Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-11-14
THE GERMAN PEASANT.
observations Made by q Yankees
In the Fatherland.
The Peasants House and Chattels-So-
cial Strata in Dimlnutive HamletS-
Hand to Mouth Existence
Borne with Great Bravery.

The peasants never 1--we in isolated
houses about their farms, writes Car
Bailey Hurst in the New York Mail and
Express. They come together and form &
little settlement, sometimes not more thar
dozen buildings in all. So it is not infre
quent to see small valley thiclzly dotted
with T. csc DORIS, or villages, which, If put
together, would mako a small town only
One OF these villages is seen to the best ad.
vantage at twilight in summer. Every
body is back from the days work in the
fields, and the place Is now as full of life a.
1t was deserted at noon. For then only the
grandmothers and grandfathers, whose
eyesight IS dimmed or their Joints rheu
matte, stay at home, and tell their young
descendants the wonderful stories OF
witches and hobgoblins, which they heard
under similar circumstances from their
grandfathers and grandmothers years and
years ago.
By dusk the peasants have already eaten
their supper. The men lie about and smoke
their long pipes, the women make their
knitting needles fly while there is light, and
the children play the identical game tina,
their parents played before them, where
they JOIN hands In a wide circle, sing and
act the pantomime of the courtship of a sol
der and peasant girl.
AS one walks over the rough cobble.
stones OF the narrow street he sees the
houses, whose tall, peaked roofs are divided
into stories like pigeons cote, as dirty and
much more crowded. If you are cour.
ageous enough to enter and climb the
steep, rlckety stairs, all the combined
smells Of Cologne and Bagdad will greet
your nostrils. The various floors are owned
by different people, and even the rooms
may be bought or sold like plow or cart
Two families usually occupy three rooms,
using the middle apartment as a general
Kitchen and sitting-room. The poorer peo-
pie often have only one room, where they
sleep, eat and drag out their entire exist
ence. On the bottom floor of the self-same
house where they dwell are stalled the COWS
and oxen.
By sunrise the entire population is up
and out in the fields. Not only does the
man shoulder hoe or a scythe, but the
woman falls in and works as we'll Entire
families, except only the very aged, go out.
Children few months old, who have no
decrepit relatives in the dorf to keep an
eye upon them until evening, are carried
out by the mothers and left under the shade
OF neighboring tree.
Boys and girls are obliged to attend
school until they are seventeen, and if they
parts OF the SUMMERTIME season for gath.
sring hops, making hay and other stated
imes-a vacation is given that the children
may help in the fields. But, during any OF
these seasons, if it should set in and rain.
with no prospect of abating soon, school is
called again and continued during the wet
weather; then the teacher lays aside his
ferrule until the crops are in. The laborers
carry out their food for the day with them.
Every one has q jug of cider or beer, which
he drinks in place Of water. The peasants
live almost entirely ON grain food and
cheese. Milk and butter they exchange for
other more necessary and less luxurious
articles.
A great epoch in every Germans life.
and especially the German peasants, is the
service in the great standing army Every
man who is sound in body and not deformed
must serve three years. Money or influence
will not exempt man from this iron law.
In case he attends the university he short
ems his time to one year. It is seldom. how
ever, that the peasant lad goes further than
the school, so that three years are taken
from the most active period Of his life.
During the winter the peasants are not so
busy as when planting and gathering their
crops. When the snow lies thick on the
fields the men thresh out the grain, and the
women spin and weave the fax, which thew
grow themselves. Out of the long rolls of
this heavy gray linen they make clothes and
articles necessary for domestic use. A
great part Of it, too, they store away for
their children, who, in their turn, preserve
1t for theirs, SO that quantities are handed
down from mother to daughter, like the
usual heirlooms Of pewter tankards and
spinning wheels.
One OF the customs among the peasantry
which does not confine itself to any special
season, although in accordance with the
ome-worn law is more prevalent In spring,
Is wedding. And the preliminary arrange
ments are somewhat complicated. Every
girl is expected to have her dowry, con-
sisting In any case Of an entire household
equipment, from enormous feather-beds
to knives and forks. The young woman
who comes without this supply generally
feels pretty much ashamed OF herself, and
the husband does not receive her with such
JOY as If she came ladened with q complete
housekeeping outfit. When q couple have
decided to travel on through life together.
the respective parents, in solemn family
conclave, arrange the details of the young
lady's portion.
Every village has, of course, It's social
strata. There Is the aristocracy. which can
AFFORD the luxury of several rooms and bit
more OF farming land than the generality of
the poor class, who are obliged to hire
themselves out as day laborers. It happens
occasionally that peasant amasses wealth.
and then he lives on exactly as before
working industr.ously in the fields and
adding to his pile OF gold pieces. These
social distinctions are carefully observed,
and it Is OF rare occurrence that person
mRrT19Q ny, hoi
Most of these peasants lead hard hand
to-mouth existence. They earn a pittance
In the summer which barely enables them
TO exc out an existence through the
winter. Their life seems almost uueudur-
able, but 1t appears so to the stranger only.
They are hardy, sunburned men and
women, and their close intimacy with
nature and dependence on her give them
healthier and happier moral and physical
tone than corresponding class who i've in
Slavery in Ecuador.
AFrench missionary gives serlous &C.
count Of the state OF slavery in Ecu ador
Though it is not a legal institution, yet the
law permits an Indian to sell himself as
q slave when he is unable to pay his debts,
and once q slave he is rarely able to free
himself. He may be bequeathed by viii
The majority of the interior Indians hare
been reduced 10 this condition. =
A recent circular issued by the Treasury
Department proposing to ship free of charge
70 persons desiring them nj.kels and PEN
mics in certain quantities on receipt OF the
face value has suggested some inquiries in
regard to the cost of these coins to thu
United States, and how it IL that they can
afford to ship thel, at par value, paying ex-
press charges upon them The result Of
these Inquiries has been the discovery that
the nickel costs at the mint less than three
quarters Of cent, while it is put in circula-