The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1906-01-25
THE BLACK FOREST OF GERMANY
Complied From the Works Of Henry Mot)
By Martha L. Schneider

can walk from emu TO emu, ninety
miles one way and over forty another,
climbing over mountain tops or keep
ing in the valleys, walking when you
like, stopping when you ike-making
sure that everywhere you will find
clean quarters and decent food-and
all amid scenery of unquestionable
beauty, beauty richly varied but never
broken. There is charm in those
dark green forests, the bright meadows,
the Well-kept gardens, the picturesque
cottages and the rare abundance of
mountain streams, brooks and rills-
those silvan waters so largely ac-
countable for the freshness, the beauty,
the peculiar charm of this country,
that makes tour through it one of
constant delight.
1t is glorious country, this forest
of dark silver frs, which have given it
it's name. It's hills are not as colossal
as those white giants of Switzerland
but they are beautiful, nevertheless,
in their picturesque and varied out
line, and in the rich play of color
brought about by the effective combi-
nation of very mosaic OF rocks,
contrasting strikingly with the mass
OF surrounding foliage. There is a
remarkably impressive effect in the
black leaves of the tall silver frs
those kings of conifera-growing to a
height of 100 and $50 feet, be they
massed in whole mountains by them
selves or mingled with the brighter
green of oak and beech, which looks
lighter by the contrast, presenting
thereby to the mind the idea of
perpetual spring. There is luxuriant
growth and unfading freshness every
where except where the naked rock
juts out ruggedly by way OF contrast
and where the high tops rise barely
above the forest, in an altitude which
forbids all growth except of grass and
shrubs.
Granite in combination with gneiss
and porphyry, only locally overlaid
with red sandstone, forms the
mountains here.
/ You can tell by the look of the
quaint and picturesque houses of the
granite-country people-houses with
heavy overhanging roofs, bright rows
of glittering windows, carved verandas
and spouting springs-that their
inmates are a distinct and peculiar
race, people with force and healthi-
ness of character definitely belonging
to themselves. You can tell it all the
more when you see them emerging in
their gay and many colored dresses,
the women with neat little pointed
caps on their heads from which drop
down those massive plaits for which
the Black Forest is famous, with their
embroidered bodices and bright skirts
and aprons, even the men wearing
what red they can, besides bright
buttons and curiously shaped gar
ments.
The Black Forest style of architec-
ture can show very good cause for its
peculiarities. Isolated as they are,
with rough weather to face, farmhouses
must be built roomy and compact,
with whole farm-yard brought
together under one roof and that roof
sufficiently thick one to resist both
severe cold and intense heat. That
purpose the big overhanging roof
answers admirably. 1t is really not a
roof only but an entire barn with
generally three stories for stocking
sheaves i'm it's capacious hold. The
houses are built against the mountain
slope, SO that the harvest wagon can
drive straight into it, stopping on the
barn floor over the house. The
sheaves and hay and straw and chaff
help to intercept most effectually both
heat and cold coming from above.
Then as from below, the fues are so
built that the smoke from the stoves
may be conducted into the barn, help
ing dry what nature has not dried
sufficiently. The wide roof is
advisedly made sufficiently overhang-
ing to ensure the caves carrying the
water far enough away from the
foundation-there are heavy down.
pours there in winter-and moreover
to afford ample shed room outside,
shed room if need be for several
wagons laden with corn or hay. The
roof protrudes some ten or twelve feet
and the projecting "Schild'' on the
gable side, under which is the opening
which does service for a chimney, may
in some cases be carried further still.
Well, then, inside the roof the peasant
stacks and threshes his corn, the
grain, the chaff and the hay he simply
drops down through the floor and
there they are just where they are
wanted. The remaining farm offices
are all situated on the ground floor
together with the principal dwelling
rooms. Beginning level with the
ground on the sloop the greater part
OF the galleries lies high and dry