The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-10-20

mOning him to arms. Even now the
melody has a haunting sound that
seems to speak of martial deeds. No
wonder the sound Of the al%penhorn
was forbidden during the days when
the Swiss served as mercenaries to
France and Italy and other countries"
says a writer. Its sound would
cause hundreds of otherwise faithful
soldiers to desert for their Alps. And
the songs with which Alpine herders
call their companions from hill to hill
and from crag to crag are of the same
nature"
There is a very practical relation
ship between good singing and good
dairying, and this was proved at a
farmers congress at I~nterlaken, where
in a milking contest three days long,
the same cows, MIXED in songless
silence, yielded 200 quarts of milk;
MIXED by maids with fair voices, they
yielded 220 quarts; MIXED by maids
with the finest voices they yielded 240
quarts. This proof of a fact that had
long been suspected at once set a pre-
MUM on the milkmaids who could
sing well. They that could not sing
we'll began Immediately to study vo-
calization, and hence Switzerland has
many good singing milkmaids. Milk
ing time in the mountain is easily
known by the tourist on account Of
the enormous volume of song that
then scars up. silent milking is a
crime, and the dairymaid who milks
in silence is certain to lose her po-
sition. Swiss maids who apply for
places in diaries are examined as
strictly in singing as in milking and
butter-making. But dairying is only
n of the Swiss peasants occupa-
tons.
All yer the sides of the mountains
are seen the pretty chalets, with their
patches Of cultivated ground, and
every peasant seems to own some
land, ever though it may be not more
than a few square feet, but it is divid-
ed off into little plats for the different
vegetables like pieces in a crazy quilt.
In the valleys are the orchards and
pasture land. The mountain farms are
steep and rocky and cannot be plowed,
but are dug up with spades and hoes
by women and girls. The women also
occasionally cut the grass on the al
most perpendicular mountain slopes,
bind it into bundles and carry it to
the barns on their backs.
There is scarcely anything so pic
turesque as a Swiss haymaker with
c~uriously pointed hat, his loose blouse
of dark hue and his knee breeches, as
he moves about with his rake over his
shoulder. That self-same swain
swinging his broad-bladed, straight
handled scythe, while with a swish
swash he mows the grass laid before
him, makes another graceful figure.
The round, rosy cheeks and the simple
costume Of basque, full short skirt
and bright head-dress of the buxom
maidens who rake after him render
the picture complete.
The costumes of these still idyllic
peasants are as picturesque as nature.
The Bernese peasant girls costume is
beautiful, with its snow-white shirt
sleeves rolled up to the shoulder, ex-
posing to view a plump, sunburnt arm.
The life Of the people, active and in
tensely human, is filled up with many
festive occasions, full of ceremonial
traditions. In these they exhibit their
national customs and costumes, and
the most interesting of them concern
affairs nearest the heart. Betrothal,
marriage, christening, as well as the
many folk affairs, furnish occasions
in which the festive dance is gleefully
INDUCED in. Many a hard days work
is ended by such a festive gathering,
and then 1t Is that the soul OF the
peasant Is wrought forth in his timely
acts.