It is _verboten_ to throw rubbish on the side walks and streets.
It is _verboten_ to spit in public places.
It is _verboten_ for children and nurse girls to occupy all the benches
in the parks. Places must be left for old people.
It is _verboten_ for children to play in the halls of apartment houses.
There are sand-boxes in the rear for them.
It is _verboten_ for you to play your piano in an apartment after ten
o'clock at night. Other people might want to sleep.
It is _verboten_ to make any unnecessary noises in an apartment house
at any time.
It is _verboten_ to take dogs into restaurants and grocery stores.
It is _verboten_ to beat carpets on any day except Friday or Saturday,
and then it is forbidden to start before eight o'clock. People in
Germany don't have brooms, they beat their carpets each week.
It is _verboten_ for customers to handle fruit on the market stands. It
is also forbidden to handle poultry or game.
It is _verboten_ to sell short weights, and for this the punishment is
severe.
It is _verboten_ to put more people in a street car than it can seat.
It is _verboten_ to take dogs into any train coupé except the one
marked "For dogs."
It is _verboten_ to put more people in an elevator than it can hold.
It is _verboten_ to employ a man until he is old and then to throw him
out and give his place to a younger man.
It is _verboten_ to employ women with very young babies.
* * * * *
Since the war some new things have been added to this list:
* * * * *
It is _verboten_ to eat more food than is your share. There must be
enough for all.
It is _verboten_ for dealers to raise their prices on the common
necessary articles higher than those fixed by the government.
It is _verboten_ to bake cakes and pastry at home. The flour must be
saved for bread.
It is _verboten_ to either sell or use cream. Cream is a luxury, butter
is a necessity.
It is _verboten_ to dance during the war.
These are only a few rules laid down by the German people for the
German people. And they are not only laid down but they are obeyed
without question. The power to obey laws shows strength and not
weakness, and it is this little word _verboten_ that the world has
laughed at so much that is helping Germany to win battles to-day.
For the Germans _verboten_ means not only "forbidden," but it means
self-restraint, obedience, and the respect for the rights of others,
and it means unity as well,--the unity of working together, of hearing
commands given by those above and of heeding those commands.
A German is quite as selfish as a person of any other nation, and he is
also quite as greedy, but since the war he is forbidden to be greedy.
He has the inclination but he cannot carry it out. He can buy only a
certain amount of things each week and that at a price so sternly fixed
by the government that a man's store is closed if he charges one cent
more than allowed. Also, he is not allowed to refuse to sell things
if he has them in stock, and the laws are very strict about selling
spoiled things. If a butcher sells you spoiled meat and refuses to take
it back you can go to the police with your story. It is _verboten_ to
sell bad meat.
The drink question had become a mighty one for all the warring nations,
but Germany, the greatest beer-drinking country of the whole world, has
quietly settled the question without a fuss, and now since the war, the
breweries are forbidden to retail more than two-thirds of their output
in peace times.
The Germans say that _verboten_ is a part of patriotism, for real
patriotism consists in not only loving your country but in serving it
as well and in having respect for its laws and the rights of other men.