River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1919-01-09

TT WAS the vintage time, and L
tried to forget that half of Chris
# tendon was plunged in a great
war. Leaving the fighting line,
wandered about in the lovely freedom
of the hill country of Tuscany, past vii
aas which are surmised rather than
seen through the long yistas Of grave,
sill expresses and around smiling, sill
yergreen olive slopes from whose sum-
nitS beckOn dignifed palace fortresses
Of the Medicis or sterner and more
aged ivy-decked towers, writes Tus-
Gany correspondent of the New York
Evening Post. Finally, I reached the
read of my mornings quest and
stopped where a high wall, after many
burns and twists, suddenly opened to
II vision of green terraces. 1t was the
gate to the pOdere upon which Ton
inO and his fOrebears have labOred for
Rhe last century and a half-the fam
lily "gOing to the land" not as serfs,
but as willing servants of the soil.
Entering the terraced farm, I skirt
cd stout wall with ivy spreading low
ingIy over its gray stones; a hedge of
winter roses followed me in fragrant
e0mpaniOnship all the way to Toninos
farmhouse, a structure poised bravely
over a precipitous ledge of rocks.
The house itself might be called an
architectural slant of walls, chimneys,
stone flags and steps running off and
down in all directions till they seem to
merge with the vines and the olive
tree and the green sod. Fingered a mo-
ment, then followed in the wake of a
primitive Oxcart, painted bright red,
an which the empty grape watts rumb-
bled generously as the plodding beasts
dragged their draft over the stony
road.
Harvesting the Grape Crop.
1t was pagan-almost bacchanalian
picture, as those huge cattle, white
and big-hOrned, moved slowly and pro-
eesSiOnally down the way, flanked by
grape vines in endless, festive wreaths
and festOons strung from tree to tree.
at the lower terrace host of neigh
sOrs was busily at work cutting the
@eW-mOist grapes, dropping the lus-
ciOuS punches into picturesque bas-
kets lying all about The sun played
"a glad, shifting shadows in and out
OF the vines and olive trees, while the
damp soil, drinking in the solar
warmth, eXuded a moisture heavily
0dOr0us with the Astounding vitality
oF Mother Earth.
THE harvesters included many wom-
EN-. some territorial soldiers on leave
and few children. No one, old or
young, gave signs of fatigue; the labor
was pursued slowly and easily, not at
all as d Struggle in overcoming time,
or resistance. 1t was this seeming
SlOwnesS of the laborers in Italy which
90 the nervous and strenuous Ameri-
can observer, the impression of a
waStage of time in the accomplis hment
of things This apparent slOWnesS,
however, is rather a wise restr mt and
distribution OF effort, coupled with ira
ditiOnal skill or special hardness,
which bring about results by dizziness
as well as by mere expenditure of
force.
So, at this harvesting, all of that
crowded, terraced acreage had been
ShOrn of it's grapes by shutdown, and
Gil the fruit carried away to the wine
press.
Supper for Tonino's Laborers.
At nine in the evening we gathered
at TOnin0's house for the harvest sup
per, TO which, by immemorial custom,
everyone who has labored in the vine
yards must be invited. We entered by
the kitchen door, near which hung a
little oil lamp patterned after those
OF the EtruScans; at the long table in
the main room of this casa colonica
sat three generations of harvesters-
"a Men, women and children.
A warm, soothing, natural" odor of
oxen and stable came thinly and not
HnpleaSantly into the feast chamber,
which had that dignity of proportion
and fine simplicity of lines which
speaks of Tuscan taste, even in these
hnnlble quarters. A light hung from
the center of the ceiling threw a rath-
er dim illumination over the festive
board, but amply sufficient for us to
see ali the good things which awaited
CUR impending attack. First soup was
served from huge bowls into deep, ca