Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
In April, 1913, more laws are to come into effect for the street
traffic. People may not walk more than three abreast; they may not
swing their canes and umbrellas as they walk; they may not drag their
garments in the street; they may not sing, whistle, or talk loudly in
the street, nor congregate for conversation; there will follow, of
course, a regulation as to the length of women's dresses to be worn in
the street, and no doubt the police commissioner, an amiable bachelor,
will decree that the shorter the better. All these fussy regulations
are ridiculous to us, but in reality they are horrible and give one a
feeling of suffocation when living in Germany. In the days when
everybody rode a bicycle, each rider was obliged to pass an
examination in proficiency, paid a small tax, and was given a number
and a license. Women who persisted in wearing dangerous hat-pins have
been ejected from public vehicles.
After April 1, 1913, no shop in Berlin can advertise or hold a bargain
sale without permission of the police. The changed prices must be
affixed to the goods four days before the sale for inspection by the
police, and only two such sales are permitted a year, and these must
take place either before February 15, or between June 15 and August
1st. All particulars of the sale must be handed to the police a week
in advance. In a carriage on the Bavarian railroad, a husband who
kissed and petted his tired wife was complained of by a fellow-
passenger. The husband was tried, judged guilty, and fined. There was
no question but that the woman was his wife; thus there is no loop-hole
left for the legally curious, and thousands of male Germans hug
and kiss one another on railway-station platforms who surely ought to
be fined and imprisoned or deported or hanged! All this may be a relic
of Roman law. Cato dismissed Marilius from the Senate because he
kissed his own wife by daylight in the presence of their own daughter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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