Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-05-19
woMAN's FIELD IN GERMANY.
Among the Peasantry 1t Is q 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, saws
the n. Y. Sun. If women get discour-
aged once in awhile, and think that
man is rude animal because he lets
her stand in n 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 up the soul OF
every sympathetic woman and at the
same time spread benign glow of con-
tent through it. She declares that it
gave her strange sensation to see
women worked with less humanity than
gentle-bearted 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
huge basket, about yard high, with a
capacity of nearly two bushels. 1t is
intended for a woman's back. IL would
probably tit quite as well on mans
back, although this is merely my indi-
vidual judgment, as the experiment has
not been tried in years. 1t Is not SO
pretty as a blue coat with red wrist
bands, ora nice shiny musket, but in
the course OF a year 1t will take good
many tons Of apples and potatoes into
town. IL Is harnessed fast by strap
over each shoulder. When the basket
is once in place the woman can move
along at right good gait.
"She will often go 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
cinity, and the women themselves are
very kind to one another. But / have
seen women struggle till the perspira-
ton stood in great beads on their fore
heads to get their loads of the ground
and up to their shoulders, while half
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 dsybreak.
This American woman admits that
many of the women are strong and i'm
the prime of animal life." Their heads
are bare, they wear one short skirt and
they step out with long stride, appar-
emily as tireless as a machine. But
many are 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 yoke is
much in favor. 1t rests across the
shoulders, and is considered to be
handy contrivance 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 considerable load. If
there are two dogs they are hitched in
front and the woman goes behind and
pushes.
But it really seems that women ought
not to complain of lack of appreciation
in Germany. Aside from the recogni-
ton of her qualities as 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 q
thrashing machine. and driving horse.
These are sinecures held sacred to men.
But woman mows and rakes hay; she
is esteemed a good hand also at digging
potatoes, and it is common thing to
see one down on her knees in the damp
earth gathering up these vegetables.