The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-03-07
The Swiss Peasantry.

One million cows inhabit Switzerland.
About three millions of people, also; enc
COW to three people. Each family is en-
titled to free pasture for one COW on the
parish lots. pitt the COWS and the peo-
pie into this association because The cows
are the wealth of the people, and the
word Alps means high pasture. A COW
is worth here and now, hundred dol
lars, gives thirty pounds of milk daily,
which produces two hrindfed.wei OF
cheese in a season. These COWS are
driven up the mountains as the season
advances, and down when it is time for
them to descend, and 30 they get all
there is to be eateN.as IL grows. Three
persons are assigned to every forty COWS;
the whole number Of owners, and when
the product is sold, the profits are div
ided among them according to the num-
ber Of cows of each. The term chalet
is properly applied only to the lodgings
of these cow-keepers, but it is also
given to Swiss dwellings generally. The
small buildings scattered over the fields
are for hay, cheese. and shelter. The
COWS are petted and carefully attended
to. Perhaps none of them became SO
intelligent as to read their names on q
card posted at the stalls they are to en-
ter, as it was jestingly affirmed Of my
friend Mr.. Starr's COWS, at Litchfield,
Echo Farm. But each canton has his
Ranz de Vdches, a melody that the
peasant sings on the hills and respond
from the wales, which is merely cow
call; in German Kuhreihen; crows of
cows" in English, because they come in
row in answer to the call. As the
making Of butter and cheese is the great
business of the people, the raising of
grass for winter feed is a matter of prime
importance, and to it they bend all their
energies and ingenuity. The smallest
and most obscure spot where grass can
be made to grow is carefully titled, and
the produce transported on the back or
head of the peasant, man or woman.
Where we would think it unsafe to go,
they work without fear, and are satisfied
with the pittance of hay they carry to
the barn.
The Swiss women work in the fields,
but the men are not idle. They are in
gcnious as we'll as industrious, making
the works for watches by hand, carving
wood into the most fantastic as well as
useful shapes, turning out toys for for
eign children, and doing anything to earn
little money. The time was when
Swiss men hired themselves freely to
the kings of other countries as soldiers,
but they have ceased to seek money by
such pursuits. They are wide-awake to
the education of their children, and we
meet the girls and boys going from
school with their satchels filled with
books. Many of the young men go to
foreign cities seeking their fortunes; and
the financial, scientific and learned
world, has often heard of their bankers,
and merchants, and scholars. The teach
ers of Switzerland have their conven
tions, and are quite as enthusiastic in
improving the modes of education as
teachers in the United States.
They take pains to make their dwell
lings comfortable, and some of them are
models of neatness as we'll as conven-
ience. Bat there is the same difference
among them in this matter as in all other
countries. The thrifty people keep
things in good order repairing, enlarg-
ing, embellishing, and making such i'm
provements as their taste and means per-
NIT. The number of new houses going
up is surprising. One would think
something had occurred to give a new
start to business here, when it is de-
pressed elsewhere. But the less thrifty
and more shiftless of the people have the
house, the barn, and the cattle shed all
under one roof. How is it possible for
the family TO have health in such circum-
stances? The women, exposed to tho
weather and many hardships, have COM
plexions almost the color Of leather, and
very few of the peasant women, whom
we see in the fields or the streets, are in
any sense good-looking, but, taken as a
nation, the poor people show plainly
that they are hard worked and ill-favor-
ed.-NoaO York Observer.