GERMAN POLICE AND PERSONAL LIBERTY. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" 8PROTATOII:9
Sin,—An amusing illustration of the limitations of personal liberty in Germany, referred to in a recent article in the Spectator, was related to the writer by a German. A student in a certain town in Germany took the fancy that he would have his head shaved, which he had done accordingly. The police evidently regarded his appearance in public in this condition as threatening the established order, for a fine of twenty marks was promptly imposed, and the barber who had been accessory in the reprehensible act, was warned at the same time that a repetition of the misdemeanour would be visited by a fine of like amount. The young man's troubles did not end here, for the authorities in the seat of learning, where, one might have supposed, the traditions of mental liberty would have secured immunity from persecution, insisted on his procuring a wig, the shining head proving too distracting an object in the lecture-room. It is to be hoped that the Socialists may in time succeed in vindicating what surely is an inalienable right of the free-born citizen, to shave his head when he wants to.—I am, Sir, 8tc., C.
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