faiS?r- Itoa UC-NRLF $B S^b OEE ^^•^ WISSLIF N '4»^^ Swiss Life neighbouring states, among them being St. Gall, Valais, Neuchatel, and the Leagues of Rhaetia (that is, of Graubiinden), while the Forest Can- tons held as a tributary district part of what is now the canton of Tessin. Surviving the struggles of the Reformation almost, as one may say, by the skin of the teeth, the little republic was destined to go down before the fury of the French Revolution. However, though crushed for the time being, the Swiss were by no means beaten. They only bided their time, and it came when, in 1803, Napoleon, as First Consul, interposed with his **Act of Media- tion," whereby the old cantonal arrangement and constitution was to a certain extent restored. At the same time the cantons of St. Gall, Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, Graubiinden, and Tessin were added to the Bund^ thus increasing the number of confederated states to nineteen. This arrange- ment lasted only until 18 15, when, on the down- fall of Napoleon, these liberty-loving children of the Alps, rising to a man, seized the opportunity to resume all their old rights and privileges, and to go back, as far as was then possible, to the condition of things in being anterior to the Revo- lution. A " Federal Pact " was drawn up and signed at Zurich in that year, one of the most notable things connected with it being the acces- sion of three new cantons — those, namely, of Geneva, Neuchatel, and Valais — to the Bwid, thus raising its constitutent members to the pre- The Sovereignty of the People 3 sent number of twenty-two. Equally important is the fact that by the Treaty of Vienna the inde- pendence and neutrality of Switzerland were guaranteed by Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Portugal. The country was thus started, under the most favourable auspices, on a new era of progress and prosperity. The onward course, however, was by no means a smooth one. Within the bounds of the Confed- eration were mixed up, along with a very " live " people, a great many very heterogeneous ele- ments. Hence there arose a movement, a stir of life, a going to and fro, in this little out-of-the way land, such as had never before been known. This had been rendered the easier by the great roads which Napoleon had caused to be made across the Alps, and which, bringing as they did numberless visitors to the country and a great deal of gold, gave the Swiss the desire, as well as the means, to continue the same work. The activity thus inspired and inaugurated has never since been intermitted. Nor was this rush of travel without its effect in producing a concurrent stir of ideas. It has frequently been said that Schiller, through his drama of William Tell, and Goethe by his Letters from Switzerland, did a great deal not only to reveal Switzerland to its people, but to the world at large; and the fact is indisputable, as has been frequently acknowledged by Swiss writers. Yet, great as is the indebtedness of the 34 Swiss Life people of Switzerland to those two famous Ger- mans, the}^ in some respects owe a still larger debt of gratitude *to Byron, not only for what he did to make the Alps, and especially the Lake of Geneva, known to the world, but for doing much besides to stir up and vitalise the dead and arid bones of old custom and wont with the fire of living thought. This has often been acknow- ledged to me by Swiss men and women of dis- tinction and eminence, more particularly, however, in the French-speaking cantons. From the signing of the Federal Pact, in 1815, to the year 1848 was a period of great and almost perpetual stress and turmoil, and it looked very much at one time as though the Confedera- tion was going to fall to 'pieces. The chief trouble, or at least the one which led to the great- est danger, arose in the main from religious differences, with the Jesuit as a potent inciting cause. However, after a state qf war, which fortunately lasted but three weeks, the attempted scission was put an end to; and all parties, sobered somewhat by the danger through which they had passed, went to work in a more conciliatory spirit than had hitherto obtained to put the national house in order. The result was the revision of the Federal Pact of 18 15, and the placing of the constitution on a more satisfactory basis. By this supreme Act of 1848 the Confederation was converted from a Staatenbu7id — that is, a number of states banded together for the purposes of de- The Sovereignty of the People 35 fence and mutual help — into a Bundesstaat, i. e.y a single state, from which, though the separate parts retain a certain amount of independence, they cannot recede when and as they like. The constitution then adopted, with certain important modifications (introduced by the fresh revision of 1874), is the one still in force, and is so remarkable an evidence of conservative yet progressive statesmanship that it is well worth a brief study. The object of the Confederation, according to the revised Constitution of 1874, is declared to be the preservation of the independ- ence of the country, the protection of the rights and liberties of the people, and the increase of their common prosperity. Under this Constitu- tion the cantons remain sovereign so far as their sovereignty is not limited by the powers given to the Federal authorities, and as such they exercise all the rights not thus delegated. The powers which have been handed over to the Federal Gov- ernment are those which make it supreme in all matters relating to peace, war, and treaties, as well as in such questions as relate to the army, the postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, the coining of money, the issue and repayment of bank-notes, and Swiss weights and measures. All questions of general revenue likewise come within its competence, and it legislates besides in matters touching civil capacity, copyright, bank- ruptcy, patents, and sanitary police. To it also is entrusted the carrying out of such public works 36 Swiss Life as concern the well-being of the people or the country as a whole, including (as already stated) the protection of forests, the construction of roads and railways, the conservation of rivers, lakes, etc. On the Federal Government, too, has been conferred the power to establish, when it sees fit, a Federal University, and to control the same, as it now does the Polytechnic School which has for many years been doing such good educational work at Zurich. By a recent law the Central Government has also obtained exclusive control over the manu- facture and sale of spirituous liquors. This new power was necessitated by the alanning extent to which drunkenness was increasing throughout the Confederation, and it was freely accorded by a popular vote of the entire country, taken on the 25th of October, 1885. Previous to that date practically anyone could manufacture alcohol, and the result was demoral- ising in the extreme. Now, by a recent decision of the Federal Chambers, the production of spirit is limited to thirty thousand hectolitres annually. The Federal regulation of alcohol has been much discussea in late years from the point of view of the results obtained, financial and other. '* If it has not completely attained the end aimed at in the outset by its originators," says a recent authority, *' we can nevertheless assert that, re- garded from the point of view of agriculture, it has had the important result of transforming a The Sovereignty of the People 37 practice which was demoralising in the highest degree into a wholesome industry, and one re- markably adapted to the conditions of the agricul- ture which feeds it." The same writer goes on to say that, in criticis- ing the existing arrangements regulating the traffic in alcohol, people are apt to forget the condition of things which they brought to an end, and the improved outlook for the moral and physical health of the people which has been in- augurated by " the abolition of the uncontrolled manufacture of a detestable beverage, the use of which extended even to the food of children, and whose evil effects, like a veritable leprosy, left their mark on the fairest regions of the land." The way in which the proceeds of the Federal alcohol monopoly are disposed of is a striking illustration of the divided sovereignty which is the basis of Swiss national and communal life. The net profits thus arising — which in 1898 amounted to 6,453,335 francs ($1,250,000) — go to the cantons, and are used by them for the pur- poses of the State ; but each canton is bound to expend one tenth of the amount received in com- bating alcoholism both as regards its causes and its effects. In some of the German cantons a portion of the fund thus obtained is devoted to the support of asylums for the inebriate. In all other matters save those above referred to, the cantons have complete liberty of action as regards the management of their own internal 38 Swiss Life affairs. They not only have complete control of all matters concerning themselves alone, but they can conclude treaties with foreign States in re- gard to questions of public economy and touching frontier and police regulations, provided there be nothing in such treaties contrary to the Federal Constitution, or to the rights of other cantons. In short, apart from and notwithstanding the specific powers delegated to the Federal Govern- mentf each canton jealously safeguards its posi- tion as a sovereign State, and, indeed, gives its adhesion and support to the Confederation ex- plicitly on the condition that, within the limits prescribed, it shall guarantee and protect such sovereignty. Moreover, while the cantons, or the people of the cantons, delegate certain powers to the Fed- eral Government, they are supposed not to part, in any sense, with their sovereign rights. This is the most peculiar, and at the same time the most striking, feature of the Swiss political sys- tem ; it is one, also, which needs to be thoroughly grasped before the fundamental principle of their complicated constitution can be properly compre- hended. According to the theory of Swiss rights, all sovereign power resides originally in the people. All authority, therefore, is vested in them, and they are so jealous of that authority that they will not surrender it to any man or any body of men. They are, of course, obliged to delegate power to individuals, and to authorise The Sovereignty of the People 39 them to act temporarily, and under certain con- ditions, in their behalf ; but upon all such dele- gated authorities they keep a powerful check-rein, which, it is perfectly within bounds to say, they never relinquish out of their hands. This check- rein is dual in character ; in other words, it is composed of two parts, one being called the * ' Referendum, ' ' and the other the popular ' ' In- itiative." Most persons who have taken any interest in politics of late years have heard or read of these two characteristic Swiss institutions ; the Refer- endum in particular having been advocated by several writers on political subjects as a substitu- tion for the English Upper House, and as a means of obviating or counteracting some of the evils of party and parliamentary government. The Referendum may be described as a reference to the people of a law or political measure, which has already been discussed and put into shape by the legislative body, but which cannot become a legal enactment until it has been approved by a majority of the electors voting for or against. The Referendum is no new thing in Switzer- land, and seems to have had its origin in the Landsgemeinde, of which I shall have something to say later. As long ago as the sixteenth cent- ury the people of Zurich and Berne were called upon to decide the question of the Reformation, as applied to themselves, by means of the Refer- endum, although not in the way it is now known. 40 Swiss Life In its present form the institution is comparatively modern. It existed in the cantons of Valais and the Grisons before 1848, and, strange to say, in the former it was suppressed in that year with the consent of both political parties. Perhaps they found it, as politicians of all shades admit it to be, a two-edged sword which cuts both ways. In 1858, the canton of Neuchatel adopted the Refer- endum, reserving it, however, exclusiv^ely for financial matters. Three years later Vaud did the same. At present such reservations no longer exist. All the cantons, with one or two exceptions, now put it in practice and apply it to all legislative Acts. In many of the cantons, indeed, it is not confined to cantonal matters, but is adopted in the communes, or, as we should say, in the parishes. Finally, in accordance with the prin- ciple recognised in 1848, that the people have a right to participate in the life of the Confedera- tion, the Referendum was formally made part of the revised Constitution of 1874. Article 89 of that Constitution provides that all laws passed by the Federal Assembly shall be submitted for the approval of the people if a demand be made to that effect by thirty thousand citizens, or by eight cantons, that is, bj^ eight cantonal Governments. The same principle applies to all measures adopted by the Federal executive which have a general bearing, and which are not spe- cially urgent in character. The Referendum is The Sovereignty of the People 41 thus optional, or *' facultative," as it is usually called, in its application to Federal matters ; but as adopted in the cantons, and as applied to local State matters, it is sometimes optional and some- times compulsory. In the cantons of St. Gall, Zug, Lucerne, Basel-city, Schaffhausen, Vaud, Neuchatel, Geneva, and Tessin it is optional ; while in Zurich, Berne, Thurgau, Aargau, So- leure, Schwyz, the Grisons, and Basel-land it is obligatory. Valais adopts the Referendum in relation to financial matters. Freiburg clings to its old representative form of government ; whilst Uri, Glarus, the two Unterwaldens, and Appen- zell (Inner and Ausser Rhoden) still find their primitive and picturesque Landsgemeinde^i suffi- cient for all their needs. There is, of course, much difference of opinion throughout Switzerland as to the value of the Referendum. One can hardly take a railway journey from one part of the country to another without meeting with almost every shade of view in regard to it. There is, however, among the more intelligent a general consensus of opinion that an institution which places the sovereign will of the people above that of the constituted authorities and legislative bodies, and so puts a check upon them, is a potent instrument for good in the hands of a wise and instructed people. No doubt it may be abused ; no doubt the most carefully considered measures of statesmen may be wrecked by the ignorance and prejudice of 42 Swiss Life political partisanship, for it has already been proved that the enemies of a proposed enactment are more eager to go to the polls than its friends. But the fact remains that thus far the Referendum has acted well. It has shown that there is no desire among the body of the public for hasty legislation, yet that when a proposed change has been long enough before the people for them to comprehend its bearings, they are generally ready to adopt it. The Swiss, however, are a thrifty people, living and doing well on small means, and they are apt to boggle at large financial out- lays. The}^ are wisely suspicious of the augmen- tation of public burdens and of any change that threatens the simplicity of life and habits which has hitherto characterised them. To my mind this is the most striking lesson of the Referen- dum. It was thought by many that such an instrument in the hands of the democracy, in conjunction with the Initiative, would lead to hast}^ and ill-considered legislation, and, in short, would soon bring about a general political de- luge. But the very reverse of this has happened. The Referendum has proved the Swiss democracy to be conservative to the very core. The Initiative is the natural corollary of the Referendum. The latter sets the stamp of popu- lar approval, or the reverse, upon a measure which has been proposed for legal enactment ; the Initiative recognises the further right of the people to a first voice in proposing legislation. The Sovereignty of the People 43 In brief, it constitutionally establishes the com- petence of the private or lay person to set afoot any measure for the reform of the Constitution which he thinks might be useful, provided he can secure the signatures of fifty thousand persons in its favour. Article 120 of the Federal Constitu- tion says, * * They can also demand, by the popu- lar Initiative, the abrogation or modification of given articles of the Federal Constitution, as well as the adoption of new formal dispositions." It goes on to say that when fifty thousand Swiss citizens, having the right to vote, present a peti- tion of this kind, the question shall be submitted to the people whether the partial revision asked for shall take place. If a majority of the persons casting their vote pronounce affirmatively, then the Federal Assembly must set about making the revision indicated. This, of course, means nothing more than that the Assembly — composed of the National Council and the Council of States— shall lay the matter formally before the people, who by means of the Referendum will register their final yea or nay. The popular Initiative is now constitutional in the major part of the cantons ; but here, as in everything else, the peculiar genius of the people strikingly shows itself. In few of these cantons is the Initiative exercised in the same way and to the same extent. In some it can be put in force only at the Landsgemeinden ; in others it is ap- plicable only to the revision of the cantonal 44 Swiss Life constitution ; while in others, again, it may be applied to the whole domain of legislation. |Thus it will be seen how the communes dele- gate certain powers to the canton, and the canton, for them, certain powers to the Confederation. This delegated power is wielded by the Federal Assembly, which consists of the National Council and the Council of States. The National Council is elected direct, on the basis of one member for every twenty thousand persons of the population, every man who has completed his twentieth year being entitled to a vote. The Council of States consists of forty-four members, each canton send- ing two members, each half-canton ondS^ Both the members of the National Council and the members of the Council of States are paid, the first from the Federal treasury, the second by the cantonal authorities. Each chamber is elected triennially, and the two meet together at each re- newal of their powers to elect the Federal Coun- cil, which corresponds, in a sort, to the British Cabinet, and is composed of seven members. Each member, chosen from the National Council, must belong to a different canton, and on election ceases to be a deputy. This Council chooses every year from its own members a president and a vice-president, who cannot occupy the same post two years in succession. The President of the Federal Council is the President of the Swiss Republic. If his position is one of less brilliance and distinction than that enjoyed by the President The Sovereignty of the People 45 of the French Republic, or than that of the Presi- dent of the United States, it is also one of less personal responsibility, and likewise one of less danger to the commonwealth itself. ^As regards the Federal Council, there is one word of explanation which should be added here. It is that this Council is the very opposite of the English Cabinet in that it is not a party combina- tion. It may be, and as a matter of fact is, com- posed of men of every shade of political feeling ; but all party bias is sunk or lost sight of in the duty of carrying out the will of the people, who, as we have seen, possess so many means of mak- ing that will known and felt. In this respect the Federal Council probably resembles no other re- sponsible executive in a modern state. ^ CHAPTER IV THE GKMKINDEN AND THK IvANDSGEMKINDEN SWITZERLAND is at present, as Wr. Leslie Stephen has so well named it, " the Play- ground of Europe"^ but the time is coming when it will be the Mecca of all students and admirers of pure and unadulterated democratic government. The historical student will find it developing through many stages, some extremely curious and surprising, which even to-day show their traces in customs and privileges that are almost mediaeval in their unconventional quaint- ness and oddity. The ancient costumes of the people, save here and there in remote valleys, are dying out, and the omnipresent schoolmaster is effacing many of the more salient differences of character which mark the various districts of the country ; but there are certain traits and institu- tions which seem to give hostages to time and bid defiance to change, like the hills which over- shadow them. Some of these I shall have occa- sion to refer to in subsequent chapters, and I will at present, therefore, confine my attention to the commune and the Lafidsgemeiiide. 46 Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 47 These are the two most characteristic institu- tions of the country, and one cannot properly understand its political constitution, either as re- gards the Confederation or the cantons, without a thorough comprehension of them. yMl political life, all individual right, centres in the commune^ or, as it is called in the German-speaking cantons, the Gememde. /The Swiss citizen is first of all a member of his commune. Without that link there is no citizenship. The commune is there- fore the unit of political life, and upon it the Federal Constitution is based. No one can take away a man's right as member of his commune ; only by his own act may a man's right in that respect be impaired or destroyed. 7* ^(Jjie commune may be said to exist both in the abstract and in the concrete sense. The term carries with it the idea of certain inalienable rights and privileges, a bond whereby certain in- dividuals are held together in mutual duty and obligation, a social possession common to a num- ber of people; but it also carries with it the further signification of an extent of land to which these people are linked by right of birth, and from which they cannot be divorced. This land is held by them in common^^ Hence the name com- mune, or Gemeinde^ whicli means the same thing. There are three thousand of these communes in Switzerland, varying vastly in size, in tne nature of their soil, in their products, and in other par- ticulars. Some of them, of course, are purely 4^ Swiss Life agricultural, sparsely populated, and very poor. Others, being the sites of large towns or thriving villages, are in a very different position as regards wealth and the amenities of life from those wherein a niggard soil has to be laboured and belaboured early and late in order to extract from it the barest subsistence. /Originally, all the inhab- itants of a communS^ had equal rights in the communal lands. But in course of time, as popu- lations moved about more freely, and strangers began to settle in communes in which they were not born, there gradually arose two classes of burgesses, one known as the Burger ^ or citizen proper, the other known as an *' inhabitant " merely. The difference is essential. The Burger, or descendant of the original settlers, alone has the right to take part in the management of the com- munal lands. The assembly in which he and his fellow-citizens discuss questions concerning these lands is called the Bilrgergemeinde. It is almost identical with the Communal Assembly, which controls the political affairs of the commune; save that when a question touching the communal lands comes up for decision, the later arrivals or "inhabitants" refrain from voting. This distinction between Burger and ' ' inhabit- ant " is very sharply drawn in some of the older and more conservative cantons ; but it is begin- ning to give way to larger and more reasonable views. 