The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-10-18
most impossible A few facts will be in

most impossible. A few facts will be in
teresting to American readers. When lack
OF employment forces the wife to remain idle
at home she goes out to the woods, which
are almost without exception in the posses
sion of the nobility, and there with hook
attached to long pole she breaks and cuts
dead branches from the trees ties them
into large bundle and carries them home
on her back, often distance of four or five
miles, to lay In supply for the winter
months. Meantime her children who go
with her gather berries or mushrooms to
use at home or to take to the market in the
nearest town. In the autumn the foliage
which falls to the ground is carried home
in large baskets and is used instead of straw
to cover the ground in the stable and thus
produce manure which is sold for one and
two torlns wagon load and used to cult
vate the fields. Lately it has been porhib-
tied by some forest owners to gather ber-
rles, mushrooms, wood ETC., unless fee is
paid. Meat costs the poor creatures forty
kreuzers pound which is alone equal to a
days wages and so it necesSitates their liY-
ing without it. To make cows, goats, geese
| etc. pay, no money must be spent on feed.
The pasture for such is not in the meadow,
| but along the road sides where here and
| there small spot OF grass affords a few
! bites to the poor animal, or on rocky hills
where only few wild herbs grow and the
narrow strips, probably one foot wide, that
are left to walk on between the fields of
! different owners.
! AS soon as the farmer has harvested his
! field the children five and six years of age
| of the village arrive with their flocks of
geese. Before the geese can feed on the
grain that falls from the over ripe ears, the
children pick up the stalks left on the
ground, tie them in bundles, and take them
! home where in the course of several weeks
they may succeed IN getting one half bushel
| OF grain out of them. The cost of their liy-
| ing is indeed very small, potatoes and brown
bread without butter is eaten three times
| a day. In the morning the potatoes are
served as soup without any other ingredi-
ent but salt, at noon aud evening boiled,
when they are rolled out upon a naked
table around which the whole family
gather using their pocket knives or as
often, their finger nails, to peel them: then
| they dip them into the salt and thus eat
them Meat is on the table only on Sun
! day or in some houses on holiday once IN
many weeks, and even as seldom as once
! g year on some great feast.
Only the lower grades of flour are used
and often
IN BARD TINES THE BRAN
with which they feed their geese. Coffee
mixed with chiccory sometimes takes the
place of potatoes and when a COW is killed
at the butchers the blood of the aniu al is
caught in mugs aud prepared for dish
The clothing worn by the people often
consists of SO many patches Of different
goods that it is hard to say which was the
original material Whole families often
live, eat and sleep in one room. The win
dows are small and the apartment is dark
The furniture consists of small narrow
beds, single table, a few old chairs or
benches, few boxes with the Sunday
clothes in, ETC., cradle filed with straw.
The ceiling is just high enough for a man
of average size to stand in the room erect,
and six footer would have to walk
cramped. The door, however, is too low
for even small man to pass under and the
floor is frequently without boards and made
of clay. The walls are covered with chear
pictures of saints ana small cards with re
, ligious sentiments on them. Some cannot
, even afford the luxury OF a light in the
J evening, and spend the long winter even
ings IN darkness, or else keep the over
, door open to get at least dim illumination
from the burning wood.