GERMAN SILVER 



2466 



GERMAN SOUTHWEST AFRICA 



was poetry, fiction or drama, had some cause 

 to advance. Since the establishment of the 

 German Empire in 1871 as one of the great 

 powers of Europe, literary development has 

 been steady, and in any list of writers of high 

 rank a number of Germans would have to be 

 mentioned. To enumerate these is impossible 

 here, but any treatment of German literature 

 would be incomplete without the mention of 

 the two great present-day dramatists, Suder- 

 mann and Hauptmann. Literature suffered in 

 Germany by reason of the War of the Nations, 

 which engulfed Europe in 1914, as it did in 

 other countries engaged therein, but out of 

 Germany there came the poem .which critics 

 agree in calling the one really great expression 

 of the war spirit Lissauer's Hymn of Hate. 

 Its author afterward apologized for its bitter 

 feeling, and the German government disavowed 

 its attitude, but from a literary point of view 

 it stands unequaled by the multitude of other 

 poems called forth by the great struggle. 



Each great writer named in this article is 

 referred to at length elsewhere in these vol- 

 umes. A.MC c. 



GERMAN SILVER. Much of the so-called 

 silverware used on the table consists of a yel- 

 lowish metal that has been coated or plated 

 with silver. When new, this ware has the 

 appearance of solid silver, but the plate wears 

 off by use and the yellow metal is revealed. 

 This metal is an alloy of copper, nickel and 

 zinc, in proportions of two parts copper to one 

 part nickel and one part zinc, and is known on 

 the market as German silver, or nickel silver. 

 The proportions of copper and nickel vary 

 to adapt the alloy to different purposes. When 

 designed for making casts and candlesticks, a 

 little lead is added. The addition of iron or 

 steel makes the alloy harder, whiter and more 

 brittle. German silver is harder than silver 

 and takes a good polish, but it is easily tar- 

 nished. Vinegar and strong solutions contain- 

 ing salt form poisonous compounds with it, 

 and tableware from which the silver has been 

 worn away should not be used with such liquids 

 or with fruit. 



GERMAN SOUTHWEST AFRICA, until 

 1915 a German colony, situated on the south- 

 western coast of Africa, bordered south and 

 east by the Union of South Africa and Rho- 

 desia, north by Portuguese 'West Africa and 

 west by the Atlantic Ocean. In the year 

 named, the first year of the War of the 

 Nations, the English conquered the territory 

 and named it SOUTHWEST AFRICA PROTECTORATE. 



After the war the peace conference gave to the 

 Union of South Africa a mandate to govern it, 

 under the newly-organized League of Nations. 



Nearly at the 

 middle of its 

 coast line, which 

 is 950 miles long, 

 is the port 

 of Walfish Bay, 

 which with the 

 adjoining terri- 

 tory had always 

 belonged to 

 Great Britain. 

 Its area is esti- 

 mated at 322,000 

 square miles, or 



more than one and one-half times that of the 

 whole of Germany or France. The size of 

 this colony is equal to the combined area of 

 the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota. It has only 30,000 

 square miles less than the great Canadian 

 province of British Columbia. The population 

 is estimated at about 80,000 natives and 15,000 

 Europeans. 



Description and Resources. The coastal zone, 

 extending inland about sixty miles, is sandy 

 and barren, and is bordered by a wide belt of 

 highlands, which rise gradually to an altitude 

 of 3,000 to 6,000 feet. The eastern part of the 

 colony is a sandy desert and forms part of the 

 great Kalahari Desert, which stretches through 

 the northern part of Cape Colony to the 

 borders of the Transvaal and Rhodesia. The 

 capital is Windhoek, situated in the interior 

 and connected by railroad with Swakopmund, 

 on the coast, where a harbor has been built. 

 Another railroad starts at the ssaport of Angra 

 Pequena, or Luderitz Bay, and goes to Kalk- 

 fontein, at the border of Cape Colony. This 

 line was linked up with the railways of the 

 Union of South Africa by the building of a 

 railroad from Prieska in Cape Colony to Kalk- 

 fontein. This railroad, 314 miles long, was 

 built in connection with and during the mili- 

 tary operations undertaken by the British in 

 1914-1915. 



Sheep and cattle raising constitutes the chief 

 source of wealth of the inhabitants. Copper 

 is mined, and since 1908 large quantities of 

 diamonds are extracted in the neighborhood 

 of Luderitz Bay. Gold and other minerals 

 have also been found. The chief exports con- 

 sist of wool, hides, horses, ivory, ostrich feath- 

 ers, copper ore and diamonds. 



