Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-01
i. S. CAMPAIGN
OF 'VERBOTEN'
ABUSES HUNS
American Blue Law Wave
Gets Laughs From
SatiristS.
CAN'T SEE PROHIBITION

IAN i OGG L ASOAAAOA AOAN
BERLIN, June 1.-"verboten," mean
ing forbidden" was the most common
word in the German language before the
war accor ding to American tourists. Yer
boten to smoke verboten to enter, YER
boten to touch, verboten to make noise
--verboten signs greeted you every place
you turned the American complained to
his German host.
"The war and revolution freed us" says
the German. France took our militar-
ism and. imperialism and 1t is proving a
heavy burden; England took our Navy !;
America got our 'verboten.'"
Germany is watching with the keenest
interest the spreading of what she calls
the "verboten campaign" across the
United States.
Wherever an American goes he is asked
about prohibition. Really, you don't
have any beer? How do you live? What
do you drink, anyway" The Berlin
press keeps its readers informed of the
spreading of the blue Sunday laws; Of
the anti-smoking wave which is attempt
ing to put verbOten in capital letters on
Lady Nicotine
Berlin with the word verboten painted
out or erased has reached a point where
liberty has developed into license. The
lid is of! Anything goes The old
habits Of verboten still hold the German
in a strictly disciplined check in the
little things. I have stood damned in q
thick crowd Of laborers in the Lustgar-
den before the Kaiser palace Inter den
Linden, until one could hardly breathe,
listening to a Bolshevist orator thunder
destruction to all principles of law and
order. But it never occurred to one OF
his Bolshevist listeners to make a little
more room by stepping off Of the impas-
sable sidewalks onto the grass
The verboten habit protects thousands
of violets planted in beds less than two
feet from the sidewalk at the Brandon
burger Tor. where scores OF thousands
pass daily. 1t would never occur to a
passerby to reach down and put a violet
IN his buttonhole, although there are no
more signs 'verboten."
But in the more important things Of
life the lid is off; the revolution has
blasted all memories of restraint The
theater, the press, the magazines. the
passers-by on the sidewalks bear wit
ness to the revolution which has
brought freedom"
Max Pallenberg, Germany's best
known comedian, is playing in "Das
Weisse Laemmchen," or The White
Lamb" The play opens IN a young
lawyers office. The lawyer is informing
a young actress lady that be intends to
get married; that it's all over between
them.
DRAMA BECOMES
REAL OFFENSIVE.
TT is, is IT," screams the young actress
person. Wen see I'll make a scan
dali" She does. Then and there she
starts to remove her clothes-she wrigg
her shoulders and her dress falls to the
door: another wriggle and she is minus
a white silk-er-and then--lots OF pink
bows and-things And young lady
with shapely limbs dancing around to no
music with not as much on as the ad-
vertisement for New York's leading bur-
lesque.
Interest doesn't lag The White Lamb.
who is not the young lady, but Max
PaIlenberg, turns out to be a very bad
smelling. unkempt, filthy goat BE gets
a laugh by saying things which no one,
even in verbotenless Germany, thinks he
would dare say. The humor consists IN
insinuations about perverted sexual rela-
tons.
"Reigen" is so rotten that the audi
ence tried several times 10 break up the
show. Instead of closing IT, the police
sent squad OF private detectives to pro-
tect the actors. Any newspaper which
tried to print q synopsis Of Reigen would
be barred from the American mails. die
Dame In Track" is a musical comedy
in which the title role is a woman with
masculine instincts. These plays are put
on In Berlin's best and formerly most
conservative playhouses.
Die Freie Presse," or Free Press"
sold on every newsstand in Berlin is
openly edited for the perverts who are
best known by the studies Of Kraft
Ebing. It's columns are filled with ad-
vertisements Of persons who wish to
meet others of similar instincts and
tastes.
"Simpl icissimus" was barred from
American mails before the war, but the
new freedom" hasn't helped to i'm
prove. Many Of the Illustrations have
no point except that they are obsence
and that the degree of their obscenity
goes so far as to shock the reader, and
for this sensation he buys the magazine
With the permission Of the police Ber-
lin has hundreds of strange individuals;
men who go about in ~omen's clothes :
women who choose to lead the lives of
men. A large number Of the night cafes
advertise naked dancers as an attraction
The decent citizen, and he is still in
the vast majority, despite the crowded
houses at the obscene theaters and the
growing circulation of the obscene mag
azines, as the Frenchman said, "C'est In
guerre." shrugs his shoulders and SAYS
''Es ist die revolution" The revolution
has torn down the signs verboten. VIII
general decency prevail and the sensible
industrious citizens again put on the lid.
or will Germany have another revoIu-
don to reinstate the word verboten?
It's safe to say that there are thou
lands in Berlin who would like to 70
capture the trophy "verboten" which
they say is being abused and over
worked in the United States.