Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-12-26
THE GERMAN PEASANT.
Observations Made by a Yankee
IA the Fatherland
Tho Pcasant's House AND Chattels-So-
ciaI Strata in Dlminutive Haniets-
& Hand : to Mouth Existence
Borne with Great Bravery.

Il
Express. They come together and form
little settlement, sometimes not more than
dozen buildings in all. So it is not infre-
quent to see small valley thickly dotted
with tSese doris, or villages, which, if put
together, would make q 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 as
it 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
grandiathers 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 fiy while there is light, and
| the children play the identical game that
! their parents played before them, where
| they JON hands III q wide circle, sing and
act the pantomime of the courtship of SOL
der and a peasant girl.
As enc walks over the rough cobble-
stones OF the narrow street he sees the
houses, whose tail, peaked roofs are divided
into stories like . pigeons cote, as dirty and
much moro crowded. If you are cour-
ageous enough to enter and climb the
steep, ricacty stairs, al 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 general
kitchen and sitting-room. The poorer peo-
! Mo often have mi or,o
/ sleep, cat 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 scythe, but the
/ woman falls in and works as well 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 a nelghboring tree.
/ Boys and girls are obliged to attend
/ school until they are seventeen, and if they
| Go not, the parents are fined. In the busiest
/ parts OF the summer-the season for gath
/ ering hops, making hay and other stated
| hmes-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 swith them.
Every one has a 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. 1t 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 they
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
time-Tvorn law is more prevalent in spring,
is a 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 a 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, its socia
strata. There is the aristocracy, which car
afford the luxury Of several rooms and BIZ
more OF farming land than the generality o.
the poor class, who are obliged to hire
. themselves out as day laborers. 1t happen.
occasionally that q peasant amasses wealth
and then he lives on exactly as before
, working industriously in the fields anc
, adding to his pile Of gold pieces. Thes,
, social distinctions are carefully observed
, and it is Of rare occurrence that a person
marries above or below his own caste.
, Most of these peasants lead hard hand
, to-mouth existence. They earn pittanc,
in the summer which barely enables then
20 exc out an existence through tn,
winter. Their life seems almost unendur
able, but it appears so to the stranger only
They are hardy, sunburned men an,
women, and their close intimacy witt
nature and dependence on her give then
healthier and happier moral and physica
tone than a corresponding class who live il
a TFiiLLIoN KISSES.
How Long Time This Oscillation Extra
ordinary Would Take.
The case of the Florida man who had hi
love letters produced and read in cour
, should teach other lovers moderation in tn
making of oscHlatory contracts.
, In a single postscript the Florida man IN
. dertook to deliver to the lady of his choic
no less than ], 900, 900, 00o. Oo0 kisses. And a
such contracts are not infrequently made i
love letters it may be well to give a though
, TO the magnitude Of the undertaking, say
the Boston Globe.
, Whoever viii take the trouble to figure
out will find that, even if this amorou
? Southerner should give the lady Is, 600 1isse
, q minute {and we affirm that no berso
j could hope to do more than that, and eve
, if he could keep up this rate of osculatio
tweuty-four hours day, never pausing {
eat, sleep or take breath, working 365 day
every year, it would take him more tina
: 100 years to complete the contract. An
! by that time. it is painful to reflect, tn
! ar6or OF his love may have cooled. Even 9
the end OF 100 years, counting 1900 kisse
! q minute, there would remain an undo