TO OUR READERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2272, 18 August 1908, Page 3

TO OUR READERS.

Wo regrot that owing to an unfortunato accident just- ini mediately prior to going to press, our third page of news wan entirely destroyed. In order, therefore, that this morning’s issue may not be unduly -delayed we are unable to give more than the following brief summary. Football.—Combined team of Gis-

borne players beat Tokomaru by 1. points to 13 points. lvniii-City thirds wore defeated at Napier by the Pirates third fifteen by 13 points to J. points.

Ilockev. —Poverty Pay and Hawke’s Pay, at Hastings, played u drawn game, goals each. Armstrong and 'Plight scored for the visitors. Plie U.sborno High School girls’ team defeated the Napier Main School by 1 goal to nil.

Our third page also contained reports of the Rugby Union meeting and the opening of the \\ littei School, for the non-publication oi which wo have to apologist l .

HOW THEY LIVE IN GERMANY

SOCIAL CUSTOMS

Mrs. Alfred Sulgwiek is ono of the valuable writers, all too lew, who can interpret one nation to another. Ui German parentage, she was born tutu bred in Angiauu, is married to an Engiisuman, anil regards England us her lathorlanu. In Her eltarnniig novels site snows that sho nutlerstamls both nations, her knowledge ot one enabling her the better to appreciate the other. No German count have written “Home Life in Germany' (London: Methuen and Co.; Atelbourne: Melville and Mullen). Knowledge implies the perception of likenesses and differences; and in describing one nation to another it is necessary to have the materials for comparison. Mrs. toldgwick introduces lier readers to every phase of private life in Germany—men, women, and children, education, marriage, housewives, servants, sports, the German Sunday, summer resorts, and the peasantry. TREATMENT OF INFANTS. The control by and submission to authority, which to English peoplo is characteristic of Germans, begins in infancy. A baby is tor weeks subject ed to a process of coddling. Air and sunlight are considered clangorous;-- as are soap and even water, except in strict moderation. An iniant is kept for a couple of months, clay and night, in a long bag, the “steckissen,” that confines its legs and body, though not its arms. The bag is lined with waitding, and a German nurse assured the author that while a child’s bones were soft it was not safe to lilt it in any other way. These bags are comparatively modern ,and are an improvement on the old-fashioned swaddling clothes—bandages that wrap the child round like a mummy, arms as well as legs—that are still used in some parts ol Germany. The real ruler of the German nursery is the family doctor, who calls when he thinks lit, looks after the baby’s weight and food, and sees that its feet are kept warm. GIRLS AND WOMEN.

A generation or so ago it was the fashion to have an English governess in a well-to-do German family to teach the daughters of the house manners, especially at table, in which it is admitted that the English excel. According to Mrs. Sidgwick, there is something to be said on each side ol the question. A German is more likely to put his knife into his mouth, but a German girl is less likely than an English girt to have a shabby garment or untidy hair. The German young lady of to-day is more advanced than the “Baktisch” (“Miss”), as she is called, of 30 or 40 years ago. Sho has seen “Salome” as a play and as an opera, which the adult British public are carefully debarred from witnessing. She has been to plays by Bernard Shaw both in Berlin and in London. Shakespeare sho does not Loudon. Shakespeare she does not care to see in London, because, rilic will tell you the English know nothing about him, and ho would not sound as well in English as in German. She reads Carlyle and Ruskin and adores Byron, but will not read. Tennyson, " becauso she has been taught that his poetry is “bourgeois.” Her favorite novels are “Dorian Gray” and “Misunderstood”—a curious combination that of Oscar Wilde and Florence Montgomery. She plays tennis well, can ride, swim, and skate, and would cycle if cycling were not out of fashion. Old maids abound, and girls without money have far less chance of marriage in Germany than in England, where young peoplo marry as they please, and a man expects •to support his wife altogether. German women who call themselves progressive have of late raised a new pry, that of “every woman’s right to motherhood,” but they have not yet found a satisfactory way of securing this right to the 400,000 women who out number the men. A professor has written a pamplet advocating polygamy, but his proposal is not considered satisfactory by most of the numerous sex. Some of them are dealing with the matter in their own way. Mrs. Sidgwick heard of a girl writing to a venerable relative:— “Dear Aunt S., —1 want you to congratulate me on my happiness. I am about to be united, with the man 1 love, and we shall Jive together until one of ns is tired of it,” “You hear of girls of good family,” writes Mrs. Sidgwick, “who have asserted their ‘right to motherhood’ without marriage ; and you hear of others who refuse to marry because they will not make vows or accept conditions they consider humaliating.” There are girls and women who hold these views and act upon them in all countries, but everywhere, including Germany, they are a small minority. What we understand by flirtation, says the writer, is not encouraged, unless it is almost sure to lead to marriage. What tho. Germans understand bv the word is justly considered scandalous and reprehensible, for they have taken away the levity and innocence of its meaning. .They make it a term of serious reproach, and those who dislike us condemn the shocking prevalence of “Flirt” (as they call it) in our decadent society. Women are much i less considered in Germany than in England. In a crowded car a woman, must not expect a man to give her his seat. “I have seen,” said Mrs. Sidgwick, “a young German lady make an old lady take her place, but I have never known men to yield their seats to women.”

