FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



/nrrigu cn^ BlisrrllnncDEQ Jhim. 



Domestic Life in Germany. — " There is cer- 

 tainly a kind of simplicity about these Ger- 

 mans, which one does not see in America," I 

 thought to myself, as I sat in my friend's par- 

 lor, in a comfortable house, looking out over 

 the Alster, It was the house of a man of for- 

 tune, a retired merchant : yet the whole, though 

 bearing marks of a cultivated taste, showed a 

 very remarkable plainness. The parlor in 

 which I sat — a high, handsome room, with 

 prettily-painted ceiling and tasteful papering — 

 had no carpet. The furniture was plain; there 

 was no grand display of gilt and crimson any- 

 where; and it was evident very little had been 

 laid out on mere splendor. Yet one could not 

 but notice how carefully even very common 

 implements had been chosen with reference to 

 grace of form. The candle-stands, the shade- 

 lamps, and even the pitcher, or the common 

 vase, had something exceedingly graceful and 

 almost '■' classical" in their shape. The pic- 

 tures on the walls or the table were not ex- 

 pensive — often mere sketches; yet they were 

 very pleasant to look at, and had not been 

 placed there, evidently, merely because " pic- 

 tures must be hung in every respectable par- 

 lor," The groups of the daguerreotype showed 

 the same traits; not formidable ranks of stiff 

 forms, but easy groups around some animal, 

 or in some natural position. There were 

 flowers, too, everywhere; and especially that 

 most graceful of all tlower-pots, which I have 

 seen alone in Germany, though I believe it 

 came from Italj^, called the " Ampel." It is 

 simply a half vase, very much like the old 

 Grecian lamp, hung with cords from the C;'iling, 

 with some flowering vine in it, which twines 

 and wreaths around it; yet the beauty of it all 

 can hardly be imagined. Perhaps tlie only ex- 

 ception in this house to the general good taste, 

 was the high white Berlin stove, looking like a 

 porcelain tower with gilt battlements; but pos- 

 sibly one who is accustomed to our quiet, som- 

 bre machines, must need a little discipline to 

 get used to these gay articles. 



Nearly every house I have visited in Ham- 

 burg has been without carpets, though of 

 course many are so only during the summer. 

 One notices the same kind of simplicity everj-- 

 where. People do not spend as much money 

 as those of the same rank would in America. 

 Men of the higher cla.sses travel in a way a 

 gentleman would be ashamed to with us. In 

 my mode of traveling I have gone much in the 

 third-class cars and cheap conveyances, and I 

 have been surprised at the respectable class of 

 persons one finds in them, in company with the 

 " Baner." Students, you know, in Germany 

 take the third-class cars, It was only 

 other day that, traveling in this way, I 

 gentleman ft'om one of the first literary 



families of Germany, a personal friend of 

 Chevalier Bunsen, who evidently thought it 

 no more strange that he should economise by 

 traveling with the peasants, than that lie wore 

 woolen instead of satin. I ta.lked with him a 

 little in regard to it, and he said he was thank- 

 ful " there were very few circles yet in Ger- 

 many where poverty was a disgrace!" This 

 gentleman meant to live in one of the principal 

 cities of Prussia, and have, as he said, " all the 

 pleasures of a gentleman," such as music, and 

 the enjoyments of arts and society, for about 

 $200 a year ! And I am disposed to think, 

 from all my observation, that tliroughout 

 Europe the middle classes spend less money, 

 and are contented to retire from business with 

 less, than the same classes in our country. 

 Of course, when one comes to the higlier class- 

 es no comparison can be made. But among 

 the lawyers, and merchants, and literary men, 

 there is much less money circulating, and it 

 is made with considerable more difficulty; so 

 that naturally there would be a difference in 

 the spending of it. I have heard Americans 

 sometimes call the Germans mean in money 

 matters, but I think it has been from an igno- 

 rance of this flict. For certainly in all that be- 

 longs to hospitality, and kind, liberal treat- 

 ment of strangers, they are beyond any people 

 I have ever met. But the more I see them, 

 and especially those of the cultivated classes, 

 the more I am surprised at this trait I men- 

 tioned above — this simplicity, and this open- 

 hearted good nature, or " Gtdmuthigkcit,'^ as 

 they call it. For all these qualities are con- 

 nected, and they certainly give an a.spect to 

 the German character which scarcely any other 

 nation has. I have sometimes thought some- 

 thing of the same traits appeared in their litera- 

 ture, one finds so little subtle wit or humor in 

 it ; and when wit does appear, it is so broad or 

 grotesque that one could hardly call it wit. 

 For instance, no Punch could ever be sustained 

 among the G(?rmans at the present day ; and I 

 believe no satirist like either Swift or Dickens 

 has ever appeared among them. I am not dis- 

 posed to attach quite as much value to this 

 " good nature" of the Germans as I did once. 

 It seems rather the result of circumstances 

 than of any hard sti-uggle with " bad nature." 

 The nation has long been in a situation where 

 they were shut out from many of the most 

 absorbing and intense struggles of life ; and 

 their activity has expended itself very much on 

 abstract subjects. They have become easy and 

 good-natured because there was so little to dis- 

 turb them. However, this is mere theorising, 

 and may be taken for what it is worth. 



We should remember in regard to the econo- 

 my of the Germans, that it is not a mere at- 

 tempt to save money for the sake of saving. 



