Part 17 (1/2)

Even in higher circles in Germany there is a gus.h.i.+ng idealism about the relations of the s.e.xes. In their songs and sayings, as well as in their mythology, there is a laudation of love that is overstimulating.

The lines of that inconsequential philosopher, that irresponsible moralist, that dreamy Puritan, Emerson,

”Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit and the Muse-- Nothing refuse”

would be warmly praised in Germany.

”I could not love thee, dear, so much Loved I not honour more”

are lines more to our taste. Even love should have a deal of toughness of fibre in it to be worth much.

I must leave it to my readers to guess what I think of the German woman; indeed, it is of little consequence what any individual opinion is, if matter is given for the formation of an opinion by others.

Truth cannot afford to be either gallant or merciless. There are women in Germany whom no man can know without respect, without admiration, without affection. There are the blue eyes, sunny hair, peach-bloom complexions of the north; there are the dark-eyed, black-haired, heavy-browed women of the Black Forest; there is often a Quakerish elegance of figure and apparel to be seen on the streets of the cities, and from time to time one sees a real Germania, big of frame, bold of brow, fearless of glance--patet dea!

But we can none of us be quite sure of the impartiality of our taste in such matters. Our baby fingers and our baby lips were taught to love a certain type of beauty. Our mothers wove a web of admiration and devotion from which no real man ever escapes; our maturer pa.s.sions lashed themselves to an image from which we can never wholly break away; our sins and sorrows and adventures have been drenched in the tears of eyes that are like no other eyes; and consequently the man who could pretend to cold neutrality would be a reprobate.

The German looks to Germany, the Englishman to England, the Frenchman to France, as do you and I to America, for

”The face that launched a thousand s.h.i.+ps And burnt the topless towers of Ilium.”

VIII ”OHNE ARMEE KEIN DEUTSCHLAND”

Of every one hundred inhabitants of Germany, including men, women, and children, one is a soldier. There are, roughly, 65,000,000 inhabitants and 650,000 soldiers.

The American army is about equal in numbers to the corps of officers of Germany's army and navy. To the American, as to almost every other foreigner, the German army means only one thing: war. We all hear one thing:

”And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war.”

I believe this is a half-truth, and dangerous accordingly. This army has been in existence for over forty years, and has done far more to keep the peace than any other one factor in Europe, except, perhaps, the British navy.

The German army protects the German people not only from external foes, but from internal diseases. It is the greatest school of hygiene in the world, on account of its sound teaching, the devotion, skill, and industry of its officers, the number of its pupils, and its widely distributed lessons and influence.

Culture taken by itself is livery business, and when combined with much beer and wine drinking, irregular eating and a disinclination for regular exercise, culture becomes a positive menace to health. Of this danger to the German, their own great man Bismarck spoke in the Abgeordnetenhaus in 1881: ”Bei uns Deutschen wird mit wenigem so viel Zeit totgeschlagen wie mit Biertrinken. Wer beim Fruhschoppen sitzt oder beim Abendschoppen und gar noch dazu raucht und Zeitungen liest, halt sich voll ausreichend beschaftigt und geht mit gutem Gewissen nach Haus in dem Bewusstsein, das Seinige geleistet zu haben.”

(”The Germans waste more time drinking beer than in any other way. The man who sits with his morning or his afternoon gla.s.s of beer beside him, and who, in addition, smokes and reads the newspapers, considers that he is much occupied, and goes home with a good conscience, feeling that he has fully done his duty.”)

”Jeden Feind besiegt der Deutsche: Nur den Durst besiegt er nicht.”

Which I permit myself to translate into these two lines:

”The German conquers every foe, Except his thirst, that lays him low.”

Even if the German army were not necessary as a policeman, it could not be spared as a physician by the German people. It is to be forever kept in mind that the German is brought up on rules; the American and the Englishman on emergencies. Emergencies provide a certain discipline of themselves, and our philosophy of civilization leaves it to the individual to get his own discipline from his own emergencies.

We call it the formation of character. The German thinks this method a hap-hazard method, and burdens men with rules, and the army is Germany's greatest school-master along those lines. We are inclined to think that it results in a machine-made citizen.

There are three cla.s.ses of men who pick up the bill of fare of life and look it over: Civilization's paralyzed ones, with no appet.i.te, who can choose what they will without regard to the prices; the cautious, those with appet.i.te but who are hampered in their choice by the prices; the bold, those with appet.i.te and audacity, who rely upon their courage to satisfy the landlord. The Germans are only just beginning to look over the world's bill of fare in this last lordly fas.h.i.+on, to which some of us have long been accustomed. I see no reason why they should not do so, though I see clearly enough the suspicion and jealousy it creates.

They have been swathed in ”Forbidden” so long that their taste for daring was late in coming. Our colonies, small wars, punitive expeditions, and control over neighboring territories are not planned for far ahead; but the exigencies of the situations are met by the remedies and solutions of men fitted by their training in school, in sport, in social and political life for just such work, and who are the more efficient the more they do of it. We are inclined to do things, and to think them out the day after; while the German thinks them out the week before, and then sometimes hesitates to do them at all.

The German goes more slowly, perhaps more successfully, in commercial and industrial undertakings, but always with a chart in front of him, a pair of spectacles on his nose, and with no desire to take chances.