3 < O cc I \- uT 3 f- (/) O o UJ _I < 111 L . a UJ I H < UJ _i S _i < u cc N u. Z UJ >- CL QC 0. UJ < O u. o O cr CO z S < uJ 2 o ^ Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 49 Only a few months ago one of these vestiges of rights coming down from the Middle Ages was done away with in the canton of Berne. Near Langenthal there is an extensive pasturage, which at one time belonged to the convent of St. Urbain, but which subsequently became the property of the communes of Langenthal and Schoren. The ancient right of pasturage on this laud was maintained, even though some of the burgesses had acquired portions of it by purchase. Thence arose a very strange anomaly : for whilst during several weeks in the autumn the Burgers of Langenthal and Schoren could send their cattle to feed upon these pastures, those who were merely '' inhabitants " were prohibited from doing so, even though some of them had become owners of portions of the land in question. It was seen at length that this state of things could not continue, and so for a sum of twenty thou- sand francs the two communes agreed to allow to all. Burgers and ' * inhabitants ' ' alike, equal rights of pasturage. The relations between the two kinds of com- munal rights existing in the same Gemeinde — that is, between the/^ights of the Burger and the lesser rights of the * inhabitant " — have been the occasion of a great deal of trouble in some of the cantons. /There is, perhaps, no single ques- tion connected with Swiss politics that has gi\^n rise to so much (iiscussion and difference^ of opinion between opposing partfts. The aim of 50 Swiss Life the A.adical party has been for years to abolish the so-called ''Burger communes," and to estab- lish in their place what they term * ' uniform ' ' communes — that is, communes that shall embrace all the inhabitants. VThe idea is making steady progress, although it must be confessed that it is slow, except in the more progressive French- speaking cantons. The laws and customs which obtain in the various communes are apt to differ in very ma- terial ways. Each commune, however, is in itself free and independent. So long as it does not go beyond its own proper privileges there is no one to interfere with it. Vfeach com- mune is sufficient for itself, being practically, whether small or large, a state in miniature, with an organised government, consisting of an executive and a deliberative body. ^ In the Qer- man-speaking parts of Switzerland, the latter body, known as the Gemeinderath, is composed of all the male burgesses — that is, of all the resi- dent males who have'^'^tained twenty years of age. They meet together at stated periods and decide questions of public importance. At these assemblies, too, the annual budget is fixed, the communal accounts are passed, new taxes levied, and the executive council and other local officials elected. In some of the cantons attendance at these meetings is compulsory, and there is a fine for non-attendance. The executive, or, as it is sometimes called, Communal Council, consists of y Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 51 three or four members, and is presided over by a mayor or syndic. In the larger communes there is a more extensive differentiation of function, special committees, for instance, having charge of the schools and matters pertaining to educa- tion, or it may be having the supervision of the roads, public buildings, water rights, and so forth. As already said, the communal system exists throughout the length and breadth of Switzer- land, and is the fountain-head of all political life There is, however, a difference between the com. munal life of the French-speaking or Wiclsch cantons and that in which German is the mother tongue. It is in this part of Switzerland that the communal spirit is seen in its sturdiest form. To the French Swiss the feeling of the sovereignty of the commune seems to come less naturally than to the German Swiss, who have been nurtured in this "elementary school of liberty" for age^ M. Dubs, in his work, Le Droit Public de la Con- federation Suisse, says^y In French Switzerland there is a general idea that communal life eman- ates from above, and we have no sort of communal assembl}^ -^Sometimes the communal electors merely have the right of electing the Communal Council, which is responsible for nominating the Municipal Council, or Executive. This lack of communal life reacts on the political life, and the French-speaking peoples are much too ready to listen to those in power and wait for them to take the initiative." The distinction is summed up 52 Swiss Life ver)^ concisely by Mr. A. L. Lowell. ' V^-^^^^^S the Germans," he says, " there is more jealousy and distrust of the government, and more con- fidence in the direct action of the people ; while the French are less democratic in the Swiss sense of the term, and more inclined to follow the lead of the regular authorities?***i5^ It need hardly be said that the communes, as the units of political life, present th e greates t possible variety in their laws and methods of pro- cedure. ■"'I'lT the older and more sparsely populated cantons, like Zug and Uri, we find the simplest forms. In the assemblies for public business all the burgesses vote directly, not by representative. In populous places like Berne and Zurich this is, of course, impossible. In such towns, therefore, it is necessary to have Councils elected by the people. In Berne, since 1887, there has been a Genieinderath^ or Communal Council, of nine members, and a Municipal Council, which acts as a check on the Communal Council. These Councils are elected annually by the people of the commune, who, however, in no way give up their powers to them ; hence there must be an annual voting on all questions of importance, and on these occasions the people are very ready to show their independence and their public spirit. Thus in the summer of 1896 the people of Berne were asked to sanction the introduction of propor- tional representation in the election of the Com- ' The Referendum and the Initiative. Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 53 munal Council, a proposal which was rejected. On the same occasion they adopted a suggestion for reducing the price of gas and a proposition with reference to the maintenance of the cathedral tower. It will ,^ seen from these instances how thoroughly the^wiss people keep their hands on public business. ^ They never, in fact, wholly re- linquish the check-rein on their public bodies^'s Moreover, they not only reserve to themselves the power to reject measures proposed to them, but they jealously guard the right of Initiative. Thus in Berne any five hundred citizens may submit a proposal to the Councils, which they in due course are bound to lay before the people. Znrip ] -| ,j-)rpspnts a similar state of things. Zu- rich has been said to be the most democratic and go-ahead community in Switzerland, and it well deserves the reputation. ^TTTs people never hesitate to make a change if it seems likely to prove an improvement In 1891, they made a thorough reorganisation of the commune, forming for de- liberative purposes a Grand Municipal Council, and an Executive Council composed of nine mem- bers. But here, too, as in the case of Berne, there is no surrender of power. All matters of the first importance must be submitted to the popular vote, as well as all financial proposals over a certain amount. Thus, in 1896, the people, having already acquired existing tramways, ac- cepted a motion to lay down three additional lines. They at the same time voted in favour of 54 Swiss Life a proposition for buying land whereon to erect workmen's dwellings. As in Berne, any body of citizens in Zurich can initiate legislation, provided they are able to get their proposal backed by eight hundred voters. In what are known as the Landsgemeinde can- tons, namely, Uri, Glarus, Obwald, Nidwald, and the two Appenzells, there is usually but one coun- cil, which is the executive, everything of a legis- lative nature being transacted at the communal meetings. There once a year, generally on the last Sunday in April or the first Sunday in May, the whole body of burghers assemble in their ca- pacity of legislators. This is the Landsgemeinde. Here the democratic principle in its purest form is seen at work, the right of Initiative as well as that of the Referendum finding in it at one and the same time their natural expression. In the canton of Glarus the burghers are invited once a year, in the month of January, to present to the Landrath any propositions with reference to legislation they desire to bring forward, and it is rare that a number are not sent in. The Land- rath decides as to their importance, and as to whether they are or are not worthy of being sub- mitted for discussion to the Landsgemeinde. But even those propositions not considered of sufficient importance to be discussed cannot be withheld altogether from the people, but must be submitted and either rejected en bloc or referred for discus- sion at the next annual meeting. The Landsge* Gemeinden and Laiidsgemeinden 55 meinde of Glarus is one of the most striking of all as regards some of its features. As at other Landsgemei7iden, the women and children are privileged to attend ; but in this case they are given the place of honour, being seated in the very front of the assembly. Here they listen to the discussion of the affairs of the canton, in which, perhaps, their fathers or brothers take an active part, and cannot, of course, help being impressed — the children especially — by the simple and yet dig- nified ceremony, transacted, as it is, under the eye of heaven and in view of the snow-clad mountains. I have had the privilege and pleasure of attend- ing two Landsgemeinde gatherings, and I know of nothing in the way of public electoral functions more strikingly interesting, and at the same time more wonderfully picturesque. The Landsge- meinde of Uri takes place in a meadow at Schad- dorf, on the opposite side of the river from Altdorf. The cantonal authorities, mounted, and with the Landa7nman (or president) at their head, march from Altdorf to the place of meeting, preceded by a detachment of soldiers and a band of music. The standard of the canton is con- spicuous in the forefront of the procession, and along with it go two men in old-time costume, bearing aloft the two bull's horns, which are at once the insignia and symbol of Uri sovereignty. The business before the assembly on the occa- sion referred to was very brief. From the hust- ings erected for the occasion the different matters 56 Swiss Life to be settled — and they were very few — were explained to the people present, the arguments for and against were stated by the various speak- ers, and then the questions were put to the vote, and decided by show of hands. When the agenda had been despatched, the Landammmi and the other public officials resigned their positions, and were either re-elected or others were chosen in their place. The whole function occupied little more than an hour, and, it need hardly be said, was extremely quaint. It reminded one, in its general features, of nothing so much as an old- time Yorkshire camp-meeting, when teetotallers used to march, with banners flying and band play- ing, to a suitable field near the village, and there hold forth in the pleasant sunshine on their beloved topic ; only, as regards costume, the Swiss, of course, presented a much more picturesque appear- ance than the English. In the one case, as in the other, prayer brought the proceedings to a close. Equally picturesque, and even more mediaeval, is the Landsgemeinde of Appenzell-inner-Rhoden. Next to Basel-Stadt (which comprises this city only), this half-canton is the smallest of the States composing the Confederation, and num- bers but from twelve to thirteen thousand inhabit- ants, all except some six or seven hundred of them being Catholics. The Landsgemeinde is held in the public square of Appenzell, which puts on quite a festive appearance for the occa- sion. The windows of the houses are thronged Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 57 with the women-folk dressed in their old-time costume, and with children to whom it is the gala of the year. The town is almost entirely ringed in with high hills and towering peaks, Hoher Kasten and Kamor being among the highest ; and they, together with the green height carry- ing at its top the ruins of Castle Clanx, can be seen from the spot where is celebrated the great yearly function of the little State. As in the case of Uri, there is a procession of the cantonal officials. It starts from the build- ings devoted to public business, and is headed by the Landamman^ who is, however, preceded by a couple of State functionaries carrying halberds. All except the Layidweibel, or bailiff, are clothed in black gowns which descend to the feet ; the latter being robed half in white and half in black, those being the colours of the little common- wealth. On one side of the square are two plat- forms, much like the old election hustings in England. Upon the higher one, the ends whereof are adorned with a sword of Justice, the State officials take their places, while upon the lower one the judges of the Cantonal Court appear in their robes. The space in front of the hustings soon fills with the members of the Landsgemeinde — the ehr-U7id-wehrfest (true and steadfast) men of the community — all clad in their decent church-going clothes, chiefly black, and all wearing by their side an old sword or sabre, as sign and symbol of their freedom. Some of the younger men, 58 Swiss Life however, appear in costume, and thus give a touch of colour to the scene. If the attendance be very good there may be from two thousand to twenty- four hundred ''good men and true" present. Reverently, with heads uncovered, they stand while the Landamman opens the day's proceed- ings with a speech, dealing with such matters as are uppermost for the time being in the public mind. It is a sight to remember, this simple and stalwart crowd, which presents here and there figures of the rarest type — Capuchin monks, peas- ants, herdsmen — that might have stepped, so odd and strange are they, clean out of the Middle Ages. Having concluded his discourse, the Lan- damman lays down the seal of State, and descends from the platform, whereupon the Landschreiber {i. e. the cantonal secretary) invites the Landsge- meinde to choose a successor, his election or re- election being followed' by that of the other officers of State, and the assembly is brought to a close by the new Layidamman and then the people taking the oath of fidelity to the State. This administering of the oath is a very striking ceremony. The Landschreiber reads the oath from the Landbuch, a portly volume with heavy silver clasps, dating from about the time when the English were whetting their swords to deal with Philip of Spain's Armada. While the oath is being recited, the w^-^ Landamman stands w^ith head bent low and raised right hand, the fingers of which are held as the priest holds his in bless- i.:i HERDSMAN OF APPENZELL-INNER-flHODEN Gemeinden and Landsgemeinden 59 ing, and the ancient ^sculapian in mesmerising. After the Landamman has taken the oath, the whole Landsgemeinde repeat it after him, with the right hand raised in the same way, and so the function comes to a close. Whilst Inner-Rhoden is holding its Landsge- meinde at Appenzell, the neighbouring half- canton of Ausser-Rhoden gathers its people at Hundwil. They come in greater numbers to Hundwil than to Appenzell, Ausser-Rhoden be- ing able to muster its ten thousand ehr-imd- wehrfest men ; and a moving scene it is to hear and see the great assembly as it opens the day's proceedings with the hymn Alles Leben strbmt aiis Dir ('* From Thee all Life doth Stream")- As showing the nature of the busi- ness that comes before the La?idsgemeinde, let me sa}^ briefly that, at the assembly held on the last Sunday in April of this year, the people in their sovereign capacity rejected a proposal for the total revision of the cantonal constitution, a law relat- ing to the assurance of cattle, as well as another having to do with the rights of pasturage on the Alpine meadow^s. The Landsgemeinde^ however, at the same time gave its sanction to a law relat- ing to colportage and the public markets, as well as to a project for the revision of the law concern- ing the cantonal bank, and another relating to the execution of the Federal law in relation to actions at law and bankruptcy. A well-known State Councillor was appointed La7idamman, and 6o Swiss Life two new members of the Landrath were likewise elected ; then, with mutual oaths of fidelity to each other and the State, the proceedings were brought to a close. On the same day as the above, the Landsge- meinden of the two Unterwaldens took place. That of Obwald was held at Sarnen, on the classic Landenberg, and in spite of very bad weather, called together between twelve and fifteen hundred burghers. Three measures of importance were submitted to the assembly, two of which, one proposing the revision of the con- stitution, and another relating to the protection of artisans, were adopted, while a third, which concerned a proposition for the employment of water-power for the driving of electrical ma- chinery, was rejected. The Layidsgemeinde of Nidwald, held at Stans, had three or four matters of some importance be- fore it, but all were rejected. One had relation to a total revision of the constitution. These suggestions are periodically cropping up all over the country, and are generally incontinently knocked on the head. Then there were two tariff proposals, which met with no better luck ; finally, there was an "Initiative" proposal for the reintroduction of public dancing on the occa- sion of fairs, etc. This suggestion, we are told, was rejected by a large majority, which was to be expected, the Nidwaldners being, as a rule, sturdy Protestants. CHAPTER V PUBLIC EDUCATION THE Swiss boy and girl are educated with a distinct regard to the respective positions they will have to fill as citizens. They are edu- cated, too, as far as possible — due regard being had, of course, to their respective future duties — with equal breadth ancl thoroughness in all de- partments of learning, fin short, the girl is given the same chances as the boy for mental and physical development in the way of preparation for professional or other life ; while, as regards both, there is as fair an equality of opportunity provided by the State as is to be found in any country in the world, and a fairer equality than in most. 5> It is in no sense an exaggeration to say that the Swiss are of all peoples the most thoroughly im- bued with the need of education, and at the same time the most conscientious in seeing that its blessings shall be brought to every man's door, or as near thereto as is physicallj^ possible. A noted Englishman whom I once met in Switzer- land characterised them as '* educational cranks." 6i 62 Swiss Life But then he was typical of those of his country- men who sum up their views in regard to educa- tion in the phrase, "Why teach anything?" There was truer insight in the Frenchman who said, " The Swiss, almost alone amongst nations, have the pedagogic instinct." The peculiarity may arise in part from the fact that so many of its sons — Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Father Girard, Fellenberg, and their disciples — have devoted their attention to the subject of education, and, indeed, may be said to have established the prin- ciples of modern education. The good work they began, their fellow-countrymen continue with unabated perseverance, and with a fine insight and method which are eminently worthy of study and emulation. 1 ** In the matter of education," wrote Sir Horace Rumbold, when Secretary of Legation at Berne, *' the Swiss people manifest a veritable passion, and it is a thing worthy of sincere admiration . to note what heavy self-imposed pecuni- ary sacrifices they cheerfully make to the cause. The public foundations, the private gifts, the State contributions devoted to education by this otherwise thrifty, close-fisted race, may be truly said to be noble in the extreme. " ' * Our people, ' ' says M. Seippel, " have never found too heavy the sacrifices that were demanded of them on be- half of public instruction. They have always understood that in elevating their children they were elevating themselves. ' ' Taking the country Ul a: Q o I _i o o I o CO CO CO CO Public Education 63 as a whole, the average of education is very high, and not the least remarkable feature about the system of public instruction is that it aims at pro- ducing practical men — a respect in which, it must be said, it is singularly successful. There are few countries in which can be found so many men who are able to turn their hands — and with suc- cess — to different things. The same may be said of the women. All appear to have some gift or handicraft at their fingers' ends, whereby they can, in case of need, earn their bread. The present system of education dates from 1874, when Switzerland may be said to have taken a fresh start in the world. Previous to 1848, most of the cantons had organized a system of primary schools ; in that year, like most other things, they received a renewed impulse and im- petus, which has continued growing and de- veloping ever since. In 1874, education was made compulsory, and placed under the civil authority. According to Article 27 of the Federal Constitution adopted in that year, primary in- struction is required to be " sufficient, obligatory, gratuitous, and unsectarian." But while the Constitution saj^s so much, ordaining also that every child shall enjoy the privileges of instruc- tion until twelve years of age, it leaves the carrying out of the law as regards education to the several cantons. Kach canton, in conse- quence, has its own methods of public instruction. This is quite in accordance with the spirit which 64 Swiss Life everywhere prevails of allowing to the cantons the regulation and development of their own affairs. Thus, along with general unity, room is given for much diversity, and it is probable that the diversity favours strength rather than weakness. For instance, though, so far as the Federal law is concerned, twelve is fixed as the limit of prim- ary school age, yet in some cantons this is raised to fourteen, fifteen, and even sixteen years of age. In like manner the first school-year varies from five to seven in different cantons. The subjects taught also vary greatly. Schwyz and Geneva, for instance, combine the teaching of the natural sciences with that of the maternal language. While, however, in Schwyz the teaching of the catechism is obligatory for all Catholic children, in Geneva what religious instruction is given is couched in the broadest spirit. Geneva has in- troduced the tuition of German, for three hours a week, from the age of eleven. In Schwyz there is no instruction in geometry ; while in Basel- Campagne, as regards drawing, instruction is limited to geometrical outlines. In Geneva the school course requires three hours per week to be devoted to manual work. It is worthy of note in this connection that, of the 5232 schools possessed by Switzerland, 1060 give lessons in gymnastics all the year round, while 3412 give them during a part of the year. Only a sixteenth of the whole exclude gymnastics from their curriculum. Public Education 65 The maximum number of scholars confided to one master varies from fifty to one hundred and twenty. In Geneva and Neuchatel the number has been fixed at fifty, while in Zurich the limit is put at one hundred, and in Basel-land at one hundred and twenty. Manual work in the form of cutting out is compulsory for girls in most of the cantons ; in others it is optional. The time devoted to these matters varies from two to eight hours a week. In French Switzerland, or, as the people them- selves prefer to say, in la Suisse ro^nande, infant schools form the basis or the lower branch of the elementary schools, and