The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1881-08-13
A German Village.

on the northern slope of the long rldge |
of the Thuringian mountains. about ten |
miles from its northwestern end. It's |
economic state, which is only type of
many others IN The district, is decidedly |
primitive. Every weli-to-do family has |
its little strip of ground, or sometimes
several such strips have been accumu-
lated in one family by inheritance or
intermarriage. The village butcher,
with whose family ours was soon in toll |
erably intimate terms, was the owner, |
or at least the cultivator with perpetual !
rights, of many little fields situated in |
almost as many parishes. On these |
fields they raise the corn of which their |
bread is made, the potatoes, turnips, |
beet-root, ETC., which help to provide |
them with food, and the fax which /
forms the raw material of their linen /
Undertaking. The fax is spun at |
home by the women during the winter |
months when feld-work is impossible, |
and is woven into long pieces of linen |
by village weavers in old-fashioned !
looms, such as could be seen fifty or
sixty years ago in the homes of manu- |
featuring villages in England. Each !
family also has its COW and its three or |
four geese. The latter, in addition to
the profit derived by selling or eating
their flesh, furnish a perennial source
of revenue from their feathers, which
are plucked at regular intervals from
the living breasts, and sold for the pur-
pose of making pillows and feather-beds
for the inhabitants OF more luxurious
climes.
After the second crop of hay has been
all gathered in, which is supposed to
be achieved by the beginning of Septem-
Der, and for the gathering in of which
the village schools have a special hoh-
day. the meadows are open to the cattle
and geese of all the inhabitants, and
the Hirten have no longer such an ar
duous task. The pasture land becomes
again for the time the property of the
commune, the common land" which
1t originally was, and is dotted with red
oxen or snow-white geese. During the
Eonths of July and August the whole
population, male and female, is for the
most part occupied il getting in the
crops of different kinds, which seem 10
form continuous series, beginning with
VIZ AASV WI "a Ad. tIlS DcSiiilIlliS
of July. and ending with the Grummet,
or second crop, early in September,
The women are by no means behind the
men in the severity OF their labors. Dur
ing this time work begins at A. NJ,
and lasts till dusk. The crops are gath
cred without the assistance Of the ma
chinery which an American or English
farmer would consider essential. a very
short scythe, of primitive shape and
make, is used for the grass and corn.
The men employ great part OF their
evenings in hammering their scythes, SO
as to give them a harder and sharper
edge, and the continuous clang of the
hammers is by no means an attractive
3r soothing feature of life in German
peasant-proprietor village to stranger
in search of qniet. Moving, We may
notice, appears to be the one dignifed
agricultural work which a woman can
not do. Occasionally I have seen
woman use the scythe for few minutes,
but it was always with sort Of apology
on the part of the woman for intruding
on masculine functions, and seemed to
be regarded by the men with compass
sionate liberation. Women and girls
are competent in Thuringia to carry
burdens of sixty, eighty, or even hun
dred pounds weight, in great ba kets,
for miles, to the nearest market town,
but they cannot NOW, or at least pub
lie opinion DEGREES that they shall not.
The produce of the small strips of
land is taken to the poorer homes either
in curious baskets suspended like a
knapsack by two straps PASSED over the
shoulders, and carried always by women
Or children, or on wheelbarrows, which
have the advantage of taking rather
larger quantity at once. The Weather
inhabitants employ rudely constructed
wagons, and generally in this case the
men superintend the operation. The
whole process OF gathering in the har-
vest is carried On by each family for it.
self. A few hired laborers there are,
but very few, and these cannot be got
to work for so long hours or SO ener-
getically as the farmers themselves
OF course any volunteer assistance is
eagerly welcomed. During our stay in
the village regiment of infantry pass
ing through on its way to some autumn
maneuvers was einquartirt in the village.
Each house owner had to entertain with
bed and board so many Manner, and
sometimes Pferd as well, the number
of each being chalked up ostentatiously
on the doors of the houses a day or two
previously by commissariat officerwho
had come on in advance. There was
some grumbling at the prospect on the
part of the villagers, many of whom
thought sixpence a day scarcely suffi-
cient remuneration for feeding and
housing a stalwart soldier. However,
the day was fine. and the soldiers, as
soon as their military duty was done, set
to work to assist their hosts in getting
the harvest in. There was little grum-
bling in the village the next day, but
only regrets that the regiment could not
stop still longer.