But these men frequent such
places only for a purpose. Their tastes do not lead them thither. They
go no oftener than serves their purpose. Not so with the learned German
beer-drinker. He is in his own proper society. Chinese or Sanscrit,
Arabic or Coptic, the last discoveries in the interior of Africa or
about the North Pole, or the more recondite regions of chemistry or
mineralogy, may be the theme of a familiar discourse, which each of the
party may fully appreciate.
To these places, of course, only the men resort. Indeed, in this part of
Germany there is little of family-life. The members of the family take
their coffee separately, as each rises and is ready. The men quite
generally dine and sup away from home, and that, too, when their
business and their residence are in the same house, and the hotel or
eating-house is at a distance. An English gentleman told me of a German
friend of his who appeared in his seat in the beer-house on the evening
of his wedding-day; and to the suggestion that this was not quite right
to the newly married wife, he replied that it did indeed seem so, but he
thought it better not to encourage hopes destined to disappointment.
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