El Nuevo mexicano., 1917-09-13
Three Successive
Phases of a Teuton
Daniel /. Hanson Of the vigilantes.)

l first met Herr G~rossenheimer in Chi.
cago during the Worlds Fair year, one of
that large army Of educated ana enterprise
ing Europeans which the Dream City ON
Lake Michigan drew into the heart Of the
United States, His specific mission was
To study department store methods at the
source OF recognized authority-Marshall
Fields. There he secured a position and
there he made such a record for faithful
ness and efficiency that, IL he had remained
he would hav long since have held a high
position in the establishment. And | urged
him to remain, for apparently-and sincere
ly too, ! believe-he was an enthusiast as
to this country's opportunities and govern
ment alike. Ho was eloquent and fervent
in his expressed admiration for "Amerika."
At this stage Of his life Herr Grossenheimer
was q son of democracy.
He went back TO Germany, however, and
started q department store in one Of its
largest cities. There he practised so Wen
what he had seen and heard at Marshall
Fields that he became one of the great mer-
chants Of Germany.
| met Her Grossenheinper again in 1905,
this time in New York City. He had taken
on slothness, as wen as flesh, and had lost
some of his earlier love and admiration for
the United States; or rather it had become
part and parcel of the tolerance. yes pos
sion, that he now possessed for humanity
as a whole. In short, Herr Grossenheimer
saw 50 much good in all nationalities and
in their various forms of government that
he was a. cobmopolite-more so, more at
tractively so, than any other man ever
met. Nor in fact have l since seen one
who has come as near to being a Citizen
Of the World, as did Her Grossenheimer in
I.1905.
We met again in 1911. Our third-and
last meeting occurred that summer In
Berlin. was glad to see him, and still
glad that / knew this hurley and somewhat
bumptious business man. He had prosper
ed to a remarkable degree. He had made
OF his department store a marvel of attrac.
'tiveness. which was crowded continually
with a buying public. During these sum.
mer weeks ! gathered from him a vast deal
of information concerning European mer
chandising methods and results.
But, beyond that, it was a trial to visit
with Herr ~Grossenheimer. He was no long
er a lover of democratic Institutions or
forms Of government, no longer an admirer
or the good in all humanity and of the va
rious regulations and laws that each nation
has seen fit to adopt for itself. Herr Gros-
senheimer was now the inveterate hater
Of anything or everything not German-or
really, not Prussian. Many a conversation
that began with business. Grossenheimer
before long swung into an attack on Eng
land and on "Amerika"-especially the
United States, as he believed firmly that in
South America would be the New Ger
many" Possibly Herr Grossenheimer's
world philosophy can be best summed up
in the last conversation we had-the one
at the close of which our friendship was
broken off.
We were walking along the shady pave
ment of Inter den Linden that afternoon
and Grossenheimer was particularly often
sive. He had been denouncing England as
a menace to every solid and respectable
form of government" when he suddenly
veered and made a direct attack on the
United States.
But after all it is the United States that
is the real World Menace to stable govern.
ment," he xeploded with all the force if his
$50 pounds avoirdupois. "Our citizens.
when attracted to the socalled democratic
form Of England's government are pretty
apt W SEE EdSJ LOHuOu ana It's SQudIOr.
which causes them to understand that Eng.
lands much vaunted democracy doesn't fill
the belly. But over in your United States,
democracy apparently carries with 1T three
dollars a day for common labor and twice
that for skilled-that's why your United
States stands as a world curse to all solid
and respectable form of government-wiIl
stand till it is removed, or licked into
shape"
There was more to it, and Grossenheimer
didn't use the most polite form Of speech
the Hyde nature showing through the Je-
kyll polish all too plainly. What l said in re-
ply has nothing to do with the narrative
except that it ended the friendship between
us for all time. Only this: we had already
walked away several PAGES from one an
other, when down the broad drive OF Inter
den Linden came a cavalcade of four esques-
TRANS. at full gallop-the sons of the kaiser.
Something in the arrogance of the young
mems attitude, or in the servile Difference
paid them by the onlookers gave me a pro-
phetic view of the future. / fastened back
to Herr Grossenheimer and pulled him by
the arm none too gently:
There | said to him, pointing at the
fast disappearing horsemen, there is your
WORLD MENACEl"