Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-09-25

megaphone, giving forth sound, are
driven up the mountains; the lower
slopes are preserved for moving, or,
rather, scythe cutting. The season is
short, few vegetables raised and cab
bage seldom head up, while grass is
rarely over six or eight inches high al
maturity. 1t is cut twice a year. The
men mostly do the cutting while the
women and children rake, turn and
gather. Apparently the grass is diff
cult to cure, and even after much turn
ing and stacking it has a pretty green
color when in storage The hay is tied
around in large bundles and carried on
backs of men and women. No wagons
or carts and scarcely any horses are
seen, and these along roads all
good. The land is so precipitous that
hauling could not be done over it nor
could machines be used. One wonders
why wife or child does not start rolling
down the steep meadows and take up in
the noisy brook hundreds of feet be-
low. There are few or no villages, the
peasants dottiRg their huts oyer the
sides, few of them resting in
a vale. The Swiss peasant houses are
rurally artistic, They range from 40 to
100 feet in length, the upper end
against the mountain side being one
story hay-mow; the middle, stalls for
horses, sheep and cattle, and the lower
end two-story for the family-aiI under
one roof. notwithstanding this they
are kept tidy and clean, no communica-
tion or odor through the thick
solid partitions of stone or fir logs di-
viding the abode from the stable quar-
ters. No litter of any kind is permitted
around, and this, with the cool atmos-
phere, explains the total absence of flies
and other insects. In the towns occa-
sionally fly is seen around the tavern.
The mountains are covered with patches
of fir, poplar, beech and locust where
not in cultivation or used for vineyards.
The latter are almost as numerous and
picturesque as upon the banks of the
Rhine. The principal vegetable here,
as in all the countries we have thus far
traversed, is the Irish potato, some in
white bloom and others in lilac. For
the first time we see corn in the ear
roasting ear-but of stunted growth.
AS rule, the people appear prosper
Gus and coptented. in their homes, and
in village groups, they eat and drink
pretty well every spare hour, though
no intoxication is to be seen. The pn-
fermented juice of the vine throughout
the wine-growing countries seems to
meet popular favor. The goats almost
solely furnish their milk. In Holland
the fences were bitches Of water; here
they are Of stone, limestone; stone cul.
verts, bridges and viaducts, natural anc
artificial, cross almost fathomless chasm.
and mountains of bare stone rise per-
pendicularly above your head. Nc
wonder Austria could not hold this lit.
tie people (not yet a million of souls)
in subjugation, or that Tells little band
of patriots drove the murdered Cess
ler's votaries hence with ease. Their
anticipation next is clash with Italy,
some time in the future.
Though a country of no mean size
and almost of interminable mountain,
Switzerland is today a network of
railroads. This is because of the tour
ist craze. From our obseryation the
tourist. carried to the extent central
and southern Europe now sees it, is a
bitter curse. Norway and Switzerland
are Of late conquest by the traveller,
and the latter is hurrying the down
ward scale. At present she is ,overrun
with the German, who is just beginning
to feel his unparalleled prosperity and
is spreading abroad, more so In Switz-
erland because of proximity. Only in
the districts off the tourist railroad and
the motor paths is native simplicity,
diffidence and integrity preserved.
Three languages are spoken here,
French, German and Italian, they having
none of their own. The Teutonic is
superceding the Latin, as that race is
making commercial and social inroads.
The counterfeiter is rife in the land Gas
also is France and Italy) and one has
to scrutinize his change.
Unlike Scotland and the Rhine, the
mountains do not at all times crowd
down upon the waters of lake or river
seeming almost to overlook them, but
rear their tallest heads in the distance
though always seeming to lock in the
azure blue waters as though 10th to lei
them out Cor far away pollution. Lakes
upon lakes, strings Of them, as noun
tain passes are overcome; some small
others fifty or sixty miles in length
and all Of exquisite beauty. Som,
have steamers, sail boats, motor boat
and skiffs upon their bosom, Will
others have only the smaller craft. /
was here, in this far away mountain
locked country, that we saw the frs
mutton-leg sail and jib of the Chesa
peake bay canoe. A few of them ar
on batteaux or skiffs. (We becom
homesick, possibly for the first time
The lakes afford some few fishermen
livelihood. catching species of perch
bass, carp and the salmon trout. Som
of the latter attain 80 pounds in weight
Their nets are funnel or gill, all small
So much for passing impression
gathered in week-crude, insufficien
and mayhaps inaccurate to degree. bu
striking an observing mind just as por
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