The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1906-11-23
THE GERMAN PEOPLE.
Interesting Letter Telling OF
Their Customs.
Clean, Wide Streets in Cities, no
Smoking, No Bars and Uni
yerSal P0liteneSS.

A citizen of Hartford has received
an interesting letter from Germany
parts of which we have asked per-
mission to copy. The writer is
very intelligent American who has
seen much of the world. He has
been in Germany about half a year
and has made careful observation OF
their manners and customs, as they
appear in social and business life
He was surprised that these differ
widely from what we Americans had
supposed. He says;
IL once travelled with a Scotch
Doctor of Divinity who stopped one
week in one Of the cities of a foreign
Sountry, and felt prepared to write
a book about that country. His
wife cody informed me that he new
er spent longer time than that IN
any one country and wrote a book
of travel every year. ! have beer
here for about six months and will
try and give you my first impress
sions. which of course may be modi'
fled on further acquaintance.
had general idea, before COM
ing here, that the Germans, as a peo'
pie, were rather inclined to be a
loud talking, pipe smoking. beer
drinking set. On the contrary. you
never see one smoking pipe on the
streets or in his ofiice-at least
have not seen il. In their cafes
they are. as a rule. even more quiet
than we are under similar circum'
stances. Wine and beer are sold at
all the cafes land they are numer-
ous) and they are patroniZed 10y
both sexes. gentlemen and ladies,
Coffee. citronem Oemonade), wine
and beer are their chief beverages.
Americans and English drink water,
but a German never. have yet to
see any one under the influence of
liauor. The gentlemen all remove
their top coats and hats and sit at
table if they only wish to stop long
enough to take a glass of beer.
There are no bars" here such as
we have. where person goes in,
stands up and treats his friends. If
so, have not seen them. And this
leads me to speak of another char
acteristic. which was a surprise &c
me. their excessive politeness.
The men greet each other, as wei
as the ladies, by not simply touching
their hats, but by taking them of
with quite flourish; and when they
separate they observe the same or
der. which is often supplemented by
shaking hands. School boys of eight
or tel years do the same thing with
each other, as well as to their elders
1t is a common sight to see one lit
tie chap saluting another whom he
happens to know, even on the Other
. side of the street. Halle and Dick
This little boys) are catching on. >
am happy to say, the other day
saw>them run across the street tC
shake hands with a school fellow
Every man, when he enters the din
ing room, bows to everybody before
taking his seat, and | am told it !:
the custom, if he be stranger, tC
announce his name as he takes his
seat-in other words, he introduces
himself. When you retire from the
table the same order is observed.
have had perfect strangers to bow
to me in this way when they took
their hats to leave. All this is pleas
ant even if you know that it does
not mean anything.
ms mucn Tor tne 1OrIn, lot Tie
substance. | think the Americans
are much ahead of them and of the
English too. For all their demon
strations of politeness, 1 do not think
that the men respect the women as
much as we do. They would not
hesitate to elbow lady out of the
way if she INSTRUCTED their entrance
to a car on rainy day. The women
have to do all the heavy work on the
farm, such as hoeing, and getting in
the hay. They also black your boots
have seen old women, who looked
to be over four score. wheeling
heavy loads through the streets.
T. h,,o;naoo uuov thav do mt