The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1909-12-24
The Americans In Berlin.

SCnOlarSnlp at 1ale laSJ spring, Wnen
he graduated. The letter was written
to his grandmother, Mrs. NJ. A. Mac
MILAN of Norfolk:
Berlin, Germany, Dec. 81 The
American colony "a sort of a for
lorn band of expatriots huddled to-
gether here in Berlin, gave a Thanks
giving dinner last Thursday evening
and as the dinner came at 8 o'clock
here 1t coincided exactly with the
2 o'clock dinner which the people in
the old New England state at home
were eating. And when we consider
that we were eating an American
Thanksgiving dinner In Germany that
we were eating the turkey and cram
berry sauce-but alas! no mince pie
that we were used to on Thanksgiv-
ing day, one must admit that we were
making quite an effort to preserve
our ideals in a foreign land. or course
Turkey isn't our ideal. and the birds
of that name would make poor pat
terms of virtue, but Thanksgiving day
Is one of our ideal days, as President
Wheeler pointed out in his speech
at the end of the banquet-a speech
that touched on our best traditions
at home and that breathed the spirit
that comes from the west. For as
he said, "The people in the east are
kept pretty busy assimilating the real
Americanism that comes only from
west of the Missouri river" l was
glad he said the Missouri river for
that shuts out Iowa, where the ardent
patriots are busy making a special set
of ideals that they want to palm off
as national
hA bon mi
giving day, or which translated liter
ally means the Thanksgiving festival
for a bounteous harvest. But it is
scarcely so great an occasion as with
with us. For it is only one of the
religious festival days and comes on
Sunday in the early part of October
or latter part of September. One
scarcely knows that it has come and
gone, unless one happens to go to
church on that particular Sunday-and
that means that very small percent
age of the German people think of it..
Whether our Thanksgiving day has
any more religious significance to
most people Is perhaps a question,
but it must have indirectly a far bet
ter effect than the German day of
thanksgiving.
The German Sandwich.
There were some three or four
hundred Americans present at the ban
quet-which is, however, a very small
percentage of the six or seven thous-
and Americans who are here in Berlin
this winter. But one could have told
it was an American crowd at a glance,
for the women present were all well
dressed and handsome-and that in
itself tells story. And then, too, the
fact that none of the men brought
sandwiches of black bread and cheese
to eat between the dances was another
indication that it was not a German
assemblage. If | only had Mark
Twain's pen l could write a book on
the German sandwich that would make
record. For it is worth a years
study in itself. 1t is omnipresent.
One stands in the lobby of a fash
ionable theatre between the acts. A
well dressed woman comes out, feels
in the pocket in her skirt that all
: German women have, and produces
, a nice fat sandwich with a piece of
: ham laid carefully between two thick
, ly buttered pieces of black bread. One
looks up to the stage box between
the acts and there one sees a gentle
man in evening dress quietly MUNICH
ing sandwich. One gets into a street
car and finds that nearly everyone
in the car is busily munching a sand
wich. The great lobby of the Royal
library is filled from early morning
until closing time at night with a mob
of prominent students munching sand
wiches. The lady at the check stand
hands you your number with one hand
and puts part of sandwich in her
mouth with the other. The pretty(0
goods cram their sandwiches as they
rush eagerly from recitation to recita-
ton, perhaps finishing the work during
, lecture. l have yet to see profess
sor eat sandwich during a lecture,
but imagine that it will occur in the
near future. But then it is far better
, to bring your sandwich from home
than to be an American and prefer
starving. For an American would be
too proud to eat a sandwich in pub
lie, and would either spend the money
he didn't have or go without entirely.
Three Million Population.
: To German the American colony
in Berlin is very large-for the popu-
, lation of Berlin is far from cosmo-
: politan. In 1907 the city had some
, thing over two million and of these
only about $4,000 were foreigners of
whom $4,000 were Poles. When one
compares that city with Chicago
about the some size-one sees at once
the difference between European
J and an American city. For Chicago
has six or seven hundred thousand
Germans. Berlin is a German city
exclusively, with a German popula-
ton and German ways, far more pro-
vincial in some ways than New York.
But Berlin is new city and in that
, way resembles an American city. For
in 1870 Berlin with her suburbs had
only 100000 people and today with her
suburbs she has three and a half
million. And when one speaks of
Berlin and her suburbs as separate
cities one is creating false impress
sion. Berlin's suburbs are so close
ly built into the city that one side
of a paved street is Charlottenburg
and the other side Wilmersdorf,
while the street itself at one end
Is Berlin. In many places one
part of a house stands in the suburb
and the other in the city proper