“Germany is divided into three classes—the rulers, the middle class (to which _we_ belong), and the proletariat or hand-workers, which includes Ebert and all these new upstarts. It is ridiculous to be getting these distinctions all mixed up. Leave the governing to the princes and their army officers and the Junkers. We use the nickname ‘Junker’ for our noble gentlemen, von Bernstorff, for instance, who is well known in America, and all the others who have a real right to use the ‘von’ before their names, whose ancestors were first highway robbers and then bold warriors, and who are naturally very proud”—she evidently thought this pride quite proper and fitting. “Then our army officers are chosen from the very best families and can marry only in the _gelehrten_ class, and only then if the girl has a dowry of at least eight hundred thousand marks. So they preserve all the nobility of their caste down through every generation and keep themselves quite free from middle-class taint—the _real_ officers I am speaking of, not the _Reservisten_, who are just ordinary middle-class men, merchants and doctors and teachers and the like, acting as officers during the war. _Those_ are the men who are trained to govern, and the only ones who _can_ govern.” [Illustration: GERMANS READING THE PEACE-TERMS BULLETINS BEFORE THE OFFICE OF THE “LOKAL ANZEIGER,” ON UNTER DEN LINDEN] [Illustration: A CORNER OF THE EX-KAISER’S PALACE AFTER THE SPARTICISTS GOT DONE WITH IT] [Illustration: THE GERMAN SOLDIER IS NOT ALWAYS SAVAGE OF FACE] [Illustration: THE GERMAN’S ARTISTIC SENSE LEADS HIM TO OVERDECORATE EVEN HIS MERRY-GO-ROUNDS] I knew, of course, that the great god of class was still ruling in Germany, but I confess that this bald statement of that fact left me somewhat flabbergasted. It is well to be reminded now and again, however, that the Teuton regards politics, diplomacy, and government as lifelong professions and not merely as the fleeting pastimes of lawyers, automobile-makers, and unsuccessful farmers; it clarifies our vision and aids us to see his problems more nearly as he sees them.