The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-31

simply express the Norwegian peasant
woman's ambition to provide unmistak
able evidences Of her skill with the
needle. Brighter than all these. however
are the flowers which fill the windows Of
every Norwegian home. Huge fuchias
and gorgeous geFaniums are most com
mon; and these with the wonderful luxn'
rance of the wild mountain flora almost
bring to Norway in summer the seeming
of the odOr and bloom Of wanton tropiC
lands.
The inbred sturdiness and independence
Of character of all Norwegian peasants
are best illustrated in the simple yet
skilfully made belongings of these ham
let-like homes. Their handicraft is won
derful. The timber for their homes has
been felled and fashioned by themselves.
Every structure in the country-farm-
house, storhans, dairy, bakehouse, barn,
smithy, shed and bell tower, is built by
the peasant himself Every article of
furniture he possesses has been wrought
by his own hand. He beats out his cut
lery on his own anvil, and carves its
handles. All the utensils of the dairy
cheeseman's, tubs, firkins, bowls, churns,
milking-pails, and presses, are of wood
and Of home manufacture. Yokes for the
saeter-girl's necks, baskets, saddles har-
ness, snow-ploughs, and even comfortab bic
little family workshop during the long
winter months.
The peasant tans hides for the family
supply Of boots and shoes, and makes all
the latter besides his own fireplace
Nearly every article of clothing
is made on the premises by
the housewife and her daughters.
The wool is carded and spun at home,
the stockings, blouses and scarfs are
knit at home, and the wooden cloth for
the family clothing is woven in the
chamber, the "best room" or in the huge
old kitchens. Even the buttons of wood,
of horn or even of brass or silver are
products of home craft, and are often
beautifully carved. In scores of peas
ants home where l have tarried the eye
could not discover single article of
utility or ornament, save the glass in the
windows, the oil lamps, the sparse sup
ply Of crockery and the huge clock,
reaching from floor to ceiling, which was
not completely product of Norwegian
peasant ingenuity and skill
The Norwegian peasant is equally in
dependent Of the rest of the world in all
the food necessities of life. His chief
article of food are supplied by his own
herds. Milk, butter, cream, and cheese
are found in startling quantities in the
lowest PEASANTS home. One or two cows
are kept at the farmhouse for summer
use. The remainder of the herd are at
the mountain saeters, from which comes
an endless procession of mountaineers
and saeter-girls, often accompanied by
sure-footed ponies, all laden with huge
pannies of butter and cheese or TASKS of
sour milk and whey. The butter and
cheese are constantly being conveyed to
fiord-side markets, or are stored against
the winters needs; while the sour milk is
used for food and the whey aids materi-
ally in fattening the swine. There are
thus always animals for killing, the flesh
usually being dried.
Many peasants are fishermen, and cure
their own fish. If not. dried fish can be
secured in exchange for the PEASANTS own
products, probably cheaper than in any
other country in the world Each peas
ant farmer raises his own barley, rye,
oats, potatoes, and often a little wheat.
On nearly every farm, and certainly in
every neighborhood, there is a water-mill
for grinding the grain. l know of no
other country where Strawberries and
raspberries grow wild in such vast guam
titles, or where all small fruits respond
to rude and limited culture with such mu-
nificence Of reward. In many peasant
homes dried native fruit adds zest to the
winters enforced sameness of fare So
it will be seen that the Norwegian peas
ant in his food supply is as independent
of the outside world as in all other re-
quirements of life. There are but three
articles in his home, sugar, salt and cof-
fee, which the fiords, the streams, the
mountain hollows and forests and his own
saeter and farm do not beautifully pro
vide.
The every day food of these sturdy
Norwegian folk consist largely of "gred, .
a sort of thick Cruel or stirabout of oat
meal or barley meal or both. of milk,
fresh, sour, or curdled and boiled, of
cheese, of which there are several varie-
ties powerful in resistance, odor and sus-
tanning qualities, and brown and black
bread. The great and universal staple,
however, is ''fiadbrod,' or latbread 1t is
the very life and substance of these folk
as was the hammock once to the Scottish
peasantry. Every PEASANTS house has
not merely pile Of it to draw upon, but
often whole casks filled with the hearty,
wholesome food. II is simply a dough OF
barley and oatmeal, unfermented and con
tanning little salt, rolled to the thinness
of waters of great circumference and
baked upon an iron plate like large grid
die over "slow" fire.
If the ordinary housewife in other coun-
tries regards the family bread baking as
no little task she would quail before the
stint of providing the required supply OF
''fladbrod" at Norwegian bonder's gard.
1t is about one strong woman's task
TO Judge by the immense quantities
consumed, and / never entered a cottage
or gard without discovering a grand.
mother, mother or daughter, crouchine
before the Goals or lowering over some
huge stove ornamented with quaint Pom.
peian figures, dexterously Tipping with
her thin ladle-like stick the dough upon
the steaming iron plate, or as cunningly
landing the savory dish, without break
ing, upon the ever diminishing, ever in
creasing pile within the "fladbrodn keg.
If the Norwegian peasant knows little
else than labor from childhood to old
age, it is still labor which brings the
immediate and continuous reward of sui
ticiency and ample content. The briei
summer of but three and at the best Of
but four months, is one of tremendous
effort for all the members of the house
hold; for in that little time provision
must be made for an almost dayless win
ter OF eight to nine months duration
The crops of grain, the vegetables, the
butter and cheese that are being provided
I among the mountain saeters, all require
\ unceasing labor; and more important
than all else Is the the supply of hay and
other fodder for the winter needs of this
then helpless herds. l never before re
allied how great value could be set BY
any people upon a few blades of grass.
Haymaking furnishes both the mos
] picturesque and the most suggestive
scenes in Norway The women are con
stantly in the fields, picturesque in theil
c eli htsfrv haA -