Evening star., 1902-01-18

cars, which they inscribed duly in a note
| book and read aloud at dinner with imper
feet earnestnesS, so that / sat on thorns les
my German husband should suspect crit
| lclsm was being expressed on an institution
| of his country? Oh! indeed, what the police
have made me suffer indirectly or directly
is enough to prejudice me- But It is be-
| cause, being an American, / was born free
under government that says practically:
| The sooner the fools are eliminated from
| the population the better. Let them thera-
| fore put their heads out of the windows (
! passing trains; let them ride in the portion
or the street reserved by ordinance for
| traffic In the opposing direction" and so
forth Not in country which says prac-
tically: Preserve the life and limbs of
every fool. Such a person may be a soldier
or become the mother of one. No matter If
the other fifty million inhabitants be an
| noyed and feel pestered all their lives by
the ld1oucal regulations" / know that the
cause OF my prejudice lies in my birth, be-
| cause native Germans like being regulated
and feel cozy in the midst of these ubiqui-
t4us, t3p;. muitltudinous regulations and pro-
| hlbltlons. Besides, when you have COM
| planned that the multitude and pettiness of
regulations wear your life out, you have
said the worst. 1t is certain that your
| property rights are secure against black
mailing and arbitrariness. There is no cor
| ruption Of police forces in Germany worth
| speaking of; nor, for that matter of any
! sort Of officials. Every man in uniform Is
q stickler ito orders" from the lowest to
the highest. From an official point OF view,
| therefore, one must be scored for the Ger
| mans.
| Their police beat Tammany's Germany
| in fact, would not be Germany without its
| police. / come, fourthly, to city admins
| uation, building and cleanliness, in all
which things the best that America can
| show is surpassed by what Germany pre-
| sents. Chiefly, again, because the laws that
| are enacted are carried out In every in
stance to the last letter by the police, with
| out favor or exception.
Natural Tidiness.
| Germany beats America in tidiness, in
| cleanliness, in orderlness, and solidity Of
| cities, towns and villages. 1t beats it, too,
| in the cleanliness and solidity OF every
| kind Of public conveyance with the ex-
ception Of railway cars. Its two-and-half-,
cent-a-fare street cars, be they motors or
/ morse cars, are spotless, SO are its twelve
! cents-a-fare cabs; SO are its boats and fer
! ries. 30, likewise, are its highways and
| byWays The police and gensdarmes
! (mounted police) enforce cleanliness on all
roads. Most cities enforce ordinances like
| wise against omnibus and car owners coy-
| ering their conveyances with advertise
ments such conveyances are licensed to
carry passengers, not the names Of soaps
and baking powders. / think the logic
good myself; better than any which Eng
| lfshmen or Americans adopt.
Americans concede that roadmaking in
Germany is a fine art. Few, however, real
lie that road repairing has been reduced
to a comparatively cheap art as well. 1
wish devotedly that local societies could be
| formed In order to study 1t, and apply the
results OF the study to country roads In
America I spoke once on the subject to an
audience OF leading citizens in Ulster coun-
ty in New York, an ideal county to ex-
pertinent in, having all the three chief
things for success. 1 mean stones pau
pers and fruit trees. Germans, namely,
find that it pays to encourage peasants
to free their fields Of stones; the property
| rises In value-taxing value. The stones
thrown Into heaps by the roadside are
commission. Poor men, who otherwise
would have to be supported in almshouses
are hired to break these stones and then
are trained to the work Of repairing the
roadbeds. The money to pay the men is
made by auctioneering off to the highest
bidder the crops of the fruit trees that
were planted on both sides of the high
way when 1t was built. and which are
nourished well by the manure that falls
along the road and is pushed at intervals
by road tender upon their roots. The
purchaser of the crop sees to it that his
fruit is not stolen. The road commission
ers have no bother about that. And al
though the sale is by auction, it brings in
considerable. Every burgher knows how
much, because the sales Of highway fruit
crops are published in the local news
papers.
Safer and Cheaper.
Then take the post. We must concede 7
think, that Germany beats us in this. too.
1t is a small per cent safer than the Amer
lean mail. and several per cent cheaper.
Letters in most cities are carried for a
fraction over one cent. open letters for
fraction over one-half of a cent and
printed post cards for half a cent, Mann
script and business papers pay book most
age rates. Packages weighing up to
ten German or twelve English pounds are
carried by mail long distances for II cents;
ha alyo
paid or you pay a trifie extra, and give
the postman the money for the contents.
the post settling your account with the
sender Of the package. Moreover letters
AMI packages are brought to your door. no
matter how small the place is where YOU
tarry, how high up in the mountains or far
distant from other habitations. The car
riers are clad in uniform recognizable by
every inhabitant. When one considers this
fact, and knows that they often carry
money In their bags. to pay cash on the
post checks in their portion Of the mail.
and considers that nevertheless one hears
very seldom of the men being assaulted or
robbed one realizes that the dispatches
from America about robberies of mail rail-
road trains must strike the burgher as
Yankee romancing. He never fails to throw
these proofs Of republican lawlessness" in
your face. for he dotes on hearing bad
things of Angio-Saxons But catch him
befooling himself far as really to be-
lieve men dare to attack the government
in the person OF postmaster, especially a
railway train postmaster. Not hef
The explanation of which contrasting cast
Of mind is that the postal rules In Germany
having been carried out to the letter with
incredible assiduity and stringency, the
population have grown as much in awe of
It as Of the army, which they fear practi-
cally more than God. So long, so persist
entity, SO surely have they been instructed
when not to overburden the postal service
how many seals and how many cords to
put on packages, how to wrap them up.
on what spot Of an envelope the stamp is
to be glued fast, how much weight of pa
per to place in 1t for given price, and SO
forth, and so forth; and the sender or
receiver Of careless or erroneous infrac-
tions OF these multitudinous regulations
has been fined or scolded so often he feels
as limp and shy in the presence of postal
uniform as he does before q commanding
general. I do, too.
But, then, of course. on the other hand,
and the Germans enjoy depths of satis-
faction which Americans. with their slap
k-don't-wait-for-a-penny ways. do not
have the chance to feel For instance.
Are they thankful for every letter delivered
to them In the early mail from across seas
that does not bear q huge .'4G' mark on il
In blue pencil, the short postal way Of say