are under public control. In other parts of the country they are more a matter of private enterprise. In north and east Switzerland they are rather caretaking schools, in which little or no instruction is given, except in the shape of exercises and plays designed to call out and direct the various activities of the little ones. It should be said that for school- children who are too poor to obtain proper food and clothing both public and private assistance is freely rendered. As in other matters connected with primary in- struction, great variety also exists in the differ«ent cantons in regard to the authority which has con- trol of the schools. While the chief authority is in some cases vested in an educational department or educational council, or both, in others it is en- trusted to a director of education, with or without 66 Swiss Life council. As regards the cost, in some cantons the charge falls almost entirely upon the com- munes ; in others it is divided between the canton and the communes. In the year 1897, the amount contributed by the cantons to public education was 20,064,983 francs; while the amount contributed by the communes was 21,736,696 francs, making a total of 41,801,- 679 francs (or $8,360,335), that is, over 15 francs (or $3) per head of the population. When it is said that the military expenditure for the same year amounted to 28,408,879 francs, it will be seen how great is the store the Swiss place upon education. In almost every village throughout the land the primary schools are attended by the children of the rich and poor alike. In this respect there is an utter absence of that snobbishness, so prevalent elsewhere, which leads parents to say that they cannot send their children to the common schools because of the bad habits they would be likely to contract. I once asked a native of Zurich, a man extremely well-to-do, if he did not fear such con- tamination by sending his children to the primary schools. He smiled. *' No," said he, '* I have no fear of the kind. Nor has my wife. She even thinks" — here his smile broadened — ** she even thinks that the presence of the children of the rich in the schools tends to improve the manners of those who are of poorer parentage. So, you see," he added with a laugh, '* even children may Public Education 67 be missionaries in a sense. ' ' In Switzerland there is no class of vagrant or destitute children which the educational system fails to reach, ' ' and the visitor," says one authority, " may see side by side the orphan who is fed and clothed by the commune and the son of a well-to-do tradesman or professional man, receiving the same instruc- tion, each being under precisely the same dis- cipline." In one respect only does there appear to be some slight friction in regard to education, and that is reduced almost to a minimum. Article 27 provides that public schools shall be ** so organised that they may be frequented by those belonging to all denominations without prejudice to their freedom of belief or of conscience " ; and the Confederation is legally bound to *' take such measures as may seem necessary against cantons which do not fulfil their obligations in this re- spect." During the years immediately following the adoption of the revised Constitution it was perceived by those who were not friendly to any form of denominational instruction that the law touching public elementary education was not being strictly adhered to. Religious teaching was continued within the schools, and in very many communes in the Catholic cantons the teachers were members of religious associations. A determined effort was therefore made to put an end to this state of things. The Radical majority in the Federal Assembly passed a resolution, by 68 Swiss Life the terms of which an inquiry was to be made into the condition of the schools in the various cantons and evidence collected with a view to future legislation on the subject. The publica- tion of this resolution was the signal for an out- cry of '* Religion in danger ! " throughout the length and breadth of the land, and a Referendum on the question was demanded, the result being that the Federal resolution was rejected by an immense majority. Nothing shows better than this the spirit of the country. With the freeing of primary instruction two other movements soon began to make themselves felt throughout Switzerland. One of them was for the equalising of education. Already in many parts of the country the gratuitousness of elemen- tary instruction was followed by a diminution of the charges imposed for the acquisition of school material. In one canton the State, acting as publisher, could give books at the lowest possible price ; in another it helped the communes to pro- vide such material gratis by giving subsidies. Elsewhere the gratuitous provision of books was made general. Meanwhile, a similar movement was set afoot to extend the system of gratuitous instruction to the secondary schools, as in Basel- Stadt, by augmenting the number of bursaries. This was the means of greatly increasing the number of those who could proceed, without let or hindrance, to the higher branches of education — a number relatively high in certain cantons. Public Education 69 The number of secondary schools to. meet the de. mands for a higher education is very large. They include preparatory schools of all kinds, for girls as well as for boys, private schools, trade schools, agricultural and technical schools, schools of art, and so forth. Among them may also be included the various colleges ox gy7nnasia and the industrial schools, one whereof exists in almost all the can- tonal capitals, as well as at Winterthur, Burgdorf, Porrentruy, Einsiedeln, Murten, and Brieg. In the Grisons, in Neuchatel, Geneva, and Soleure, normal schools for the training of teachers are attached either to the cantonal schools or are connected with the local academy or University. But separate establishments for this purpose exist in the cantons of Zurich, Berne, Lucerne, Schwyz, Freiburg, St. Gall, Aargau, Thurgau, Tessin, Vaud, and Valais. The smaller cantons, by virtue of special arrangements, send their future teachers to the seminaries of other cantons. Seven cantons have special normal schools for girls, namely, Zurich, Berne, Aargau, Tessin, Vaud, Valais, and Neuchatel (in which there is also a Froebel school for female teachers). The age of entry into the normal schools is fixed at fourteen in the Grisons, at sixteen in Schwyz and at Lausanne, at fifteen in other can- tons. The course of instruction lasts two years in Valais, and in the canton of Vaud for young women, but in most of the other cantons it ex- tends to three and four years — in this respect 70 Swiss Life setting a worthy example to English colleges for the preparation of teachers, where two years is the rule, the result being in too many instances a vast amount of over-pressure, particularly in the colleges for girls. These normal schools are gradually changing their character as special centres for the creation of teachers. They are being brought more in touch with public life, as well as more directly in relation with the public schools, so that a boy or girl can move up steadily step by step from the primary schools, through the secondary, to the seminary, college, or Uni- versity, where he or she may complete their education for the teaching profession. For in several of the cantons the students destined for teachers in the superior primary schools finish their course at the University, and there is a strong movement abroad to give all primary school teachers the same advantage. Let me note here, too, a marked tendency, especially in la Suisse romande, to put girls on an absolute equality with boys from the point of view of education. We see the evidences of it in the many high schools, even in the smaller towns, where a girl's education may be continued to a fairly high level, while at the high school of Lausanne a girl leaving with a diploma is entitled to continue her studies at the University. The stipends enjoyed by teachers vary very considerably. In some of the cantons they are as high as from 2640 to 4000 francs {i. e., $528 to Public Education 71 00) a year, with a retiring allowance of six tenths of the salary. This rate of pay, however, is exceptional, the descending scale of payment going in some cases — notably in Graubiinden and Valais— as low as 340 and 300 francs per annum.' It must be borne in mind, however, that in these cantons the cost of living is not only much lower than in other parts of Switzerland, and in the towns, but the teachers are in many cases pro- vided with house and garden, which means a great deal. Zurich is generally considered to be ahead of all the other cantons in respect to the thorough- ness and efl&ciency of its educational system. It certainly devotes itself with a whole heart to the education of its future citizens, and to that end spares neither trouble nor expense. Yet $11 per head cannot be said to be an excessive price to pay annually on this account. How thorough is its system may be judged from the fact that 97.5 per cent, of the children of all classes attend the public elementary schools, although, be it said, primary instruction in private schools is not interdicted. In one canton, at least, that of Soleure, all children are compelled to attend the public schools. Statistics give the following particulars in re- gard to school attendance : In the Protestant ' For much of the information contained in this chap- ter I am indebted to a report issued by Herr Grob, Director of Education in the canton of Zurich. 72 Swiss Life cantons the proportion of school-attending child- ren is as I to 5 of the population; in the half- Protestant, half-Catholic cantons, the proportion is as I to 7 ; while in the cantons which are wholly Catholic the proportion is as i to 9. This fact is also worthj^ of note: that of the military con- tingent of 1898 only 0.24 per cent, could not read, and only 0.82 could not write. As regards religious education, the greatest di- versity of practice obtains in the different cantons. In general in the Protestant cantons religious in- struction is given by the ministers of the different sects apart from the secular curriculum of the schools ; whilst in the Catholic cantons the oppo- site rule is observed, religion taking its place along with the other subjects of study. In some districts this instruction is imparted by the regu- lar teachers; but in Lucerne, which may be called the capital of Catholic Switzerland, the religious instruction of the young is left entirely to the Ro- man Catholic clergy. In Geneva such instruction, which is official, but optional (parents being al- lowed full liberty in letting their children attend the course or not), is given in all the primary and secondary schools. Since 1888, too, a higher course of instruction, devoted to the study of the origin of Christianity, and likewise of the great non-Christian religions, has been introduced by the Consistory into the upper classes of the high schools for boys and girls. In Vaud, religion is taught in the public elementary schools " from Public Education 73 the historical point of view." In Neuchatel there is no system of religious instruction, but the schoolhouses may be used by approved persons, and at fitting times, for imparting such instruc- tion. In Appenzell-inner-Rhoden religious in- struction is not only given in the primary and repetition schools, but it is the subject chiefly em- phasised. The law requires that one member of the central educational committee shall be a clergyman (chosen by the Grand Council), and that on each local board also a cleric shall sit. Appenzell-inner-Rhoden is said to be more under the domination of ecclesiastics than any other canton, and, as in other districts where the same domination prevails, the condition of education is not as satisfactory as it should be. According to the army examination records of the three can- tons which show the highest percentage of illiter- acy, Inner-Rhoden bears the palm. Uri and Valais complete the trio. It is to the honour of the Swiss that they have not only made ample provision for the instruction of the young, but they were among the first to complete the Magna Charta of childhood by put- ting a stop to the employment of children in fac- tories. In 1877 they followed up their legislative Act of 1874, making primary education free and compulsory, by rendering it illegal to put girls or boys to work in factories under fifteen years of age. This brief account of what is being done for 74 Swiss Life education in Switzerland would be incomplete without a few words about the universities, of which the little Republic, with its three millions of population, possesses six, besides the magnificent Federal Polytechnic at Zurich. Basel is the only- one of any antiquity, having been founded in 1460. It enjoyed a high reputation under Erasmus, and it has since numbered among its professors many celebrated men. The other five universities are all of modern erection, Berne and Zurich dating from the third decade of tt^e nineteenth century, while the oldest of those belonging to la Suisse romande, Geneva, does not yet reckon thirty years of existence, although, as an academy, it was founded by Calvin. It, too, has had some notable men in its professorial chairs, not the least re- markable of them being the late Carl Vogt, who did so much for the dissemination of Darwinian thought on the Continent. The University of Freiburg hardly ranks with the others, being under the patronage of the Pope rather than under that of the Federal Govern- ment. It is strongly ultramontane in tendency, and has faculties for theology, law, and philoso- ph)^ only. All these institutions are carried on at the charge of their respective cantonal govern- ments; save the Polytechnic at Zurich, which is under the direction of the Central Government. No institution for the higher education of the peo- ple is doing a more useful work than the Poly- technic. It is divided into seven sections, and Public Education 75 includes courses of instruction in architecture, civil engineering, mechanism as applied to indus- try, practical chemistry, sylviculture (i. e., fores- try), and agriculture, and there is a department, also, for the training of teachers. The Polytech- nic is frequented by a considerable number of students (in 1897 ^^ was 871), a large proportion of whom are strangers. The same may be said of the universities, a good half of those who throng their classes being non-Swiss. Among the foreign students may be counted men and women from ahnost every country in Europe; but — in the eastern universities especially — Russians, perhaps, bulk most numerously. It is, again, to the credit of the Swiss that they were the first to open the doors of their universities to women. As links between the primary schools and the universities there is throughout Switzerland a rich efflorescence of higher educational establish- ments, chiefly secondary or district schools, styled in French Switzerland, ecoles moyennes or secon- daires^ and in Tessin, scuole elementari 7nagiori. The middle schools of a preparatory character — gymnasia, as they are sometimes called — are of two classes: (i) Latin schools that serve as step- ping-stones to the universities; and (2) Real schools, which prepare students for the Polytech- nic. Some of the cantons unite the two kinds of gymnasia (Latin, or Humanisti, and Real) in a cantonal school. There are many other schools and colleges, 76 Swiss Life public or proprietary, designed to give such special instruction and training to boys and girls as will fit them for particular vocations; and there is, in truth, hardly a department of life or activity the preparation for which is not covered by a seminary or school of some kind. It is acknow- ledged by the Swiss that their secondary education is not organised as completely as it might be. The material is there, but the method is too often defective. In Geneva, perhaps, the most perfect system prevails, and it is the boast of the canton that, since 1886, when a new law in regard to public instruction was passed, the institutions for public instruction have been knit together in one solid organism, every part of which works har- moniously with the other parts. Thanks to that system, says a recent writer,^ the student, what- ever may be the direction of his studies or the profession to which he aspires, now finds before him a sure and direct way, along which he may progress without delay and without interruption. In this respect Geneva is ahead of the other cantons; but its neighbour Vaud is not far behind and the more advanced German cantons are feel- ing their way steadily to the perfection of their educational system. In any case there is no lack of machinery. One can name scarcely an art or trade of any description that has not its school or atelier d' apprentissage ('prentice workshop). Among the number may be mentioned schools ' M. Franjois Guex, La Suisse au XIX""'- Sihcle, Public Education "]"! for instruction in silk-weaving, in wood and iron work, in mechanism (as applied to watch and clock making), in art (as applied to embroidery among other things), in household management, and so forth. Reference must, lastly, be made to the careful attention which is given to school hygiene. It is generally recognised that, by compelling the at- tendance of children at school, the law places upon itself the obligation of seeing that the j^oung do not suffer in physique from such attendance. Hence have arisen the periodical medical inspec- tion of schools, the provision of baths for the scholars, and other agencies of a preventive char- acter by which it is hoped not only to act bene- ficially on the school-children themselves, but in the long run upon the health of the whole people. Nor do these measures exhaust the activities at work in favour of a healthy and happy childhood. The public conscience has taken these things so much to heart that it compels the schools to see that children do not go with insufficient food or clothing, and that when their homes are distant they may be able to dine near the school. The vacation colonies (referred to in another place), milk cures for weakly children, and other similar agencies are outgrowths of the same spirit, so deeply rooted in the Swiss that the generation of to-morrow is largely plastic in the hands of the generation of to-day. CHAPTER VI PHIIvANTHROPIC WORK THE Swiss have long had for their motto the words, " All for one, and one for all," and the sentiment therein enshrined has certainly- been their constant inspiration in the domain of public and private beneficence. It has been re- marked by a recent writer, M. Th. Secretan, that " Switzerland has not remained in the rear-guard of the army of conquerors in the realm of peace, who have assumed as their task the work of breaking down the fortresses of ignorance, de- pravity, and vice, and who have generously spent both themselves and their money in combating the innumerable miseries, both physical and moral, from which society suffers." The word is a true one. There is, perhaps, something invidi- ous in saying that this or the other country is the most beneficent or the most philanthropic; but while carefully avoiding such comparisons, it may truly be said that, according to its wealth and population, Switzerland certainly stands in the front rank of nations noted for their well-doing in this respect. 78 Philanthropic Work 79 There is hardly any section of society or any de- partment of life that the Swiss have not ramified with organisations of one kind or another whose aim is the amelioration of the conditions of exist- ence. Some of these organisations, like that of the Societe Suisse d^utiliti publique^ are of ancient date; although by far the greater number owe their origin to the latter half of the nineteenth century. This is explicable on the ground that Switzerland passed through so many trials, politi- cal and other, during the earlier part of the cent- ury, and was so roused b}^ the efibrt which was necessary to meet and overcome them, that the result was a complete resurgence of public spirit and religious thought. Nothing could give a better idea of the practical philanthropy everywhere at work in Switzerland than a brief survey of some of the ways in which this Society of Public Utility expends its efforts. Kvery canton has its branch of the society except Schwyz and Valais. But besides the cantonal sections, there are thirty-one district sub-sections, of which ten are in Aargau, eleven in Zurich, five in Soleure, four in Berne, and one in St. Gall. It may with truth be said that hardly any movement has taken place in Switzerland, whose object was the public good in whatever form, in which this society has not had its share, either in helping to form opinion, or in stretching forth its powerful helping hand. At one time I knew a poor little printer who, 8o Swiss Life by the aid of his clever and well-educated wife, managed to keep himself and his small family handsomely on something under forty francs ($8.) a week, and to devote his mite in addi- tion to the funds of the Society of Public Utility, of which he was a member. Much of the small leisure that fell to his lot was devoted to the work of this organisation, and greatly was I sur- prised from time to time at the multifarious mat- ters with which it occupied itself, and that in no mere diletta^ite spirit, and the manifold ways in which it reached forth its beneficent hand. The world over, there are never wanting objects for commiseration and timely succour; but such cases appear to be more than usually common in Switzerland, where, what with flood, avalanches, fires (often caused by lightning), to say nothing of the common accidents of everyday life, there is an ever-active call upon the good-will of the willing. Fortunately such calls are not often on the scale of that which resulted from the fire that on September 17, 1877, reduced a large part of Airolo to ashes. The damage done, over and above what was covered by insurance, amounted to something like 1,430,000 francs. In order to meet this need the Society of Public Utility made an appeal to the public, and collected four hundred thousand francs. Still more recently (1887) the same so- ciety raised a sum of over seven hundred thousand francs in aid of the victims of a sinking of the ground in the canton of Zug, and, in 1891, on the Philanthropic Work 8i occasion of destructive fires at Meiringen, Reb- stein, Ladir, and Slamischot, the sum of one hundred and eighty-five thousand francs was col- lected. And here it may be noted that, in view of the frequency of such catastrophes, arising from the untamable forces of nature, several cantons, among them being Berne, St. Gall, Thurgau, and the Grisons, have established special funds for the benefit of those who suffer from disasters of the kind, and everj^ year a special collection is made for the replenishment of the treasury. In the Grisons this collection takes place on the national fast day. In St. Gall, where in 1897 the fund for the purpose indicated amounted to three hundred and ninety-five thousand francs, the annual col- lection averages fifteen thousand francs. It will give a better idea of the philanthropic activity displayed by the Society of Public Utility, as well as by the Swiss in general, if I summarise the work done by one branch of the society, that of Basel, in 1898. Among other things, it con- ducted the '' foundation Riggenbach," on behalf of the families of persons suffering imprison- ment ; extended a helping hand to four hundred and eighteen persons just liberated from prison ; carried on eleven district libraries with fifteen hundred annual readers; an address-office for out- of-work clerks, thus furnishing employment to two hundred and twenty-one persons; a guardian school for boys, the aim of which is to take boys from the streets in bad weather; a bureau for the 82 Swiss Life loan of sewing and knitting machines to women who work at home; an orphanage