rs. There is hardly a woman or girl
in Germany who has not needed a _Kur_ at some time of her life, or who
does not need one every year if she has money and pretty gowns. The
_Badereise_ and everything connected with it serves the German
professional humorist much as the mother-in-law and the drop too much
serve the English one, perennially and faithfully. For the wife is
determined to have her _Badereise_, and the husband is not inclined to
pay for it, and the family doctor is called in to prescribe it. The
artifices and complications arising suggest themselves, and to judge
by the postcards and farces of Germany never weary the public they are
designed to amuse.

In Berlin, when the hot weather comes, you see the family luggage and
bedding going off to the sea-coast, for people who take a house take
part of their bedding with them. There is so little seaside and so
much Berlin that prices rule high wherever there is civilised
accommodation. In Ruegen L1 a week per room is usual, and the room you
get for that may be a very poor one. In most German watering-places,
both on the coast and in the forest, you can have furnished rooms if
you prefer them to hotel life, but as a rule you must either cook your
own dinner or go out to a hotel for it. The cooking landlady is as
rare in the country as in the town. Then in some places, at Oberhof,
for instance, high upon the hills above Gotha, there are charming
little furnished bungalows. Friends of mine go there or to one of the
neighbouring villages every year, and never enter a hotel. They either
take a servant with them, or find someone on the spot to do what is
necessary. When there are no mineral waters or sea baths to give a
place importance, Germans say they have come there to do a _Luftkur_.
A delightful Frenchwoman who has written about England lately is
amused by our everlasting babble about a "change." This one needs a
change, she says, and that one is away for a change, and the other
means to have a change next week. So the Germans amuse us by their
eternal "cures." One tries air, and the other water, and the next
iron, and the fourth sulphur, while the number and variety of nerve
cures, _Blutarmut_ cures, diet cures, and obesity cures are
bewildering. It is difficult to believe that life in a hotel can cure
anyone anywhere. However, in Germany, if you are under a capable
_Badearzt_, there may be some salvation for you, since he orders your
baths, measures your walks