Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-09-25
THE GERMAN PEASANT.
Observations Made by a Yankee
In the Fatherland.
Tho Peasants House and Chattels-So.
cial Strata In Dlminutive Hamlets-
A Hand : TO Mouth Existence
Borne with Great Bravery.

/ A1OAAC VIII 0E08t bravery
The peasants never live in isolated
houses about their farms, writes Carl
Bailey Hurst in the New York Mail and
Express. They come together and form a
little settlement, sometimes not more than
q dozen buildings in all. So it is not infre-
quent to see small valley thickly dotted
with these DORIS, or villages, which, if put
together, would make q small town only.
One OF these villages is seen to the best ad-
vantage at twilight in summer. Every
body Is back from the days work in the
fields, and the place is now as full of life as
IL was deserted at noon. For then only the
grandmothers and grandfathers, whose
eyesight is dimmed or their Joints rheu-
matte, stay at home, and tell their young
descendants the wonderful stories of
witches and hobgoblins. which they heard.
under similar circumstances from their
grandfathers and grandmothers years and
years ago.
BY dusk the peasants have already eaten
their supper. The men lie about and smoke
their long pipes, the women make their
knitting needles fly while there is light, and
the children play the identical game that
their parents played before them, where
they JOIN hands IN a wide circle, sing and
act the pantomime of the courtship of SOL
der and peasant girl
AS one walks over the rough cobble-
stones OF the narrow street he sees the
houses, whose tall, peaked roofs are divided
into stories like pigeons cote, as dirty and
much more crowded. If you are cour-
ageous enough to enter and climb the
steep, rlckety stairs, all the combined
smells OF Cologne and Bagdad will greet
your nostrls- The various floors are owned
by different people, and even the rooms
NAV be hOnOht sold The ,,l1
Two families usually occupy three rooms.
using the middle apartment as a general
Kltcnen and sitting-room. The poorer peo-
pie oIten nave only one room, where they
sleep, eat and drag out their entire exist
ence On the bottom floor of the self.same
house where they dwell are stalled the cows
and oxen.
By sunrise the entire population is up
and out in the fields. Not only does the
man shoulder hoe or scythe, but the
woman falls In and works as well Entire
Iamliles' except only the very aged, go out
Children few months old, who have no
decrepit relatives in the dorf to keen an
eye upon them until evening, are carried
out by the mothers and left under the shade
of neighboring tree.
Boys and girls are obliged to attend
school until they are seventeen, and If thev
90 not, the parents are fined. In the busiest
Parts OF the summer-the season for gath
erlng hops, making hay and other stated
tlmes-a vacation is given that the children
may help in the fields. But, during anv of
these seasons, if it should set in and rain.
with no prospect of abating soon, school is
called again and continued during the wet
weather; then the teacher laws aside his
ferrule until the crops are in The laborers
carry out their food for the day with them.
Every one has jug of cider or beer, which
ne drinks in place Of water. The peasants
i've almost entirely on grain food and
cheese. Milk and butter they exchange for
other more necessary and less luxurious
articles.
A great epoch in every Germans life.
and especially the German PEASANTS, is the
service in the great standing army Every
man who is sound in body and not deformed
must serve three years. Money or influence
Will not exempt man from this iron law.
In case he attends the university he short
ems his time to one year. 1t is seldom, how
ever, that the peasant lad goes further than
the school, so that three years are taken
from the most active period of his life.
During the winter the peasants are not 40
busy as when planting and gathering their
crops. When the snow lies thick on the
fields the men thresh out the grain, and the
women spin and weave the fax, which thev
grow themselves. Out of the long rolls of
this heavy gray linen they make clothes and
articles necessary for domestic use. A
great part of it, too, they store away for
their children, who, in their turn, preserve
IL 1or theirs, so that quantities are handed
down from mother to daughter, like the
usual heirlooms OF pewter tankards and
spinning wheels,
One of the customs among the peasantrv
which does not eontine itself to any special
season, although in accordance with the
lme-worn law Is more prevalent in spring.
Is wedding. And the preliminary arrange
ments are somewhat complicated Every
glrl Is expected to have her dowry, CON
sisting in any case of an entire household
equipment, from enormous feather-beds
70 knives and forks. The young woman
who comes without this supply generally
feels pretty much ashamed Of herself and
the husband does not receive her with such
JOY as II she came ladened with a complete
housekeeping outfit When q couple have
decided to travel on through life together,
the respective parents, in solemn family
conclave, arrange the details Of the Young
lady's portion.
Every village has, of course, It's social
strata. There Is the aristocracy. which can
afford the luxury of several rooms and bit
more OF farming land than the generality Of
the poor class, who are obliged to hire
themselves out as day laborers It happens
occasionally that peasant amasses wealth
and then he lives on exactly as before
working industriously in the fields and
adding to his pile Of gold pieces. These
social distinctions are carefully observed.
and tt Is Of rare occurrence that a person
marries above or below his own caste.
Most OF these peasants lead hard hand.
to-mouth existence. They earn pittance
IN the summer which barely enables them
70 exc out an existence through the
winter. Their life seems almost unendur.
able, but it appears so to the stranger only.
They are hardy, sunburned men aad
women, and their close intimacy with
nature and dependence on her give them
. healthier and happier moral and physical
tone than q corresnonfinz O class ,rhn Ii,ra IN