containing one hundred and thirty-one children ; and an asylum for homeless young girls with ten inmates. In addition to these various agencies, the same or- ganisation directed popular restaurants in six quarters of the city; worked a caisse d' assurance against death or old age, and a depot for the loan of special furniture and utensils for the sick and decrepid, fifteen hundred articles being lent in the course of the year; and conducted a course of gratuitous lessons in cookery for young women, of which one hundred and fourteen persons took advantage. Nor does this list of good works ex- haust the activity of this merely cantonal section of a widely ramified society; for, not to speak of other agencies, it aided in apprenticing twenty- three boys, by finding a premium when that was required, and by otherwise providing the money to give the lads a start; and, lastly, distributed eleven thousand, two hundred and thirteen metres of material amongst three thousand and twenty-four girls for school-work. And yet, re- markable as this catalogue of work is, it cannot be called exceptional ; other cantonal branches of the same society could show an activity as great and varied. So strong, indeed, is the faith of the Swiss in the " gospel of work," and so many are the agencies to fit persons for it, and even to find it for them, that no one need go idle a single day. Quite as important, if not altogether so hopeful, A BASEL WOMAN AT WORK Philanthropic Work S3 are the almost numberless organisations spread throughout the cantons for the lifting-up of those who have fallen, and for the helping of those who, having perhaps lapsed into wrong-doing through thoughtlessness, would fain get into the right path again. Many of these agencies take the shape of societies for the assistance of released prisoners, and the fact that such organisations multiply rather than decrease in number shows that they are not without encouraging results. Useful auxiliaries to these institutions are the ** lyabour Colonies " established in different parts of the country. These are of more recent date, one of the first, I believe, that of the Tannenhof, near Gampelen, in the Bernese Seeland, having been founded in 1889. One of the most striking features of Swiss be- neficence is the thought and care which it has always devoted to the young. Its principle of action seems to be, " Start the plant right, and it will grow strong." Cantonal governments vie with private charity in their generous efforts on behalf of the young. Rural asylums and country colonies, together with societies of every descrip- tion for the protection of children, multiply them- selves on every hand, and have already — it is no exaggeration to say — saved hundreds and thou- sands of children from moral and physical ruin. It would be impossible to refer to a tithe of these various agencies; but I may mention, among others, the agricultural and industrial colony of §4 Swiss Life Serix in the canton of Vaud, founded in 1863; the colony of Sonnenberg, near Lucerne, estab- lished in 1859 by the Society of Public Utility, above referred to; the Solidarite, a Vaudois so- ciety for the protection of unfortunate children; and the Geneva committee for the care of aban- doned children, dating from 1892, of which the leading spirit, until his death a year or two ago, was Alexandre Gavard. Another agency with the same end in view, though exceptional in its method, was that carried on by Mile, de Lerber, who, convinced that a complete change of scene and of habits is one of the most efficacious means of exercising a beneficent influence over children who have fallen into vicious habits through the neglect of their education, sent every year a cer- tain number of young girls for a shorter or longer stay in Canada, whither she, on two occasions, made a journey to see how her young protigies were getting on. So I might mention the Bernese establishments of the Gotthelf society, the first of which was opened twenty years ago ; the Zurich society for the succour of abandoned children, dating from 1865; and the asylum for children at Mendrisio, in the canton of Tessin, to which a noble Tessinese, Giovanni Bernasconi, recently left a large part of his fortune. Besides creches innumerable in the larger towns, and Cuisines scolaires, founded so that school child- ren who have to go long distances from home may have good warm dinners in the cold and wet Philanthropic Work 85 season, the philanthropy which focusses itself chiefl}^ upon the young has also thought of the children who, cooped up in the narrow streets of towns and cities, would seldom get a breath of the pure air of the country or of the mountains were it not for the * ' vacation colonies ' ' which have been provided for that purpose. Pastor Bion, of Zurich, was the original promoter of these holiday colonies, which are now to be found in most parts of Switzerland. The Genevese, always a little in advance, have pushed their solicitude for the welfare of the young even beyond the vacation colonies amid the hills and among the lakes of the home land, and have a committee at work which every year sends a number of children and young people suf- fering from scrofula and other similar complaints to Cettes, Cannes, and Sestri-Levante (Liguria) for the benefit of the sea-air and the bathing. A journey from Switzerland to the seaside is no light matter, nor an inexpensive one ; but these fel- low-citizens of Calvin, Rousseau, and others like them do not stop at trifles when it is a question of helping the young and the poor, especially if they be in any way ailing. I do not know whether Switzerland produces, in proportion to its population, a larger number of deaf-mutes, blind, idiots, or children suffering from epilepsj^, than other countries. It certainly has its share, and they constitute a by no means light burden for those who are blessed with the 86 Swiss Life altruistic spirit. Fortunately there is no lack of that spirit in this land of democracy, and so for the care of those who come into the world de- ficient in respect to sight, hearing, or intelligence, there are throughout the Confederation no fewer than thirty-one institutions, most of them sup- ported by public or private beneficence. One of these establishments, that of Zurich, is for the blind as well as for the deaf and dumb. Two others, one at Konitz, near Berne, and the other at Lausanne, receive only the blind. The latter, among other things, makes a feature of teaching its inmates basket and wicker-chair making, etc. It was founded by the philanthropist Haldimand, and dates from 1844. Fifteen of these institutions are for deaf-mutes, and are distributed through the cantons of Aar- gau, Basel, Berne, Freiburg, Geneva, the Ori- sons, Lucerne, St. Oall, Tessin, Vaud, Valais, and Zurich. Thirteen establishments are devoted to the care and education of children intellectually deficient. Two of these — one at Ragensberg, Zurich (founded in 1863), and the other at Wein- felden, in Thurgau (dating from 1895) — were es- tablished by that Society of Public Utility which puts its hand to so many good works. The same society is about to found an asylum for idiot children at Kienberg, in Basel-land, to which the State has promised an annual subsidy of four thousand francs, and a committee has been formed in the Orisons with a view to establishing a can- Philanthropic Work 87 tonal institution for children of weak intellect. As regards the epileptic, Switzerland already possesses a model establishment at Zurich, which was opened in 1886, and has accommodation for one hundred and forty patients. It has been said that every Schwitzer is born with the idea of a new society in his head. That is, of course, the ironical way of expressing what comes very near being a truth. For what is the central thought and principle of Swiss life but that of a society for mutual aid and well-being ? This idea is so vital and fundamental, and every Swiss who can think and perceive is so well aware of the force that lies in his individual will, which is a live and potent factor in the State, that one cannot wonder at his falling into the habit of wanting to turn the dynamical quantity of his be- ing to the best advantage. There may be some- thing in this to laugh at, as there is in everything when pushed to an extreme; nevertheless, this same quality has been the incentive to many an effort that has resulted in movements and organi- sations, like that of the Red Cross, that have been of incalculable importance. The Red Cross Society itself, world-wide in the reach of its beneficence, owes its inception to the Society of Public Utility, the kindly parent of so many good works. The first to conceive the idea appears to have been M. Dunant, a Genevese physician, who published a startling account of what he had witnessed in two military hospitals 88 Swiss Life on the field of Solferino, and, together with his friend M. Moynier, president of the local Society of Public Utility, started an agitation, which spread rapidly over Europe, in favour of what they termed " neutralising the sick- waggons " on the field of battle. The idea was taken up so en- thusiastically, and was pressed with such earnest- ness upon the various governments of Europe that eventually, with the full concurrence of the Powers, a conference was summoned at the in- stance of the Swiss Federal Council. It met, very fittingly, at Geneva in August, 1864, and the Con- vention of Geneva was drawn up and signed as an international code on the 22d of that month. Everyone knows the aim and scope of the Con- vention, and what a noble work it set on foot. The international association known as the Red Cross Society was established as a corollary to the Geneva Convention. Several conferences in connection with it have since been held, but ex- cept in certain matters of detail this code for in some measure humanising warfare remains as originally agreed to by the leading Powers. An equally useful organisation, though on a lowlier plane, is that of the association known as Les Amies de la jeune fille^ founded some thirty years ago, and now having its branches all over the world. The intention of this society is to ex- tend protecting care to girls and young women who have to go away from home, and who, in ar- riving in strange places, need a friendly hand to Philanthropic Work 89 guide and welcome them. So well has the idea beeu carried out that the association has agents and correspondents everywhere; one of its prote- gees going to Borneo, China, or Japan would travel, as it were, under the aegis of these Amies de lajeu7iefille, and find their welcome at the end of the journey. This organisation, which is un- der Protestant auspices, has had a friendly emu- lator since 1897 i^ ^^^ OEuvre Catholique de protection de la jeiine fille, an association based wholly on the lines of the elder society. Next to infancy and youth, old age lays claim to the attention of Swiss philanthropy. Nor does it ask in vain, as is proved by the long list of charitable institutions specially reserved for the aged which are to be found in every canton of the Confederation. The canton of Basel alone possesses six asylums for the aged, infirm, and incurable, besides a general fund for widows and orphans, which is one of the oldest philanthropic organisations in Switzerland. The canton of Geneva, never behind in these matters, has two such institutions for the aged, one at Anieres, with one hundred and fifty pensioners averaging seventy years of age, and another, supported by the State, at Petit-Saconnex. The rules of the latter contain a clause which is probably unique in such institutions; at least, I have never heard of anything of the kind elsewhere. It is that the pensioners themselves appoint one of the mem- bers of the committee of administration. 90 Swiss Life The canton of Vaud is equally thoughtful of its aged poor, but it manages matters in a different way. The Government supports an organisation for the care of those of its old people who are in- firm, or suffering from incurable disease, and there is, besides, a "society for the succour of poor persons hopelessly afflicted," with about one hundred and fifty persons always on its books. But both these organisations, instead of maintain- ing special establishments, place their patients out in private families. There is, however, at Chailly, near I^ausanne, an asylum of the general type for old people of both sexes, pauvre et mal- heureux. It is needless to mention other institu- tions of the kind; they abound in all the cantons, to the number, in all, of eighty-one, some private, others State-supported, some connected with re- ligious organisations, others not. This consideration of the work which is being done in Switzerland in the domain of philan- thropy would be incomplete without some refer- ence to a class of institutions of which during the last few years we have heard a good deal in Eng- land, thanks mainly to the enlightened initiative of the King, who, becoming acquainted with the useful work such establishments were doing in Germany, called the attention of some of our leading physicians to them. I refer to the sana- toria conducted specially for the benefit of persons suffering from tuberculosis. For patients to de- rive the greatest possible benefit from them it is Philanthropic Work 91 necessary that these institutions should be built in situations where the air is of the purest, and also of the dryest, and where it is made delightful by the plenteous beams of the sun. The poor, unaided, cannot afford to go to such places, and so philanthropy in Switzerland has stepped in and opened a number of sanatoria, intended specially for those whom Providence has confided to its care and charge. The sanatorium at Heiligenschwendli, in the canton of Berne, is said to be the first establish- ment of its kind on the Continent of Europe. It was originally thought that these places must be all the better for their purpose the higher they were put, and so that of Heiligenschwendli ap- pears at a height of 1140 metres above the sea. There are several higher still, including one at Leysin (canton of Vaud), at a height of 1450 metres, one at Davos (1160 metres), and a third at Braunwald in the canton of Glarus at an altitude of 1 1 80 metres. Zurich also supports a sanato- rium at Wald, and Neuchatel one at Malvilliers. The latter is due to the generous initiative of M. Russ-Suchard. Following the example of the canton of Vaud, Thurgau recently decided to celebrate the centenary of its independence by a collection in aid of a sanatorium for the poor, while a Genevan committee has acquired, for the same purpose, an extensive site at Clairmont-sur- Sierre, in the Valaisan commune of Randogne. A Swiss writer, in a recent article, says: " The 92 Swiss Life strength of a religion is not shown in being politic, in being scientific, or even in being philan- thropic." Such may be the case; yet the truly religious will probably always regard philan- thropy as one of the fairest fruits of religion. At any rate, it is a very practical outcome of the re- ligion of the Swiss. ''^ 1 %\ m i ^ ^ J^ -# r 7S=^ % # CHAPTER VII NATIONAL INDUSTRY SWITZERLAND throughout is a perfect hive of industry. Practically speaking, every- body works. There is no idle class, or if there be, it is of very small dimensions. Most of the older cities are the homes of a high-stepping and well-to-do aristocracy, as well as of a roll of bur- gesses proud of their antique franchise or of newly acquired rights, which they well know how to defend inguibus et rostro against any and all encroachments of power. But though the aris- tocrat lives in his narrow circle, and often suffers from a limited range of intellectual views, he is not, or rarely, an idle burner of the oil of life. Such is the stir and activity of thought and being in the little Republic that all are drawn into it, as into the Dance whereof Holbein, or another, has left us his parable, still to be seen, at least in part, in the Mediaeval Museum at Basel. Aristocrat and burgher alike, equally with the artisan, are swept into the general current, and do their turn in the common mill. The aristocracy of the French-speaking cantons 93 94 Swiss Life are especially public-spirited. They do not tie themselves up in a clique, as in most other countries, but, on the contrary, throw themselves with much spirit into public business. Indeed, it may be said with truth that they have, as a rule, shown themselves much more beneficent and ac- tive in well-doing than proud and egoistic. Con- servative by nature and training, they have been among the stoutest guardians, not merely of old- time privileges and customs, but of the worthiest traditions of generosity and honour. Accustomed to the management of affairs, they have filled, in general with probity and devotion, the highest ofiQces of the State. Nor have they, as a rule, despite some narrowness and many prejudices, forfeited the respect of other classes. As regards the privileges and prejudices of birth and station, perhaps the aristocracy of the older cantons will bear the palm, but they are no less public-spirited than their compatriots of the Wulsck cantons, and they have furnished as many illustrious men to the public service, if not to the sciences and arts, as those living nearer the current of French life. The same, or even more, may be said of the burgess class. Originally as exclusive, and well-nigh as haughty, as the man who styled himself " noble," the burgher earlier ranged himself in line with the com- mon life, pushed thereto by the force of circum- stances, and broadening his intelligence with his horizon, was thus enabled to play a part second National Industry 95 to none in the progress and development of the country. Not only in manufacture and commerce, but in every department of national activity, the sons of the bourgeoisie enlist their intelligence and energy, and, it may be added, leave their familiar mark. For, if carried on in a right spirit, and with that devotion to high principle which is the aim of all honest workers, there is no training-school in the world better than that of business, not only for the conduct of affairs generally, but for states- manship and politics. Such, at all events, is the lesson of Swiss annals, some of the best, if not the major part of the statesmen, reformers, adminis- trators, industrial leaders, and inventors, as well as the theologians, scientists, and inventors, who have stamped their impress on the country's his- tory, having sprung from that class. Under their direction Swiss industry may be said to have taken its place with the foremost in the world, considered, that is, from the standpoint of population and opportunity. For it must be borne in mind that Switzerland is one of the poor- est countries in Europe as regards natural re- sources. Yet the Swiss are among the " best-ofF," materially and socially, of perhaps any Continental people. They are divided by no glaring inequali- ties of wealth. The rich are not very rich, nor are the poor very poor; the pauper being, in fact, almost as rare as the millionaire. The thriftless and imbecile do, unfortunately, exist, and it g6 Swiss Life cannot be said that Switzerland has not its problem of poverty; but it is a very different thing there from what it is in other countries. There is work for all who will work, and fair pay. But labour is organised as in few other countries. It is also protected, for the workman, having his hand on the political machine, knows how to exercise his power for his own and the common advantage; what is good for the bee, as the emperor-philoso- pher puts it, being also, as he sees, good for the swarm. The result is that, though there are some small class distinctions, they militate but little against a very marked general equality. The only social barriers of any account are those of culture and refinement, and they, of course, will always exist, however democratic a society may be. But the lines are never sharply drawn, and class merges into class with almost imperceptible gradations. The condition of things one meets with in this re- spect almost throughout Switzerland is very closely akin to what exists in the Western High- lands, where the poor and the well-to-do are on close terms of intimacy, the newly rich and the purse-proud being the only exceptions. I am speaking here more particularly of the towns, in which a very fair level of intelligence and culture prevails, arising in part from the educational ad- vantages common to all, and in part from the softening of the manners and the sharpening of the wits produced by the industrial arts. National Industry 97 This is particularly the case in Geneva, which may be said to lead the industry of la Suisse ro- mande. Geneva's specialty lies in the manufac- ture of musical -boxes, jewellery, and watches, with which must be included timepieces. For some two hundred years, or more, the ancient city has been engaged in the making of watches, and though its business has of late years been consid- erablj^ injured by American and English compe- tition, it still does a considerable trade in that department, employing a large number of men. In Geneva the art of the jeweller is closely allied with that of the watchmaker, the Geneva watch, par excellence, being a highly finished and ex- quisitely decorated piece of workmanship, a jewel first, as one might say, and a timekeeper after- wards. It is an education in art to spend half a day in the streets of Geneva, studying the beau- tiful things, the manufacture of the city, that are displayed in the windows of its shops. Only after doing so, and perhaps visiting one of its many workshops, is one in a position to understand the superior quality of artisan everywhere to be met with in this city built on the "Rock of Predestina- tion," as Michelet wittily puts it. Not all its workmen, however, are employed in the shops, many of the best working in their own homes, and showing fine traits of independence. But even more important than Geneva in con- nection with the watch-making industry is the canton of Neuchatel. Established in the first gS Swiss Life instance at Locle, in the early part of the eighteenth century, by Daniel Jean Richard, a man of rare mechanical genius, the new industry soon spread to the neighbouring village of Chaux-de-Fonds, and thence in the course of a few years to many a poverty-stricken mountain village, not only in Neuchatel, but in the neighbouring cantons of Soleure and Berne. If you want to see how watches are made, and under what, on the whole, happy circumstances they are produced, go to one or both of these notable towns, the larger, Chaux- de-Fonds, being perhaps the most elevated manu- facturing centre in the world, standing, as it does, at an altitude of 3274 feet above the sea. It has a population of twenty-seven thousand, a large proportion of them engaged in the staple manufacture. As at Locle, with about half the population of Chaux-de-Fonds, the watch- and clock-making industry is carried on very largely in the homes of the workers, although not to the same extent as formerl}-. The work is very much subdivided, each man usually confining his at- tention to one piece of the machinery. Those who prepare the simpler parts will earn from two and a half francs a day upwards, while those who do the adjusting, finishing, and engraving, etc., make as much as ten francs a day. The work- ) men are usually well-to-do, living in neat little I houses, set in the midst of gardens of from half an acre to an acre in extent. There is nothing of J the slovenly, slouchy look so often characteristic \J^^' National Industry 99 01 provincial artisans about these men. They are bright, alert, intelligent, and bring out their French not only correctly, but with something of Parisian refinement and polish. One sees in these blue-bloused workmen what education and proper conditions of living can do to refine and elevate even the lowly sons of toil. I am told that the annual output of watches, the manufac- ture of Chaux-de-Fonds, Locle, and