"And why impossible, since obedience is our supreme racial virtue? Go
consult your social register. The present Emperor, I believe, has
admitted none, but his father admitted several and gave them princely
incomes. They married well and their children are respected, though I
understand they are not very much invited out for the reason that they
are poor conversationalists. They only speak when spoken to and then
answer, 'Ja, Mein Herr.' I hear they are very miserable; since no one
commands them they must be very bored with life, as they are unable to
think of anything to do to amuse themselves. In time the trait will be
modified, of course, since the Royal blood will soon predominate, and
the strongest inherent trait of Royalty is to seek amusement."
This specialized class of men servants needed little education, for, as
I took more interest in observing after this talk with Zimmern, they
were the most perfectly fitted to their function of any class in Berlin.
But there was also a much more numerous class of women servants on the
Royal Level. These, as a matter of economy, were not specially bred to
the office, but were selected from the mothers who had been rejected for
further maternity after the birth of one or two children. Be it said to
the credit of the Germans that no women who had once borne a child was
ever permitted to take up the profession of Delilah--a statement which
unfortunately cannot be made of the rest of the world. These mothers
together with those who had passed the child bearing age more than
supplied the need for nurses on the maternity levels and teachers in
girls' schools.
As a result they swarmed the Royal Level in all capacities of service
for which women are fitted. Originally educated for maternity they had
to be re-educated for service. Not satisfied with the official education
provided by the masculine-ordered state, the women of the Royal Level
maintained a continuation school in the fine art of obedience and the
kindred virtues of the perfect servant.
So again it was that Marguerite became involved in a movement that in no
wise expressed the needs of her spirit, and from which she
speedily withdrew.
The next time she came to me for advice. "I want to do something," she
cried. "I want to be of some use in the world. You saved me from that
awful life--for you know what it would have been for me if Dr. Zimmern
had died or his disloyalty had been discovered--and you have brought me
here where I have riches and position but am useless. I tried to be
charitable, to relieve poverty, but they say there is no poverty to be
relieved. I tried to relieve ignorance, but they will not allow that
either. What else is there that needs to be relieved? Is there no good
I can do?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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