Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1913 — Spoke German at the Rate of 92 Miles an Hour [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Spoke German at the Rate of 92 Miles an Hour

KANSAS CITY, MO.—Over at the City Center bank they plume themselves upon the ease with which they speak German. Indeed, there is a sign upon the window, announcing to all and sundry that “Deutsch” is “gesprochen” here. The real German sharks are the president and a young woman bookkeeper. The jocund cashier also speaks a little German sometimes —he can order a beer in German with ease, but when it comes to more complex matters he proceeds somewhat slowly In the guttural tongue. The other day the president and the German-speaking bookkeeper were both out at luncheon and the J. C. was in charge. To the teller’s window came a man who began to rattle off the kaiser’s language at the rate of ninety-two miles an hour. The jocund cashier raised one hand. “Nicbt so schnell (not so fast),” eaid he. , , And the German customer slowed down to ninety miles an hour. The cashier was able to catch references to the sign on the window about “Ger-

man spoken here,” and he gathered that the customer wanted to know why it wasn’t being spoken. So he explained, with some deliberation, and feeling for the right German words, that Herr Long*was out at luncheon, and so was Prauleln So-and-So; that he himself spoke only a little German, but he’d do bis best. The customer shoved his hat back on his head. “Well, I’ll be derned,” he remarked with an unmistakable brogue. "I see the sign on yer windy, and in I comes to be getting a bit practice in,German, and I find ye don't speak it at all, at all.”