People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1894 — ACROSS THE DEEP. [ARTICLE]

ACROSS THE DEEP.

Inrti-Torent blatters. From os:r Sac-Gal Conespousient. Berlin. July 13, 1694. As a farewell remark to those who have been sufficiently interested in the scattering lines which have appeared, by mo, from time to time in the Pilot I will say. that this will be the last infliction. I had serionsly premeditated cutting them off long ago, but the interest which clusters around foreign life and customs is so forcible that one is led, illogically, to think that it attaches equally strong to all. I desire this last letter to be one of scraps, culled from the different experiences which I have had in the way of observation.

Berlin is full of tourists, and if one desires to be understood lie must speak English. An illustration: two of my friends were walking down “Unter den Linden,” the fashionable street of Berlin, and were passing a young lady who possessed red hair or what might be termed a strong blonde, and one of the young men according to the German idea of compliments remarked in English, so that he might not offend the taste of the young lady, what he thought about her head of hair and the young lady immediately turned around and answered his question in good, straight American by asking what business it was of his. He spoke German after that it all his complimentary street remarks. It is always safe for no one knows but that you speak the Feji or Bush language.

The American is wonderfully, and, I believe, as a lule, favorably impressed with the German “treat. ’ The “treat” in America is certainly a thing of evil. In Germany everybody pays his own bill and consequently is not compelled to go the rounds of the whole company as in America. If two young men go to an ice cream parlor in America the code of good (?) fellowship compels one of them to pay the bill, if two Germans visit the “local” for the purpose of refreshment each orders what he desires and pays his own bill, and so far as I have been able to judge enjoys himself as well as his American friends. So Americans in Germany follow the German custom strictly and it is the most sensible by far. Many a young man in America has been compelled to avoid even good companionship, or else spend money beyond his means or his desires because of this abominable American “treat.” It ought to be a thing of the past It might take some force of character for a young man to resolve not to accept or to give any ordinary treats, but he would be the better and so would his friends thereby. * * * There is another custom here which I hope will never get the hold on the American public that it has in Europe, and that is the “Trinkgeld” or “tip.” True, we have the dastardly custom in some places in America now, .but it is not general. If a servant gets a straight look at you over here he expects a “tip” or “Trinkgeld,” as it is known here, but so far as I am concerned he does not often get it. The waiters in restaurants receive no wages and must depend upon the “tip” as his income. The custom is as rotten as the German believes American political methods to be. The gratuities are scarcely ever over 2£ cents, but it is the principle to which I am referring and not the amount. May it remain in Germany. * * * There is also another thing which can well be left here in Germany, and that is her architecture. It is one complete Nourish of motony. No man can

| build his home as he desires, j but must do it as the wishes him. I Most of the houses in Berlin are under six stories high, and that is plenty high enough as an elevator or “lift" is rarely met. A house cannot be built more than seven stories. They are built of stone or brick with scarcely any wood and then plastered on the outside as were the World’s Fair buildings and fashioned into many imitations of classical design and hideous figures. So the architecture of Berlin is monotonous. The city could not burn down if the people were to go about deliberately to do it. This makes the fire department a real cariosity here. The fire department of Berlin is not much more active than the Rensselaer fire department. They can't use one.

Germany has studied to be more perfect in her administrative system than any other na- ij tion of the world. The pride of ! Germany is her unsalaried offices. These extend to the members of her congress and her city aldermen. These men serve for the honor there is in the office and the social position it will give them and not for tho ! money they get out of it. In the German system it is iraptjssi- i ble, in all reasonable limits, for fraud to creep in. Uprightness in office is and no legislator could afford to compromise his character by associating his influence with any cause which he did not believe to be consistent with his principles. A German professor remarked to an American that a Germa n was irreproachable in his political dealing until he went to America and then it seeme I that evil possessed him. I l.jelieve he was 100 severe in his judgments, although one of the very best informed men on Aiar ; erican public life I know in Ge rmany. He only spoke, Ms vie-wis with reference to the Germans,. not that he was the- only fore-i* |ner that fell a prey to prevails nt American political methods., but as a foreigner’s statement of the naturalized citizen iu the “rings” of our large cities. The office of honor in Germany can well be imported, brA let us be careful about all future in lporftations unless this character is also brought. We need it in our large cities

The last remark leads me to a subject about which I have refrained from expressing myself because I feared that I m ight be too severe. That is imimigration. The American, native or naturalized, can thank hi s stars that the rush is toward 1 Europe and that we had only 2’00,000 loaded upon us last, year. That political party which will frame a law so as to froi n our shores nine-tenths of the persons that get in tinder ou r disgracefully loose system, it will deserve the plaudits of th e future American generations. We have many noble and good citizens among our fc«reign .elen lent. And especially have they pr oved good citizens when they 1 lave settled in the country, but in the city the hav-e proved a disturbing element. Do you ask proof? Go to the records of Chicago with her anarchists avnd her slums. Read the history of labor disturbances which ha ve resulted in useless bloodshed. Who were the leaders of Haymarket and the persons arrested in the Illinois coal strike, etc., etc., without end. It. was the element which, our immigration, laws should have prohibited. They were th>e nine-tenths and the one-tenth, was loyal and orderly. The u.ndue number that hfwe been •permitted to come over are tho root cause of the past labor troubles. It is certainly difficult to conceive of a more mistaken policy than that which has dominated our immigration legislation. To the foreigner who has come to Amer-

ica and settled in the and built his home from the primeval elements of nature, no one bids him a heartier prosperity in the land of his adoption than myself, but when I take up the newspapers and read of tire disturbing element in our cities, of Polish quarters. Italian quarters, Hungarian quarters, etc., and their names heading the list, of disturbances I wonder if America will ever arouse herself to the true condition of affair 5. At present the movement is toward Europe. Notv is the tim eto pass laws, for no sooner than the present crisis is past than the tide will turn. Europe ca nnot support her present millioms as -she should. What I have said is just and true, and therefore not severe a ud the last ' railroad strike will do more to open the eyes of the American public upon this and kindred questions than any amount of | writ ing or talk could possibly have; done. There are some great questions in America whi< h are clamoring for solutio n. The y will be solved—gloriouslp, we all hope. Let us begin with' fund amentals. Immigration is ; one of them. The others will be e-as-i-er, all but one—the railroad qu-es .tion. In the meantime let ;us b e optimists, but at the same 'timo interested actors in their solution.

The success of Mrs. Annie M. Bea-m, of McKeesport, Pennylvania, in the treatment of diarrhoea in her children will undoubtedly be of interest to many mothers. She says: “I spent several weeks in Johnstown, Pa., after the great flood, on account of my husband being employed there. We had several children with us, two of whom took the diarrhoea very badly. I got some of Chamberlain’s Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy from Rev. Mr. Chapman. It cured both of them. I knew of several other cases where it was equally successful. I think it cannot be excelled and cheerfully recommend it.” 25 and 50 cent bottles for sale by F. B. Meyer, Druggist.