have an equal footing
with man. and she herself would be the
last to expect or demand it. For so is
she trained-and has been for genera
tons. Social usage even declares that
she cannot speak to a man until he has
spoken. She may glance at him in the
street, but she may not recognize him
until he has sgnified his desire to be
recognized. That is the first article of
the social law, and it is followed by
others as arbitrary or more so. Woman's
rights is a subject that has been heard
of mostly in whispers in Germany; but
Germans densely. perhaps, have heard it
spoken of as if it were the name Of
new variety of cucumber. The new
woman. If she dared to appear, would
doubtless be regarded by most of them
Nyif ind @1@ fr,,;%
itself
If an American should go on a Sunday
afternoon to concert at one of the big
Munich breweries he would see all about
him evidences of that beautiful German
family life which is traditional The
German-and particularly the South Ger
man-nearly always takes his family with
him to share his Sunday pleasures even
to the dog. When it comes to sharing
the beer and sausage, however, it is in
teresting to note what the average Ger
man considers share. He orders liter
of beer and a plate Of sausages. Each
Of the family gets one sip of the beer.
and that ends it-not the beer, but the
share AS for the sausages, materfami-
las declares that she has no hunger"
and the children are supposed to be in
the same condition. They thereupon
watch papa While he bolts his sausages,
and the dog gets the skins. This is not
always the procedure, but it Is usually
so. What it exemplifies principally is the
German idea. The German man may be
generous enough. but the German woman
Is the most self-demying creature in the
world, and really believes that her needs
and her rights are entirely different from
and subservient to those of the man. 1t
might go hard with her If she ventured
to think otherwise; but there is rarely
danger Of that
I'M. &C. +xyxo
Of the average German-or, more par
tlcularly, perhaps, South German-family
life. A German girl finds husband by
virtue of her dcwry, or savings. The ex-
ceptions to the rule are hardly apprecia-
ble Married. she enters upon a hum
drum existence. a single year Of which
would seem calculated to unbalance the
reason of any person less unina gina tive.
and domestic in the baldest sense of the
term. There are probably no happier
women in any land; which shows how
little the German feminine nature, or
training, exacts. But whatever she ex-
poets in matrimony, she gets one thing
surely, and that is work. Even then her
position is Infinitely preferable to that of
her unmarried sister. The German spin
ster is an object almost If not always
piteous. Receiving consideration from
neither man, woman nor child, regarded
usually as burden and an anomaly by
her relatives, it Is hardly to be wondered
at that she is a spinster rarely by choice.
It is usually a question purely Of dowry.
It is not necessary that the amount be
large. but it must be something. With
$4,000 a girl may have almost her pick
of eligible suitors: with $4,000 she may
win lieutenant in the army (the amount
is fixed by imperial laws from that
amount down to $4O-the smallest dowry
that enters into consideration in the Ger
man matrimonial market-her chances are
proportioned strictly in accordance with
the amount.
Notwithstanding the immense impor-
lance of dowries. majority of German
Imaidens are dower1ess. It remains with
themselves, then, to make good the de-
flciency; and it is just there that tbs
most poignant features Of the German
woman's lot become apparent. There are
no remunerative situations open to women
in Germany. Bookkeeners, stenographers
milliners and dressmakers receive wages
which are only q degree less pathetic
:. than those earned by shop girls. AS a
general thing it may be said that nc
woman employed in ordinary vocatione
receives wages sufficient for her respecta.
! BILE maintenance and the putting by OF
enough to provide her with husband OF
reasonable comfort in adverse days. II
Il Is true that there Is an admirable pension
Z system for wage-earners IN Germany, and
1T is also true that Germans can, and
lido, live on annuities which in any other
country would seem ludlcrous; but the
main fact remains-the wages Of women
show no evidence of intention to provide
for the cohesion of body and soul.
Il It is held by employers. with a cynic.
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