the neigh- bouring villages, amounts to something like three , hundred thousand, having a value of thirty-six- million francs. To mau}^ of the villages in the Bernese Ober- land and the Soleure Jura, watch- and clock-mak- ing has proved a by-industry of the utmost importance, lifting the inhabitants, in many in- stances, if not to affluence, at least out of the depths of poverty. The pursuit of husbandry, yielding a precarious return at best in those mountainous parts, leaves many hours that would be otherwise unoccupied but for this and other kindred employments for the long nights. It is in this respect in particular that the vSwiss have shown themselves so wise and so thrifty. In nearly every part of the country, in the houses of the peasants and workers, we see some by-indus- try going on. Here it is musical-boxes or watch- making, there wood-carving, or what not. Many years ago Christian Fisher established a school of wood-carving at Brienz, and such was the good fruit it bore that, not only here, but at loo Swiss Life near-lying Meiringen, and in many remote moun- tain villages, especially in the Haslithal, the in- dustry took root and freed the people from the pressure of a stinted and precarious livelihood. Toys, caskets, flowers, animals, forks and spoons, book-slides, chairs and tables, parqueterie, and, indeed, wood-carving of every description, come in rich abundance from the hands of these peasant artists and find a ready sale. A few years ago some twenty- five thousand persons were said to be engaged in this industry, and since then the number has probably largely increased. Recently the Bernese Oberland has added another branch of art- work to those it had before prosecuted, namely, the production of polished and inlaid slabs for table-tops, etc., from the indigenous red stone and marbles of the country. What watch- and clock-making are to West Switzerland, the silk and cotton industries are to the eastern cantons. The silk manufacture was first established in Zurich by Huguenot refugees in the seventeenth century, and from thence it quickly spread into the surrounding villages. The industry is not now what it was in former days; but it still occupies many thousands of hands in the city, and on both sides of the lake, as well as in the Zurich Oberland, especially in the villages surrounding or in the neighbourhood of the small Pfaffikon See. Into the latter emp- ties a powerful little stream, known as the Aa, which in the course of a league's run drives so » ' » , ' . » ' National Industiy loi many silk and other mills that, by way of jest, it is styled the Millioneiibach^ or, as we might say, the *' millionaire stream." But though large numbers work in the mills in this district, the hum of the hand-loom is heard on every side in the cottages. Here, too, as a feature of Swiss industry, it may be noted that, hand in hand with the silk and other industries, is carried on an active trade in milk and its pro- ducts; those who have a little land, and most workers have, finding no difiiculty in following the two occupations together. Nothing is so re- markable in Switzerland as the universality of gardens amongst working men in most of the towns and villages and the admirable use they make of them. And in the district of which I am now speaking — that is, the Zurich Oberland — the gardens of the working people, especially those of Wald, Riiti, and Wetzikon, are celebrated as among the neatest and best -cultivated to be found anywhere. The ground silk has lost, here and elsewhere in Switzerland, cotton has gained; but while Zurich is an important centre of this industry, and pos- sesses many cotton factories, it is surpassed in the number of hands engaged in the work by other districts. Near-lying Glarus has extensive manu- factures of cotton and printed muslin. It used to do a large trade in dyed goods with the East ; but for many years the Glarner merchant and manu- facturer has had to look to other quarters for a 102 Swiss Life market. However, he is one of the most pushing and successful of Swiss traders, and when one market fails it is not long before he finds another. Cotton-spinning was introduced into this little mountain canton early in the eighteenth century by Heidegger, one of its village pastors, much to the annoyance of Zurich, which was not so broad- minded then as it is now; and soon the whole population was spinning for the manufactories of St. Gall, Herisau, Toggenburg, and elsewhere. The canton of St. Gall may be said to be the headquarters of the Swiss cotton industry, as well as of the allied one of embroidery, which occupies thousands of female workers in this part of Swit- zerland. Much of the embroidery work is done b}^ machinery, but there is still a very large quan- tity turned out by hand. Appenzell is specially noted for its productiveness in this respect, its women being gifted above almost all others in these parts for their deftness and taste in this delicate art. The picture of the fields about St. Gall and along the Toggenburg Valley, white with the webs spread out to bleach, is not more common nor more surprising to the stranger than that of the Appenzellerin seated before her em- broidery frame in the shade and amid the flowers of her garden. It may, indeed, be said of these diligent workers, as it is sometimes said of the hand-loom silk-w^eavers of the Zurich Oberland — for there are still a multitude of such — that many a fair maiden, many a j^oung wife, works youth National Industry 103 and beauty, and often even life itself, into the rich material, the product of her delicate fingers. Embroidery is to East Switzerland very much what watch-making is to West Switzerland, and it employs probably an equal number of the popu- lation. Fifty thousand persons are said to be so engaged, chiefly in St. Gall, Appenzell, and parts of the canton of Zurich. How varied and beau- tiful the product is only those can know who have seen it. The output has been steadily in- creasing for man}^ years, and it finds a market not only all over the Continent, but in both North and South America. As in respect to other branches of industry, so in this, too, the Swiss find it worth their while to establish schools for in- struction, in order that there may be no falling back, or fatal lagging behind the fashion. There is also a museum of embroidery in St. Gall, which is well worth seeing. Apart from any merely in- dustrial value, it need hardly be pointed out how all this tends in the direction of artistic culture and general refinement. Even more important than the embroidery in- dustry in East Switzerland, so far as the numbers of employes is concerned, is that connected w4th the manufacture of silk in its various forms. The chief centres of the trade are Basel and Zurich, but there is also a considerable amount of ribbon- weaving done in Aarau, which is likewise the centre of an important straw-plaiting and em- broidering industry. Ribbons are the principal 104 Swiss Life product of the Basel looms. There the factory system chiefly prevails, and the factory type of physique is perhaps more noticeable among its population than in almost any other part of Swit- zerland. In Zurich, also, power-loom weaving is largely in vogue, and it has been on the increase of late years; but there are still, it is said, be- tween twenty and thirty thousand hand-looms at work, many of them being distributed through the villages round the lake — another instance of the prevalence of home industries among this busy and thrifty people. Cotton-weaving and printing employ between twent3^-four and twenty-five thousand hands, and there is some little woollen and linen manufacture carried on in various parts. The manufacture of w^oolien goods is confined chiefly to the cantons of Glarus, Zurich, Berne, Soleure, and Basel- land; and flax-spinning centres mainly in Berne. There is, however, a very considerable amount of linen-weaving still done — for home use — in the Alpine valleys, where the pleasant hum of the spinning-wheel may yet be heard in many of the mountain cottages, and, as the song says — " The good wife's shuttle merrily Goes flashing through the loom." I might refer to other industries — that, for in- stance, of shoe-making in Soleure, the manufac- ture of machinery in Winterthur and elsewhere, National Industry 105 the weaving and embroidery of muslins in Ap- penzell-ausser-Rhoden, the condensed milk in- dustry of Vaud and other parts, the manufacture of tobacco and cigars (from the native-grown plant) chiefly in Vaud and Aargau. The cultiva- tion of the fragrant weed is confined in the main to the valleys of the Rhone, the Aar, the Broye, and the Ticino. It does not amount to much in total bulk, and the tendency is to decrease rather than the reverse. Still, it gives employment to a goodly number of persons, especially in the pretty villages of the Seethal, where the peasants have become deft-handed at cigar-making as well as at straw-plaiting. CHAPTER VIII THK CULTURE OF THK VIN:E ** Im kiihlen Keller sitz' ich hier Auf einem Fass voll Reben, Bin frohen Muts und lasse mir Vom Allerbesten geben. Der Kiifer zieht den Heber voll, Gehorsam meiner Winke, Reicht rair das Glas, ich halt's empor, Und trinke, trinke, trinke." THAT is a verse of one of the songs in praise of the grape and its juice, well-known and often sung by the sons of this land of the vine. I have spoken in the preceding chapter of many branches of industry, but none of them perhaps can go back to so ancient a date in this country as that of the manufacture of wine. The cultiva- tion of the vine among the Swiss — as amongst other peoples in the countries native to the vine — is by many held to be the ideal employment. How many of the toilers in town and city, who have perhaps in their early years known some- thing of the life and work among the vines, sigh from time to time as they drag through the hot 1 06 The Culture of the Vine 107 and dust}^ streets, and hie them in imagination to the vine-clad slopes of the Rhine Valley of Grau- biinden, or the terraced shores of Lake Leman, where it is their ambition to end their days in the classic employ ! But, beautiful and idyllic as is the picture fancy paints for them, stern reality sooner or later tells them that the occupation of their dreams is not all that it was. The last decade of the century has made a sad change, brought about chiefly by the ravages of the phylloxera and other insect plagues. Previous to their arrival upon the scene the vine-grower was in a better position to make both ends meet than he is now. Like the man in the fable, he could say: " A la fin J'attrape le bout de rannee : Chaque jour ameue son pain." As the times go to-day it is not always an easy matter for the cultivator of the grape to emulate the cheese-mite, and make both ends meet for a fresh spring. Bad seasons, lack of capital, not unfrequently a spell of sickness, stand in the way of success. Then the vine-grower is apt to be a little behind the times. He does not always act up to the latest science. Indeed, it is not un- usual to find him sceptical about scientific novel- ties, as about new things in general; for your cultivator of the soil is, like the nature he is so much in company with, old-fashioned in his ways, io8 Swiss Life in short, a great conservative : and the Swiss cul- tivator is no exception to the rule. Still, the times change, and in the more pro- gressive cantons better methods take the place of the old cut-and-dried systems of viticulture. Even in somewhat stick-fast old Valais things move. It were sad, indeed, if they did not, see- ing that the fruit of the vine forms the staple of the canton's wealth and well-being. Backward as the Valais peasant is, and narrow as is his out- look, he has been wise enough of late years to reinvigorate his old stocks by the introduction of the Burgundy, the Toka}^, and the Johannesberg vines, with the result that he is now able, when September comes round, not only to send into the market rich golden clusters for the table, but also good refreshing wine that is in no way inferior to that coming from the birth-lands of the grape, al- beit this cannot be said of all his output. The above-named, however, are not the only wines produced in Valais. The Arvine and the Amigue, excellent white wines, are among the good old "stand-bys" of the country, and are greatly relished by those who have become familiar with their tang and flavour. Some of the commoner stocks, grown in most parts of Switzerland, thrive also in Valais. But it is strange to note that, like the people, the same vine has a tendenc}^ to vary in the different can- tons; or if not the vine, at least the wine does. But need one wonder when the life of the people The Culture of the Vine 109 is so different ! There is one very peculiar feature that strikes the observant stranger in vagabondis- ing about Valais. It reminds one a little of har- vest-time in England. By reason of the urgent needs of the vine many of the poorer peasantry lead a nomadic life. In the springtime they come down from their remote mountain villages, bringing with them cattle, children, and half their household belongings, to make their temp- orary abode among the vineyards. Here they work until the beginning of summer, when they return home, with their cattle and their gear, until the grapes are ready to be plucked. Then the mountain road sees and welcomes them once more. The children toddle along with laugh and shout, the cattle feed as they go, men and women bend under loads of ' ' needful things ' ' ; but the way is comparatively light now, because it is the laughing, luscious grapes that have to be gath- ered. This changeful nature of the toil, accord- ing to season, has led to a peculiar feature in some of the Valais communes, there being in each three villages, all in turn vivid with activit}^ and then empty and desolate as the winds. Much lighter is the labour at the grape-gather- ing than in the spring. In the earlier season it is often dangerous in the extreme, for the vine- yards have frequently to be irrigated by means of wooden conduits, miles in length, through which the muddy water of the glaciers is conveyed to the thirsty roots of the vines. It grows warm and no Swiss Life ' ' living " as it flows through the troughs, and, with the sediment thus brought along, proves very grateful to the grape-bearing stocks. The resulting wine ought to be good, for no one knows, save those who are engaged therein, how perilous is the work of arranging and fixing these conduits. They have frequently to be car- ried along dizzy heights and over dangerous ra- vines, and, often enough, when least thought of, the avalanche will come and carry them away. Then, if the vines are not to perish, they must be restored; and so great is the peril of life and limb thus encountered that repairs are rarely made without the priest being present with the sacra- ment in case of need. About 1.6 per cent, of the soil under cultivation in Switzerland is devoted to the culture of the grape. It flourishes to the best advantage in the cantons of Vaud, Neuchatel, Zurich, and gener- ally in the larger river valleys. The only can- tons in which the vine is not cultivated to some extent are those of Schwyz, Appenzell, and Un- terwalden. Tessin has the largest area under viticulture, its vineyards in all covering some- thing like thirty-two square miles. Vaud comes next with twenty-one square miles, and Zurich follows with twenty square miles. Vaud is, per- haps, the most noted for its vine-culture, its con- nection with the industry being of very ancient date. The walled terraces lining the hills above the I^ake of Geneva, devoted to the cultivation of The Culture of the Vine 1 1 1 the vine, are a sight to behold. * ' You seem to have built them to last for all eternity," remarked one day an American to an old Vaudois vigneron. " What would you ? " he replied. *' Are we not eternally thirsty ? ' ' Each canton has its peculiar customs in con- nection with the vintage. Some may be dying out, others linger. In out-of-the-way parts of Vaud, I am told, it is still the custom for the overseer to claim a kiss from the young woman who, in plucking, allows a bunch to escape her eye, for ** they are soft, and should be singly stripped From off the branch by maiden's dainty band." Times are changing, however, and now it is rare for the daughters of the peasant cultivator to stay at home and help at the vintage. They find bet- ter employment in other branches of industry — in teaching, in millinery, in service in the towns, etc. Hence the cultivator is obliged to have re- course to hired labour, and so finds it harder to make his toil pay. Such is not always the case, however. An interesting exception was brought to light the other day, when a poor vig7iero7i^ sud- denly stricken with illness, as well as the elder members of his famil}^ was grievously afflicted to see the beautiful days passing away while he was unable to do the work required in his little vine- yard. However, a dozen of his neighbours, see- ing his unhappy position, although each had 112 Swiss Life enough work of his own, went and banked up his vines for him, and, indeed, did all that was press- ingly needful — an act which, as the poor fellow remarked, did him more good than a batch of doctors could. And verily one can believe it! Vevey may be said to be the centre of the vine industry of Canton Vaud. There an ancient guild exists, known as V Abbaye des Vignerons, whose mission it is to promote the cultivation of the vine. Every year it sends out '* cunning men " into the surrounding country to view the vine- yards, to see whose vines are the best dressed, and whose stocks produce the best grapes and the noblest wine. Then, in accordance with this re- port, various prizes are awarded, medals, serpes d'hon7ieur{^r\imng-ho6ks), etc. Moreover, every ten or fifteen years a great festival is held, called la Fete des Vignerons, possibly a relic of old Ro- man times, when the feast of Bacchus was very religiously observed, and no doubt duly enjoyed. Anyway, it is known that in the neighbouring village of Cully, on the margin of the lake, the Romans had a temple to Father Bacchus, an in- scribed stone referring to it having been discov- ered there. Cully is the centre of a district famed for a special crue of wine named Lavaux. It is made from a grape noted for its luscious qualities, and — need it be vSaid? — a great temptation to boys. Well do I recall the gleam of delight which used to come into the eyes of a venerable huissier of Geneva, a native of the I^avaux region, whenever Q < > O cr UJ cc UJ X I- < o I Ul Q. < cc O UJ z cr UJ 00 o z < o UJ X I- z < o The Culture of the Vine ii^ 3 mention was made of the grapes of Cully. " The grapes of Cully! " he would exclaim. ** Many 's the time I ' ve run the risk of a dose of salt in my legs for taking them without leave ! ' ' And then he would go on to explain that it used to be per- missible — it may be still, for aught I know — for the cultivator who found boys among his vines taking the grapes to discharge at their legs a shot- gun loaded with salt in place of pellets. The practice was, I believe, common in other parts of Switzerland besides Canton Vaud, and may have had the effect of checking the inroads of the tim- orous. But for the bold of heart, what was a little smarting in the legs ! Besides the Lavaux above mentioned, Vaud produces La Cote, Dezalay, Montreux, Ville- neuve, and Yvorne. The best-known wines of Valais are D61e, Coquimper, La Marque, Anni- viers, and Vin du Glacier, so called from the fact that the inhabitants of the Val d'Anniviers store their vats in cellars built high up in the moun- tains. From Visp (in Valais) to Montreux and Geneva the wine chiefly produced is white. White wine is grown very largely, too, on the shores of the Lake of Neuchatel and around the Lake of Biel, although these districts yield a good red wine as well. White wines are also produced at the northern end of the Lake of Constance, along the Rhine Valley, from the mouth of the Aar as far as Basel, and on both sides of the Lake of Zurich. 8 114 Swiss Life The most notable districts for red wines, how- ever, are the vine-lands of Schaffhausen and the contiguous wine-growing districts of Zurich and Thurgau. Tessin likewise produces a good red wine; but the Italian canton has suffered from the introduction of American stocks, which yield a poor crop, although I have tasted a native wine of the Italian canton equal to the best Chianti. Among the better-known red wines coming from the German cantons are Hallaiier from Schaffhausen, Neftenbacher from Zurich, and Goldwandler from Aargau. One should mention also the Einsiedeln brand, I^eutschen, the produce of the celebrated vineyard belonging to the monks of that ilk. Who, moreover, that has lived among the Swiss but has heard of the famous Schweizer Blut (Swiss blood) produced from vines grown in the neighbourhood of St. Jakob, in the valley of the Birs, near Basel, where, in 1444, fifteen hundred Swiss withstood a French army of twentyfold their strength, and although they left all but fifty of their number dead on the field, thrice their numbers of the enemy shared the honour of their burial ? Schweizer Blut ought surely to be a good and invigorating wine. The principal stocks favoured in Switzerland are the Clavner, the White Traminer, the Ranch- ing, and the Elbing. From the first-named nearly all the red wines of the northern and eastern can- tons are produced, as well as those of Neuchatel. Only in Tessin and the southern valleys of Grau- The Culture of the Vine 115 biinden is red wine manufactured from any other grape. The White Traminer is grown almost ex- clusively in the cantons of Vaud and Geneva; it is met with also in Valais and in the rural half- canton of Basel-land. The Ranching is culti- vated chiefly on the shores of the Lake of Zurich and in the Simmenthal, while the Klbing, a white- wine stock, is confined for the most part to the cantons of Schaffhausen, Thurgau, and Basel, al- though it is cultivated likewise in what are known as the ** wine-lands " near Zurich. In ad- dition to these vines, others are here and there to be met with of less note, though perhaps equally noteworthy. Besides the Vitis latrusca, or wild vine, of Tessin, there is the Riesling, from which a very delicate wine is made, and the Reze, from which is produced the Vin du Glacier. It is worthy of note that the culture of the vine in Switzerland is carried on at a loftier altitude than in any other part of Europe, barring Savoy and the Maritime Alps in the south of France. In Valais the grape is grown to the elevation of nine hundred metres. It is estimated that the average annual produc- tion of wine in Switzerland amounts to nearly a million and a half hectolitres. And yet the quantity produced is not sufl&cient to supply the needs of the population ! Certain it is that a very large quantity is imported — from fifteen to sixteen million gallons annually, according to the returns. These foreign wines, say the natives, who prefer ii6 Swiss Life their own crtie, are chiefly for foreigners. And they sometimes tell you interesting stories — the inn-keepers, that is — illustrative of the little for- eigners know about good wine. They will tell you, for instance, how an English " Mjdor," or an American millionaire, rejected a certain wine set before him because it was not sufficiently high- priced ; but when the same wine was served with another label, and at four times the price, he smacked his lips over it, and said it was " fine." Good stories, though not exactly new. But the Swiss do not indulge in this kind of thing nowa- days so much as they did formerly. There are some sixteen thousand hotel-keepers in Switzer- land, and they know who butter their bread. CHAPTER IX IvIFK AND WORK IN THEJ ALPS WHILE various branches of industry occupy the energies of the Swiss people, one is pre-eminent, insomuch that it may be called the national industry. I refer to the various forms of husbandry comprised in agriculture and pastoral