The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-12-28
THE POOR OF BERLIN
ssoW THEY ARE SUPERVISED BY THE
CITY AUTHORITIES.

CITY AUTHORITIES.
Begging Is Not to Be Seen on the
Streets of the City, and Rags and
Misery Dare Not Lie About In the
Parks and Public Places.
what" l exclaimed in Berlin, "are
there no poor in this city? Are you al
together without rags and wretched.
ness?"
''NIy dear FRIEND said the German,
winking heavy eyelid, I'VE are very
clever people. We do not show our
| dust bins"
| Berlin is ruled by municipal experts.
1t has its wretchedness and its despair,
but these things are not permitted to
increase To be out of work in Berlin
| is a crime, even as it is in London, but
with this difference-in Berlin the mu.
nicipality legislates for labor in fash
| ion which makes idleness all but indie.
feasible
The laws to this end may not COM
mend themselves to English minds, for
the Germans are not soft hearted in
such matters, but they have this en-
gaging recommendation, they succeed.
Let ragged man make his appear
ance in Friedrichstrasse or the Lindens
or in any of the numerous open spaces,
and a policeman is at him in a min
ute. Your papers!" demands the man
OF law. The beggar produces his docu-
Inents. Ii it is proved that he has
slept i'll the asylum for the homeless
more than a certain number OF nights
he is forthwith conducted, willynilly, to
the workhouse and made to labor for
his board and lodging.
Now, the workhouse in Germany is
not a prison, but the vagrant would as
leave so to the one as to the other
| The administration of the worlShouse
| is conducted with iron severity. Ev-
cry ounce of bread and every drop of
thin soup consumed by the workhouse
man is paid for a thousandfold by the
sweat of his brow So it comes about
that the man least disposed to work,
| the born vagabond finds it more
agreeable to toll for his bread in the
market than to fall into the hands of
q paternal government
Berlin takes advantage of the sys-
TEN in Germany which numbers and
tickets every child born in the father
land. No man can roam from district
TO district. changing his name and his
life's story with every fitting lie is
| known to the police from the hour of
his birth to the hour of his death. For
q few pfennigs ! can read the history
OF every person in Berlin. Therefore
the municipality has an easy task. Ey
cry citizens life story is known to
them, and every yagrant is punished
for his crime against the community.
Moreover, every person OF humble
means is insured by the state. Even
clerks, shop assistants and servants
are compelled to insure against sick
ness ana against old age. This insur-
ance is effected by the pasting into "a
| book of certain stamps every week.
and it is the duty of each employer
to see that this contract is faithfully
| cbeyed And the state has at Beelitz
an enormous sanitarium costing 49,
| o00,000 marks G500.000), where the in
| valided citizen is sent with his pen
sion ia order to expedite his valuable
| return to the ranks of the wage earn
ers. II pays the city of Berlin to nurse
| It's sick and cherish it's invalids. The
whole object of the municipality is to
secure the physical and intellectual
well being of it's citizens, and on this
task il concentrates its labors with
amazing energy.
Berlin has huge building resem-
| bling a factory where the unemployed,
whole families, are received and pro-
vided for but no one must take advan-
tage Of this hospitality more than five
times in three months Consider, this
point Oil view IL you are homeless five
times in three months you are dubbed
reckless creature and packed of to
the Worllh5use, Private enterprise has
provided another asylum where tho
homeless may come FIVE times in one
month and where the police are not al
lowed to enter at night. l have visited
this place and seen the people who at
tend it, some decent enough, others
cfIlillildl Ia every llne OF lIelf faces
There are many of these desperate
men in Berlin. many of these dirty
ragged and unhappy wretches, doomed
from the day Of their birth, but they
dare not show themselves in the decen
world as they do in London. They
stink into these asylums at 5 o'clock
they have their clothes disinfected
they cleanse themselves under shove
baths; they eat bread and drink soup
and then they go to bed at 8 oclocl
like prisoners to their cells.
Now. this system is a hard one, 70
when once man gets down in Berlin
1t is almost impossible for him to rise
But il has this clear advantage -every
body feels that it is better to worl
than 10 fall into the hands of the law
Rags and misery dare not lie abou
in the parks or scatter disease through
the crowded streets. If there is an.
virtue in the unemployed the state vii
certainty develop it as well as it is pos
sible to do SO. There is Il central bu
reau for providing men with work, an,
yuhan :, mon l,pnyvs tbat NOT ta yynrI