igation of such matters agree
in telling me that the boys who come up to the universities,
especially in the large cities and towns, are somewhat lax in their
moral standards as regards matters upon which the puritan still lays
great stress.

In Berlin particularly, where there are some thirty-five hundred
registered and nearly fifty thousand unregistered women devoting
themselves to the seemingly incompatible ends of rapidly accumulating
gold while frantically pursuing pleasure, there is an amount of
immorality unequalled in any capital in Europe. In the whole German
Empire the average of illegitimacy is ten per cent. but in Berlin the
average for the last few years is twenty per cent. Out of every five
children born in Berlin each year one is illegitimate! It is
questionable whether the increasing demands of the army and navy
require such laxity of moral methods in providing therefor.

There is,
however, a state church in Germany with its head in Berlin, and no
doubt we may safely leave this matter in these better hands than ours.
I beg to say that in mentioning this subject I am quoting unprejudiced
scientific investigators, who, I may say, agree, without a dissenting
voice of importance, that Berlin has become the classical problem
along such lines. In the endeavor to compete with the gayeties
elsewhere, a laxity has been encouraged and permitted that has won for
Berlin in the last ten years, an unrivalled position as a purveyor of
after-dark pleasures. Berlin not only produces a disproportionate
number of such people as Diotrephes, in manners, but also a veritable
horde of those who are like unto the son of Bosor.

After the sheltered home life and the severe discipline of the higher
schools, a German youth is permitted a freedom unknown to us at the
university. There is no record kept of how or where he spends his
time. He matriculates at one or another of the universities, and for
three, four, or, in the case of medical students, five years, he is
free to work or not to work, as he pleases.

There are, however, three
factors that serve as bit and reins to keep him in order. The final
examination is severe, thorough, and cannot be passed successfully by
mere cramming; very few of the students have incomes which permit of a
great range of dissipation; and not to pass the examination is a
terrible defeat in life, which cuts a man off from further progress
and leaves him disgraced.

These are forces that coun