The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-26

lures Of the Kaiser and the Khiserin on the
wallis" he explained TO me one day in her
presence. but / would rather use the money
for beer or n ticket TO the theatre. 1 don't owe
the Kaiser anything. and he owes me nothing.
Germany would be Germany and l would be
what l am whether he existed or not. and l
cannot see how he does anything for me one
way or the other. Ich bin klein gutter Ireusse.
In other matters. also. his wife. as is often
customary in German households OF a much
moro aristocratic type. had to give up to his
notions. He was neither a good Prusslan nor a
slipper hero. His wife. for instance. would
have liked to have religion play more OF a role in
the homo than il did. but Hans would have none
otit. can get along without the IJd6eh." he
said to her rather sharply one evening. when
l want religion l can 60 and buy n Bible. That
costs me about 20 pfennigs. The PTaFen
would want n mark every timo they came
here" In this matter he struck me as being q
typical German workingman. 1t is no exag-
g%eration to say that in the cities In Germany
the Church has lost much Of its influence
over w~orkingmen. Their wives perhaps are
still susceptible to the pastors teaching and
influence. but the bulk of the men laugh at
The Kaiser thinks that tho Social Demo-
Gratis are to blame for this, and the Kaiserin
has q passion for building churches. as a work.
ingman once said to me. ON every bald spot
she sees." but 1 think the Church itself lie much
to blame. 1t 10 only very recently that it has
taken any real interest in the workinRman,
and the majority Of his class think it is only
doing 30 now to combat Social Democracy.
Hans had to pay a Church tax, which he did
perfunctorily. as something that could not be
escaped. but beyond having his children bap-
tized. which was a concession to his wife's
wishes. religion. as he called the Church. re-
ceived very little welcome in his home.
Evenings and Sundays afforded the only
recreation allowed in his home. and tho even
ings were sometimes spent by Hans in the
WirthschaJL or beer hall. He averaged about
FIVE cents a day on drinks and cigars. and on
Sundays he frequently spent as much as q
mark to take his wife and children to the
Grunewald or some other suburban resort.
Prof. Baer. the noted German criminalogist
and temperance agitator, says that the bulk OF
German workingmen spend two-thirds OF their
wages on drink. According to his calculations.
II a man earns three marks a day, only one Of
them goes to his family. the other two being
sQuandered in liquor. This was not the case
with Hans. I never knew him to spend more
than ten cents a day for drink for himself
alone. and his expense account proved that he
seldom averaged more than five cents a day. as
stated above. Two or three times a year he
took his family to the theatre. buying gallery
tickets, but his main amusement in life was
playing with his children in the evening. His
wife seemed to me to have less time for recrea-
ton than he did. All day long she had either to
take care of the children or do housework, and
l noticed that Hans rather expected her to be
busy most OF the time. l never heard her
Grumble. however. and she struck me as being
a little more contented with her lot than her
husband. She had never tasted pleasure even
In the small way that he had-her thirty years
had been spent almost entirely in drudgerya and
toil-and there was little temptation for her to
get out into the world.
Indeed, it was the renouncing OF the world.
as the usual high liver understands it, that i'm
pressed me as being the main characteristic of
the philosophy OF these two human beings.
Life. in their opinion. Is a serious business any
way you take it. The thing to do is to train
ones self to want as little as possible and al
ways to be ready to live a little under " the pos
sible limit" II necessary. Hans had thought
out these things for himself and his wife
seemed to have taken to them instinctively
They were never boisterouSly happy and
they were seldom very much cast down.
They consequently were not burdened
with the hatred and vindictiveness in
the social Democrats heart. and they never
had to come back to earth and common things
after the riotous living OF spendthrifts. They
were rather patriotic. particularly about Ber-
lin. but they had very little hope OF a brighter
future for their class. 1t was Hans's idea that
a big war would weed out the superluous
population. but he did not advocate it very
| strongly because he was not sure that he did
not belong himself to the superfuous popula,
ton. Both he aud his wife read their LOkal-
Anzeiger every evening and kept touch. as best
| they could, OF the days doings in various parts
the world, but the Spiel PLATE and the few