, SPOUTS. The word “sport” has recently been introduced into the German language, but 'it means what wo call a “hobby. “You have no country,” said a Gorman to tlie author, using the word as opposed to town. “In Germany we have country still.” Ho meant tha, in England there were no vasts tracts of heath and forest, where wild animals live undistrubed. When tokl there were a few such places still in Scotland, but that they belonged to American and Jewish millionaires, by was incredulous. You hardly see any ladies on bicycles.. The Emperor and Empress disapprove of that exercise for women, and it lias, therefore, become

unfashionable. lenms is very pop- - tllar, but cricket and lootball are not much played. It seems that out-door games are discouraged- by the authorities, who consider them a waste of time. Gymnastics is a favorite form of athletics. In the summer the Germans lead an out-door life to the extent impossible in the (lamp climate of Great Britain. Where there is a garden meals are served there. Skittles are still played in Germany by all classes. The favorite game ot cards, “skat,” is for three players, but bridge is coming into favor, and may supersede it in time. Except at the ladies’ clubs before mentioned, only men play cards. Away from Berlin men and women keep apart far more than dn, England, take their pleasures separately, and have fewer interests in common. There is no enthusiasm for sport and outdoor games in Ger-

many, the bulk of the nation not being interested in thorn, except, indifferent tennis swimming, skating, ami boating. A German who wants to enjoy himself out of doors sits in a garden an dlistens to a band or walks along a good road to a restaurant on the top of a bill. A very small proportion of the educated classes lend what in England is called a country life, lie have beard of Frenchmen going out to shoot sparrows ami other small birds, but Mrs. Sidgwick has something better to toll us. Sho says:—“l must confess that I have only once seen a German in full sporting costume. It was most impressive, though, a sort of pinkish grey, bound everywhere with green, and set olf by a soft felt hat and feathers . As wo were having a walk with him, and it. was early summer, we ventured to ask him what ho hail come to ‘kill. ‘Bees,’ said he, and killed one the next- minute with a pop-gun.” THE PRESS AND THEATRES.

