Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-04
GIRL OF THE RHINE
MOVEMENT IN GERMANY TO
MAKE HER INDEPENDENT.
Match Made by Fer Mother-Efort to
Make German Daughters
Self Supporting.

Now that conditions are changing a
movement has sprung up among Germans
in favor of making girls Independent OF
marriage and self-supporting. This idea is
as yet in it's infancy, but is fast making
Roadway. Hitherto, after girl left school
at the age of fifteen sixteen, she put in
her time taking lessons in cookery, dress
making and music, reading romantic novels
or milk-and-watery books on esthetics, get
ting ready for the next ball, and helping
her mother at home. Frank, self-support-
ing work was tabooed lowering the
status of the self-respecting young lady.
Yet, after all, it could not with truth be
said that the girl thus trained was much
the better equipped for lifes struggle than
her English sister. Thriller she certainly
was, for she had been taught economy by
the severe struggle for existence gong on
before her eyes at home. But beyond this
she possessed but few, if any of the much
Wanted qualities of a hausfrau. They, too
were developed later on during her own deS-
perate endeavors to balance her household
and make bricks almost without straw. But
the new wind blows from a wholly different
quarter, and many girls are now taking a
leaf from their brothers books. They, too
enter commercial schools. learn shorthand
typewriting, bookkeeping, gardening, draw
ing and painting, languages; in a word
they fit themselves for carving their own
career.
Fatherland Society.
But these exceptions apart, society in the
fatherland, and not there only treats girls
as works of art, destined to be exhibited in
becoming frames amid pleasant surround
ings, and disposed of as soon as may be.
Eat your fish fresh and marry your dlugh-
ter while she is young is the proverb which
serves as a maxim. Hence, every other
nnC 6ar &c 10 SJ1hS to hot
AS all roads used to lead to Rome so all
a girls education and technical pursuits
all her social accomplishment converge
upon the matrimonial market. And most OF
them stop there. The search for a life
partner is the one serious business of a
German girls life, and to succeed in this
she has to strain every nerve, mobilize
every gift of mind. display every quality OF
heart.
This Is the only period of her existence
when she departs from the national stan
dard which DEGREES that a man must be
strong in doing and weak in suffering
while a woman should be feeble in action
and mighty in enduring. But once she has
scored success her ordeal of patience be-
gins. and like Jacob, she may have to wait
seven years-an engagement sometimes
lasts that length of time-before she is
finally united with her mate.
Ceremony Of Betrothal.
Betrothal is a very important ceremony
In the fatherland, and as a rule it is an
nounced in the newspapers and celebrated
by the relatives and friends of the parties.
Public opinion is it's sanction, and, on the
whole. causes these engagements to be kept
faithfully as If there were heavy dam
ages to be feared from breach of prom
Use. AS matter of fact there are none,
and a German who Is affianced may tilt
his beloved and many others after her with
tmpunity; but none the less faithfulness is
the rule. For the German man is as keen
to marry as the girl is, and it is to the
credit of both that lack of money never
stands in the way. On the contrary a
good, thrifty housewife is looked upon as
among the best assets struggling male
can have. Love in a cottage is the ideal
and a family of four or five, with an in
come of two or three hundred year. the
concrete fact which one finds even In the
general run of middle class families. There
are said to be 1900 families in Berlin
alone which balance their annual budgets
on less than 600 a year. And it is while
watching their mothers turn over every
penny before it is spent. cheese-paring and
utilizing every scrap of meat every crunb
of bread, that the daughters learn the value
of money.
Cost of Entertaining
Social life in Germany being highly de-
veloped, it is no easy task to cultivate it on
two three hundred a year. For friends
must De invited from Time to time, and
members of the family must be respecta bly,
and If possible smartly dressed. Clothes,
no doubt. are cheap, finery being within the
reach Of the poorest, and an ambitious girl
can readily purchase imitation jewelry imi-
tation furs, imitation laces, and can there
fore do herself Up to look like a fine lady
who dresses regardless of expense. In no
country in Europe can this feat be so read
lily accomplished as in Germany Ready
made dresses may be had for anything be-
tween fl and 30s., and very pretty silk
evening blouses for los, a tastefully trim
med, fashionably shaped hat for about 5s,
and other requisites at correspondence low
prices. Still even ESQ or $50 is big slice
to take from f3OO, and the right of con-
tracing debts is generally confined to lieu
tenants, ordinary families seek to avoid
deficit by cutting down their food rations.
In this matter of economy in eating Ger
mans are not alone; In Spain fasting as a
means of feasting has been so constantly
practiced that hospitality is a conception
which is now known only IN fiction In the
fatherland people with marriageabfe
daughters aim at giving a ball. that being
the ne plus ultra of social distinction: when
that is impossible, several families, or a
club or verein organize the festival, and in
this way q good deal of entertaining is
cheaply obtained. But marriage requires
more elaborate methods andy especially
abundance of time and frequency of visits,
suppers are given or else friends are hidden
20 estf etc or musical teas at o'clock on
Sundays. AZ these social gatherings con-
versation, sandwiches. tea and liquors con-
stitute the program, which may be varied
with music or dancing.