GERMAN VILLAGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2288, 27 November 1889, Page 2

GERMAN VILLAGES

The German peasants never live lo isolated houses about their farms. Thoy oomo together and form a little settlement, Bomiticico not moro than a dczia bonstfl 1q nil. Ho It is DOt Infrequent to Bee a atn»ll valley thiokly dotted with these riotfc, or villages, wb/'oti if put together would make a small town only. One of thrßo vllitig- c la seen to best advantage at tw light m the cummer, Everybody Is b-ck from the day's work m the fields, and tho place Is now as full of life as 1; was deserted at noon. For then only the grendmothers nnd grandfathers, whose eyesight is dimmed or their jolnta rheu - m^tlo stay at home and tell their young descendants the wonderful stories of witches and hobgoblins whioh they heatd under s'mllar olroamßtanoes from their grandfathers and grandmothers years and yeara ago.

By duck the peasants have already eaten their supper. The men lie about and smoke their long pipes, the women make thelr f knitting-needles fly while there la light, nnd/the children pipy the identioal gime that their parents played before them, where the? join hands In a wide olrole, Blng, and t;t the pautomlma of the ooar tshtp of a aoidier ond a peaeao*. girl.

Ab one walks over the i ongh oobb T ejtonea of the narrow stroat he s*ea .the hoaaes, whose tall, peaked roofs are divided Into atories like a pigeon coop, a<i dirty ax>d mooh more crowded. If yon are coara>coaa enongh to enter end climb the step rfokety stairs all (be oombloed amella of Cologne and Bagdad will greet your nootrils.

The various floors are onnod by different people, and even' the tooms may be bought or Bold like a plough cr cart. Two families usually cojupy throe coom?, using th a middle apartment aa a genera' kitchen and sitting room. Toe poorer people often h»va only one rooro. where they Bleep and drug nut their entire ex-'Bteooe, On tho bottom floor of the self eim« hods') where they dwell are stalled the oowa and oxen. ;

By auarlee the entire popalatloa v up and oat In the fisida. Not only does tho man choalder a hoe or a eoythe, bat the womaa fallu m and w«rka bb well. Entire famllloT, exoept only the very aged, go out. Children a few months old, who have no dooraplt reht'vjs fa tb.9 dorr to keep an five upnu Ih; m ut til evening, are carried out by the mothers and left under the shade of a neighboring tree, Boya and girlß are obliged to attend school until they are seventeen, and if they do not the parenta are fined. la the busiest part of the a'nmmer — the season for gathering hops, making bay and other stated tfmea>_a vacation Is given that the children may help In the fioldo. But during any of these seasons, If it should sat m and rain with no proßpeot of abatine bood, school la oilled again and continued during the wet weather ; then the teaoher lava aside fernle until the oropa ara m. The laborers <ja»ry oui; the food for the dty with them. Everyone has a jug of older or haer, which he drinks In p)»oe of wa,tor. The peasants live almost entirely on gvalo food and oheeao. Milk and butter they exchange tot othor more neoassary aod leaUaxurloua aitlolea,