St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-07-28
FROM ACROSS THE WATER.

Bow-Iess in Saxony-Sunday Closing
English as it is not Spoken-Anec-
dofes of Rubinstein.
Correspondence of the St. Johnsbury GALE
DOMAIN
DRESDEN, July 8, 1892.
Are you calling for notes from
across the water? 1 give you such
as l have if you take them in the
rough.
many human bow-legs in Saxony ?
An ancient chronicle says that the
Saxons are a coarse, ill-featured and
bow-legged race, every way repuls-
i've. This statement seems over
drawn and too sweeping for the
present day, but every observer COM
ing from abroad sees some truth in
the charge. There are certainly too
many bow-legs, especially among
children-the deformity in many
cases decreasing as they grow up.
1t is convenient to say, as many do
say, that the custom of packing
infants into perambulators and
wheeling them about with cramped
legs from morning till night does the
mischief; and there is apparent rea-
son in this explanation. You meet
the perambulators everywhere, in
town and village and hamlet, and in
some of these vehicles you see one,
two, and even three babies sitting
squat, like so many curled-up toads,
and legs trained in that way cannot
be very straight. But what be-
comes of the ancient chronicle, which
was written loEg before the intro
duction of perambulators? 1suspect
that the family doctor and midwife
could tell different tale.
1t is pity that the government,
which in many ways is so paternal,
does not provide free hospitals for
these poor unfortunates, and give
them the benefit of modern surgery;
for this deformity, believes, yields
readily to proper treatment.
The male children when grown to
manhood are said to make good
soldiers, though they are not over
ornamental on dress parade. The
best thing would be, perhaps, to
draft them into the cavalry, where
their deformity would be not only
less conspicuous, but of positive
advantage. On horseback their
curved legs would enable them all
the better to grasp the situatlon.'
IL
new law has just come into
operation requiring all shops for
Things salablc to be closed on Sun
DAYS during the hours of divine serv-
ice in the German churches. At
certain other hours they are open.
A curious clause, quite characteristic
Of German thoroughness in small
things, is inserted in this statute,
to the effect that all automatic con-
trivances used for traffic shall, dur
ing the prohibited hours, be locked.
This is is understood to be thrust
at the "Penny-in-the-slot" business;
and last Sunday, when for the first
time copies of the law were posted
on shop doors, all Germany was on
the broad smile, and 1 am afraid that
some people so far forgot themselves
as to indulge in mmoderate laughter,
thereby breaking the Sabbath-day.
One day last October l took seat
in a train for two hours journey
to Leipsig. Very soon entered
two middle-aged ladies, unmistak-
ably American, and somewhat over
dressed for travel. Their manner
indicated that they had aspirations,
aspiring, perhaps, to a ''presenta-
ton" at court in London, or, high
er still, to an introduction into that
charmed circle in New York, OF which
Ward MacAllister is the charmer.
Theyounger lady seated herself quiet
~, but the elder remained standing
as though pre-occupied with some
weightv matter which needed utter
ance before relief could come. After
a time, when further restraint be-
came impossible, she elected the
following:
well, for my part, 1 think the
word got had ought o be obliterated
from our language. The inference
was that she would have the word
gotten take it's place. Had ought
is trifing grammatical slip which
we have all learned to overlook,
from its very frequency, but how can
we forgive her for saying had
oupht - when tO he consistent with