A PRIMITIVF COMMUNITY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2264, 19 June 1880, Page 2

A PRIMITIVF COMMUNITY.

Tiie Cencva correspondent of the Times ” writes under date .March 12: —‘‘The smallest Protestant commune in Switzerland, probably in Knrope, and certainly the most primitive, is that of Ablandebenon, in the circle of Saanen. canton Feme. Ablandchenen, a word literally signifying ‘ a. little outlying place,’ is situate in a remote mountain valley, 4000 feet above the level of the sea, and its unsophisticated inhabitants contrive to dispense with most of the a ppendages which arc considered inseparable from modern civilization. Sir ’Wilfred Lawson will bo pleased to learn that they do not possess a single public house. Dr .Richardson mightjpossibly find in Ablandchcucu the Hvgeia after which he sighs, for albeit there is not a doctor in the village, there lias not been a death for many years: and were Mr .Bright to take up his abode there, he would be free from a trouble of which he has more than once feelingly complained, as, though the commune enjoys the blessings of a penny post, it has only one delivery of letters a n eck. As may bo supposed in these circumstances,, daily papers do not command a veryready sale in the neighborhood. Commerce and handicrafts arc conspicious by their absence ; there is neither blacksmith, baker, wheelwright, nor shopkeeper, in all the commune, and the people being all honest and peaceable they require neither notary, lawyer, nor policeman. Fvery fourteen days a pedler with a van goes the round of the commune and supplies the housewives with all that they want in the shape of crockery, drapery, thread, needles, paper, and sundries: food is provided by their own Hocks, herds, and poultry, and, it is banlly necessary to say, as they have little need fur ready money, the Ablandclieiiers keep no banker. They have a tiny church with a single hell, and it is a standing joke in the place that when a girl is born they ring a peal, but on thebirth of a lad they ring only one bell.. It may be supposed, perhaps, that theinhabitants of this sequestered valley find their lives somewhat hard anil] monotonous, hut a correspondent writing; thence to a Zurich paper says this is so> far from being the case, that they enjoy a far larger measure of happiness than falls .to the lot of most men, and have no desire to exchange their Alpine home for the life of cities.’