Evening journal., 1904-09-19
QUAINT TYR0LEANS.
A PEOPLE WHOSE MOTTO SEEMS TO
BE "WHAT's THE OODSw

They Are jolly and Light Hearted,
with n Lurking Love For "a scrim-
mnge-Their Costume md National
Dance Are Both Picturesque.
The motto Of the Tyrolean people
seems TO be "What's the oddsT They
are as light hearted a race of men as
may be imagined, and because their
llghtness IS from the heart, 1t wears
well The Tyrolean Is not the brightest
man in the world, but he IS a real man
and he is a good fellow. He is a bunch
Of hearty instincts and amiable weak
nesses, but in the center Of the bunch,
like rod OF iron I'm a bundle Of
fagots, are his personal courage and his
dour independence. His instincts are
right and so he docs not think very
much: he does not need to. When in
doubt he yodels. That is the only
quarrel the world has with him.
Otherwise. as It has been held, one
could no more quarrel with the Tyro-
lean thnn with the mountain goat
There is something goatlllSe In his tenn
perament although not I'm his disposi-
don. The Tyrolean admits the likeness
when he wears goat tail in the brim
Of his hat. Even the yodel break in his
voice is like the tremulous bleat OF the
billygoat And. like the latter, as his
enemies declare, he leaps from jag to
jag.
There is a legend that the Tyrolean
drinks more than is good for him. A
Viennese told me that "fruchtwein"-
that is, hard cider and kindred unchar-
tered beverages playing the mis-
chief with the mountain people. In the
music halls OF Bavaria and Saxony /
have seen him carlcatured with n red
nose and a gait that wabbled worse
than his voice. But have seen moth
ing in this land to justify the descrip-
tlon. It looks like a libel.
The Tyroean himself looks more like
a Joke than a crime. lie carries an
OWLS wing or a bunch Of turkey feath-
ers in his hat: in place Of n belt he
wears a surcingle; his stockings begin
above his ankles and end before they
reach his knees, and his breeches, which
are too short to cover his knees, have
been well and succinctly described as
breaches OF etiquette He is from six
TO seven feet high and added to that,
he is knee sprung" II comes, so an
Austrian officer told me. from descend
Ing the hills too rapidly.
asked him what sort of a soldier
the Tyrolean made. "He makes a pret-
ty bad one, for that reason" he said.
"He marches to get over the ground
rather than to keep STEP and, when the
regiment lines up on parade, his knees
protrude." ! suggested that these were
disqualifications for a good peace sol
dier merely, and asked him what sort
OF soldier the Tyrolean made in time
Of war. The officer thought a mo-
ment. "well, he's the best we have"
he concluded. He shoots straight and
he fights as n he loved IT,"
That remark sums up more than a
little Austrian history. For centuries
the Tyrolean has guarded the western
gates of the Hapsburg empire against
Italians and French and Bavarians anC
Saxons, and he has let nothing get pas
him. The insurrection OF the Tyroles'
peasants, with an innkeeper as theil
leader, against the rule OF Napoleon Il
about the brightest spot in all th'
struggle OF Europe against the Corsi
can. The innkeeper and his walters
as history records. met the French vet