The weekly Butte record., 1863-04-11
DER TEUFELSKERL.
ATALE OF GERMAN PENNSYLVANIA.


1t would have been difficult 10 convince
Diedrich Rodenheiser by any species Of ratio
cina'ion, that he was not born to be laughed
at Diedrich was not only clownishly rustic in
his demeanor, but sometimes significantly in
elegant in he employment Of his enunciative
member. II his history from the time Of bis
first ambulatory effort until the termination Of
his terrestrial sojourn were dramatized, ii would
form COMEDY of Errors" wonderfully excl
tative Of uproarious cachiuation.
During the time of Diedrich's undiscerning
adolescence, he was the author of mischie-
vous mistake, now forgotten, which impelled
bis feminine parent in I paroxysm Of chagria
to dab him Der TeufelskeFl," which app!ica-
tion from that time he held by life tenure.
He always hated to see any one laugh unless
be was cognizant of the cause of merriment,
for he was sure to imagine himself the butt.
Diedrich had two sisters, Wilhelmina. the
elder. Susannah, the younger, neither married,
but both marriageable at the time of which
we write; and Suse, as her name was afec
tionately abbreviated by her mother, was q
half hour or thereabouts her brothers junior.
1t is somewhere noted in authenticated his
tory, that under the reign of one of England's
sovereigns, (good Queen Bess as like as not
no damsel was permitted to marry until she
had manufactured for her own use a complete
set of bed and body linen. So under the sa-
pient government of the RodenheiserS, the
Schluppivinkete, the Schmnktiackchens, and
the Ochlenschlaegans, who colonized half a
township of Pennsylvania, the latitude and
longitude whereof have not been ascertained
every maiden was required before her bridal
to be the artifcer OF d" her things" as they
phrased it, the most prominent of which were
feather bed and apparel appertinent, an ex
ira calico quilt of ample size, and TWO others
of miniature dimensions, the stuff for the fabri-
cation of all, which was furnished by the pa
rents with religious strictness on the morning
of the daughters fifteenth birthday. For what
purpose the pair of diminutive quilts were de-
signed, We, the writer, were never curious
enough to inquire.
Ga the maiden's marriage, she was conveyed
to the habitation of her spouse in two-wheel-
ed cart or ordinary farm wagon, sitting upon
the aforesaid worldly estate, with which it had
pleased a gracious Providence to enable her
parents and her own hands to bless her, while
the happy husband trudged behind the vehicle
driving COW, two sheep, and pig, the young
brides marriage portion, the which species,
though nowhere mentioned in LittletOn, may
without doing objectionable violence to legal
terms, be referred to the head of dover er as
SenSu patris.
Now. notwithstanding it was essential TO
matrimonial eligibility that the young maid
could exhibit " her things" and name them
her own workmanship, yet fctione legis, she
was permitted to call herself their fabrcator,
though she herself had never put stitch in
them, the whole having been accomplished by
the friendly labor of her female associates.
Although to the casuist this might seem Grim
inal in conscience, assuredly it was harmless
fiction compared with many of the falsties
which that perverter of truth, the lawyer
crowds within his comprehensive maxim, qu
fdeit per alum, fdcH per Sc. 1t was the Gus
tom, therefore, for all the girls in the neigbor-
hood, upon the invitation of a coniamiliar, to
congregate of an afternoon at her abode, and
aid her in quilting.
Wilhelm:na and Susannah being now both
of marriageable age, it was meet that the re-
quisites to matrimonial eligibleness should be
perfected, the material for which had for some
time lain in an oaken chest of Anticipated form
and pre- eminent capacity. Accordingly, on
the fourth day Of March, -4nno, one thousand
eight hundred and somewhere about thirty, all
the young ladies residing within a circle of two
and a half miles radius, were gathered at
quilting on the second and uppermost floor of
the Rodenheiser's domicil. Three corners of
the room were furnished for family dormitorieS,
the fourth was occupied as nursery by fe
line mother. for whose comfortable repose and
that of her SIX sightless younglings. Diedrch
had humanely provided pair of his old wooden
trousers. Along the walls were hung medci-
nal herbs, Bologna sausages, halfworn frocks,
and worse-worn petticoats, arranged with SIN
gularly careless neatness, aud admirably por-
traying the providence, frugality and economy,
of the Rodenheisers.
Diedrich had never yet gone out, and it was
the old woman's resolve that on this occasion
he should introduce himself TO female society,
an attachment for which, permit Us parentheti-
cally TO remark, is an eminent preservation to
young mans morals.
"Diedrich, said the old one, ." go up-sthairs
to de girls, its no Poys dere yet; so long nit
you"