The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-01-04
The German Peasant.

The peasant does not rise in the
world, but remains always. generation
after generation, tied down to 4 life OF
the most irksome toll and his surround
ings remain unchanged. Prosperous.
in the German sense OF the word. i
everybody in this fertile valley. Yet the
prosperity is such one as the Amer
lean would not be at all contented with.
The German peasants prosperity con-
siSts in getting enough by the hardest
kind of work to live on and having
enough left over to pay his taxes, TO give
his marriageable daughters dOwry
enough to make them sought after by
the neighbors' sons and TO lay up few
dollars year for possible future con-
tingencieS. Ii he succeeds in doing
these things he is looked upon as man
of means and atiluen in the commu-
nifty. If he does not succeed he is con-
tented, generally; if not cOntented he
emigrates to America. Beyond acquir-
ins the diminutive stipend which to his
mind is magnificent fortune. he has
no aspirations. And why should he
have any? His forefathers for hundreds
of years lived and died just as he is l!y-
ing and will die. and he knows nothing
of any world except the surrounding
few miles of country. Berlin he has
heard Of because the Emperor lives
there. Paris he has heard mentioned
as being the capital of his mortal enc
nv, France, and Ameri a he knows of
as an unknown land, away off some
where, where he doesn't exactly know.
,.-hi nh 3
friends and relatives and absolutely re-
fuses to disgrrge them. Even the rail
road, though it is no new thing, has no
significance to him beyond the fact that
it is an iron way whose two ends lie a
long way off, just how far he has only
the dimmest and most chaotic idea.
Yet he is not so ignorant as one would
suppose. He has been to- school and
learned something from that most learn
ed of all men-always excepting the
local minister or prIeSt-the village ped
agOgue. He can read some and write q
little and. in his own peculiar way, can
cipher and keep some sort OF accounts.
But for anything outside of what per-
tains to his daily existence and i'm
mediate surroundings he has no sort OF
~ IL
dvnaStieS may rise or fall. but as long
Is he i not disturbed and Is let to work
bis farm and drink his beer. his entire
attention and that of his wife, his sons
and his daughters, down to the smallest
toddler who can pull weeds or pick W
stones. is taken up b. the few acres b,
CultivateS.
His little patch OF ground. separated
from that OF his neighbor by no fence,
Is the scene Of his daily life from sun
rise to sunset. Accompanied by his
family he goes there in the early morn
ing, works hard all day and returns &c
his cherries home. TO repeat it all tn
next day and the day after that. Ye
he has no one but himself TO blame be-
cause his work is so hard. He doe
everything in the hardest and most Ia
borious way. Labor-saving machinery
is unknown to him and all operations
are conducted with the most primitive
implements. The spade. mattock,
scythe, plow and fail are his only tools
With them he delyes and digs, plows
and harrows, reaps and mows, plants
and threshes and performs all other
farm operations. Even this would not
be so bad if his implements were not SC
clumsy and heavy. 1t seems to be his
idea that everything ne has about him
must be durable, and durability with
him is synonymous with largeness.
His spade is monster of ugliness.
Twice aS large and heavy as is neces-
sary. it, very heayiness and largeness
make it less effective. Its handle, gen
orally homemade, is large in circum-
ference, crooked where it ought to be
straight and straight where it ought 70
be crooked, rough and uneven, and is
fastened into the large socket of the
blade in such an ill-fitting and clumsy
manner that one cannot help but Won
der what sort of crossed eyes the man
who made it had. 10 be compelled I,
spade up the garden with such an in
strument would surely break the heart
of any patriotic American boy. The
mattock is also fearfully and wonder.
fully made concern. Ii cannot be de
scribed; it is simply SUI qeneriS. The
nearest American thing to it is a grub
bing-hoe; not an ordinary, practica
grubb:ng-hoe, but \ great, lubberly
massive one. such as one would imagine
q Chinaman or an Indian would make
Ii requires an immense amount of mus
Gle to raise it. But when once raised
it descends with an irresistible force,
scattering the clods in all directions
Heidelberg Cor. San Francisco Chroni-
Gle.