THE GERMAN NATION 



289 



noises ; no thumping piano will keep them 

 awake at night ; they will get seats when 

 they enter a street car. They simply pre- 

 fer to subordinate their passing whims to 

 their permanent comfort. 



No domestic servant can get a position 

 except through the police. She must make 

 a formal application at the municipal reg- 

 istry office, where comes the housewife 

 wanting a cook. The police give her a 

 little book setting forth her name, where 

 she was born and when, her stature, the 

 color of her eyes and hair, and the date 

 she first went into domestic service. It 

 also gives the name, occupation, social 

 rank, and residence of each former em- 

 ployer, and the reason for her leaving 

 each household, written in by the mis- 

 tress thereof, which is authenticated by 

 the stamp of the police. 



After the cook is hired her mistress 

 must register the fact and the term of 

 employment with the police, giving them 

 the number of the cook's record book, 

 while the cook must take her book back 

 to the police for her new employment to 

 be written into it. Every Monday the 

 mistress must affix a 5-cent insurance 

 stamp to the card the cook is required to 

 have, and once a month the postoffice 

 cancels these stamps. - This must be at- 

 tended to regularly or the police will in- 

 quire why. That proceeding insures the 

 cook that if she lives to be 70, thereafter 

 she will get a pension of from $3 to $5 a 

 month. If she marries in the meantime 

 she may have her insurance with interest 

 refunded, or keep it up, as she pleases. 



Neither mistress nor maid complains 

 about these restrictions and this red tape. 

 The mistress says she is sure of getting a 

 good servant and the maid says she is 

 sure of good treatment by her mistress. 



MANY CIvASS DISTINCTIONS 



No western country has more class 

 distinctions than Germany. Every per- 

 son above the rank of manual laborer 

 has a handle of some kind to his name 

 which enables even the stranger to de- 

 termine his standing. When a traveler 

 goes to a hotel or lodging-house, he must 

 give his name, home address, and stand- 

 ing, both as to occupation and social po- 

 sition. The women are even more par- 



ticular than the men as to nice social dis- 

 tinctions. The wife claims as her own 

 the full title of her lord and master. If 

 she be the wife of a captain in the army, 

 she is Mrs. Captain So and So; if her 

 husband is a postal clerk, she is addressed 

 as Mrs. Director of Posts So and So ; if 

 her husband has become postmaster, she 

 will be Mrs. Upper Director of Posts So 

 and So. 



These titles and social distinctions that 

 go with them are not confined to the army 

 and the civil service. A man who has a 

 great electrical factory may be known as 

 a royal, privy, commercial, councillor, 

 electrical, appliance, factory proprietor. 



Salaries in the German army are ex- 

 tremely low ; a German general may not 

 get as much as a second lieutenant in the 

 American army. But there is no German 

 tradesman who will not give almost un- 

 limited credit to the German army officer. 

 He occupies the first social position in 

 the Empire, and every wealthy father 

 and ambitious mother will only be too 

 glad to pay his debts if he will but wed 

 their daughter. 



The dowry is never lost sight of from 

 the highest home to the humblest, and 

 even the servant girl will scale down her 

 pleasures to the lowest in order to in- 

 crease the dowry, which adds to her 

 chances of marriage. 



THE GERMAN BUSINESS MAN 



The German business man is different 

 from the business men of many other 

 countries. He brings to his work an 

 equipment of technical training disci- 

 pline, orderliness, and unflagging industry 

 seldom equaled. He rises at six in the 

 morning, has a simple breakfast of coffee 

 and rolls, and is at his office or factory 

 never later than 8 o'clock. He takes a 

 sandwich along in his pocket, and eats it 

 as a second breakfast, usually between 

 10 and II. At I o'clock, if he is a family 

 man, he goes home to his dinner, which 

 he eats leisurely, and then takes a short 

 nap. After this comes his coffee and 

 cigar, and after these his return to his 

 office, where he arrives by 3 o'clock, and 

 stays until his work is done, even though 

 that be 8 or 9 o'clock. 



