Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-08-28
The Switzer at Home.

- IL OiioiiA IN tue DOStOH OOuTHUt |
Of Chemistry:
The Swiss people, and the country they oc-
cupy, have furnished topics of interest for trave
ers TO write about for many years land yet there
remains much to be said, not generally known.
Geneva is not Switzerland, although IN
Switzerland; neither is Luzerne, or Fribourg
or Berne, or Basic; one must 60 among the
"mountain menu to learn what it is to be
Switzer. 1t makes one shudder to think of
these poor men, women and children living
through the long, cold winters, upon the
cliffs and rocks OF the steep mountains, amid
| snow and ice, and far away from human aid
and sympathy.
How they mango TO live is indeed puzzle.
There isno country tn the civilized world,
unless it be in Northern Norway, Sweden or
Russia, where the struggle for existence is
more severe and discouragIng than in this lit
tie republic in the heart of Europe. Said an
intelligent Switzer TO traveller, awe are
race apart The earth on which we build and
plant is not stretch of vineyards, orchards,
cornields or pastures, dropping towards the
sea. with hardly any break or waste we
dwell among crags and eli IS Our flats are
mostly water and our g are mostly ice.
Your plains lie baskng in the summer, while
our heights are swept by storms. Your river
beds are loan, our river beds are grit You
dreamers by the water-side have but to wait
on Nature, while we watchers by the noun
tain-slde must take gifts by force.' And it
requires force, perseverance, skill, 10 extort
from Nature any favors, on these PERCEPTIONS
rocks and among these dark ravines."
The Switzer a. home not only leads life
of great privation, but he is surrounded by
perils; he is in constant danger of being over
whelmed by avalanches, drowned by floods, OF
blown away by tempests. A slide of snow is
terrible, but flood of rain may try mems ma
lures on these heights more sternly than NOV
ing snow. Such floods of rains as somtimes
drench these Alpine slopes NAV sweep a hun
dred miles of valley bare of house and tree.
Unexpectedly on some summer afternoon
there comes flash-a roll Of thunder--the
rain-drops patter on the rocks; soon descend
ing from the Furca, the Thierberge, the Tie
fen glaciers, there rolls a wave more furious
than those of mid ocean. The waters leap
into the roads, and extend over the intervals,
and the roar Of the terrible flood is echoed
from crag to cliff, from the bare mountain
rock 10 the forest pines clinging TO the treach-
erous debris of the sloping valley.
A few years ago such q flood descended in
TO the level fields where reposes the little vii
lage of Hospenthal, and gathering fury at ev-
cry rod of its advance, il tore up the soil of
the plains, destroyed the roads and water
works at Andermatt, roared past Teufelstein,
and smote the strong town Of Amsteg Al
this place the Karstelen drops into the river
Reuss,-a blow, the dyke gives way, the wat
ers surge into gardens, suck through the walls
and wash out herbs and fruit trees with the
soil in which they grew. One house begins
to float; soon another and another, and amid
the roar of falling rain, hurrying floods, crash.
ing forests, parting roofs, and groaning tim
bers, the Implying flood dashes the entire
village down into the lake.
What happened here in this valley, often
, occurs throughout the entire Alpine region
and thus the lite of theipoor Swiss peasant is
one of constant apprehensions and the
brightest sunshine, and the stillest atmosphere
afford no positive sense of security. These
silent Iustics, notwithstanding, are merry OF
their lofty perches, and contrive TO coax from
the ungrateful soil some golden sheaves. The
shoots are never high, the ears are never full
but when the air grows cold in Autumn, they
cut the stalks and tie them up on frames OIL
wood TO dry. Grain seldom ripens in the field
in many of the Swiss valleys. To obtain
farm or garden spot it must be made. A
patch of ground is chosen with a southern
face; troop of boys and girls pick it clear
of stones; bank Of logs and scrub is made
to wall it up, and when the seed is sown,
wall of stones is constructed along its upper
margin santwise, TO turn all floods of rain
and rolling earth and stones aside. And for
all this labor and care, how scanty are the
crop returns You ask the weather brown
man who patiently trudges by the side OF
your horse, holding him mechanically by the
bride, as you Chamber over the dizzy cliffs
.
"Why don't you quit this dreary country, and
ind more congenial land ?n owe cannot
quit these mountains" he says; sit is our
HOME /; the land is ours where should we
find another and a better place ?'' Home
Yes, here Is the secret. Well Is it for the
world, that men are unwilling TO believe
there is better nd than that in which they
are born; ii is ONE. Take Switzer away
from his mountains OF rock and ice, 10 land
of calm and sunshine, and for him il has no
charms. The stalwart men who hire them
selves as mercenar les 10 his Holiness the
Pope, and live in idleness under the genial
sun of Italy, are restless and homesick.
They rush back TO the mountains as
soon as their contracts end. They cast off
with feeling of relief the gaudy trappings
which have been worn for months or years,
and put on coarser fabrics of sober brown,
such as were worn in youth or early man
hood. Then begins the search for food and
fuel. and the hardy adventurer gains some
ledge and caps it with his hut and fence.
The scrub is burned, the oozy ground is drain
ed, and soon the little patch of wheat, or oats,
or barley shoots from the soil, and is gather
ed before it is ripe, by the troop of brown
chill Gren which have grown up within the
hut, simultaneously with the plants without.
Here is the Swltzer's home, unsheltered and
lonely on the rock. But perhaps it is not
long alone. A second adventure follows
where he led his trail is worn into track
and the traveller, as he casts his eye up the
mountain side from the valley below, sees
half dozen huts clinging to the rock-here
is a Swiss village.
With the village comes the commune,a kind
of social compact not well understood outside
of Switzerland. The integer of Sws political
society is not the individual, not the family,
but the commune. A commune is a village
| or small tract of country, the people of winch