ial life of the place. German ladies have often told me that
the balls they looked forward to with most delight as girls were those
given by students, when one "corps" would take rooms and pay for
music, wine, and lights. For supper, tickets are issued on such
occasions, which the guests pay themselves. The small German
universities seem full of the students in term time, especially in
those places where people congregate for pleasure and not for work.
Even in a town as big as Leipsic they are seen a good deal, filling
the pavement, occupying the restaurants, going in gangs to the play.
But in Berlin the German student of tradition, the beer person, the
duellist, the rollicking lad with his big dog, is lost. He is there,
you are told, but if you keep to the highway you never see him; and,
to tell the truth, in Germany you miss him. He stands for youth and
high spirits and that world of ancient custom most of us would be
loth to lose. In Berlin, if you go to the _Universitaet_ when the
working day begins, you see a crowd of serious, well-mannered young
men, most of them carrying books and papers. They are swarming like
bees to the various lecture-rooms; they are as quiet as the elderly
professors who appear amongst them. They have no corps caps, no dogs,
no scars on their scholarly faces. By their figures you judge that
they are not Beer Persons. They have worked hard for twelve years in
the gymnasiums of Germany, they have no idle habits, no interests so
keen as their interest in this business of preparing for the future.
They are the men of next year's Germany, and will carry on their
country's reputation in the world for efficiency and scholarship.

CHAPTER VII

RIEHL ON WOMEN

Not long ago I heard a German professor say that anyone who wanted to
speak with authority about the German family must read _Die Familie_
by W.H. Riehl. He said that, amongst other things, this important work
explained why men went to the _Kneipe_, because they were fond of home
life; and also what was the sphere of women. I thought it would be
useful to have both these points settled; besides, I asked several
wise Germans about the book, and they all nodded their heads and said
it was a good one. So I got it, and was surprised to find it came out
in 1854. I thought ideas about women had advanced since then, even in
Germany, though a German friend had warned me just before my last
visit not to expect much in this way. She made a mov