very 213th girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen has
been punished by fine or imprisonment. This does not mean that the
Germans are criminal or disorderly, but, on the contrary, it shows how
absurdly petty are the violations of the law punished by fine or
imprisonment.

Their whole history, from Charlemagne down until the last fifty years,
is a series of going to pieces the moment the strong hand of authority
is taken away from them. The German, and especially the Prussian
policeman, has become the greatest official busybody in the world. No
German's house is his castle. The policeman enters at will and, backed
by the authorities, questions the householder about his religion, his
servants, the attendance of his children at school, the status of the
guests staying in his house, and about many other matters besides. If
one of his children by reason of ill health is taught at home, the
authorities demand the right to send an inspector every six months to
examine him or her, to be sure that the child is properly taught. The
policeman is in attendance on the platform at every public meeting,
armed with authority to close the meeting if either speeches or
discussion seem to him unpatriotic, unlawful, or strife-breeding.
Professors, pastors, teachers are all muzzled by the state, and must
preach and teach the state orthodoxy or go! A young professor of
political economy in Berlin only lately was warned, and has become
strangely silent since.

The de-Germanizing of the German abroad is in line with this, and a
constant source of annoyance to the powers that be. Buda-Pesth was
founded by Germans in 1241, and now not one-tenth of the population is
German. As the Franks became French, as the Long Beards became
Italians, so the Germans become Americans in America, English in
England, Austrian and Bohemian in Austria and Bohemia. It has been a
problem to prevent their becoming Poles where the state has settled
Germans for the distinct purpose of ousting the Poles.

In China, in South America, and even in Sumatra I have heard German
officials tell with indignation of how their compatriots rapidly take
the local color, and lose their German habits and customs and point of
view.

One of the half dozen best-known bankers in Berlin has lamented to me
that he must change his people in South America every few years, as
they soon go to pieces there. Army officers came home from China
indignant to find their compatriots there spe