Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-04-11
Social Life I'm Germany-WOmen,
Children and Dogs.

such service is expected. He looks on
with feelings of astoaishment and pity,
often somewhat mingled with indigna-
ton, as he passes women working like
men in the field, OF drawing burdens with
dogs in the streets. By degrees the
amazement passes away, since habit
accustomed US to strange sights but
his eommiseratiOn is continually
awakened, for at least two classes
hardly used beings
If ever any dumb creature deserves
sympathy, the dogs of this country
surely do. All day long they drag
loads far exceeding their strength.
Milk carts, which as they are lightened
from door to door, are rendered doubly
heavy By the stout person of the milk
women bread carts in which the long
loaves of black bread are packed on end
like sticks of wood, piles of trunks, and
all manner of merchandise, often enough
for horse to draw, vegetables and fruit
wagons, fruit and coal all these, and
many other things are drawn about the
city by these poor dogs. When they
stop before house they lie down pant
ing upon the pavement to rest. Some
times, when they have a very heavy
load, they seem to become exasperated,
and rush barking down the street at the
top of their speed making it difficult for
their masters to keep up with them. II
is, however, but just to add that many
dogs have kind masters who provide for
their comfort as best they can. l have
heard also that on the Rhine there is
law that dogs shall not be used as
draught aDimals, unless adjudged strong
enough for the task by an official. How
ever that may be, the appearance of the
dogs in northern Germany preeludes the
idea of such a law being in force there
The poor women, however, fare quite
as badly, if not worse, than the dogs. /
often saw them last summer in southern
Germany on their knees in the fields
setting out plants with their fingers, or
reaping with the men, and drawing home
the hay themselves. The cows are kept
in the barns all summer, as there is no
land to spare for pasture, and the old
women and children cut the grass for
fodder, by the roadsides, and even to
the.tops of the mountains where it grows
but sparsely. They then tie it up in
large cloth and carry it home on their
heads. In that section of the country
almost all peasant women have bald
spot on the top Of the head, caused by
their carrying all loads in this manner.
They place just small round pad on
their heads, and on that tubs of water,
or baskets of clean clothes, fruit, or
vegeta bles aud all this without seeming
to suffer the least inconvenience.
Here in northern Germany they
fasten large baskets to their backs, SO
heavy that often they go half double
German bend, caused by work, not
fashion The woman also help men to
saw wood with two handled saws, a man
holding one end and the wife the other.
They chop wood and break coal in the
streets, and help the dogs to drag the
carts.
One often wonders how they get time
to work so much out of doors but as
the poor eat very little except black
bread and soup, with now and thea bit
of meat, the women have not much
cooking to keep them at home.
In Berlin numbers Of children work
in the factories. Although the law reg
ulates. their working hours, still they
are'allowed to labor far into the night,
to gain little extra money. In the
lecture on the need of poor children in
Berlin delivered by former pastor of
that city, a few months ago, find the
following statements. must, however,
first say that children are confirmed in
, the State Church when fourteen, so that
those of whom he speaks as in cathetical
classes must be under that age. He
SAYS " Does it not border on murder
when pale little child, who visited me
for cateehetical instruction, was obliged
to work, according to the declaration of
his own mother, from six in the morning
till twelve at night? Such child can
not go to bed until one o'clock, and
must rise again by FIVE, which gives four
hours sleep to almost sixteen hours hard
labor. | have not few children in ny
classes who must work from six in the
morning till ten at night. Such children,
when they come to eateehism, fall at
once asleep when they sit down indeed,
they sleep standing when they are
obliged to stand. No wonder that, he
adds, "they have for spiritual things no
| oo,,ob oreioD Of faelinOn -
Happily, all are not obliged to work
so hard, but the general impression
which one receives by observing the poor
Of this people, is that they are very
laborious nation. The grandmothers
seem, by general consent, to have been
appointed. nurses and tend the little
children while the mothers are at work.
They seem to live to good old age, if
one can Judge from their appearance,
for we certainly never imagined that
women could look so dried and decrepid
until we saw some of these poor people.
We wonder no longer at the number of
witches who appear in the story books,
for we have seen people who could be
easily mistaken for them.
Wherever you see the poor they are
always busy aud often working under
great disadvantages as when they employ
in cultivating the fields, implements
which would be viewed with curiosity
by an American farmer plows which
merely scratch the soil, and hoes as
large and heavy as two of our.
They, however, have their recreations.
The men frequent the beer gardens
much more than is good for themselves or
their families. They also have many
more holidays than we, many which are
kept with peculiar interesting customs.
They also, poor as they are, seem to
be a happy, affectionate people and
ones pity is often mingled with admira-
ton of the contentment which many of
them exhibit, and the patient endurance
of the trials of their life.
The bodies of two human beings
which we're recently found between the
L a n Il q