The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-11-21
pe..ant Life i'm Germany.

Peasant Ltfe ah "o
The following extract from a letteI VIZ ~
ten nc Gotha, Germany; we copy HUH 'As
New York Erensn9 AasS eos+ g nor.
6acflv cafe. We met many tourists, anu
isJ;:s can 20 any distance without lear OF
,-,aieS.atiors. Yet wesfelt little safer Wnetl
rvc had an old peasant woman with US, and
40 twilight and thensdarknesS came on she
proyed invaluable as scout, running ahead
and pokinc her nose and chin-whtch, Dy
the way, nearly met-into faces OF dusSy
forms we saw before us-peasants return
ing homeward, and who we suspicious ma
tives thought might be drunk. Ine peas.
antry seem to know one another for 1nties
around. Wagons not being in use, they
carry their produce to market on tnell
backs, and thus constantly meet Oh the
road.
Our old Frau-now, to be sure, dressed
in her best-a woollen .petticoat, thick
cloak, and bright turban-had few days
before gone up into the mountains Tor put
ter, brought it down and carried le twenty
miles to Eisenach, thus being two nights
without sleep. But this carrying OF bur-
thens on the shoulders, doubling up the
lunys-which ordinary brawny, German
women do not seem to mind-teii ON tnose
of Gsoss Fabarg, for this place centuries ago
was settled by q colony OF emsrants Hoh
Venice, who came here in search OF gold,
supposed tindable in the mountains. They
are wholly unlike the Germans one sees.
They have fair, regular features, black
eyes and hair, as rule.
saw hardly one who either was not
pretty or had not been so when young.
They were intermarried mostly among
themselves, and thus have gained the Ger
man characteristics. Though living among
the pines-where you know consumpttYes
expect to find cure-the women die on
with consumption. The peasantry are such
simple, good people, one can but love them
and if they are superstitious it is in very
harmless way, which may, perhaps, in an
other world, open for them something bet
ter. Our old Frau told lis she had bro
q hope that nothing would happen to him,
she replied: "Oh, no, he has Heaven let
ter on him he is all safe" We asked her
what a Heaven letter was, at which she
seemed much surprised, wondering that we
had never heard Of it. She said several OF
the peasantry: of the village owned one,
though where they originated, or where
they got them, she did not know.
Weexpressed much interest, and said that
we wanted much to see what kind of thing
1t was that thus protected its wearer from
all earthly i'll. She seemed much averse to
speaking about it, and did not think she
could get one for us !; but the next morning
before we were up she came to us with one
she had borrowed from friend. 1t must
have been very old, perhaps having come
down from father to SON; for though Of
parchment, it was worn in holes. 1t con-
tanned not illy-sketched picture Of the
crucified Saviour, at whose feet lay an
apple, cut open, and exposing to view the
seeds. There were number of verses
which we could not make out, except that
there were several inyocationS to the TIN
ity. and an indefinite number Of crosses.
These villages here in the forest are filled
in summer by Berliners and others, who
lodge in the cottages and take their meals
in restaurant. The villagers have for the
most part little patches of ground to cultl-
vate. though some are weavers. Nearly
everybody has a flock of geese, and they
are in the care of one woman, who every
day drives them to pasture.
Starting with her own brood, she passes
along the one solitary street of the village,
the quacking Of hers arouses new recruits,
and as the procession moves on, from each
COURTYARD Starts out flock which graYely
waddie into line and march UP to pasture.
The day we were at Gross Fabarg we met
the fleecy, webfooted multitude, and little
child CHANGED to be on duty, a wee little
thing, perhaps seven years old, who trudged
away behind her charge, now and then pat
ting with short, stubbed stick, those that
/, seemedmost :! backward in going forward %
and the "pat," as 1t fell, sounded just like
beating up feather bed. At night they
are driven back again, each brood as they
pass through the village, falling off right ano
left into its own courtyard. But the COW:
rarne themselves at the summoning Of
horn blown at sunset ut the foot Of the hills