The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-28
AMONG ALPINE PEAKS.
Simple Life of the Hardy Swiss
Peasantry.
Women in the Hay Field Children
and Their Attire-The PEASANTS
Kitchen-A Frugal RAGS.


Nov. THE throngs Of tourists that
have been overlooking Switzerland since
the LIST of June are thinned out The
larger hotels are closed, and life has
taken up its routine course, if it may be
said to have such. I am not altogether
sure the summer tourist traffic is not
the regular routine and the other life
merely incidental to that Certainly in
the high Alps here it enters into the
consideration of everything. For in
stance, the snow has fallen heavily on
the mountain tops during the recent
cold weather, and the dairy goats are
driven down to lower feeding grounds.
The last hay crop, too, of the season
has been harvested, and the farmers
autumn work is fast closing up, and
preparations are being made for the
long winter It is interesting to note
how the haying is done here, for it rains
SO much there is little dry, warm weather
to cure it, and am forced to compare
the methods of agriculture here with
those in America. The man of the house
in these parts is the one who does the
moving generally, though 1t Is no IN
common occurrence to see a woman
swinging a soythe herself. He may
quite likely NOW i'll the rainstorm, the
woman following and spreading out the
hay with a wooden fork. Thus spread,
it may remain on the ground for several
days till the weather holds of SO it can
be harvested. When a clear day comes,
the women 60 ont and toss it up inces-
sanity, getting out the water, and then
both men and women do it up in bun
dies and carry it on their backs to the
chalet.
In these high Alps have not seen a
beast of burden of any sort, neither
horse, OK nor donkey. Men, women and
children share the burden Of carrying
everything. In long, cone shaped bas-
kets, or wooden frkins, strapped on
their shoulders, they carry wood, milk,
water. vegetables, ETC., the size of the
basket or frkin varying with the size
and strength of the one who carries it.
The porters, too, carry trunks, bags and
boxes through the mountain passes on
frameworlZs strapped to their shoulders
In this same way the winter supply
Of wood is brought to the chalet. These
lower valley chalets are built to accom-
MEDIATE the family, the animals. all the
fowls, swine, every living thing under
one roof, besides the fuel, the grain and
hay and winters full supply of nourish-
ment The odCrs are not particularly in
keeping with American ideas Of COM
fort, but I am almost convinced that the
Swiss as a nation have lost the fifth
sense or they could not tolerate the
smells they have. Speaking Of the small
farmers in the high Alps, however,
have visited many of these chalets, and
they bespeak the greatest simplicity and
what seems to me poverty. Scarce an
article of furniture that is not made
A.
cles are as limited in number as the
exigencies of the case may warrant. In
one chalet I visited I found a father,
mother, grandmother. twin infants per
haps 3 months old and five small chill
dren, the eldest under 10 years of age,
and yet he had the face of a GRANDPA
Their Such old faces these children have,
and their clothes are a miniature repro
duction of the fathers. In this especial
chalet, which consisted of two rooms
besides the basement. where were kept
the animal1 and the attic, where the
hay and grain were stored, I found the
complete furnishings included two beds,
a table, a long bench, two three legged
stools and a row of shelves and seat
under the window. The five children
all sat in a row on the bench at my ap-
proach, the twins occupied a prominent
position on the door, and the grand
mother, who was too old to work, was
seated on one of the stools. The father
and mother were harvesting the hay.
They never allow grass to grow up as
high as we do in America before cut
ting, but take it as sort of rOwen, 6 !
to inches high, while it is tender. I
wonder why it doesn' t mold or mildew,
and perhaps it does both. But I see it |
banked against the halet under the
projecting caves curing on drizzly days,
and perhaps the fire inside the house /
helps to dry it.
The peasants kitchen is a room that
interests me. There may be one small |
window in it, and there may be no
window at all. The stove. or hearth, or
fireplace, whichever it may be, is built
as the occasion may warrant, either of /
a pile Of stones in the center or at best /
Of a stove, with brick backing, but there /
is no stovepipe or chimney fue. The /
smoke pours out in the room and curl
ing upward goes out at the roof. was (
for time at a loss to account for the |
wooden chimneys and why they did not /
burn up the houses. But the fact is the /
kitchen roof runs up like the roof of a
hop kiln to an apex, and browning this 4
is the chimney. 1t is unnecessary to say 4
these Kitchens are black. dingy, unin-
vitiDg looking places, and 1 am still I'M
able to see why they should not have a +
window to light them. In the poorer /
places the fire is built in a stone pile, .
much as one alranges in the camping 4
out season, hanging the kettle over it,
but wood that sends sparks far does not
seem to be sed.
Swiss IL are chronic whittlers. and /
already they have commenced various I
objects more or less elaborate that Will !
nccnnv their winter time and be put On |