The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-10-13
HAZARDOUS HAVING.
On Alpine Heights Where Goats
and Sheep Fear to Tread.
Brawny Swiss Maids Compelled to Now
Grass In Masculine Attire-yveird.
Rocky Region and PIucky Folk,
Who Inspired Schiller.

Grass In Masculine Attire-Netrd.
Rocky Region and PIucky Folk
Who Inspired Schiller.
The hay makers on our western
prairies, and for that matter on the
hilly and mountainous meadows of
America, can form no conception of
the'hardships that the Alpine wildheuer
of Switzerland have to brave in order
to gather the winters provender for
their cattle.
Wildheuer, says the Chicago Inter
Ocean, is the name given to small
peasants men and women = who
climb the rocky peaks of the alps
during the months of August and
September and gather the wild hay
that grows on almost perpendicular,
isolated grass plots, over yawning
precipices and near threatening
glaciers. The reader is reminded of
Schiller's graphic description of this
fraternity in William Tell. It occurs
in the third scene of the fourth act
Gessler, the governor of Switz and
Uri, approaches down the sloping
Kuessnacht pass with rocks on either
side: Before him is a projecting cliff
overgrown with brushwood. Armgard,
the poor wife of whichever, falls with
ACI C114OIcU LII 4IOuO OI ,On0 ROV0TnOI
horse and begs for the release of her
husband. who is perishing behind
prison bars, and when Rudolph der
Harras, the adjutant, asks her: s'Whc
are you, woman, and who is your hus-.
band?" he receives the following words
in reply:
poor wild-hay man of the Rigiberg
Kind sir, who on the brow of the abyss
Mows down the grass from steep and rocky
shelves
To which the very cattle dare not climb.
Harras, the horseman, is conscience
stricken, and thus intercedes for the
petitioner:
BY Heaven! A sad and miserable lifei
I prithee give the wretched man his freedom;
How great soever his offense may be
His horrid trade is punishment enough.
To the woman:
You shall have justice; to the castle bring
Your suit; this is no place to deal with it.
And, indeed, no more dangerous oc-
cupation can be imagined. The work
is laborious and the harvest poor. The
mowers and ral1ers ascend with ropes
and Alpine shoes the dizzy steepnesses
where goats and sheep do not venture
to Craze, much less the larger cattle.
The mountaineers here are, of course,
never assailed by vertigo and kindred
GAO0O4Co, 1nuoO OC dCCOuAbOu IOT
by heredity and constant climbing of
perilous heights. But for this work
only such men and women can be hired
who can find no other means where
with to keep the wolf from the door.
These are the folks who work during
the balance of the year at ridicuIously
low wages by day in villages and inns,
or as wood-choppers and weavers dur
ing the winter. Hundreds of house
holders in this vicinity rely for their
whole years supply of milk, butter and
cheese on single cow, and must make
hay on the mountains while the sun,
shines-during August and September.
Every canton in Switzerland has its
hay laws which set apart two months
during the year for hay gathering and
which appoint the very day on which
the work may be commenced, besides
imposing many other oppressive ordi-
nances and regulations. AS soon as
the hay day has come these comp1acent,
easily contented, semi-Roman Teutons
gather in convivial companies and be-
gin their climbing marches amid the
yodling of popular ditties and the sing
ing of religious hymns. ALI carry al
penstocl1s, scythes, rakes and ropes and
a small l1napsack of food and drink,
sufficient for several days.
Often places are encountered where
the grass is especially rich and lux
uriant, but which can only be reached
by dangling mower down over the
rocks and thus enabling him to gather
few sackfuls of hay at a time, when
another man is let down to finish the
plot. 1t is generally found most ex-
pedient to select some accessible spot
near the mountain road and then to
throw the hay bundles from the va
rious little meadows along the paths.
And it is marvellous with what dex-
terity the rakers have learned to throw
their bundles.
| Sometimes, however, no such con-
venient place can be found; then the
poor people are compelled to carry
their heavy, compact bundles on their
shoulders down the steep, dangerous
mountain path or to let them down
with ropes from one to another some
what like the water carriers of ancient
Egypt.
women are employed for this work.
They are usually robust, brawny
young maids, full of courage, every
movement betraying power and agility.
| Necessity compels them to wear mas
culine attire during these 1abors As
in the case of the Tyrolean shep-
herdesses, skirts would prove great
impediment in their work.