pursuits generally. Of agriculture, properly so- called, there is comparatively little in Switzerland, and that little is very largely confined to the wide plateau that runs from east to west, from the Lake of Constance to the Lake of Geneva. The cereal produce is so small that it would not suffice for the needs of the population without the aid of large supplies from abroad. The climate and the nature of the ground militate against agriculture in this form. But what the Swiss farmer misses in such respects he makes up for in the direction of cattle-breeding, cheese-making, and other allied pursuits. Reference has elsewhere been made to the extent and importance of the cheese- manufacture carried on in the Gruyere district and in the Emmenthal and neighbouring vales. Many of thCvSe extensive valleys, together with IJ7 ii8 Swiss Life their uplands, constitute almost ideal places for the rearing of cattle and for the products of the dairy. But there are other parts where the activity of the husbandman is confined to much narrower limits, and where the results of his labour are in consequence not only less fruitful, but of a far more precarious nature. I refer to the husband- man of the *'alps," properly so-called. When once the broad central tableland of Switzerland is passed, and we begin to ascend towards the higher regions which terminate in the peaks of perpetual snow, nearly all that is not bare rock is rough heath and pasture-land. These mountain pas- tures, or ' * alps, ' ' are common property, and upon them all those of the commune to which they be- long have the right to feed their cattle. The right, however, has its restrictions, each pasture being divided into so many Sibsse, according to the number of cows it can support, and no one is allowed more than a fair share of such pasturage. The traveller in the Alps is often struck by the almost total absence of cattle in the neighbour- hood of the villages. His hotel or pension is re- gularly supplied with the most delicious milk and cream, but for any evidence as to whence they are derived he may look in vain, unless his curiosity leads him to explore some of the higher valleys, generally far remote from the beaten track. About the houses in the valley he will see the peasant, aided by all the members of his family, Life and Work in the Alps 119 down even to the tiniest child capable of holding a rake, busy in his little garden or in the near- lying meadow. From the earliest dawn of day to the last gleam of twilight all must be at work; for, the summer being short, everything depends upon getting in the crops while the sun shines. In these upland regions, where a man's wealth, like that of the patriarchs of old, is measured by the number of his cattle, and the produce derived from them, the first essential is a plenteous supply of ha}^ ; because during the long winter months the cattle have to be carefully housed and fed upon the yield of the summer meadows. Nature is bounteously helpful to this end, some of the lower and better pastures giving two and even three crops of grass in the year. If, however, the hay-crop is usually plenteous and good, that of grain is too often the very reverse. The stalk is invariably short, and the ear miserly. It is gen- erally grown in such small patches, too, that a stranger is apt to wonder what can be the use of planting it. But herein lies one of the marvels of Swiss life in some of the remoter valleys. On his little holding, together with his rights in the Allmend—iha.t is, land held in common, whether arable or pasture, meadow or forest — the peasant and his family depend almost wholly. Hence he plants his patch of wheat, his patch of barley, or oats; he grows enough potatoes for his household and his pigs ; while from his little fields of hemp and flax are not infrequently woven the family 120 Swiss Life linen and the dresses of the women — the work of the latter during the long winter nights, when there is little else to be done. Even his own rough brown homespun may be the produce of his home- grown sheep. In short, the greater part of what he and his family eat and wear is the result of the common toil. Few who have not seen it can im- agine what this means in varied and never-ending industry — one may say, in never-ending contest with nature. It is an everlasting surprise to those who know what the life is. But though wonderful as an evidence of what human energy and human effort can do, such an unceasing strain on the vital powers has its tragic side. This is seen in the women prematurely bent and old, in the often stunted forms of children whose young faces reflect the sober kindness and the mature wisdom of age, rather than the sportfulness and gaiety of youth. Much of the toil of this laborious form of agri- culture falls upon the frailer members of the family. While the husband is away, perhaps acting as guide or porter to a group of climbers, or with the cattle on the higher pastures, the wife may be seen toiling in sun or shower in the bit of garden, hoeing, weeding, or, with the help of a younger member of the family, distributing the carefully accumulated manure among the growing crops. Nothing is allowed to go to waste in the sordid economy of the Swiss peasant. The drain- ings of cow-sheds, pig -sties, and dung-hills, the Life and Work in the Alps 121 scatterings of fowl-houses — all are parsimoniously saved, and, when the proper time arrives, are carried out in the tubs in which they have been stored to the needy crops. So much of this kind of work is done by the women that strangers are apt to think that the men must be a lazy lot. But there are numberless duties to keep the men otherwise engaged. The timber needed about the farm, and the wood for firing, have to be got in from the forest. Much of this work belongs to the winter ; but as there are then often weeks upon weeks when little or nothing can be done outdoors because of the snow, care has to be taken during the good weather to see that the stock of firing does not run short. Hence, under the broad eaves of every well-conditioned peasant's cottage will be seen a plentiful store of carefully sawn and dried wood ready for the stove. The chief occupation of the men during the open months, however, is with the cattle in the higher pastures. As soon as the snow has gone and the young grass begins to shoot the cattle are taken up from the villages to the lower hill pas- tures. This preliminary start for the mountains usually takes place early in May, until which time the snow generally lasts. On these lower altitudes, moving from place to place as the supply of food requires, the herds remain until about the second week in June, when they are driven still higher up the mountains, from which 122 Swiss Life the snow now gradually retires, until it is seen upon the higher peaks and in deep gullies alone. Here they remain for about a month, and then again the cry is "Upwards ' ' ' the highest pastures being reached earlj^ in July. The start for the mountains is one of the festive events of the Alpine year, and it is made the occasion of much rejoicing. Those who accom- pany the herds, which sometimes number two hundred head, and even more, will be accom- panied for some distance on the way by friends and neighbours, with music and song. Such sights are very pleasing, for no one can rejoice, in their simple way, more heartily than these people do. To hear a company of these herdsmen and mountaineers sing, with full throat, their na- tive songs, that seem to breathe the very air and fragrance of the mountains, is a thing never to be forgotten ; and the charm is greatly heightened if the song be accompanied by the multitudinous tinkle of the cow-bells. When heard close at hand, the sound of these Tryc/ilen, as they are called in the German tongue, is too much of a jangle to be quite pleasant ; but get them at a distance of a few hundred yards, and it is astonishing how softened and harmonised they have become. In place of a discord, in which different tones jar one against the other, the ear detects only a sweet accord, in which the various notes, falling each and all into their due place, produce a most pleasing melody. And Life and Work in the Alps 123 when to this simple accompaniment a number of voices sing, making the chorus echo and re-echo amongst the hills, the effect is exceedingly fine. This Alpine music is best appreciated in such songs as Kuhreihen betjn Aufzug auf die Alp — that is, Ranz des Vaches, on the departure for the mountain pastures. The first stanza is as fol- lows : *' Der Ustig mott cho, der Schnee zergeit scho, Der Himmel is blaue ; der Gugger het g'schraue, Der Maya syg cho. AUihoh ! Ivustig use'n-us em Stall mit de lube Chiielme ! Uesi schoni Zyt isch cho, Luft u Freiheit wartet scho Dinne uf de Fliiehne. Allihoh ! Tra-la-la ! " I will not pretend to translate. Let those read who can. It is good homely Swiss, in which the singer rejoices that spring is come again, that the snow has gone, and the heavens are blue, and that in the beautiful weather he can enjoy the sweet air and freedom of the mountains with his beloved cattle, freeing his lungs the while with his lusty " Allihoh " and " Tra-la-la ! " The native songs of this kind are very numer- ous, and not a few of them are exceedingly beau- tiful, touching in turn nearly every chord of the human heart. They are true folk-songs, giving free and spontaneous expression to the feelings, and so, as it were, live on the popular tongue. One cannot walk many miles through the villages, 124 Swiss Life or along the mountain paths, without hearing snatches of these effusions trolled out at full throat, the ''jodel'd" choruses perhaps being taken up by other voices far fields away. Many of them are in praise of the herdsman's life, like that beginning — *' Es gibt wohl kein Leben, wie Kiihers so schon." Two of the stanzas run much as follows: ** No Hfe like the herdsman's, so lusty and fair, Breathing and joying the sweet mountain air ; "With the sun in the morning he rises and swells With joy as he hears the gentle cow-bells. ** And sounds he his alp-horn, its music is borne Away down the valleys on wings of the morn ; He feels such accord with nature around, It seems in the alp alone gladness is found." The alp-horn, although it may be frequently heard, is not so commonly used as formerly. It is an uncouth instrument, consisting of a hollow tube of wood, wound round with the inner fibre of birch or other bark, and some six feet in length. It has but a small compass of notes; but when these are caught up and echoed back and forth by the rocky acclivities the effect is very striking. In the remoter mountain valleys the alp-horn is still used for the purpose of calling the cattle together, and in some of the higher alps, where no church-bell can be heard, it often Life and Work in the Alps 125 serves for proclaiming the vesper hour. The Senn, immediatel}' the sun has set, raises his horn, and with it makes the mountainside re- sound with the first few notes of the psalm, ** Praise ye the Lord." The sound is taken up from other alps, and the melodious echoes, re- peated far and near, are the signal for all within hearing to uncover their heads and say their even- ing prayer. This done, the cattle are collected together for the night, and the herdsmen retire to their rest. Not all the men of the villages go with the cattle to the higher pastures, but just enough to do the work that is required. And when it is said that there may be from one hundred to two hundred or more cows feeding on one pasture, and that they have to be milked morning and evening, and their milk turned into cheese, it will be easily understood that there is plenty to do. Besides the work of attending to the cows there are many things to be done, such as carrying wood from the forests, no light task, for these summer pastures are often considerably above the region where trees will grow. One may have some idea of the altitude reached in ascending the mountains by taking note of the vegetation. The vine, as a rule, is not seen beyond an elevation of two thousand feet, al- though exceptions to the rule occur, especially in the canton of Valais. The oak, and with it wheat, ceases to thrive a thousand feet higher. 126 Swiss Life Barley may be seen as high as four thousand and even five thousand feet. The beech disappears at about the same altitude, leaving the pines and firs alone to enjoy the fresher and rarer atmosphere of the slopes and ridges from six thousand to seven thousand feet in height. Even here, where all tree-life ceases, it is astonishing to find how pro- lific vegetation is in the form of grass and flower. There is, perhaps, nothing in the world, of its kind, so beautiful as an Alpine meadow glisten- ing with its numberless flowers. To enumerate them and name their colours would give no idea of the splendour of the picture they make. A Yorkshire moor, covered with heather, and stretching for miles, one blaze of purple, is a sight to make the heart leap after a period of absence. But the glow of one of these mountain pastures, especially in the spring and early sum- mer, is entirely without parallel. No wonder the mountaineer says — ** Wie viel Blumen auf den Auen, Welch ein Singen, welch ein Ringen, Welche Wonne hier ! " Pansies, anemones, gentians, the bluest of for- get-me-nots, chrysanthemums, white and yellow, hare-bells, and, most beautiful of all, the hardy Alpine rose, not to mention scores of others, of the richest and most varied dyes, are seen mingled and waving together amongst the lus- cious grass in the wildest profusion. Of all these Life and Work in the Alps 127 the Alpine rose, a variety of rhododendron, and of a rich red colour, is the favourite flower of the Swiss, being regarded as an emblem of life and joy, w^hile the pale edelweiss symbolises death and eternity. Like the latter, the Alpen- rdsli — to give it its pretty diminutive name — thrives only in the higher regions of the Alps ; but it lives in the throng, and joins, as it were, in the general flower-choir, while the edelweiss dwells more or less alone and apart, affecting the barer rocks and ledges on the verge of the glaciers and close to the eternal snows. Almost as numberless as the flowers, and many of them as beautiful, are the insect swarms that throng these solitudes. The butterflies are espe- cially rich and varied. The flies, however, are a great pest, one in particular, popularly called Breme, leaving one little peace in certain localities. It is a sort of large horse-fly ; but even among the cattle it is not so wild and vicious as at times on the Lake of Lucerne. This plague is one of the results of the thought- less destruction of birds, which prevailed in all parts of the country until the Federal authorities took the matter up and passed a law for the pro- tection of the feathered tribes. Although the life of the Senn, or cowherd, has its idyllic side, it is a rude, rough, and very arduous existence. He lives hard, works hard, and lies hard. The chalet (in German Sennhutte) in which he dwells is literally a log cabin, formed 128 Swiss Life of trunks of pines, notched at the ends where they dovetail one into another. Its roof is low and nearly flat, and is heavily weighted with stones to keep its shingles from being blown away by sudden gusts of wind. Such structures serve their purpose as summer dwellings, when they are all the better, perhaps, for their free ventilation ; but they would be unendurable in the winter- time. The furniture they contain is of the most primitive description, consisting gen- erally of but a table and a rude bench, with a cauldron in which to heat the milk, and the other necessary utensils for cheese-making. The bed that is provided seldom goes beyond a truss of hay. Occasionally the owner of a number of cattle may go up to the higher pastures with his whole household, in which case, of course, there will be a roomier chalet and better provision for family living. This sort of domesticity in the summer alps, however, is rare, the work of taking care of the cattle and making the cheese being generally left to experienced Sennen and their assistants. In these cases — that is, when the cattle of a num- ber of owners are all herded together — the cows of each are tried from time to time, generally once a week, to see how much milk they give. This is done so that the owners may be apportioned at the end of the season an amount of cheese pro- portionate to the yield of their kine, which in the best seasons and from the finest cows will average CO UJ cc I- 09 < Q. OC uJ CO 111 I Life and Work in the Alps 129 as much as two hundredweights for the four months. The goats are treated in the same way. Goats, however, are kept in separate pastures, generally where the grass is sparser and more difficult to get at, on account of the precipitous nature of the ground. Sheep usually share the same pastures with the goats, and are often left for weeks together to seek out what scanty feed they can among the craggy ridges and well-nigh inaccessible slopes of the mountains. The short season of the higher pastures soon comes to an end. At the most it lasts but seven or eight weeks, when a descent is made to what are called the middle pastures. Here the herds may remain a fortnight or three weeks to eat the after-grass, finally retiring to the lower vales dur- ing the early part of October. Towards the end of the month, sometimes before, winter begins his hard reign, heralded by fierce tempests and heavy downfalls of snow, which compel the close housing of all domestic cattle for many months to come. It need hardly be said how arduous this life of the Alpine husbandman and his family is. It is indeed only those enjoying the most robust health who can stand it. In going among them one sees how strong and hearty many of them are ; one sees, too, how prematurely it ages both men and women. What is not seen on the surface, as it were, are the numbers the rigours of the life kill off before their time. Need one wonder, I30 Swiss Life then, that in Switzerland, as with us, there is a gradual, but increasing exodus from the rural districts into the towns, and that there, too, the newspapers are busy with the cause and the remedy ? CHAPTER X CANTONAL LIFK AND CHARACTER NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that during the past half-century there have been two main influences at work tending to unify the Swiss people, and so to break down the bounds of that narrower clannish or cantonal spirit which is, and ever has been, one of the distinguishing characteristics of life in Switzerland ; yet the broad lines of cantonal demarcation are as strongly felt to-day as they ever were. The two unifying influences I here refer to are those of the centralising tendency of the Federal autonomy and tne easy means of communication between all parts of the Confederation. The latter in especial should, one would think, in time smooth out all the more violent differences of character which distinguish the people of the various can- tons. Hitherto, however, neither of the influ- ences named appears to have effected much in the direction indicated. Nor has the levelling-up process of popular education done a great deal to that end. But that, perhaps, was not to be ex- pected, seeing that education, although made 131 132 Swiss Life compulsory and gratuitous by the Federal Con- stitution, is nevertheless a cantonal matter, and so becomes "national" in quite as distinct a sense as we may speak of Scotch, Irish, or Welsh education being national. Indeed, in some re- spects there are more marked features of differ- ence between the methods of education in vogue in some of the Swiss cantons than exist between the systems at work in Scotland, Wales, and Ire- land respectively ; and, of course, these tend to accentuate still more the differences of cantonal character. It might be supposed that there would be a general resemblance visible among the people of the French-speaking cantons — la Suisse romande. But if there be any such resemblance it is of a very superficial nature. The people of Geneva are as distinct from those of Vaud as it is well possible to be, and this notwithstanding that both are pre-eminently, and even passionately, Protest- ant. If one might indicate a difference rather than describe it, I should say that the Vaudois resemble somewhat the lyowland Scots, while the people of Geneva remind one more of the Southern English. Geneva, however, must be taken as an excep- tion. It is, perhaps, the most cosmopolitan city in the world, and certainly one of the pleasantest in which to live, whether considered from the point of view of its magnificent surroundings or from that of the amiable and enlightened charac- Cantonal Life and Character 13 '> ter of its people. Moreover, the canton is so small that the spirit of the city may be said to dominate the entire people. Very different is it in Vaud, in which agriculture is the dominant factor, and where the people, outside the city of Lausanne — Lausanne the beautiful and the cul- tured ! — are almost wholly of the bucolic type, devoted heart and soul to their arable, their pastures, and their vineyards. The canton is one of the largest, and in out-of-the-way parts women may still be seen wearing the old costume of the country — a costume which my pen has not the gift to describe, but which may be seen painted to the life in the tales of Edouard Rod, who, though ranked among the novelists of France, is a native of Vaud, and I believe of that most characteristic part of the pays w^herein the famous La C6te is grown. Very different is the Freiburger to his neigh- bour of Vaud. Descended, as is supposed, from the Burgundians, the people of this canton still speak in parts a Romance dialect, known to the German-speaking people as Gouverin-Wiilsch. The chief centre of this speech is the district round about Gruyeres, famous for its cheeses, which go, and are esteemed, all over the world. Between fifty and sixty tons yearly are made in the charming villages that throng the vales and dot the mountainsides of this beautiful and fertile canton. In no other part of Switzerland, perhaps, does the idyllic side of the pastoral life show to 134 Swiss Life such advantage as in Freiburg. Although the condition of things has changed since Byron's day, and in some respects much for the better, yet his description of this region stands good to this day. " The music of the cow-bells," he writes, ' * in the pastures which reach to a height far above any mountains in Britain, and the shepherds shouting to us from crag to crag, and playing on their reeds where the steeps appeared almost inaccessible, with the surrounding scen- ery, realised all that I have ever heard or imag- ined of a pastoral existence. . . . As we went they played the Ranz des Vaches and other airs by way of farewell." Here Byron fell into the error, still common, of supposing the Ranz des Vaches to be a single air, whereas the name simply denotes a class of melodies peculiar to the Alpine valleys, and of which, in going from one part of Switzerland to another, many specimens may be heard. They are, as a rule, very wild in character, yet instinct with melody. One can well understand the feeling of homesickness they produce in the breast of the Swiss mountaineer when heard in a distant land, and the almost superstitious reverence paid to a chance-heard sound recalling the well-remembered notes. The Ranz des Vaches (or Kuhreihen^ as the German- speaking people call it) doubtless had its origin in the shrill call the herdsman has to make in order to gather his cattle at milking-time. He early found that by changing his note he could Cantonal Life and Character 135 prolong his call, and, when the wind was high, send his voice further by introducing a falsetto chord. Hence arose the *' jodel," by which the shepherds and cowmen can make themselves heard by their flocks and herds, and communicate with one another, at very great distances. The " jodel " is used, too, at times, by the women to call the children in from play and the men from the pastures, and one can well understand how deeply the air of the Kuhreihen sinks into the being of a mountain-born Swiss. I had an instance of this once when on the steamboat going to Gothenburg. One of my fel- low-travellers was a Swiss, who had been in busi- ness in South Africa in connection with a Swedish firm for a number of years, and in all that time had not been home. He was now going to con- fer with his firm in regard to some new develop- ments which were in contemplation. One night we were walking the deck together, when my companion put his hand on my arm and asked, " Did you hear that ? " I asked what he meant, for I had heard nothing but the wind in the rig- ging. At first he did not reply, but stood with his hand raised, listening. Then, after a moment or two, he asked again, " Did n't 3'ou hear any- thing ? " I said I had not, and he then told me he had distinctly heard the Ranz des Vaches of his native hills — on the borders of Freiburg and Berne — and that he had recognised his mother's voice in it, and especially her shrill " jodel." 