Mrs. Sidgwick declares that, what wo understand by freedom of the press dot's not exist in Germany. Sho once ask a well-known English journalist, who is of German birth,- why one of our newspapers kings did not set- up a huge, gossinv. frivolous paper in Berlin, and was told that it would be impossible, becauso the editor and his staff would probably find themselves in prison in a week. On tho other liana, books and phamphlets are sold in Germany that would be suppressed in England, and tho German stage is freer than the English. “Montia Vnnna,” forbidden in London, was vory successful in Berlin, whero Madame Maeterlinck . played to crowded audiences. “Salome” holds the stage, both as drama and as opera. Gorky’s “Nachnsyl” is played continually. French and German plays are acted all over Germany that in England would be forbidden by tho censor and not tolerated by tho public. At no theatre in Borlin do women wear full evening dress. Shakesphere is played in German, which the Gedmans consider more beautiful and satisfying than in English. On the subject of Shnkesphero Germans seem to lose their wits altogether. Mrs. Sidgiwek sityss that she has never met a Gorman who would not admit that Shakesphere was an Englishman. They say that his birth at Stratford-on-Avon was a little accident, and that ho belongs to the to tho world—by which they mean Germany. Byron they declare is the only great poet England has ever had. This is tho real opinion of the man in the street, and is taught in lessons on literaturo. “You have had two great names,” said a German teacher to an English girl “two and no more—Slia'kesphere and Byron. . . . You have never had anyone else, and Shakesphere has always .belonged more to us than to you.” It is hard to believe that the peoplo who talk such rubbish are the countrymen of Goethe, Schlegel,. Gcrvinus, Ulrici, Delius, and others, who have written so well on our great national poet.

THE PERFECT GUEST.

The duty of a hostess is a subject which is continually being aired. M e are given innumerable lists of wliat she should do and what she should leave undone to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of her guests, he know that she must never consider her personal pleasure or convenience, but must continually strive to minister to the pleasures of her visitors. She must never be tired, never be cross, never be bored or absent-minded, but must perpetually show the interested smile and ready tact that go to constitute a perfect hostess. But what about the guest? Has she no duties too? Is all the effort, all the tact, to be on the side of the hostess, while tlie guest selfislily absorbs all the good time she can get. It looks very much like it with many people. If a party or a picnic is a failure, it is invariably the hostess who is blanied; never the guest; and yet if the invited ones do not bring the party feeling with them, it is impossible for tho most perfect hostess m the world to make the entertainment entertaining. - Have we not all been to functions where some of the guests have arrived with an “I wond-. er why I came” expression, and others have stood about looking bored and tired. The depressing effect of three or four such wet blankets is enough to' ruin the brightness of any gathering. No one lias any right to attend, a partv in such a spirit; it is an insult “to the hostess to arrive at. her house 'with the conviction written across your face that you are going to be bored. If that is how you feel, it is better by far to stay away—for you never will be missed. To enjoy yourself and help others to enjoyment, it is absolutely necessary that you should have the faculty for enjoyment within you. You must be prepared to like what is urovided for you in the way of entertainment; you must be ready to .talk easily to your next chair niegbbor; you must be willing to contribute to the musical programme if asked to do so; aml must respond readily to the efforts of your hostess. In short, you must, bring your share of brightness and gaiety to the gathering, and not expect to find it all provided with, tlxe chairs and C °Then there is the guest who goes a-visiting. There is no greater test of friendship than staying in. another’s house. In most ordinary houses a visitor for any length or time means disorganisation m the householtl. Perhaps some member ot the family lias given up her room to you, and little entertainments have been arranged at the cost of (some trouble and sacrifice to make your stay pleasant. The perfect guest will appreciate all such efforts, and by her pleased and- ready, acceptance will show her appreciation of all thatias been done for her. Then, too, in these days of domestic difficulties, the audition of even one m the house makes a difference in the housework, the guest who wants to makelher visit a success must see that she nevei thought lessly adds to the labor of her hostess. Where no maid, cr only one is kept, the thoughtful visitor can find many little things to do which will appreciably help her hostess without making ] lor feel that sho is encroaching on her visitor’s good nature. In houses where a staff of servants is kept and there is no need for you to help, there are many little ttajs in which you can show your appreciation of the hospitality extended to you. For instance, when you go out alone von can offer to do any little messages for your hostess, and you can occasionally bring her home a bunch of flowei‘6, a- box ot . sweets, oi a new magazine. If she lias visitors you can help her by talking to the difficult ones, not by monopolism" the most entertaining voting man all the time And above all, be punctual for meals, and by your consideration for her servants,, help your hostess to enjov. your visit. . .. . But the girl of nice feeling mU think of a hundred different little ways by which she can make her vi«it such a success that there will be no sigh of relief, at her departure, hut a genuine feeling of regret both above and below stairs that her stay lias come to an end.