Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1858-06-04
Ladies aud Poor Folk in Germany.

be happy.
Ladies and Poor Folk in Germany.
a writer in the New, York Times, in
speaking of the rural life in summer of
the better classes in Germany. says:
1t is not a half dozen times in summer
that we enter house, though we pay a
visit every day. In every garden are
two or three bowers, and sheltered SO as
to be safe in sunshine and in shower
You enter gate by ringing bell. which
admonishes servant of your arrival
Far away. where you see no one. he pulls
bolt. anda gentle push gives you ad,
mittance. The ladies are sewing, or rath.
er embroidering and chatting in the sum-
warehouses, and there you go and sit or
walk at your pleasure. If you stay to
tea. the tea. or more often coffee. is taken
upon rude board table. without cloth
and without ceremony. We say the la.
dies are embroidering. We have never
seen German lady sew on any occasion.
Seamstresses are cheap. as well as cooks.
and We have no fault to find with the
custom Of employing them; but we are
beginning to surprise these far-famed
German housekeepers, and models of in>
dustry. by telling them that the Ameri-
can women. except few ultra. fsshiona-
BILE in cities. work some ten times as hard
as ladies of the same class in Germany.
When We tell them what American wo.
men really do-American ladies-they
raise their hands and roll their eyes in
establishment. 1t never entered their
heads to imagine that lady. even in any
country. actually washed and ironed. and
baked. "How is it possible" they e1.
claim. "tor q lady to do such things?"
The women in northern Germany spin,
and the German women everywhere knit.
knit, knit, forever. They need such
quantities of stockings and linen, where
they wash SO seldom, and "Oh," they
say. "how can people live and have the
fuss of washing every week?" Why, it
almost kills them to think of it. But
though they have not the fuss of washing
every week. they are much more afraid
of soiling great quantity OF clothes than
those who endure this fuss oftener. In
answer to our inquiries. and in accor-
dance with our experience, the custom is
to give each person one clean sheet a
month. The upper one is secured to the
YUM ull wv hhNV hSNVl OSSh
furnished with more than a quart of wa
ter day, aud one towel a week for per-
sonal use. In the same kind Of a family
in America. they furnish clean sheet
every week, and clean towel every day
for the same price. There is no such
class of people in Germany as are scat
tered all over the hills and valleys Of
England aud America-gentlemen far
mers and tradesmen, whose wives and
daughters are ladies. as cultivated and
refined as auy city ladies, and little more
so!
Here. the people who live in the coun-
try and in the small villages are all Of
the peasant class, entirely without cul-
ture or polish. When We are among
them. We see. every morning. women go
forth with hoes and rakes on their shoul-
ders. or driving oxen with the goad stick
in their hands, and the shaw. buck. {"
and "gee hish," in their mouths. They
look more toil-worn and degraded than
Indian women. of whom they often re-
mind us, and southern slaves can have NO
worse lot except in the slave mart. aud
the tearing of heart.strings, which the
buying and selling impose. Here, they
cannot even hope for this change. They
cannot pass from one little province to
the other. without paying larger sum
than is required to pay their passage TO
America. A man born in Nassua may
GO to America and have something left
TO begin with there, for what he would
have to pay TO make him citizen Of
Frankfort. twenty miles from his birth
place. II he is rich enough TO go there
and live fifty years without business, and
his children are born there. it makes no
difference, they must pay the price, be.
fore they are admitted to the marvellous
privileges of the free city of frankfort.
M, ..,,.. L.:e.,