Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-06
THE GERMAN PEASANT.
Observations Made by 2 Yankee
 in the Fatherland.

Observations Made by 2 Yankee
 in the Fatherland.
 Tho Peasants House and Chattels-So-
 cial Strata i'm Dimtnutive Hamlots-
 4 Hand to Mouth Existence
 Borne with Great Bravery.
 The peasants never live in isolated houses about their farms, writes Carl Bailey Hurst in tho New York Mail and Express. They come together and form @ little settlement, sometimes not more than 8 dozen buildings ill all. So it is not infre- Quent to see small valley thickly dotted with these dorfs, or villages, which, if put would make 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 1t was deserted at noon. For then only the grandmothers and grandfathers, whose eyesight is dimmed or their joints rheu- matic, 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 mako 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 8 sol dier and a 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, rickety stairs, ali the combined smells of Cologne and Bagdad will greet your nostrils. The various floors are owned by different people, and even the rooms may be bought or sold like blow or cart. Two families usually occupy three rooms, using the middle apartment as general kitchen and sitting-room. The poorer peo- pie often have 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 a hoe or Q scythe, but the woman falls in and works as we'll Entire families, except only the very aged, go out
 
 decrepit relatives in the dorf to keep 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 they do not, the parents are fined. In the busiest parts of the summer-the season for gath ering hops, making hay and other stated times-a vacation is given that the children may help in the fields. But, during any 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 lays aside his ferrule until the crops are in. The laborers carry out their food for tho day with them. Every one has a jug of cider or beer, which he drinks in place of water. The peasants live 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 deforme6 must serve three years. Money or influence l will not exempt a man from this iron law In case he attends the university he short l sns his time to one year. It is seldom, how l ever, that the peasant lad goes further thar l the school, so that three years are taker l from the most active period of his life. During the winter the peasants are not st busy as when planting and gathering then crops. When the snow lies thick on thu | fields the men thresh out the grain, and th' women spin and weave the flax, which they grow themselves. Out of the long rolls O l this heavy gray linen they make clothes ant articles necessary for domestic use. great part of it, too, they store away fo their children, who, in their turn, preserv it for theirs, so that quantities are handed down from mother to daughter, like tn usual heirlooms of pewter tankards an. l spinning wheels.
 One of the customs among the peasantr. which does not contine itself to any specia season, although in accordance with tn time-worn law is moro prevalent in spring Is a wedding. And the preliminary arrange ments are somewhat complicated. Ever. ! girl is expected to have her dowry, con sisting in any case of an entire househol equipment, from enormous feather-bed to knives and forks. The young woman
 who comes without this supply general
 feels pretty much ashamed of herself, an the husband does not receive her with sue joy as if she came ladened with a complet housekeeping outfit. When couple hay decided to travel on through life together the respective parents, in solemn famil
 conclave, arrange the details of the youn lady's portion. -..
 Every village has, of course, its socis
 strata. There Is the aristocracy, which ca
 afford the luxury of several rooms and a b
 more of farming land than the generality (
 the poor class, who are obliged to hir
 themselves out as day laborers. It happen
 occasionally that a peasant amasses wealtl
 and then he lives on exactly as before
 working industriously in the fields an
 adding to his pile of gold pieces. Thes
 social distinctions are carefully observed
 and it Is of rare occurrence that perso
 marries above or below his own caste.
 Most of these peasants lead hard hant
 to-mouth existence. They earn 8 pittanc
 in the summer which barely enables thel
 to eke out an existence through th
 winter. Their life seems almost unendu
 able, but it appears so to the stranger onl.
 They are hardy, sunburned men an
 women, and their close intimacy wit
 nature and dependence on her give thel