GERMAN VILLAGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2286, 21 November 1889, Page 2

GERMAN VILLAGES

The German peaiaafa never live la Isolated hoaaas about thelc farms. They co mo together and fo?m a little settlemoat, eometlmeu not more than ft dozan ba!ldln£H m a, l. So It la not Infrequent to see the small val'ejr thlokly dotted with these dorfa, oe villages, which, If j;ut together, would make a acr&ll town only. One of those vi luges is Been to the best ad?ai.a aga at twilight m aummeri Everybody ia b*ck from the day's work In the fields, and the place ia now aa fall of life «s it was desacted at noon, For then only the grandmother aud grandfathers, wheae eyesight is dimmed or whose joint! rheumatic, stay at home, and toll theltf young descendants the wonderful stories/ of witoheo and hob&obltn », whloh they haard ondor similar olroumstanoes ftoa*> their grandfathars and gcacdmothers yoara and years ago. By dusk the peasants have already eat&n thsir sapper. The men lie about and smoke their long pipe?, the women make their knitting needles fly while. there is light, and the children play tht identical gamo their parents played before them, where they join, hands m ft wide circle, sing and mat the pantomime of the courtship of s soldier and a peasant girl. As one walks over the rough oobblestooea of the narrow street he sees the hoaaea, whose tall, peaked roofs are divided into stories like a pigeon cot, as dirty and muoh more crowded, If you are courageous enoagh to enter and: climb the steep, rickety stairs all the combined smells ofOolognaahd Bagdad will greet yoar nostrlla. . The various floors are owned by dlfforont people, and even the rooms may be bought or oold Ilk v t< plough or otrt. Tm) families usually ocuapy, three rooms, aaing the middle apartment as a general kltooen and sitting room. The poorer people oftun oaly have one room, where they Bleep, eat, and drag oat their entire etiatenoe. On the bottom ,fljor of tho aelf-same hodso where they dwell are atalled the cows and oxen; k By sanrlsd the entire "bopalation (s ap> and out m the fields, Not only does theman ahoalder a boo or apythe, bat thewomsn f alia m and works as Well. Entire* families, except oaly the very aged, go* out. OhildreD, a few months old, wha have no decrepit relatives m the dorf to keep an eye upon them nntil evening, are carried out by iße mothers and left ondse the shade of a neighboring ■ ' ' ' Boya and glrla are obliged to attend school until tnoy are seventeen, aud If they do not the parents are fined. Ia the busiest part of the aamnm— the season for gathering hops, making hay, and : other etatod times— a vacation is given that the children may help m the fielda. But daring any of these seasons, ■ if it sbould set In and rain with no $rps« ': poet cf abating noon, school is oalled again and continued during the wet weather; then the teacher iaya aalde his fernle until tdo crops ars m, The laborers carry oat the food foe the day with them. Everyone has a jug of cider or beer, whjch be> drinka m place of water. The peasant* live almost entirely on grain food and cheese Milk and butter they exchange for other more necessary and leas luxurious artlolea.