The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-23

SS anu Fruits Pronounced Even Better Than
 Vegetables - Vegetable Movement
 Spreading.
 Whoever would learn thoroughly the characteristics of the Berlin snob should read the satirical verses of A. O. Weber.
 The man himself is an interesting personality, particularly for Americans for he was married to an American wife from whom he was twice divorced. Born in Saxony about thirty-six years ago, the son of a wealthy merchant, he came to Berlin to study law and during that period evidently registered in a tenacious memory all that he then saw, heard and lived through.
 Having spent a small fortune com ing to him by inheritance and having learned a great deal of life and very little of law, he betook himself in a spirit of admirable independence to lit- erature for a livelihood. Judging by the large sale of his satires Mixed Pickles "Ohne Maulkrob" and similar books, he must in two or three years have amassed-what is almost unheard of in America, or, indeed, any country "a fortune out of poetry.
 At times Weber's verses remind one of Juvenal and at times of Byron and Thackera, but they are free from Juve- nals ferocity and indecency, if they also lack the more polished style of the ooifcN c,lf ffTsiss+S r+o ha a,-Iy ed, however that as regards indecency, if Weber does not sin in this respect so much as Juvenal and Juvenal's con- temporaries, his fidelity to realism sometimes causes him to make a1lu- sions and describe situations, which if made or described in prose would cer- tainly draw the unfavorable attention of the censor.
 The verses deal with almost every thing by which the snob public can give expression to the leading traits of the national or civic character. But here a distinction must carefully be made. It would be a great mistake to make Weber's verses as presenting a faithful picture of the genuine social life of Berlin or of the fundamental characteristics of the German people. Weber only does for Berlin what Thackeray, and in measure Dickens, did for London-he drags into the light of day Berlin's snobs and snobbery, and if to-day he sacrifices German snob- bisrn, tomorrow I for one confidently expect that he will contribute some thing of permanent worth to German poetic literature.
 Of course full appreciation of the sa- tires presupposes in the reader not only an ability to understand German, but also a not inconsiderable acquaintance with Berlin slang; Berlin celebrities of the day and Berlin popular resorts. For a fairly good impression, however, of the Snobbish sides of Berlin life and character a general and brief examina- tion of some of the satires will prob ably prove sufficient. Four or five themes form the background of all the verses; the Berlin snob Jew, the Ber- lin restaurant and cafe, the Berlin the- ater and Berlin social castes, with their various types and the social relations betweeen them.
 We have, for example, verses on "the Berliner" (the typical inhabitant or, rather. the typical snob of the capitaD on the Berlin Range" (the emancipat- ed Berlin girD; on the Berlin Tram balm" (tramcar), and on types like the Herr Baron, the Crown lawyer, the cavalier Cor masher), the half-pay lieutenant the German schoolmaster, the fortune hunter, the Congressman (deputy to the Reichstag), the Social Democrat and the theatrical first nighter.
 The following synopses sketch short ly the characteristics of some of these types as satirized by Weber.
 The average Berliner considers him. self, as Weber sings, more sly and knowing than the rest of mankind; but what he knows is chiefly acquired at second hand. He is always better in- formed than any one else and intimates the fact without consideration for oth- CTS and without politeness. Tell him something new and he will say he has been aware of it for days, though the thing may have only occurred that morning.
 Bismarck was his intimate friend but Buelow is not, and will not be un- til of course, after Buelow's death. The Berliner takes his opinions from his morning paper, and estimates the value of the paper according to the extent oi its circulation, not according to what il contains. If his paper fuln1inates against England, he cries ditto, only more savagely. Yet the remarkable thing about him is that even though born in Berlin he is no real Berliner but only a Berlin snob.
 The "emancipated" girl of Berlin bit. terly complains that a lady of her age (she is sixteen) should still be sent tc school, for at sixteen all the men make love to her, while males of similar age are still only stupid boys, A girl ot sixteen is equal in understanding to g man of twenty-one. Why should she be blamed if she gives kiss wher nothing is said to the young man who takes one? Too much education spoils ones naturalness, and she has long been acquainted with all that is neces. sary for 8 social being to know. Bu stay, What is that? Is she mistaken or is it really the little Lieutenant who is waiting for her at the corner on hel way home?-a deliciously cheeky youth too. Does he imagine she is going tt cast down her eyes as he approaches Not she. She is enancipated and tha means she is Somebody. Oh, it is nc use his putting up his eyeglass. Be