13^ Swiss Life Whatever it was that had caught his ear or his inner sense, he was deeply moved by it, and in the morning he informed me that he should not go on to Stockholm, his destination, but take the first boat to Hamburg, and proceed thence with all speed home, for he feared something was the matter with his mother. Freiburg is not only celebrated for its Ranz des Vaches, but for its stout men and well-made wo- men, who still, in the remoter valleys little visited by strangers, preserve their old-time costume, and many of their old-time customs besides. The men are noted for their skill in wrestling. They often meet the men of neighbouring Berne, and it is said of them that they frequently triumph over their more stalwart competitors by the lightning- like rapidity of their movements and the dexterity of their attack and recovery. These meetings generally take place on Sundays, the evenings whereof are usually devoted to the dance, to which the inhabitants of these Arcadian valleys are greatly addicted, and of which they have many native forms. Freiburg is a stronghold of the Catholic faith, and is in some respects one of the more backward cantons ; but it is, on the whole, as thriving as most, and its peasantry cer- tainly appear to be as happy as any within the bounds of the Confederation. Different, again, are the people of Canton Berne from those of Freiburg. The Bernese may be taken as presenting the most characteristic Swiss Cantonal Life and Character 137 type — the men squarely built, large of frame, broad-chested, and rather slow and heavy of mo- tion, but with great grip and immense reserves of strength. The best specimens are to be met with in the Kmmenthal and the neighbouring Entlebuch and in the Simmenthal, which are among the most thriving districts in the canton, Simmenthal in especial being noted for its mag- nificent cattle. Its autumnal markets are thronged with buyers from all parts of Europe eager to improve their stocks by the purchase of speci- mens from these herds. The Emmenthal and the vale of Entlebuch (the latter in Lucerne) are equally famous for their cheeses, which, as ** Schweizer," are exported in large quantities to northern Europe. Parts of the canton of Berne, and especially those parts comprised in the Bernese Oberland, together with the Forest Cantons generally, are noted for the survival amongst them of many old- world customs and traits. One of these, observed chiefly, I believe, in Entlebuch and Obwald, is known as the Kiltgang, and has reference to an old custom of nocturnal wooing, which is now generally modified in some of its more objection- able features. In many of the villages of the Emme and the Entle the younger portion of the male inhabitants form a kind of vigilance com- mittee to prevent the well-to-do girls from being carried off by outsiders. The lovers in the vil- lages who are of this set are permitted to pay 13^ Swiss Life their visits and climb to the windows of the fair ones undisturbed, while strenuous opposition is given to strangers who attempt to intrude. Another custom strongly grafted among the peasantry of these parts, and extending hence as far east as Thurgau, is that which every spring turns the youth of the villages to homely dramatic representations. In many villages may be seen a frail though showy erection bearing the inscrip- tion * ' Theatre ' ' on the pediment ; but more frequentl}^ the amateur performances of the moun- tain youth take place on a stage with nothing roofing it below the sky. ' * Da sieht man oft, ' ' sings Gottfried Keller — " Da sieht man oft auf kaum ergriinter Wiese Ein leicht Gerust, drauf unter Friihlingswolken In hunter Tracht, voll Eifer, es tragieren, Von seiner eignen Menge ernst umringt." Gottfried Keller is the greatest of Switzerland's modern poets, and in his writings, both in prose and verse, is enshrined many a glittering gem from the folk-lore and folk-life of the Swiss vales and Swiss alps. One of the most striking, as well as the most weird, of the legends associated with the mountains of this central region is that which accounts for the name of Mount Pilatus by connecting it with the tragical end of Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judaea at the time of Christ. It is a little far-fetched, but none the less dramatic on that account. According to the tradition, the Emperor was so wroth with Pilate Cantonal Life and Character 139 for his doings in Judaea that, on his return to Rome, he was thrown into prison. Overwhelmed with his disgrace, the erewhile Governor com- mitted suicide. His body was thereupon cast into the Tiber. But the Tiber would have none of it ; storms arose, and continued until the ill- blest corpse was removed from its waters. It was next taken to Gaul and cast into the Rhone at Vienne, near Lyons. But the same thing hap- pened there as in the Tiber ; storms and tempests arose, and in the end the accursed corpse was carried away and thrown into the Lake of Geneva. Still, however, there was no rest for poor Pilate, whose evil spirit continued to haunt or inhabit his maledict body and to bring blight and de- struction upon the lake and its neighbourhood. Finally, it was fished up once more, and this time it was conveyed into the very central region of the Alps, where, in close proximity to Mount Pilatus, then called " Fractus Mons," it was cast into a dark mountain lake. At length, it was thought, the unblessed spirit, sunk fathoms deep in a lone ' * ghast ' ' water, would be at rest. But no ; even here he who " washed his hands" of Christ's condemnation must still be the spirit of trouble and unrest. Storms of wind and rain hung upon the moun- tain, and ever and anon descended in terror and might upon the vales, drowning flocks and herds, uprooting trees, and washing away houses and crops alike in one mad whirl of destruction. 140 Swiss Life This went on year after year, until at length deliverance came in the shape of a poor scholar. Hearing of the terrible things the people suffered, and learning also the cause, he resolved to do battle with the unquiet ghost. Learned in the magic as well as the theology of his time, and taking with him such things as he needed, the young scholar ascended the mountain, and in due course found himself confronted by the one-time Governor of Judaea. It is needless to go into particulars. Suffice it to say that Pilate could not withstand the travelling scholar's science or magic, and was obliged to submit to a pact whereby, on condition of one daj^'s freedom, he should remain at peace all the rest of the year. The spell was effectual. Henceforth the land was at rest ; but every year, on the return of Good Friday, whoever went to Pilate's Lake be- held, seated upon a throne-like rock above the dark water, the grim, ghostly figure of him who " saw no ill," but permitted it. Terrible he was of aspect, with his red toga of ofiBce about him, and whoever looked upon his face died within the year. No wonder the mountain had a dread re- pute, and that none went near it who could help. It was not until another scholar, Conrad Gesner, ascended the mountain (1555), and by his natural explanation of the phenomena surrounding it did something to break the neck of the superstitious legend. It is commonly said that Pilatus * ' gives the Cantonal Life and Character 141 weather" to the surrounding country, and an element of truth attaches to the saying. There is usually a cap of cloud about its summit, and if that cloud should be blown out in long shreds — that is, in the cloud-forms called " stratus " — it is held to be a sure sign of rain, or, as the natives put it — *' Hat Pilatus sinen Hut, Dann wird das Wetter gut ; Tragter aber einen Degen, So giebt's wohl sicher Regen." Freely Englished, the verse would read — ** If Pilatus has his cap on, We may on fine weather reckon ; But if he doth wear his sword. Soaking weather is the word." To turn to still another canton, there are some respects in w^hich the inhabitants of Valais may be described as the most idiosyncratic of all the peoples in Switzerland. It is one of the cantons wherein both French and German are spoken, the latter being the prevailing tongue in Upper Valais, that wild country supposed to have been originally colonised from the Haslithal, and said still to speak an old-time German not unlike that of the period of Pope Hildebrand and the Nibe- lungen Lied. Whether this be true or not I cannot say; but I can vouch for it that the canton still produces types of character that seem to sug- gest the time of the Deluge, or before. 142 Swiss Life The people of Valais are chiefly devoted to the care of their flocks and herds, ahhough of late years, in the neighbourhood of Obergestelen, a beginning has been made with the cultivation of rye. Throughout almost the whole of the val- ley the people make their bread from a self-planted grain. It is of a dark-brown colour, and often so hard that it has to be taken in hand with a ham- mer before being placed on the table. Can one wonder that the men of Valais are said to be as hard as the granite of their mountains, and almost as impervious to new ideas ? Still, hard as theie good folk are, and narrow as is their existence, it is impossible to mingle with them long without being aware of the deep vein of poetry which runs through and in a sort beautifies their lives. It is a poetry, however, that has its roots in the deep religious heart of the people rather than in the imagination, although that is not without its po- tency and charm. In the churchyard of Ober- gestelen may be seen a rude weather-worn cross bearing the inscription : " Eighty-eight in one grave. What a grief! " {Achtundachtzig in einem Grab, welche Trauer !). It is a memorial of one of those avalanche catastrophes which so often demand their tale of passengers for the over- world, and gives evidence of that quiet, ever- present sense of the Eternal which is among the deepest characteristics of the people, who, at all times face to face, as it were, with the overwhelm- ing forces of nature in their most threatening Cantonal Life and Character 143 shape, have forgotten, if they ever knew, the joyous laugh and shout of other mountain people. Turning for their chief delight to the feasts of the Church, in place of worldlier joys, they dress themselves on such occasions in the bright, pic- turesque costumes that still hold their ground in those parts, their hats in particular being adorned with coloured ribbons according to the saint whose day they celebrate. A strange people, for the most part, these Valaisans, superstitious, conservative, loving their old legends, and still mingling them, so to speak, with their everyday life. One of these legends — Dantesque in its grim materiality — tells how the souls of men and women are imprisoned for a time in the Aletsch glacier, and how, if you walk over it, you cannot help treading upon the ice-bound spirits, and so making them suffer the more for the sins done in the flesh. Although the people of Valais form one of the central units of the Confederation, and are true and patriotic to the Federal idea, yet they are, to a certain extent, a people apart. What is said of them may with still greater truth be said of the Tessinese. They are Swiss in the political sense to the backbone, and though Italian in language and by descent, would not change their national- ity for that of Italy at any price. This feeling of Swiss citizenship, however, is a thing of com- paratively recent growth. Nor can one wonder. Until 1798, Tessin was a subject State, with few 144 ' Swiss Life of those influences at work which so mould and weld communities together as to make them a compact whole. Even when, in the year named, they received their independence and became part of the Hel- vetic Republic, they were slow to become Swiss at heart. Besides being Italian in sentiment and tradition, with all that instinctive love of art which is so essentially Italian, they were divided from the rest of Switzerland by a range of tower- ing mountains and a barrier of language almost as great. Still, in the course of the century just closed, the barriers became gradually less and less bars to communication and progress, and finally two events conspired, if not wholly to assimilate the Tessinese with their Swiss compatriots, at least to imbue them thoroughly with the Swiss idea. Those events were the constitutional re- vision of 1874 and the opening of the St. Gothard railway. The latter especially has been nothing less than a godsend to Tessin. It has brought it movement, stir, life, and not a little wealth — all things which were greatly needed by these dis- persed and emotional people. Possibly in the end these influences may tend to produce greater unity, and, I may add, tran- quillity. Of these at present there is little evi- dence, and the fact is hurtful in many ways. Although the canton is not a large one, it numbers two hundred and sixty-three communes. This, among other elements of disunion, tends to make Cantonal Life and Character 145 the popular life a troubled one. There is no centre with attractions sufficiently strong to draw the warring and divergent elements together, and so to help to mould them into one type. Hence there is little of that quietude of life which makes for the best interests and the highest development of a community. The ripest intellect of the can- ton is absorbed in politics, and its chief literary energies are spent in journalism. Tessin, with a population of not more than 142,719, possesses no fewer than six daily newspapers and three weekly ones, to say nothing of other publications, all more or less given to politics. It is probably — to some extent at least — this lack of cohesion among the Tessinese, combined with the prevailing poverty, that makes the deni- zen of these southern slopes and smiling valleys of the Alps so much a wanderer. The world over, the Tessinese is found a willing worker, toiling for his bread, but toiling still more for the wherewithal to return, ere the closing days of life, to his beloved home among the vine-clad terraces and the chestnut groves of the sunny Ticino. In London, Paris, New York, in al- most every capital, he is to be met with as cafe or restaurant keeper, as waiter, as worker in various arts and crafts ; I have met him, and his sister too, as models, in London and other studios. Ever diligent, almost invariably polite and agreeable, he very often manages to lay by enough to enable him to spend the afternoon of 10 14^ Swiss Life his days literally under his own " vine and fig tree." It is a small matter that satisfies these men generally — a wee cottage, a little bit of land, with a cow or two or a few goats ; and you may see them, these returned wanderers, enjoying the aftermath of life not only in Tessin, but in Grau- biinden also. But here and there, too, among the little brown Alpine villages, perched like eagles' nests upon lofty, wind-kissed terraces, you will see, looking down proudly from amid their sheltering foliage, the gleaming palatial residences of Tessinese who have made a com- fortable fortune abroad, and have returned, they, too, to enjoy it in ease and comfort among their own folk. I have known several such. Years ago, in a small Fleet Street cafe, well known of newspaper men, there used to be a little round-faced *' pa- drone ' ' who was never so pleased as when he could put upon his table a luncheon or a supper that pleased his guest. He was great at salads, and for those who liked the tang of it he had a special wine, which he was proud to say was grown by his own brother in their home vale. But the day came when with delighted counten- ance he told me he had sold his business, and was going to join his brother in that far-away Alpine valley, there to spend the remainder of his days among the mulberry trees and the vines. Years afterwards I chanced upon this man, as z < o CO CO UJ N > I O CO z o J- z < o UJ D CO o O Cantonal Life and Character 147 brown as a chestnut, in his own fair land. The fortune he had gone back with was not great, but it was enough. Not so happy was a couple I used to know in the Old Court suburb, they, too, the striving keepers of a cafe. Jean saved enough to take over the business, and as he wanted a help- mate, he sent for his fiancee, who had waited several years for him. She travelled all the way alone, they were married, and lived as happily together as a pair of turtle-doves. The business, however, proved a failure ; Jean had to take to waiting again. The little wife helped the 7nenage by occasionally sitting as a model ; but though the two talked of returning one day to sunny Tessin, it is to be feared that, if they got back, it was not with much of a competence. As I have said, similar little homesteads and villas, the eventide homes of natives who have made their little *'pile" abroad, may be met with in the Graubiinden vales, especially in the valleys of the Vorder and Hinter Rhein and in the Kngadine. The Engadine is, indeed, noted in this respect. Owing to its great altitude, its climate is severe and its produce restricted ; and yet for so elevated a region it is thickly popu- lated. Sturdy and well-to-do, also, are its people, albeit not so much from what they make at home, as from the wealth accumulated by their sons abroad, the young men, as a rule, leaving their native valleys early, and finding places all over 14^ Swiss Life Kurope, much in the same way as the Tessinese. They go into the smaller branches of trade, and as cooks, confectioners, chocolate vendors, and the like, acquire small independences, which, when the joyful day of return comes, are drawn upon for the erection of those striking abodes which may be seen all over the Engadine — abodes which are of more ample dimensions than they otherwise would be because the cattle have to be thought of as well as the human members of the family. This to the outland eye makes them, together with their decorations of whitewash, gilding, etc., somewhat pretentious looking. They become less "imposing," however, when we know that they frequently comprise under the same roof cowshed, barn, and perhaps stable to boot ; for those who stay at home are chiefly engaged with their cattle, and, as the summer is short, the stock have to be kept indoors during the seven or eight months of winter. The hay is cut about the middle of July, the cattle feed on the grass until winter sets in, when it is again, for the season of the snows, "the closed door" and weather- tight shelter for all. Most of the people of the Engadine — all, I be- lieve, except those of the village of Tarasp — are Protestant, a religion for which they fought and suffered much in earlier days. In the Lower Engadine this was especially the case, and con- nected therewith is the interesting survival of the ancient costume of the country to be met with in Cantonal Life and Character 149 this valley alone of the whole of Graubiinden. The circumstance is associated with the struggle against Austria for the maintenance of their re- ligion ; the women having taken a vow that, if Heaven would give their fathers and husbands the victory in 1499, they would ever after con- tinue to wear their dark and somewhat severe style of dress. It speaks much for the solidity of character possessed by these people that they have remembered their parents' vow and kept it so long. The inhabitants of the Engadine speak Ladin (i. e., Latin), one of the two leading dialects of Romansch, and are held in very high repute for their general honesty and good moral character. This, no doubt, has much to do with the prevail- ing prosperity. In other parts of the Grisons, but more particularly in the district of the Vorder Rhein, there is a strange mix-up of religion, as also of language. Hardly two villages can be found together that speak the same language or profess the same religion. However, generally speaking, where German is spoken the people are Protestant, whilst if they patter Romansch they are most likely to be Roman Catholic. In the district of the Hinter Rhein, German is the lan- guage of the people, and they are Protestant. The whole of this district of the Vorder and Hinter Rhein is rich in folk-lore and legend. Among the valleys of the Silvretta range in par- ticular the people are noted for their wealth of 150 Swiss Life old-world talk of this description. Many of their most characteristic stories relate to a fairy people known as the Fenken, the tales of whose strange lives and wonderful doings enliven many a winter night and summer eve. Foremost among the beings who figure in these veracious narratives is the beautiful maiden Madrisa, who has given her name to the peak known as the Madrisahorn, as w^ell as to other spots around which centre legends of her doings. One of these stories is to the effect that Madrisa fell in love with a beautiful mountain stream. She was never so happy as when seated by its side, listening to the music it sang to her, and gazing on the entrancing form which smiled on her when she looked into its depths. This was the beautiful spirit of the stream, which was never far away except in the dark w^eather. But anon winter came and imprisoned with its icy shackles the tender, music-loving spirit. Then Madrisa could not see her beloved ; she could only hear him moan in his deep distress. But they agreed that, if he ever got free from his toils, they would hasten away together to happier lands — lands which the gentle winds sometimes told them of. At length the spring came, and Madrisa beheld her beautiful lover again. Then they de- cided to go at once to the happy lands whereof the winds spoke, and there marry and be happy ever afterwards. But, sooth to say, they had not gone more than a couple of days' journey, ere Cantonal Life and Character 151 Madrisa's lover got so mixed up with other streams, and his waters became so clouded, that she could no longer see his face in them. His voice, too, was no longer what it had been, but sad and mournful, and full, as it were, of the talk of terrors and mvsteries to come. Then said Madrisa, in her keen dread, *' O beloved, let us go back to our mountain home, to its little wa5^s and delightful tunes, and if we can't be as happy as we would be, we will be as happy as we can. Come, love ! " So they went back. And still Madrisa sees her beloved in the summer season, and hears his voice, and though she grieves when winter comes with its dark daj'S and iron grip, it consoles her to think, " Perhaps I am happier and nearer to him than I dream. Perhaps it is the longing that makes the loving." Wise little Madrisa ! CHAPTER XI SWISS WOMEN AND SWISS HOMES SWISS women, as a rule, are of medium height, stoutly built, and plain in appear- ance rather than handsome. To comparatively few, indeed, can the latter epithet be applied, although when young some of the girls are cer- tainly pretty, a few beautiful. These last are generally the daughters of well-to-do burghers, who have brought their daughters up in fair ease and comfort. Not unfrequently they are the off- spring of foreign mothers, French, German, or Knglish. The reason for this general plainness of type is doubtless the terrible hardness of the life lived by the Swiss women in the past. Mat- ters have improved greatly in this respect in modern times, but their life is still, for all but the fairly affluent, one of continuous toil, descend- ing often to day-long drudgery. This is especially the case in those parts of the country devoted to husbandry and rural pursuits, where no factory law can come in, and where, in addition to the labour which naturally falls to the woman, the climatic conditions of life are extremely severe. 