The Princeton union., 1910-02-10
GER.MANY'S CAPITAL
DR.. Walsh Writes Interestingly Of Its
Doctors, BARRIERS, Laundrles
and Its Vile Cigars.
German Doctors Are Strong on dag.
nosls but Not Up to Americans
In Treating Diseases.
Berlin, Jan. "a, 1910.

ooAAAo I NAN AOo AOOA IlhO WI4uAuSs 1 u0
struggle of arousing my latent
knowledge of German so that I could
read the bill of fare in the restaurants
and gather in some knowledge from
the medical clinics has been such a
strain that when night came I was
ready to rest. Now that I am getting
somewhat used to my new conditions
I will try and tell you something of
the place and my impressions.
Berlin is a beautiful city of between
two and half and three million in
habitants, filed with squares adorned
with statues and having fine educa-
tional institutions, and grim barracks,
some on its main streets, wherein are
housed 27,000 soldiers. AS it is the
chief manufacturing city of Germany
It has somewhat the hustle and chesti-
ness OF our Chicago. Like Chicago,
it is the Mecca for all Germans who
strive to live by their wits alone.
To the sightseer it offers clean, we'll
kept streets, good hotels, good trans
portation facilities about the city, as
it has an elevated steam road, over
and underground electric roads, to-
gether with autos and carriages in
abundance at reasonable prices. It's
public buildings are fine and its art
collections good, although some other
cities have better art galleries. It's
parks, and especially Potsdam, the
summer home of the emperor, are
places we'll worth seeing. By night the
numerous theaters offer good enter
tainment.
To the students of medicine the
hospitals and clinics offer great ad-
vantages. The professors are
among the best in the world as
lecturers and diagnosticians, but
then you have said all. Their treat
ment is far behind that of the United
States. Our methods of handling
disease are far superior. We are as
far ahead of them in this as we are
in railroad transportation. Their
chances of improvement in this
direction will be slow, as they imagine
themselves the fountain-head of all
medical knowledge. Their speciality
is diagnosis and that is what we come
to learn of them, and in this they are
fine. In chemical and microscopic
examinations of diseased conditions
they lead the world. In treatment
both England and America are far
ahead, while in surgery the United
States beats them all. Even the
German sits up and takes notice of
our brilliant doings in surgery.
There are three things which we
Americans look for here but never
fnd-a good barber shop, a good
laundry or good cigar. The barber
is a good natured joke. The first
time went in the chairs were all full
SO I sat down and began to inspect
the shop and it's contents. The
barber chair is simple arm chair.
cane seat and back with wooden head
rest, below which is roll of pink
paper, a sheet of which is used TO
cover the head-rest each time in place
of towel. The patrons do not re-
move coat or collar while being
operated upon. Some in fact had
their overcoats on while being shaved.
The process is very rapid. For a
shave five minutes is the usual time.
For haircut the barber informed
me he was not expected to take more
than ten minutes, usually from seven
to eight minutes. I had q haircut
beard-trim and shampoo in "a
minutes. He solemnly told me he had
taken so much time with me because I
was an American; that he could have;
and usually did take but fifteen or:
eighteen minutes for the same work:
but be knew we demanded more atten-
ton than the Germans. The skill and
reputation of many BARRIERS is in
training the mustache to the upper
curve, same as the kaiser's. The
fellow that is most expert at that is
the popular barber. You don't get
much in these shops and you don It
pay much. Haircut, beard-trim and
shampoo cost me one mark and twenty
pfening-a mark is 20 cents and q
pfenlng equals two mills of our
money. The twenty pfening is the tip.
A tip is always expected and given
for all service rendered in addition to
pay for that service. On street cars
even you give five pfening tip often,
especially If you ask the conductor
question when paying your fare.
The laundries can destroy clothing