he paid for it as an extra. His school years have been
chiefly a preparation for the university. If he never reaches the
higher classes he leaves the Gymnasium with a stigma upon him, a
record of failure that will hamper him in his career. The higher
official posts and the professions will be closed to him; and he will
be unfitted by his education for business. This at least is what many
thoughtful Germans say of their classical schools; and they lament
over the unsuitable boys who are sent to them because their parents
want a professor or a high official in the family. It is considered
more sensible to send an average boy to a _Real-Gymnasium_ or to an
_Ober-Real Schule_, because nowadays these schools prepare for the
university, and any boy with a turn for scholarship can get the
training he needs. The _Ober-Real Schule_ professedly pays most
attention to modern languages; and it is, in fact, only since 1900
that their boys are received at a university on the classical side.
They still prepare largely for technical schools and for a commercial
career.

At a _Real-Schule_, the fourth grade of higher school, the course only
lasts six years. They do not prepare for the Abiturienten examination,
and their scholars cannot go from them to a university. They prepare
for practical life, and they admit promising boys from the elementary
schools. A boy who has been through any one of these higher schools
successfully need only serve in the army for one year; and that in
itself is a great incentive to parents to send their children. A
_Real-Schule_ in Prussia only costs a hundred marks a year, and a
_Gymnasium_ a hundred and thirty-five marks. In some parts of Germany
the fees are rather higher, in some still lower. The headmasters of
these schools are all university men, and are themselves under State
supervision. In an entertaining play called _Flachsmann als Erzieher_
the headmaster had not been doing his duty, and has allowed the school
to get into a bad way. The subordinates are either slack or
righteously rebellious, and the children are unruly. The State
official pays a surprise visit, discovers the state of things, and
reads the Riot Act all round. The wicked headmaster is dismissed, the
eager young reformer is put in his place, the slackers are warned and
given another chance.... Blessed be St. Bureaukrazius ... says the
genial old god out of a machine, when by virtue of his office he has
righted every man's wrongs. T