Notes

At Oggelsburen, a village in the south of Germany, a peasant noticed that his livestock suffered much from sickness, died with alarming frequency. The peasant decided that his barn was bewitched. Off he went and fetched a

"witch doctor of high repute," who danced around the barn uttering strange incantations. Still the cows and the calves and the sheep and the lambs died. A tailor from a nearby village turned up to have a look at the barn. He said he was possessed of occult powers, but after looking over the bewitched building, he shook his head gravely--very gravely, so gravely that the peasant sold it at a ridiculously low figure. The tailor resold at a magnificently high profit. The story came out in court, but the tailor and those to whom he sold were acquitted.

Because they refused to work nine hours a day, the proprietors of the Baden Aniline Dye Works at Ludwigshafen and Oppau dismissed 20,000 of their workers. At Hamburg, the City Fathers invented "beggars' bonds" which charitably inclined persons are to give to mendicants instead of cash. The idea is to prevent the professional beggar from earning more than he deserves. Each bondholder will have his past looked into before the Municipality parts with any cash.

On billboards in Berlin appeared the opening announcement of Hinkemann, a play by Ernest Toller. The public were requested if they did not like the show, to leave quietly or be thrown out by a special guard of boxers and wrestlers. The play had just been withdrawn from Dresden where it created numerous disturbances. Hence the precautions.

The City Fathers of Berlin are pleased. They are taxing dancing. In January there flowed into the city coffers $400,000; in February, $475,000. "Berlin is dancing itself out of its financial troubles."

Mahammad Djemal Bey, Albanian, medical student, studying in Berlin, stabbed his former fiancee in the arm because she had jilted him. For that he was arrested. At his trial he said: "The law of my country says that disgrace can be atoned for only by a drop of blood. It is not right to humiliate me by ignoring me. I had the right to take her blood in retaliation for the wrong she had done me."

The German court did not concur.

In the Reichstag, Dr. Karl Kraemer of the German People's Party called Albrecht von Graefe a double-dyed traitor. The latter rose, supported by one Major Henning, and another Reinhold Walle, and indignantly challenged Dr. Kraemer to a duel. But the doctor would not fight, he offered to repeat his statements outside the Reichstag in order that the trio could sue him for libel, if they still "felt warm under the collar," and insisted upon revenge. While the doctor was making this offer someone placed a brace of water pistols near the Speaker's platform in such a position that they could be seen by the whole House. When the House did see them, it cheered and hooted with mirth. According to the French chemist, Dr. Pierre Louis Rehm, Germany has a new poison gas. It is colorless, odorless, can penetrate a gas mask, is one of the deadliest known to science. It embodies carbon monoxide. Dr. Heinrich Brauns, Minister of Labor, speaking before an audience of German Catholics in Berlin, said that there were 5,000,000 unemployed persons in Germany and 15,000,000 persons dependent on charity for their support. The population of Germany is about 60,000,000. "The National League of German Officers knows but one great aim-- preparation for the day that is sure to come." These were the words used at a celebration commemorating Kaiser Wilhelm I and his army. Among those present were: Princes Eitel Friedrich and Oscar, sons of Kaiser Wilhelm II, with their wives; Generals von Gallwitz and von der Goltz, World War veterans; Admiral von Schroeder and many other high officers, resplendent in glittering uniforms.