Connecticut western news., 1908-06-11
AN INTERNATIONAL
 DIFFICULTY.

lively sixteen and fifteen. Their fa- thers' little farms adjoined, and they went to school together. Hans was a tall, dark eyed young fellow, with a fine frame, though not yet properly filled out. Gretchen looked out of a pair of mild blue eyes. and a heavy coil of hair the hue of fax hung down her back to her knees. The two had played together as children and when they came into their teens were still in- separable.
 One day Hans, after a consultation with his father. told Gretchen that he was going to America. An uncle had written from there that if Hans would come out he would give him place in his brewing business and help him to make fortune. The offer had been ac- cepted. Hans would soon be seventeen years old, an age when every German man must serve his term of military duty before leaving the fatherland, therefore 1t had been determined that he should go before his next birthday.
 Hans and Gretchen were as ignorant of love as at the day they were born. When Hans told her that he was go- ing to America she turned pale. made | a few little breath catches, then tears | began to we'll up in her blue eyes. Hans, too. felt choking in his throat. He folded her in his arms. For the | first time 1t dawned upon them that 1 they were lovers.
 The day before Hans was seventeen he sailed for America. His uncle, who had made money, gave him an oppor- l tunity. He told him that if he would ! remain at the business for ten years 1 without returning to Germany he might have q years vacation, at the end of which he would receive a block | of the stock of the brewing company | that would make him rich and he should. if competent. be Its manager. l At the end of the time Hans had com piled with the conditions and proved himself we'll fitted for managers po- ! sition.
 | Hans and Gretchen had correspond ed and pined for each other and at the expiration of the ten years Hans went | to Germany. He found Gretchen a lovely woman, though still peasant, and they were married. It was in the summer. and they spent their honey moon in Switzerland. A couple of months before the expiration of Hans vacation his wife presented him with a son. But alas the boy was born with a club foot.
 i When Hans and his family were about to sail for America an officer served paper on him distraining him | from leaving Germany till he had served his term in the army. Then | Hans knew what he had not known | before or had forgotten-that if he re mained more than nine months in Ger. many he again became German cit izen and liable to military duty.
 1 Here was misfortune. To remain in Germany for the purpose of hang | ing around a barrack for several years would be equivalent to giving up fortune in America. Hans knew that the law on this subject was inexorable and was about to write his uncle re- linquishing his interests in the brew ing company when he discovered that the period spent in Switzerland had made him alien to Germany. He could stay in the fatherland for nine months more before again becoming German citizen. This gave him a leeway of nearly two months. His wife was in poor health, and he deferred his de- parture for the United States till few days before the expiration of the sec ond nine months period, which would again make him a German citizen.
 On reaching New York he found that if the fatherland is jealous of her sons leaving her shores without having done military service the United States is equally jealous of any one coming within her borders who is not in all respects desirable citizen. Little Heinrich Becker's club foot was an insurmountable obstacle to his being admitted to the national domain. In vain his father pleaded that he would not permit his boy to become bur den on the American people. The law refusing cripples Is as inexorable as the law respecting army service in Germany. though the reason for it is more humane.
 It seemed that the only plan for the Becker family would be to go back to Germany. But if this plan were adopt ed the husband and father would reach German shores shortly after the ex- piration of the nine months period, which would make him liable to mili- tary duty. Hans began to wish that the nations of the world would unite under one government, so that he might be citizen of all. He was wanted in Germany, where he could not make respectable living, that the emperor might be prepared to fight the powers; he was kept out of the United States. where fortune await ed him, because his son happened to be born with a club foot
 However, Hans Becker had become an American and did not complain of the exceptional injustice of just laws. It was suggested to him that he go to Mexico with his family, from whose border he could easily enter the United