Connecticut western news., 1912-04-25
LETTER FROM MRS. S. A. EDDY.
Side-Lights on Life in Germany by a
 We'll Known Canaan Lady.

Agreeable to a request sent across the water" to Mrs, Samuel A. Eddy, who is spending the year in Dresden, Germany, where her younger son, l Allerton, is attending school, that lady has sent to The News the following letter which will be read with interest by her many friends here:
 "It is difficult to know what would interest your readers, for everything is interesting to us.
 "In the first place those who knew Germany 25 years ago would not know 1t today. It is no longer the poor, romantic land of poetry and music, and domesticity. As result of the French war Germany is now rich, prosperous and commercial. It may be as domestic as ever but apparently the greater num- Der of it's women, instead of remaining at home to see how an extra pfennig can be saved, are looking into the wonder full shop windows at the spring costumes and planning how they may have some just like those. Women's clubs flourish | has come to stay. "The rise of the socialist party has givenEthe.working class a good-as-yoH- are' air, and 1t is no longer possible to address the members of this class with the familiar thou Bare.headed and bare armed maids are a thing of the past and instead hats and feathers, silks and velvets are plenty on Thursday. after noon.out.'
 "But the one first, last, and all the time impression which sticks to the re- ceptive foreigner, is German manage ment. It almost makes our attempts at civilization seem like the play of child. ren in sand pile. Every conceivable and incouceivable combination of cir- cumstances. and circumstances singly, have been provided for. Once only was anything unforeseen; an contemplating firm discovered that. One day the 100 mark notes appeared with the advertisement of an automobile firm printed upon them. Garmany was astounded; there was no law to meet the case, and before one could be made and put into operation this clever firms name and wares were familiar throuRht the empire. "One asks, Does not one want to crowd onto street car or break wind ow, or steal piece of fruit, or pick 8 flower, or get hurt by an automobile, or help form 8 crowd in the streetp There are many answers, but my own private belief is that all the people who feel like doing these things have left the country and gone to America, where they are doing them to their hearts content, All those who remain here, it quietly into the elaborate system of Forbidden Things.
 "Ths young foreigners, particularly Americans, feel A sense of suffooation among all these rules, but to the middle aged they certainly make for peace and comfort. -.
 "The management of the electric street cars seems a wonderful thing, but there are those who say that Dresden has no transportation problem. All cars are numbered and each stopping place gives the numbers of the cars stopping there, in plain signs by1day and lllumi- hated ones by night. This is for the benefit of those who cannot read Ger man. Each car contains a map of the electric service, and newspapers on con- venient rolls, for those who would read as they ride. There Is no such slogan here as Room for one more There is room for IS inside the car and SIX on the rear platform, SIX on the front platform no more. When that number is reached a sign with the word occupied is let down fore and aft, and no power of Heaven nor earth nor 10 pfennigs. could induce that conductor to take one more passenger aboard. l have seen, on a crowded, opera night, 10 thin Ameri- can and English womeH try to sit com- fortably on side designed for nine fat Germans. AS soon as the conductor or a German passenger noticed, one would have to stand on the platform. No standing inside the car is allowed,
 "Unlike all other continental systems Of fleeing, the one on street cars has It's uses. The fare is two and one.hAh cents, without transfer, which is more. If you are a German-less person, uncer- tain of your destination, or it is dark, you add one and one-quarter cents to this sum and receive salute, a polite thank you, and can settle back in your seat without any care. The conductor will remember your needs, assist you to alight and point out your way for you,
 Dresden is the Boston of Germany, and we all know what that means. Der. lin is it's Chicago. It is perfectly safe for a woman to go about Dresden alone at any time of the day or night.
 "In lecture in America recently Hugo Munsterberg said: Dresden has no pau perism and very little poverty It seems true, although Germany is suffering too,