The record-union., 1891-08-20
THE GERMAN FARMER.
Life and Habits of the Thrifty
Wearer of Wooden Shoes.
How He Makes His Money and How
He saves It-Points Given TO the
American Farmer-A Big ssPlant''
of MoIdy Money Brought Into Court.

A wooden-shoe- wearing German walk
ing along the streets of st. Louis would
cause almost as much of a connection as
would an Indian warrior In all the glory
of his paint and feathers in the streets OF
Paris. And yet German habits, customs
and dress prevail very largely in Mis-
souri,, and particularly in st. Louis
County, and along the Missouri River,
and two wooden shoe factories are IN full
operation in st. Louis County, out along
the Manchester road. The people who
follow these habits and customs, too, are
among the best any country could have;
peaceful, economical, thrifty and hard
working, embracing both the high and
low Germans, as they are separated
those coming from the high and low lands
of Germany, respectively. 1t is the latter
who wears the wooden shoes. One o1
their number, speaking of the distinction,
said of the two classes:
"The low German, coming from the
low lands, is more ploddlng than the
high one, and if anything more thrifty
for that reason. The high German, from
having experienced the Inspiration of the
lighter air Of the high lands, is more po-
etical and more given to dreaming. The
low German never in Imagination paints
a pretty picture of the future as does the
high one. He knows how to work, he
knows how to save the returns of his
work, and he is satisfied. 1t is the low
German, too, who wears the wooden
shoe, which was first invented because
of the necessity of protecting the wearer
from the wetneSs of the lands in which
they work"
HOW THE SHOES ARE MADE.
Asstated, there: are two factories in St
Louis County where these wooden shoes
are manufactured. The operation is a
simple but interesting one. No last, OF
anything of that sort, is known TO the
workshop, and few sizes. The workman
simply requires a nice piece of well-sea-
soned sugar maple or elm wood, an or
dinary spoke-shave, large auger and
curved chisels of two or three different
sizes. With the spoke-shave the wood is
brought into shape; then with the auger
and chisel it is followed out tor the foot:
strap over the instep, and there you
have wooden shoe. They are then made
up in pairs, loaded into a wagon as loose
ly as cordwood, and the manufacturer s
wagon starts out, deliving the goods at
the farmers houses, at the country gro
ceries and at the dairies. They are used
very largely in the latter places, where
there are always more or less slop or wa
too, have to tramp.
The American who has never had a
wooden shoe on his foot cannot, of course,
imagine any comfort to be had from
them. They look stiff, and are stiff, and
the accepted idea is that they would be
likely to give the beginner a fall. 1t is
said however, that you can become ac-
customed to them in five or ten minutes,
and that then you will declare they are
about the easiest and most comfortable
articles of wear ever contrived for the
human foot. They are as light as paper,
much lighter than the ordinary leather
shoe, and in addition to giving greater
protection from water, do not cause the
foot to perspire. In the most severe
weather, it is claimed, they will also
keep the foot from becoming cold, where
one would have his toes almost frozen in
a leather shoe.
HOW THEY MAKE THE MONEY.
It is not to the wooden shoe that the
greatest interest attaches, however, but
to the wearerS of them, and their habits
and customs. The German farmer, par
ticularly the low one, can give the Ameri-
can tiller of the soil great many lessons
in the saving of his land-and his
money, too-and in the profitable raising
of his crops. In the Fatherland the
farmer cultivates but few acres, but he
gets everything possible off of those few,
and at the same time he cares for his
land, so that it never becomes old OF
worn out.
Leases made there contain provisions
as to what crops shall be raised on cer-
tain acres for each year during the life OF
the lease. The land is not robbed of its
vitality by being planted to wheat, OF
any one crop, year after year. In many
sections, too, the German farmer will get
double crop in one year, while the
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same time the former, by crop rotation
and judicjous fertiliZing, retains the rich
ness of his lands. For instance, many OF
the wooden-shoe farmers down around
Carondelet having cleared their ground
of the wheat crop have plowed it up fol
late potatoes, and the chances are will
have a good paying crop there. The
German farmer saves his grain more
closely, too, though he has, with larger
fields to cultivate, fallen into some of the
American practices.
Here is an instance: "I was never sc
surprised in my ife," said one of them
las when came to this country and saw
hogs turned into fields from which wheat
had been cut. l expressed my surprise
and thought it very foolish, but with the
changed conditions many of our country
men have fallen into the same practice. y
The German farmer has not deserted
one other very commendable rule, how
ever. His machinery and farm imple-
ments are carefully secured oiled and
housedhuntiI they shall be needed for the
next crop, while often the American
farmer is content to leave his in the field
for weeks and then put it under an oper
shed for the winter.
ABILITY TO WORK.
The great point about the German
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