Nebelland and Themsestrand : Studien and Schilderungen aus der Heimat
John Bulls. Von Leopold Katacher. (G. J. Goeschen'sche Verlagshandlang, Stuttgart.)—If less lively than Max O'Rell, who has also favoured us with his impressions of John Bull, Herr Katscher is more truthful ; he does not mistake fancies for facts, and writes with the thoroughness so characteristic of German philosophers and /it- terateurs, never attempting to deal with a subject he has not studied and does not understand. He has given us a book which anybody who wants to know what an observant and intelligent German thinks about us may read with both pleasure and profit, for he is never ill- natured, and sometimes complimentary. Judging from internal evidence, we should say that much of the matter contained in his book was contributed in the first instance to the columns of some German paper or magazine. The general character of the work may be estimated from the subjects dealt with :—The Salvation Army, London newspapers, the Lord Mayor's Show, the Bank Holiday, the social question, the condition of Germans in London, and many others. He also makes some well-deserved strictures on the incongruities of our marriage-laws, the looseness of which invariably shocks the well-regulated foreign mind ; but the most interesting section of his book, in our opinion, is the one that concerns the condition of his countrymen in the English metropolis. As to their numbers, Herr Katscher does not venture on any precise estimate ; but by way of giving a notion, he quotes the saying of a compatriot, who one day observed that there were still " a damned good many English in London." There are several reasons why so great a multitude come over ; many imagine that, London being so vast and so wealthy, they will have no difficulty in finding places, and perhaps fortunes ; others are attracted by our insular freedom, and the absence of the police supervision of which they have so much at home ; while not a few are intent on living by their wits at the expense of the community. Herr Katscher assures us that a considerable proportion of the Germans in London are beggars, swindlers, and thieves. There is a "Beggars' Academy " in Whitechapel, where for a few pence professional mendicants can obtain lists of rich Germans, and begging-letter impostors are furnished with the needful documents and credentials, in return for which they undertake to pay the " Academy " 25 per cent. of their plunder. Many originally honest Germans failing to ob- tain employment and falling into want, join the ranks of beggars and thieves. Well-to-do Germans are literally besieged by these fellows, and they are compelled in self-defence to post np notices in their offices (in German) to the effect that all beggars will be given into the custody of the police. The competition for employment among honest Germans in London is something frightful. They take anything they can get, and accept whatever salaries or wages employers may think fit to offer. "Teachers become bakers; book-keepers, barbers ; merchants and students, dock labourers ; artists, music-hall singers." Why they do not go back, is a question that naturally suggests itself ; but many of them have probably left their country to avoid military service, and if these were to return, their second condition would be worse than their first. But Herr Katscher does well to warn his wandering fellow-countrymen that London is not precisely an El Dorado, and exhort them, if they have not situations secured before- hand, or ample means at their disposal, to remain a while longer in the Fatherland.
Previous page
