ing that changes so many unsound citizens into
sound ones every year for the German Empire. If the rate-payers can
survive the strain it seems worth while.

CHAPTER V

THE BACKFISCH

The word is untranslatable, though my dictionary translates it.
Backfisch, m. fried fish; young girl; says the dictionary. In Germany
a woman does not arrive at her own gender till she marries and becomes
somebody's _Frau_. Woman in general, girl, and miss are neuter; and
the fried-fish girl is masculine. But if one little versed in German
wished to tell you that he liked a fried sole, and said _Ich liebe
einen Backfisch_, it might lead to misunderstandings. The origin of
the word in this application is dubious. Some say it means fish that
are baked in the oven because they are too small to fry in pans; but
this does not seem a sensible explanation to anyone who has seen
white-bait cooked. Others say it means fish the anglers throw back
into the water because they are small. At any rate, the word used is
to convey an impression of immaturity. A _Backfisch_ is what English
and American fashion papers call a "miss." You may see, too, in German
shop windows a printed intimation that special attention is given to
_Backfisch Moden_. It is a girl who has left school but has not cast
off her school-girl manners; and who, according to her nation and her
history, will require more or less last touches.

Miss Betham-Edwards tells us that a French girl is taught from
babyhood to play her part in society, and that the exquisite grace
and taste of Frenchwomen are carefully developed in them from the
cradle. An English girl begins her social education in the nursery,
and is trained from infancy in habits of personal cleanliness and in
what old-fashioned English people call "table manners." An
Englishwoman, who for many years lived happily as governess in a
German country house, told me how on the night of her arrival she
tried out of politeness to eat and drink as her hosts did; and how the
mistress of the house confided to her later that she had disappointed
everyone grievously. There were daughters in the family, and they were
to learn to behave at table in the English way. That was why the
father, arriving from Berlin, had on his own initiative brought them
an English governess; for the English are admitted by their
continental friends to excel in this special branch of manners, while
their continental enemies charge them with being "oste