glish journalist
who is of German birth, why one of our newspaper kings did not set up
a huge, gossipy, frivolous paper in Berlin, and it was explained to me
that it would be impossible, because the editor and his staff would
probably find themselves in prison in a week. What we understand by
Freedom of the Press does not exist there.

On the other hand, books and pamphlets are circulated in Germany that
would be suppressed here; and the stage is freer than our own. _Monna
Vanna_ had a great success in Berlin, where Mme. Maeterlinck played
the part to crowded audiences. _Salome_ is now holding the stage both
as a play and with Richard Strauss' music as an opera; Gorky's
_Nachtasyl_ is played year after year in Berlin. Both French and
German plays are acted all over Germany that could not be produced in
England, both because the censor would refuse to pass them and because
public opinion would not tolerate them, unless, to be sure, they were
played in their own tongues. It is most difficult to explain our
attitude to Germans who have been in London, because they know what
vulgar and vicious farces and musical comedies pass muster with us,
and indeed are extremely popular. It is only when a play touches the
deeps of life and shows signs of thought and of poetry that we take
fright, and by the lips of our chosen official cry, "This will never
do." Tolstoy, Ibsen, Gorky, Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Hauptmann, and
Otto Ernst are the modern names I find on one week's programme cut
from a Berlin paper late in spring when the theatrical season was
nearly over. Besides plays by these authors, one of the State theatres
announced tragedies by Goethe, Schiller, and a comedy by Moliere. _The
Merchant of Venice_ was being played at one theatre and _A Midsummer
Night's Dream_ at another; there were farces and light operas for some
people, and Wagner, Gluck, and Beethoven at the Royal Opera House for
others. The theatre in Germany is a part of national life and of
national education, and it is largely supported by the State; so that
even in small towns you get good music and acting. The Meiningen
players are celebrated all over the world, and everyone who has read
Goethe's Life will remember how actively and constantly he was
interested in the Weimar stage. At a _Stadt-Theater_ in a small town
two or three operas are given every week, and two or three plays. Most
people subscribe for seats once or twice a week all through the
winter, a