ng, and the result was a
phalanx of grandmothers at the back of the stage. I used to give my old
clothes to the chorus and ballet women, and one family in particular I
almost adopted. The poor mother was a handsome creature of about
forty-five. Her eldest son was twenty-four and a carpenter, and two
babies were born while I was in Darmstadt. Children of all ages came in
between. The father drank and used to ill-treat the mother, who had to
dance gaily as a peasant boy or gypsy, and then go home to all that
misery. Little by little I told the officers' wives I knew about these
things and they were very kind about sending their worn clothing to me
to distribute amongst the women. I believe it amused them very much to
see their old evening gowns washed, always washed, and refurbished,
doing duty as "Empire" gowns, or as the latest thing in Paris creations
on the backs of the walk-on ladies in the French comedies. Eighty marks
a month is not much, even if it is paid all the year round, and somebody
has got to help.

We had a school of forestry in the town, largely attended by American
boys. It was in the period when our Western boys padded their shoulders
tremendously and wore hump-toed boots. These boys were all husky
specimens, who dressed in the most foresty of forest clothes, boots
laced to the knee, wide western hats and flannel shirts. The woods round
Darmstadt are all most tame and well looked after, but the boys seemed
to think they were dressing the part correctly. When left to themselves
these boys were quite well behaved, but the German students tried to
bully them. The beer-drinking type of student, with his ridiculous
little coloured cap stuck on one side of his head, thinks he owns his
own particular cafe where his _Stamm-Tisch_ may happen to be. They
objected to various mannerisms of the American boys who visited these
cafes, and the American boys replied in their own western way by
knocking the Germans down. This method of fist fighting was quite
unknown to the Germans, who replied by sending a challenge to duel
according to their custom. The American boys in turn knew nothing of
duelling and refused to fight except with fists. I think a good many fat
Germans bit the dust and got up swearing vengeance. Finally, we heard,
the American boys wired to their fellow countrymen who were students in
Frankfort, "Come over tonight and clean up." Exactly what happened we
never heard, but as both sides grew to understan