Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-10-30
WALKING ON STILTS.
DISTRICT IN WHICH THIS IS DONE
 FOR SUBSTANTIAL REASONS.
The Herders and Peasants of Landes Use stilts In Their Avocations-In Belgium They Had Festival Which Bore Some Resemblance to Our Football Game.

stilts In Their Avocations-In Belgium
 They Had a Festival Which Bore Some
 Resemblance to Our Football Game.
 Tho curious district of the Landes be- tween Bordeaux and Bayonne mainly consists of heaths and pine woods, in terspersed with a few patches, growing barley and a little maize.
 The surface of the ground is dull gray or ash colored sand, and over this unpromising pasture wander scattered iocks of lanky, coarse wooded, i'll con- ditioned sheep, tended by shepherds, who from time immemorial have been noted for walking on stilts, by tho as- sistance of which they are not only able to stalk over tho prickly bushes and avoid the disagreeable contingency of filling their shoes with sand, but they attain an elevation not afforded by the level surface of the ground, and from their artificial altitude can overlook their flocks and prevent their sheep from straying. They also carry long pole that, when stuck into tho earth, forms a support against which the shep- herds can rest and knit stockings all day long. Altogether the appearance of this extraordinary tripod, of which the apex is a human something in a sheep skin, is weird, not to say alarming. By the aid of their wooden legs the peasants of the Landes, with very slight exertion and without an exceptionally rapid movement, will go over the ground at a pace which would keep a horse at a hard trot Nature, however, is a power not to be trifled with and which sooner or later visits with visi- ble censure the violation of biological rules. Consequently the artificially long shanked inhabitants of the Landes are somewhat diminutive in stature and are said to be n not very long lived race. These poor people have to endure se- we're privations, among which chronic want of water is the cruelest, but of late years steps have been taken to rem edy the evil arising from the circum- stance that all the streams in the Grandes Landes are brackish.
 The railway through this desolate re- zion was built by English engineers, who imported a contingent of English nayvies to assist in the most laborious part of the work. Obviously Q navvy on stilts would be a grotesque anomaly. The English workmen, therefore, wore French wooden shoes or sabots, which they carefully stuffed with wool or straw to keep out the sand, but the con- tractors took care that their employees when they had finished their toll, should not be constrained to walk long distances through the sandy wilderness, and the men were lodged in n kind of travelling village placed on trucks and rNnSln1 hn 1,,., ,l fnE as the line advanced, food and fresh water being sent to them fror, n dis. tance sometimes of 10 or 90 miles. IL must not, however, be supposed that walking on stilts is custom indigo nous to the French LaudCS. In tho mid dle ages labOrers from Flanders were imported tI the GarOnno for the purpose of draining the marshes, and their pres ence in this part of France is comment OratCd in place still known as Bruet or BruEcs. These FlCmings probably brought with them their stilts, tho an cient Flemish nario of which was ''schaetsc, which would in process of time be natuTalized as the French 'echaSses. ''
 There was formerly an annual festi- val held at Namur. in Belgium. called the battle of the stilts, and which, to all seeming, was unique in Europe. The youth of thu town were divided into two amicably hostile camps under the re- spective names of "Melans" and "d' Au- resses, said to represent two very an- cient families of Namur, tho relation between whom in bygone times was of the nature of that which existed be- tween the Capulets and Montagues of Verona. On each side there were from 500 to GOO combatants, all mounted on | stilts. Each army had its commandant and its rcgimental officers, together with its distinctive cockade and flags, which last during the action floated from the windows of the hotel de vile. At the signal for the battle to begin the combatants advanced to the sound | of trumpets from two opposite extremi- ties of the Grand place, and the engage ment began in right earnest, the object of the wooden legged warriors being to knock each other over, in which lauda- ble endcavor they wcro cheered by the smiles and waited kisses of the pretticst maidcus of Namur. They were only to use their stilts and their elbows to trip their opponents up, and at n given
 time the "HOla!" ur Cease kickingr'
 was sounded. and the army which had
 knocked over the largest number of legs
 was declared the victor
 | This fantastic exhibition was wit.
 messed in tho course of generations by
 the Emperor Charles V. by Peter the Great of Russia and Napoleon 1, hut
 the magistrates of Namur toward the close of the eighteenth century sup. | pressed the Eattle of stilts as q yearly
 function because it frequently led to a
 slightly undesirable occurrence of crack. I ed skulls and fractured arms and legs.
 France and Flanders cannot, however,
 lay claim 10 monopoly of stilt walk
 ing. IL Is indeed very ancient man
 ner of locomotion, but in countries mol | abounding ill marshes or in extensive
 sandy wastes stilts have not been turn
 ed to any practical use and have usu
 ally only formed part of the stock iu
 trade of shOwmen and mountebanks fol
 the amusement of the frequenters oi
 fairs and village festivals.
 Boys at all times have been accus
 toned to improvise stilts by means of |
 couple of poles, with T thong of leather
 or cord, through which the feet could
 be passed. and their prowess on tines,
 artificial supports has led to their beinl
 rewarded by the enthusiastic admira
 tion of the small girls of the village anG
 to their getting from time to tim,
 some ugly tumbles. s.-London Standard | Eaysrd and Dickinson Entertained. | WAsHISGrSN, Oct. 30.-Embassado
 Bayard md Don M. Dickinson wero on
 tertainsd nt dinner by prcsident Clevp
 lani.