The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-05-22
THE aWlTzER AZ HONE.
IIosv De NyorI.s and 80.

many years, and yet there remains much
to be said, not generally known. Gene
va is not Switzerland, although Ia
Switzerland; ); Reither as, Lucerpes -vr
F'ribourg, or Berne, or Basle one must
SO among the mountain mon" to learn
what it is to be Switzer. Is makes
one shudder to think OF shese poor
men, women, and children living
through the long, cold winters upon
the cliffs aud roeks.ef the steeps rnoun-
tains, amid snow and ice, and far away
from human aid and sympathy. How
they manage to live, is indeed a puzzle.
There is no country in the civilized
world, unless it be in northern Norway.
Sweden, or Russia, where the struggle
for existence is more severe and dis
couraging, than in this little republic
in the heart of Europe. Said an intel
ligent Switzer to traveller, 1--WE are a
race apart The earth on which we
build and plant is not stretch of vine
yards, orchards, corn-felds, OF pas
lures, dropping toward the sea, with
hardly any break or waste we dwell
among crags and clouds. Our flats are
mostly water and our slopes are mostly
ice. Your plains lay basl1ing 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-sides must take her gifts By force.
And it requires. force, perseverance,
skill, to extort from Nature any favors,
on these precipitous rocks, and among
these dark ravines.
The Switzer at home not only leads a
life of great privation, but he is sur
rounded by perils; he is in constant
danger of being overwhelmed by ava
lanches, drowned by floods, or blown
away by tempests A slide of snow is
terrible, but a food of rain may try
mems natures on these heights, more
sternly than moving snow. Such foods
of rain as sometimes drench these Al
pine slopes may sweep a hundred miles
of valley bare of house and tree. I'm,
expectedly on some summer afternoon
there comes q hash-a roll of thunder
the rain-drops patter on the rocks /;
soon descending from the Furca, the
Thierberge, the Tifen glaciers, the
rolls 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 food is
echoed from crag to cliff, from the bare
mountain rock to the forest pines cling
ing to the treacherous debris of the
sloping valley.
Grain seldom ripens in the field in
many of the Swiss valleys. To obtain
a farm or garden spot it must be made.
A patch ground is chosen with q south
ern 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 stone is con-
structed along its upper margin slant
wise, to turn all floods of rain and roll
ing earth and stoues aside. And for all
this labor and care, how scanty ore the
crop returns You ask the weather.
Drowned man who patiently trudges by
the side of your horse, helding him
mechanically by the bridie. rs you
Chamber over the dizzy cliffs end along
the edges of fearful precipices, "'Why
don't you quit this dreadful country.
and find more congenial land ?" We
cannot quit these mountains, be says;
cit is our home the land is ours /;
where should we find another and q
better place ?" Home Yes, hero is the
secret. Well is it for the world, that
men are unwilling 60 believe there Is a
better land than that in which they are
born. it is home. Take a Switzer away
from his mountains of rock and ice, TO
land OF calm and sunshine, aud for
him it has no charms. The stalwart
men who hire themselyess as mcrcen-
aries to his holiness the pope. aud live
in idleness under the genial sun of
Italy, are restless and homesick. They
rush back 60 the mountains as soon es
their contracts end. They cast OF with
a feeling Of relief the gaady, trnppings
which have been worn for months or
years, aud put on coarser fabrics of
sober brown. such as were worn in
youth or early manhood Then begins
/ the search for food and fuel. and the
hardy adventarer gains some ledge and
caps It with his hut and fence. The
scrub Is burned. Che oozy ground is
drained, and soon The little patch Of
wheat. or oats. or barley shoots from
the soil, and is gathered before It is
ripe, by The troop Of brown children
which have grown up within the hut,
simultaneously with the plants without
Here is the Switzers home. unsheiter-
ed and lonely on the rock. But per-
haps bs is not long alone A second
adventureF follows where he led his
trail is worn into track aud The
traveller. as he oasts his eye up che
raeangain-sf5e frou de valley below,
/ sees half doson hs.sa elksfiha s. the
rock-here e q Swiss village With
the viiiane comes The commune. e Kind
Of social compact nal well understood
outside # suitzefiand 9hsinleesf Il
Swiss political society IL not she indi.
viauai. not ihe family. but tiie som-
mune. A commune is q village er smeI1
tract Of country. The people of which
/ own lands IN common. aud make laws
and exercise ail the functions q state
In tiie canlon 81 geneya tlsefe are A
eommnnea. end Sc t.ie pikefs there 81
/ asu1e e1 less aeeorling = theif extent
aud pupuioasuess. These saiss com
munes ase Ga aome respects ike hui
shaAef esmmunitiess the lands are heels
in common. and often there are iafa,
funds ewneJ ia common They naak.