HABITS AND CHILDREN
In spite of Anderson, Gard could not make up his mind that Rudolph
was anything more than a young braggadocio. The idea of an ordinary
family living comfortably along with a spy in its midst, ready to
inform on them and their guests, was so foreign to his notions, so
caddish, that it weakened his confidence in his compatriot's
judgment. While Gard felt that Rudi was not "straight," he could not
consider him downright harmful. However, under the spur of the
valuable significance that Anderson attached to this typical
household life, Kirtley felt it profitable to observe closely its
manifestations and opinions. They were verified in other German
families where Gard often went with the Buchers. What could be more
truly educational?
In defiance of the famous Teuton discipline, a certain
disorderliness ran through the management of Villa Elsa. This
surprised him. The eruptive way meals were served, the jumbled-up
spectacle of the dining table, beds made up at any time of day,
knitting and sewing going on in many rooms--all this was in
unforeseen contrast to the rigorous military and educational
training and precision. He could but compare the _genre_ picture of
looseness in the homes with that of the correct and fine army.
The inadequate, almost primitive, bathing facilities in Villa Elsa
corresponded to the unscoured condition of its occupants. The
unsightly hairiness of German skins seemed to answer for much
washing. There was little thought of soap and hot water as a law of
health, a delight, a luxury. Kirtley had assumed that soiled bodies
did not betoken the loftiest state of man. But the bath was looked
upon here as a disagreeable performance and accordingly was only
indulged in at infrequent intervals. It was discussed freely at
table as a forthcoming, dreaded event. Gard bathed in town. As for
fresh underwear and hose, they were talked of over soup like some
new and rare dispensation of Providence.
Fräulein alone had a toothbrush and powder, and they appeared rather
conspicuously here and there as if they were modern ornaments of
which the household was visibly proud. Bad breaths coming from
decayed teeth and from stomachs sour with drink were freely blown
about and without apologies. Indeed, apologies about anything were
small features at all times.
There was no particular provision for the maid. Gard scarcely knew
where or how she slept. Tekla dressed with unconcern in the kitchen
and in the hall. Servant girls were rather considered like calves
and therefore entitled to scant human consideration. The odors, the
unsightly colors, the clatter of the German home, gave further
evidence of the absence of sensitiveness, of any fine and balanced
poise of nerves.
This repulsiveness of existence, of course, did not affect the
audible consciousness of the family about their representing the
most progressive state of civilized man. And not to be forgotten was
the German ill-temperedness, which was pronounced in the morning,
and did not wear off considerably until stomachs were filled during
the day. All these facts testified that the Teuton little cultivates
loveliness in human contact. Beauty of living is not, with him, a
natural end to attain.
After awhile it came over Kirtley that the Buchers showed no
interest in his antecedents or in his country. Their apparent
ignorance of America was rivaled by their indifference about it.
They evidently were of the firm conclusion that there was nothing
worth while there to learn, nothing worthy of attention. It was, to
them, an unprofitable jumble of peoples and things in a rudimentary,
unvarnished state of development. It was Patagonia trying to copy
the ways of Europe. This was but a feature of the Teuton tribal
belief that all the racial evolutions outside the German borders
were undesirable, demoralizing and mischievously blocking the
outspread of _Kultur_.
Gard could not but know of the limited income on which existence
went on at Villa Elsa. It was characteristic. Though limited, the
income was _secure_. Despite the economies practiced, the prevailing
confidence and self-satisfaction did not suffer, as a result, the
slightest impairment. It was significantly German.
Gard said to himself:
"There are here none of the spectacular ups and downs, everlasting
sudden changes and movings to and fro, riches one year, poverty the
next, the unsettledness and acute money misfortunes, that make up so
large a share of our feverish, restless, uncertain Yankee careers.
There does not seem to be a synonym for 'hard up' in German. As for
us Americans the habitual changes of location of the household, the
separation of the parents for reasons of business, travel, or
inharmonious temperaments, the resultant ever-growing crop of
divorces, the frequent living apart of the children, both from
fathers and mothers and from the home, the loose family ties and
ignoring of kin who are not of the most immediate relationship--how
far is all this from the steady, compact, solid, unanxious and
unthreatened examples of Villa Elsa and German households in
general!"
The Teutons had a paternal Government which they knew would not let
them come to want. Their firesides could thrive and accomplish
greatly on so small a basis because this was stationary and
unfailing. The American needed so much more because, with him, all
was relatively unsafe. While he hesitated about rearing a large
family for this reason among others, the German had no such thought
of dodging the future, for he knew his children would be taken care
of.
In fact, he raised his progeny conspicuously for the State. Parental
feeling was secondary to the Kaiser's wishes. The Bucher children,
like usual German children, were in effect dedicated to the
Government, consecrated to its uses. It could come in and did come
in and take this boy or girl for that and that one for this. It had
designated Rudi for hydraulic engineering and indicated his
university course to that end. Ernst was selected for philosophy.
The parents were not only willing but proud of this. It was not for
them to resent such outside interference because of any personal
likes of their own.
Gard wrote Rebner:
"In America, the child's future is somewhat a matter of buffeting
back and forth aimlessly between teacher and parent. The latter is
disposed to shirk the responsibility by leaning on the shoulders of
the instructor who is inclined to keep shifting the burden back to
the home. As a result, while the German youngster is early being
adapted to a particular future course for which Nature has given him
an aptitude, his American competitor is often left to drift through
the years without definite ambition, or at least with only a belated
or partly drilled preparation therefor."
In Germany, Kirtley observed, the Government stood as the real
father. The actual father was its representative. The mother played
a subsidiary rôle. All was the father idea. The Germans call it
Fatherland, not Motherland, as the English affectionately term their
own country.
This interposition of the State in the Teuton family weakens the
links of personal tenderness. The State rather than Love rules the
home. Hence resulted the unfeelingness that Kirtley observed in the
life about him in Loschwitz--the roughness so little tempered with
affection, but, instead, frankly interpreted and exhibited as the
true bearing of the dominant male's masculine nobility.
Quite normally, then, came about the extensive amount of open and
violent quarreling which Gard noticed in the households. In Villa
Elsa the Herr quarreled with the Frau, each quarreled with the
children, they quarreled with Tekla, and she took it out on the
dogs. It was not disputing among self-respecting equals, but
ill-humored domineering over those who were confessedly underneath.