Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-17

No one protested; no one seemed to pity
the donkey But there were a couple of
| old women who. while the load was being
taken off. tried to milk the cow. They
We're detected by the expresSman 5 boy and
cutfed away from the premises. The cows
there are driven around the city and
MIXED as the fluid is sold instead of en-
| ployed, as is the custom in the United
States, where they are MIXED In the pas
ture or stall.
One morning in Venice | was awakened
from my slumbers from continuous yell
| ing. There was perfect din of voices
below me, and got out of bed and went to
the window of my room, which looked out
on one of the usual thoroughfares, a mar
row canal. Five gondolas were interlock-
ed, and the gondoliers were cursing hot.
/ Two or three times the men took up their
oars, and raising them aloft. threatened to
strike. | was not as much interested in the
| threatening hostilitieS as in the contests of
the gOndolas. These gondolas are longer,
broader and deeper than the row-boats
seen in the United States, and turn abrupt
| ly at the bow which is ornamented by a
uniform steel broad-axe. The propelling
power Is from the after part of the craft.
| and by a single long oar, which is twirled
or worked in a socket against post. Each
gondola was filed with household goods
1t looked like three or four hotels wer
moving. Furniture, bed-clothing and per-
sonal effects of every description were
piled up 20 feet high, so that it was i'm
possible for a man IN the stern to see
where the prov of his gondola was going
directly. Three OF them were going in
1 Ia E.
an opposite location They had collided,
and into the canal about six wagon loads
OF goods were dumped. While the gon-
doliers were cursing and trying to extri-
cate their gondolas, there were floating
about In the water mattresses, tables and
| clothing, and now and then a stove or a
piece of tinware would drop off and 90 to
the bottom of the canal. The perplexities
to the men engaged seemed to be little
more wearing than those of the donkies
at Genoa and Naples, while the burdens
appeared more lrksome than those | saw
on the heads of the less irritable Russians
While going over the Al ps of Switzerland
last July, | saw a household moving scene
which was quite as interesting and unique
as any have described. | was leaving
Chamounix for Martigny, and had pro-
ceeded but couple of miles. As we were
winding up the side of the mountain, 5000
or 5000 feet high, | saw from the seat |
| occupied In the vOlture what appeared to
be a string of pigs. watched the trailing
| OBJECT for some minutes, when it
disappeared and | forgot it till
two hours had elapsed, when my at
tentlOn was suddenly called to seven
old women, three old men and boy,
loaded with every conceivable personal
| effect used in household They were i'm
mediately ahead of our vehicle and in the
middle of the road. Each had strapped
on his or her backa basket of funnel shape,
two feet across at the mouth, three feet
long and made of wood. These were filed
with small articles, after which bed cloth
ing, picture frames, cases, cabinets, chairs,
ETC., were tied on the shoulders. One old
woman had on her head and shoulders a
small cooking stove, while a man who
looked to be four score years old carried a
refrigerator Their journed was to be %
miles that day, and the angle was an as
| censlon of not less than Is degrees on the
| average. [ learned subsequently that
nearly all the moving done by the residents
in the Alps is left to the old people = and
they grow to be centenarians and so
shrivelled that the sex is distinguished
OlIy ny Gne garments Uney wear. Nearly
all of the women have at their threats
goitres = bags of water bigger than hat.
Opinion is divided as to the cause Of them
The physicians say they come from drinking
glacier water, while those not versed in
medicine say they are the result of wearing
straps about the necks, suspended from
which are baskets for the transportation of
farm products or express goods.
To an American, such servitude as is ex-
pected and performed by these carriers is
repugnant to the last degree. His nat We
Unborn gallantry rebels at the sight of a
woman becoming beast of burden or act
ing In the capacity of cart or freight
train. In all this broad land-he is
proud to know - there are no such things
expected of the sex which is that of his
mother, wife or sisters, and he is doubly
thankful of his nationality in the presence
of the files of bowed carriers among the
Swiss Alps. To see a woman toiling over
the hill with a stove strapped to her back
is a sight to make the American tourist
blush for his sex, and to think with pride
of his country beyond the Atlantic, where
quadrupeds and the iron horse do the SER
vice of man.