ay or a public holiday the mob behaves itself. At the
Berlin Zoo, for instance, there are such masses of people every Sunday
that you see nothing but people. It is impossible, or rather would not
be agreeable, to force your way through the crowd surrounding the
cages. But the people are interesting, and it is to see them that you
have ventured here. You soon find, however, that it is not a venture
at all. No one will offend you, no one is drunken or riotous. The
gardens are packed with decent folk, mostly of the lower middle
classes, and the only unseemly thing you see them do is to eat small
hot sausages with their fingers in the open-air restaurants.

Sunday is the great day of the week at German theatres. In all the
large towns there are afternoon performances at popular prices, and
this means that people who can pay a few pence for a seat can see all
the great classical plays and most of the successful modern ones; and
they can hear many of the great operas as well as a variety of
charming light ones never heard in this country. On one Sunday
afternoon in Berlin, Hoffmann's _Erzaehlungen_ was played at one
theatre, and at others Gorky's _Nachtasyl_, Tolstoy's _Power of
Darkness_, Hauptmann's _Versunkene Glocke_, the well known military
play _Zapfenstreich_, and Lortzing's light opera _Der Waffenschmied_.
The star players and singers do not usually appear at these popular
performances, and the Wagnerian _Ring_ has, as far as I know, never
yet been given. But on Sunday afternoons all through the winter the
playhouses are crowded with people who cannot pay week-day prices, and
yet are intelligent enough to enjoy a fairly good performance of
_Hamlet_ or _Egmont_; who are musical and choose a Mozart opera; or
who are interested in the problems of life presented by Ibsen, Gorky,
Tolstoy, or their own great fellow-countryman Gerhardt Hauptmann. When
summer comes, as long as the theatres are open the whole audience
streams out between the acts to have coffee or beer in the garden, or
when there is no garden, in the nearest restaurant; and then comes
your chance of appraising the people who take their pleasure in this
way. They look for the most part as if they belonged to the small
official and shop-keeper class. If the play is a suitable one, there
are sure to be a great many young people present, and at the
State-supported theatres these Sunday performances are such as young
people are allowed to see.

In the evening th