78

X. MARRIAGES 92

XI. THE HOUSEHOLDER 103

XII. HOUSEWIVES 113

XIII. HOUSEWIVES (_continued_) 123

XIV. SERVANTS 138

XV. FOOD 153

XVI. SHOPS AND MARKETS 167

XVII. EXPENSES OF LIFE 177

XVIII. HOSPITALITY 196

XIX. GERMAN SUNDAYS 205

XX. SPORTS AND GAMES 217

XXI. INNS AND RESTAURANTS 225

XXII. LIFE IN LODGINGS 237

XXIII. SUMMER RESORTS 250

XXIV. PEASANT LIFE 267

XXV. HOW THE POOR LIVE 286

XXVI. BERLIN 297

XXVII. ODDS AND ENDS 307

Translations of foreign words and phrases in this book will be found
in the Appendix at the back of the volume.

HOME LIFE IN GERMANY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

I was once greatly impressed by a story of an officer in the German
army, who told his English hostess that he knew the position of every
blacksmith's forge in Yorkshire. I wondered at the time how many
officers in the English army had learned where to find the
blacksmiths' forges in Pomerania. But those are bygone days. Most of
us know more about Germany now than we do about our own country.[1] We
go over there singly and in batches, we see their admirable public
institutions, we visit their factories, we examine their Poor Laws, we
walk their hospitals, we look on at their drill and their manoeuvres,
we follow each twist and turn of their politics, we watch their
birth-rate, we write reams about their navy, and we can explain to any
one according to our bias exactly what their system of Protection does
for them. We are often sufficiently ignorant to compare them with the
Japanese, and about once a month we publish a weighty book concerning
various aspects of their flourishing empire.

Some of these books I have read with ard