The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1894-05-19
WoMaN's FIELD IN GERMANY.
Among tho %Peasantry It Is a Vegetable
Field with the Heaviest Work to Do.

One good cure for discomfort is to
contemplate the condition of some one
who IS not SO well off as ourselves, SAYS
the N. I. Sun. II women get discour-
aged once In awhile, and think that
man is a rude animal because he lets
her stand in q street car, she has only
to turn her eyes to Germany and she
will be comforted.
A woman who has been travelling
over there has got so stirred up over it
that she has been writing letters which
are warranted to harrow I'D the soul of
every sympathetic woman and at the
same time spread u benign glow of con-
tent through it. She declares that it
gave her a strange sensation to see
women worked with less humanity than
a gontlc-hearted driver would show to-
ward his horse.
There are" She says, various de-
vices for saving the poor, poor horse in
rural Germany. The chief of these is a
huge basket, about a yard high, with a
capacity of nearly two bushels. 1t is
intended for a woman's back. 1t would
probably fit quite as well on a mans
back, although this is merely my indi-
vldual Judgment, as the experiment has
not been tried in years. 1t is not SO
pretty as a blue coat with red wrist
bands, or nice shiny musket, but in
the course of a year it will take a good
many ton of apples and potatoes into
town. 1t is harnessed fast by a strap
over each shoulder. When the basket
is once in place the can move
along at II right good gait.
She will often go q number of miles
without stopping to rest, it is SO hard to
get the thing up on her back again
should she once take it off. A man,
however, will sometimes help her do
this, should he happen to be in the vi
entity, and tho women themselves are
very kind to another. But I have
seen ome struggle till the perspira-
ton stood in great beads on their fore
heads to get their loads off the ground
and up to their shoulders, while half a
dozen men stood by and talked about
hard times and bad weather. Day and
night the roads seem full of these bur-
den bearers. Some have been late and
have to walk home after dark, and 9TH
ers have to get up long before the sun
in order to get to market by daybreak."
This American woman admits that
many OF he women are strong and in
the prime of "animallife." Their heads
are bare, they wear n short skirt, and
they step out with q long stride, appar-
entity rs tireless as a machine. But
many arc old and wrinkled and feeble,
and seem nearly ready to fall by the
way.
In the southern part of Germany
women carry great weights on their
heads. In the north n wooden woke is
much in favor. 1t rests across the
shoulders, and is considered to be a
handy continuance for women to use in
carrying coal, water or vegetables. But
in middle Germany the basket is the
fashionable thing. The girl children
are taught to wear it at an extremely
early age, and they grow up to their
life of burden with strong backs and
sturdy legs.
According to the observing woman
another plan of saving the poor horse is
to harness women and dogs together in
front of small wagons. The dog takes
one side of the wagon tongue and the
woman the other, and together they
manage to haul a considerable load. II
there are two dogs they are hitched in
font and the goes behind and
pushes.
But it really seems that women ought
not to complain of lack of appreciation
in Germany. Aside from the rccogni-
ton of her qualities as a burden bearer,
she is in great demand for outside field
labor. About the only things in this
line which they do not do are tying up
bags after they have been filled at a
thrashing machine, and driving horse.
These are sinecures held sacred to men.
But a woman mows and rakes hay; she
is esteemed a good hand also atdigging
potatoes, and it is a common thing to
see one down on her knees in tho damp
earth gathering up these vegetables.