Evening journal., 1904-09-19

Grams IN battle on bridge ana threw
them into the river. The enemy got
their warmest welcome at an inn," as
the Tyrolean leader is reported TO have
remarked nfterward. On. even terms
the French troops were never able TO
stand before the embattled innkeepers
OF the TyrOl. Then. as now. their
charges were something terrible.
There were Bavarians with the
French. and that was one reason. 1t is
said. why the Tyroleans used them so
roughly. The Bavarians are their kins-
men. they have been at odds for gen
erations, and the Tyroleans are grad
ually getting all their mountain passes
named after Bavarian and Saxon
armies which they have trapped and
captured there. They handled their
German cousins with the enthusiasm
with which man drubs poor rela-
ton.
The Tyrolean is jolly and light heart
ed, but he has a lurking love for a
scrlmmage, and he has never got into
his thick head that it is logical to be
ruled by any people without his con
sent SO throughout their history
these brave peasants have always been
streaming from the hills like a noun
tain torrent and flying at the throats
OF the enemies OF Austria.
A thousand years hence the Tyrolean
will probably be just about as he is
now, a good farmer, an unrivaled shot
and pious and jolly citizen. The sing
ing will be as bad and the dancing as
good as ever. and, while nobody inter
feres, the mountain country will let the
world wag on. But whenever any Of
his rights are threatened the bow leg
ged Tyrolean will set up a sterner jig.
The Tyrolean lass is the veritable
''merry mountain maid" Of the old
song. BY rights she should be home
ly. Honest hearts and homely faces
are the valued heritage Of all mountain
peoples. But somehow the women OF
the Tyrol miss half Of their inherit
nnce
They often possess a rustic beauty
which comes with a shock of surprise
10 any one who has seen the bands OF
so called Tyrolean singers that appear
in the music halls of Gotham. The
genuine native Of these hills seldom
travels farther than into the next val
ley, and 1t is much to be suspected that
the men and women who wear his
clothes and sing his songs abroad are
members of the widely travelled race
Of the Tedeschi.
Climbing mountains, or, rather, 60
ing down on the other side. has playe
havoc with the gait OF the men Of the
Tyrol. 1t seems TO have helped the
bearing OF their women folk. A GER
tain ease and lightness Of carriage dis
tinguish them. They are sure of foot
and graceful in their walk and-which
fOllows-trim In their persons.
Then they have noticeably small feet
and neat ankles, distinction which no
other peasant people of Europe-and
the Tyrol may almost be called a ma
ton of peasants shares with them
These qualities make the "schuhplat.
ter dance. which they are very fond
OF and which Is indeed the national
dance, as pretty a spectacle as one
would wish to see.
In these valleys 1t IS performed by a
young man and a young woman. The
only thing she does is to spin about in
a sort OF demure rota9on. The young
man does several things. He yelps at
intervals. he slaps his thighs with his
hands, he thumps the floor with his
feet, he prowls in a half crouching at
titude on either side Of his partner
who gracefully. recedes before him. and