The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-12-15
WOMEN IN SWITZERLAND.


- They Are seen In tho Haynelds Sup
porters Of Families.
We saw women hay carriers In the Val
Dc Bregaglia. The hay Is carried In huge
basket, adjusted to the back by a leather
strap over the shoulders. AS they walk.
painfully stopped under these great bur-
dens, they look like moving stacks. 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 10 80 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 Ia 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 bideous fact of wom-
ans enslavement to labor too hard for her
strength is hidden under the smiling
tableau. Some who shudder at the thought
of a woman topping ballot into voting
urn can look calmly on at her sad position
in the European labor market, can 10
without trouble of soul, as have, In pres
porous Canon Bern, a woman harnessed
with u COW and dragging load OF ma
nure. The Swiss women, judging from
Appearances seem to be the supporters in
stead Of tn supported. They are active
and indefatigable in labor They even car
ry bricks an mortar for the builders up
narrow planks and steep ladders. The un-
fttest doubtless die young, which Is hap
py provision of nature, while the fittest
grow rigid and stiff, toughened like sea-
soned hickory, with bowed backs, muscles
OF whipcord and faces such as one sees GU
riously carve on walnuts The mon are
doubtless laborious, but their labor seems
less in evidence than the labor of the wom-
en- Nature 10 inexorabIe in these noun
tains, bat her stinging lash falls most
heavily ON tL shoulders Of the woman.
The national costumes have faded out
Of the Engadine, IL they ever existed there.
The people are plain, sturdy, sober folk,
thrifty, too, in their way, but joyless of
aspect. In other parts of Switzerland,
where u few years ago the costumes Of the
different cations were preserved by the
women walters at hotels, you now see on
ly plain black gowns and white aprons.
There arc pretty silver ornaments In the
shop windows, and occasionally on Sun
day they appear in the streets on the per-
son of some Swiss dame. But they are fast
fading out of existence, and more's the
pity, as they are very pretty and becoming.
Christian Register