Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-07-23
SWISS SCENES.
The Goat.Boy OF the Alps.

Appenzell, where he knows little else
than goats, and cares for naught else
than to guard and protect them. In all
the festive professions of the herdsman
he takes apart, and generally figures as
sort of Merry Andrew, dancing and
capering wherever fun and merriment
are at the highest.
This gay life, however, is for him but
of short duration; his work is very Sc
we're. The bells of his herd salute the
ear Of the early wanderer even before
the chapel bells bid the pious peasants
count their morning rosaries. And the
strange cry that rings through the valley
is the peculiar goatcall Of the little
goat-herd collecting his flock from the
lowly shelters along his path. The rest
less goats hear his call long before he
reaches them, and, when their owners
open their cabin doors, away they bound
in light leaps over hedges and barriers
to join their fellows in search of food on
the mountains. The boy will thus gather
forty or fifty goats, which are placed in
his special charge during the summer,
to be brought out in the morning and
returned for milking and shelter at night.
Where the herdsman with his cows
cannot reach thither the nimble goat
boy, with his more nimble wards, will go
with ease and safety, to gather the
scanty herbs that spring up among the
weather-beaten rocks; and from the most
dangerous and apparently inaccessible
nights will resound the loud goat-call &.
1t is then that the goat-boy feels himself
king-undisputed monarch Of the
peaks. Yet he is in reality poor little
waif--frequently an orphan or an out
cast. Sometimes the hoy will seek his
own customers; again he will hire him
self to master, from whom he will re-
ceive q yearly reward Of two dollars,
beside his coarse food, rough shirts and
pants, old felt hat, and heavy wooden
shoes with soles studded with nails.
He acquires q wonderful facility in
the art of climbing, and will slip boldly
along on the sharp edges of precipices
to which it scarcely seems possible that
human foot can cling. Indeed the
mountaineers believe that the goat s
milk imparts magic skill in scaling
the giddiest heights. The goat-boy S eye
is as sure as his feet-miles away he will
point out the chamois to the hunter, or
discover some lost and vagrant member
of his own flock. His ear, too, grows as
sensitive as that of the game of the AL
pine wilds. He knows each one of his
own flock by the sound of its bell, and
even by its cry of distress when it has
slipped into some chasm from which it
cannot escape.
But above all does he recognize,
though far off, its terrified cry when the
eagle or the vulture pounces down upon
it, Then he becomes verltable hero.
Seizing his Alpine staff, with its steel
point, he gives desperate battle to the
foe; and, while his goats and their kids
are fleeing in terror to the shelter of the
nearest rock or thicket, he dispatches
his enemy, or at least drives him away
The highest ambition of the goat-boy is
to climb to the nests and destroy the
eggs or the young broods of these birds,
whom he justly considers his natural
enemies.
Sometimes a goat, in searching for
food, leaps upon narrow ledge, from
which it can Deither advance or retreat.
Seeing its danger it utters lamentable
cries of distress, which the goat-boy
hears and traces to their source. But he
finds it absolutely impossible for him to
follow the animal and bring it back.
Then he hastens to herdsman's cabin
for help, and they repair with ropes to
some high crag oyerhanging the narrow
ledge, when the herdsman fastens the
rope around the body of the boy and
lowers him down over the steep cliffs till
he has reached the goat. The most
dangerous portion of his duty has still to
be done, however, for he must bind the
goat on his shoulders and be drawn up
again through the dangerous mid-air
passage.
And yet, notwithstanding his bravery
and the hardships he endures, the goat
herd seldom has for the day other food
than morsel of cheese. If he is thirsty
he goes to the nearest goat, and, lying
down under its udder, milks the refresh
ing draught directly into his mouth
without Intervention Of cup or glass
Thus, early and late, during the sum
mer, he is wandering over the mountains,
leading his goats where they can find
the richest and most convenient pastur-
age, and the safest retreats from the
midday sun or the sudden tempest.
But his familiar goat-call is always
welcome in the early evening as he de-
seends from the nights to bring safely
home his mountain climbers, their I'D
ders heavy with the rich garnerings Of
the day. The goats milk is often the
only wealth of the cabins of these soli-
tary people, who hail it as rich feod for
themselves and family, and gladly dis
pose of it to the guests of the sanitary
institutions now scattered among the
Alps, for what is popularity known as
the goats milk cure. During the sum-
mer hundreds Of invalids are found liv-
ing on the mountain sides for the bene-
fit of the pure air, the opportunity of
Alpine rambles, and, above all, the use
of goats milk, which, with pure white
or wheat bread, is their principal diet.