Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-25
WOMEN IN SWITZERLAND.
As They Are Seen In the Hayfields-Sup-
pOrters of Families.


We saw women hay carriers in the Val
de Bregaglia. The hay is carried in a huge
basket, adjusted to the back by a leather
strap over tho shoulders. AS they walk,
painfully stopped under these great bur
dens, they look like moving sticks. Some
times the hay is carried in great squares
of canvas, tied at the four corners. Young
children are bowed and prematurely aged
by the bearing of these weights on neck
and head, when their strength is so little
commensurate to the task
Most of the hay harvesting in the Enga-
dine is done by Italians, who swarm over
the Alps to obtain summer employment
But Swiss women also are sadly aged and
stiffened and rendered prematurely ugly
by field labor. Go where you may in the
mountains, most of the hard work seems
to be performed by the weaker half of
creation No animal in lovely Switzerland
is more hardly treated, with the exception
of the dog. To be sure, woman is often
harnessed with dog to a heavy cart,
while another woman pushes from behind,
but have never seen the woman lie down
in the dust and pant from exhaustion,
with the tongue hanging from the mouth,
as have often seen the dog do Manifest
ly, the dog is still undermost in the COM
petition of woman with the lower animals.
1t is a pretty sight to see maidens toss
ing hay in the bright green valleys, under
snow peaks, where waterfalls stream from
the rocks and glad torrents rush over their
pebbly beds, but the hideous fact of wom-
ans enslavemcnt to labor too hard for her
| strength Is hidden under the smiling
tableau. Some who shudder at the thought
of woman dropping ballot into a voting
urn can look calmly on at her sad position
! in the European labor market, can sec
without trouble of soul, as | have, in pros
| porous Canon Bern, woman harnessed
with "a COW and dragging a load of ma
nure. The Swiss women, judging from
appearances, seem 10 he the supporters in.
stead Of the supported. They are active
and indefatiG1ble in labor. TLey even car
ry bricks ana mortar for the builders W
narrow planks and steep ladders The un-
fittest doubtless die young, which is a hap
by provision of nature, " bile the fttest
grow rigid and stiff, toughencd like sea
soned hickory, with bowed backs, muscles
of whipcord and faces such as one secs Gu
riously carved on walnuts. The men are
doubtless labOrious, but their labor seems
less in evidence than the abor of the WON
en-. Nature is memorable in these noun
tains, but her singing lash falls mos
heavily on the shoulders of the woman.
The national costumes have faded ou
of the Engadine, if they ever existed there
The people are plain, sturdy, sober folk
thrifty, too, in their way, but joyless O.
aspect In other parts of Switzerland
where few years ago the costumes of tn,
different cantons were preserved by thu
women walters at hotels, you now see on
ly plain black gowns and white aprons
There are pretty silver ornaments in TIT
shop windows, and occasionally on Sun
day they appear in the streets on the per
son of some Swiss dame. But they are fas
fading out of existence, and more's thu
pity, as they are very pretty and becoming
Christian Register.