152 Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 153 One need not wonder, therefore, that so few really handsome native women are seen in Swit- zerland. The peculiarity is so marked and so common that if a beautiful woman makes her ap- pearance she is almost invariably taken to be either English or American — Americaine is the more general guess. I never met with an excep- tion to this rule of attributing feminine beauty to a stranger in preference to a native when there was any possibility of doubt. The Swiss themselves do not hesitate to acknowledge that their women are not as a rule ravissajite in respect to physical attractions ; but they are aware that good looks are not everything, that charm may dwell along with a very plain exterior, and that all the qualities that are best and most lovable in a woman are much more than " skin-deep." And it is just in these attributes that the Swiss woman shines most. Few make more devoted wives and mothers, few better keepers of the home and hearth. Whether we take the Switzerland of east or west, the old German cantons or the Wulsch (as the French-speaking parts are often designated), we find them much the same. The one ideal of duty prevails. The Swiss woman's place is in her home, and there she lives and works. Often enough her devotion is too absorb- ing, and she suffers in health in consequence. That is why so many are pale and sickly looking. Not only have they the care of the children and 154 Swiss Life of the house, but frequently they must aid besides in the bread-winning by carrying on some special handicraft, such as lace-making, embroidery, weaving, and the like. To this circumstance may doubtless be attri- buted the fact — if we may believe Elisee Reclus — that the infirm of body and mind, with the exception of the blind, are more numerous in Switzerland than in the neighbouring countries, and that more than half the young men examined for military service are declared to be unfit. Even the universal prevalence of the school- master has not changed this condition of things, for still in Switzerland, as with us, the school often fails to concern itself with those things that have most to do with daily life and duties. However, things are improving; shorter hours are being enforced in factories, no woman is allowed to do night work, and girls, by being kept compulsorily at school until they are fairly well into their teens, are given a better chance for growth and building up constitution than their mothers enjoyed. H3^giene, too is being better attended to and taught. Still, on the whole, the life of the Swiss women, whether in the town or in the remote mountain villages, is not an unhappy one. They have their share in all the rejoicings that occur from time to time ; they have their church-goings and their home and family gatherings; and if they do not often, when married, go gadding to fair or Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 155 market, and less still to the dance, as was their wont before marriage, they have the recollection of the days when they did, and therewith are, perforce, content. There is a homely proverb current in some parts of Switzerland to the effect that the glad times come in the May mornings. It signifies, as they say in Yorkshire, that " the May-day of life is the hey-day of life," and certainly the Swiss girls know how to make the most of their May days. With them — in the more rural cantons especially — life is very much one long round of pleasure. Not that they are always at dances or on parties of pleasure. But the Swiss girl is, as a rule, full of life, full of hope, and so light of heart that the remembrance of one merry-making easily carries her over a passable interval to the next. Song and the dance — these are the joy-mates of the Swiss. Nothing rejoices them like music, the music of the voice in especial ; and when the heart is young and the limbs still supple, it is very apt to put the rhythm of its desire into both, and bid them beat to its law. Dancing is very popular throughout Switzerland, alike in town and village, in the Protestant cantons as in the Catholic. Among the stricter Protestant folk, however, there has always been, and is still, a moral objection to dancing, and especially to public balls. Family life is stricter, and the social relations of the sexes are perhaps on a 156 Swiss Life higher level. It is common, for instance, in some parts for young men and women to meet at tav- erns to dance and hear music; but the practice is looked upon with little tolerance by Protestants, and, I must add, by many Catholics — so much so that in some cantons the law carefully restricts the number of dances that may be held, and these are confined, for the most part, to public holidays. Even in backward Appenzell-inner-Rhoden a severe restriction is put upon the number of balls which may be given in the village tavern, and girls under twenty may not attend them. These peasant-dances are very characteristic, and any- one who wishes to see something very primitive cannot do better than obtain admission to the village tavern on the occasion of a wedding feast. It is usually a somewhat clownish affair, and at first anything but enlivening. The young men and maidens sit on opposite sides of the room, the young men in what they have of best as re- gards clothing, and not unusually with pipe in mouth, the young women in the dainty and picturesque costume of the district. The music is almost invariably supplied by a violin or two, with the accompaniment of a Hackbrett — i. e., an instrument resembling a zither, played with two light sticks. When the instruments strike up, the young men advance across the room and lead out partners, but it is often some time before the dancing becomes general. Moreover, there is an Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 157 unwritten law that everything should be con- ducted in a very quiet and orderly manner until after a certain hour, — it may be eight or nine, — but after that the fun becomes liv^elier, and not a little noisier. The staid tripping and turning of the girls, the jumping and heel- thumping of the men, — for it is often little else, — are then varied by hand-clapping and ** jodelling," and by other manifestations of high spirits and enjoyment. All this must cease, however, at eleven o'clock. Appenzell-inner-Rhoden, as has been already said, is accounted one of the more uncultured centres of Switzerland, and it may be that the young women on that account enjoy greater free- dom in their intercourse with the opposite sex than their sisters in other cantons. It is gener- ally at these gatherings at the taverns that they make those acquaintances with 5^oung men which result in marriage. There is little opportunity of doing so at home, the life there being very narrow and secluded. Company is seldom re- ceived, and visits of any kind, except from mem- bers of the family, are an extreme rarity. I have heard it said that by some of the peasantry — and in other parts besides Appenzell — it is looked upon as an insult to call upon a man at his home. Men make appointments with each other at the inn, and then over their stoup of wine or other liquor and a pipe they have their talk on what- ever may be the object of the meeting. It is this inaccessibility of the home among the 15^ Swiss Life poorer folk generally that has doubtless led to so much tavern-haunting by the young men throughout Switzerland, and with such terrible results that some fifteen years ago it was found necessary to take measures with a view to re- strict the manufacture of alcohol. There was a time when the wine of the country was almost the sole drink of the Swiss. But gradually the taste for beer, introduced by German refugees, spread among the people, and drunkenness is now, un- fortunately, one of the worst sins of the country. As in England, the temperance crusade began as early as 1830 ; but it was not until the matter was taken in hand by the Federal authorities that much progress was made towards checking the evil. It would not appear as though a great deal had been done even yet when it is considered that the consumption of alcoholic beverages stands at no francs (;^4 Ss.) per head of the population per annum. But, say those who are supposed to know best, there is a slow but sure improvement taking place all over the country, which is a good thing to hear. It may be noted here that, while the Swiss took their habit of beer-drinking from the Ger- man, they failed to introduce with it his love of a beer-garden. The uninitiate may think that there cannot be much difference between drink- ing beer in a garden and in a pot-house ; but there is in truth all the difference in the world. Seated in the open air a man is not stimulated to Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 159 drink as much as he is when shut up between four walls in an atmosphere almost stifling with tobacco-smoke. Nothing creates thirst like to- bacco, and when a person is breathing it in such volumes as he must do when confined to a room where perhaps twenty are smoking, the provoca- tion to thirst is almost, if not more than, doubled. There is nothing like the same unwholesome stimulus to thirst when a man enjoys his Schoppe and his pipe in the open air. Moreover, there is another circumstance connected with the beer- garden, as the German knows it, which works in favour of sobriety. It is a public place, to which men and women alike resort, to which a man will even take his family, and hence anything like inebriety or bad manners is at once checked. In short, evil habits and vicious behaviour cannot thrive under the public eye as they do in hidden corners and secret places. This is no plea for beer-gardens, however — it is simply a statement of fact ; to which may be added the opinion which may, perhaps, have been formed on insufficient experience, but which I am not alone in enter- taining, that the German-Swiss workman is not, as a rule, so well behaved and polite in public as his German compeer. Perhaps republican manners go for something in this matter, though I doubt whether that is the source of the difference. I am more inclined to think that it arises in part from the fact that popular education was a later acquisition in the i6o Swiss Life Confederation, and in part from the so prevalent habit, to which I have referred, of the young men — and the old, too, for the matter of that — making the tavern their place of nightly resort. How much family life suffers in consequence is only too patent. The refining influence of the home circle is too often conspicuous by its absence, and not only do the young men, but the young wo- men also, suffer as the result. One effect of this lack — a small matter, perhaps, albeit significant — is the often-commented-on sans gene endear- ments of Swiss lovers of the peasant and artisan classes, who frequently appear to select the most public places for their toyings and caressings. In some cantons there is a far freer and more enjoyable home life than in others; visits are paid and received, and there is much going and coming between families. In the Forest Cantons there are many home-gatherings, such as in America would be called '* bees " — gatherings for shelling walnuts, which take place in succession at differ- ent houses ; evening parties for getting ready the trousseau of the girl about to be married, and so on. Marriage customs vary in different parts of the country, and to describe them all in detail would occupy more space than is at disposal. Essen- tially, all marriages are the same in one respect, for the law, regarding the marriage contract as a civil one, requires it to be performed by a magis- trate. With some this is all the ceremony that is gone through, though it is followed by the Swiss Women and Swiss Homes i6i usual feasting and merry-making. Such cases, however, are the exception rather than the rule, the majority of couples, whether Protestant or Catholic, electing to add a religious consecration to the civil ceremony. Usually, among Protest- ants, the one follows immediately after the other, the couple, with their friends, proceeding from the mairie direct to the church. The day is filled up with feasting and a dance, and the newly married pair either adjourn to their new home or go for a short wedding-trip. In the Catholic cantons, on the other hand, the ceremonial is often spread over a longer period. In Appenzell and Schwyz, for instance, a mar- riage celebration usually extends over three days. Saturday is very commonly selected for the civil ceremony. On Sunday the couple go to confes- sion, receive communion, and hear mass ; then, on Monday, is celebrated the religious rite. This is followed, in the case of all but the elite, — if one may speak of anyone under that head in these peasant cantons, — by a dance at the tavern, at which, generally, there is much wine-drinking. It is usually the wine of the country, or cider^ which is much drunk in East Switzerland, where, in many parts, it still remains the household bev- erage. It is, as a rule, very wholesome, relieves thirst quickly, and creates no false appetite. What does the mischief in the country is not so much these drinks as the schnapps, t\iQ petit verve of the French cantons, to which peasant and zx 1 62 Swiss Life artisan alike are so greatly addicted, and in many parts with such deplorable results. What this "sipping" means in the aggregate may be gathered from the fact that the consumption of spirits per head per annum is six litres (nearly a gallon and a half). There are several features in the Federal law regarding marriage which are worthy of note. One is that no impediment can be put in the way of marriage on the ground of religion, the poverty of one or other of the parties interested, the alleged misconduct of either, or for any other cause. This law was rendered necessary because, prior to the revisions of 1848 and 1874, the Church on the one hand, and the communal authorities on the other, frequently stepped in to prevent and interfere with the right of marriage. The Catho- lic Church declared " mixed " marriages — that is, the marriage of a Protestant with a Catholic — as null and void, and the offspring of such unions as illegitimate ; while communes refused to allow very poor persons to marry, because they were afraid their children might become a charge on the parish. By her marriage a woman now ac- quires the rights of citizenship enjoyed by her husband. The Federal law permits divorce for — besides the usual reason — cruelty and inhuman conduct, conviction of crime, desertion for two years, and for incurable insanity. There are fewer divorces in the Catholic than in the Pro- testant cantons. That does not sa}^ of course, Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 163 that there are fewer causes for unhappy marriage in the one case than the other, but simply that the Catholic Church refuses to allow its faithful sons and daughters to seek legal relief from wedded misery. All who have visited Switzerland must have been struck with the very beautiful and com- modious peasant houses to be met with in many parts. In the poorer districts there are some very miserable wooden shanties, little, if at all, better than those existing in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland ; but in the more fertile valleys of Berne, Lucerne, Unterwalden, and the other Forest Cantons there are dwellings which are not only a picture without, but all that is pleasing and convenient within. In the building of these houses no invariable rule is followed ; but in the villages they are generally constructed very solidly of stone to a height of six or eight feet. Upon this foundation the upper structure of wood is raised. In the lower part are commodious cell- ars for storage purposes ; above them, in front, are the living- and bed-rooms ; behind are the kitchen, dairy, threshing-floor, stables, etc. On either side of the upper floor is an outer gallery, which in some districts runs quite round the house. The roof in front generally projects very considerably, but to a much less extent at the back and sides. The roof is of tiles in more modern houses, in the older ones of pine-shingles weighted with large stones. 164 Swiss Life The rooms on the first floor of these houses usually comprise the chief living-room, a smaller room, or * ' parlour, ' ' and the best bed-room. The parlour is used only on special occasions. In it, of course, are placed the best furniture and such objects as constitute the household treasures. In Catholic families — and in these mountain districts nearly all are such — a crucifix is never wanting. Equally prominent on the panelled walls will be the pictures of one or two saints, interspersed, perhaps, in the better families with a few family portraits. A clock, likely enough made in the Black Forest, is rarely absent ; still more rarely the vase of holy water by the door, for here the family assembles for its devotional exercises, as well as for conference on matters of moment. In some villages much attention is given to the external adornment of the houses and to the cult- ivation of flowers, not only in the garden-space about the house, but on the ledges of the win- dows. It is rare to see one of these houses with- out its pear-tree trained up the front, or, in the warmer districts, its vine. The cultivation of fruit, especially apples and pears, is particularly cared for. When ripe, it is the duty of the women to quarter these fruits and dry them for winter use. Every house is provided with a store, which forms an important item in the family provender. The people in the more pastoral districts gener- ally live very simply. Even in well-to-do families Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 165 meat is rarely put on the table, save at times of festivity, or on the occasion of friendly visits, when there will not infrequently be a lavish dis- play. Potatoes form a considerable part of the daily fare ; with buttermilk and bread they often constitute the midday meal. Milk and its pro- ducts — butter, cheese, curds, etc. — bulk very largely in the daily dietary of the pastoral dis- tricts. Bread is often replaced by dried fruit or by curds. Many delicious dishes are made from cream. In Uri, sweet cheese-curds stewed in cream and afterwards baked with fresh butter are regarded as a great delicacy and much esteemed. I have spoken elsewhere of the custom — more honoured in the breach than in the observance — of the Kiltgang, which, strange to say, is sanc- tioned by parents. Closely connected therewith is the Maienstecken of Canton Lucerne. A lover, anxious to do honour to his inna7norata, plants in front of her window a small pine-tree gaily adorned with ribbons. A young swain can hardly show a greater proof of his devotion than this, and he generally finds his reward in the generous entertainment he receives at the hands of both the girl and her parents. Of a wholly different significance is the straw puppet some- times hung during the night in front of the win- dow of a girl who is thought to hold her head too high, or whose parents are supposed to be looking for a match for her outside the village. 1 66 Swiss Life Reference has been made elsewhere to the cir- cumstance that here and there, in out-of-the-way- regions, the old Tracht, or costume, of these parts has been retained. But everywhere the old fashions are gradually giving way. Even in the more conservative of the Forest Cantons like Unterwalden and Schwyz, little remains beyond the distinctive head-dress of the women. In the latter canton the girls wear a black cap, the mar- ried women a white one. There are in each two slips of upright lace, which, coming from behind over the head, meet on the forehead ; the whole having the appearance of a butterfly with wings half-spread. Between these the girl's tresses are puffed up and held back by a silver pin, called a Rosenadel, from its head resembling a partially opened rose. The hair of the married women is treated in a similar way, but is covered with a piece of richly embroidered silk. The old cantonal costume holds its own as strongly in Catholic Appenzell as perhaps any- where, and, as it is ver}^ picturesque, it is worth a few words of description. The dress consists of skirt, bodice, and head-dress. The skirt is of a rather heavy material, black and dark red in colour, and is folded longitudinally into a num- ber of narrow pleats. The bodice consists of black velvet, and is worked back and front with silver cord. The breast, shoulders, and arms to the elbows are clad in white. A fancy bonnet, with a pair of black, semi-circular wings, con- Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 167 stitutes the head-dress. The wings are large, and are attached on each side of the head. They are lined with a soft white material, which is brought to a point over the forehead. The bon- net, worn at the back of the head, is usually- adorned with streamers of pink ribbon. The bonnet is often discarded for comfort's sake, both by girls and married women, but the wings never. A good deal of chain-ware and jewellery is worn to complete the costume. It must be said that the fashion suits the plump, blue-eyed, fair-haired daughters of Appenzell/ But while this and other similar costumes still linger in parts, in the towns and throughout the country generally the common dress of civilisation prevails, and there is little to distinguish the citizen of Berne, Soleure, or Geneva from the strangers coming from London, Paris, or New York. There is almost less to differentiate the ladies, the Swiss woman being as well read in the fashions as most of her Continental sisters, and equally knowing in the art of showing off her personal advantages. The thing which strikes a newcomer most in associating with Swiss women of the better class, next, perhaps, to their plainness, is the more general tone of intellectuality which prevails among them. They can, as a rule, talk intelli- gently not only on politics, but on matters of more general interest — literature, science, education, ^ Pure Democracy in Appenz ell-inner- Rhoden, \ % 1 68 Swiss Life and so forth. Education is a favourite topic. This is, of course, natural among a people who have played so important a part in what we may call the mission of education — among a people, too, so many of whose daughters, from necessity as well as predilection, devote themselves to the art of teaching. No country in the world pro- duces better governesses than Switzerland, and though it might seem invidious to say that the best come from Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich, yet it would be hard to find more excellent ones than hail from those cities. Some of the worthiest women I met in Switzerland were of the guild of governesses, and among them were many whom it was a pleasure to know, not only because of their sterling moral qualities, but because of their good sense and wit also. In Geneva I enjoyed a rather unique experience. I spent one winter in 2i pension in which the majority of the guests were governesses, several of them old and superan- nuated. Many times I counted a dozen seated round the table at once. Some of them had seen service in England, others in France and Russia. One, a very ancient dame, had been for some years in the family of Georges Sand, and had many interesting and amusing reminiscences to tell of that talented woman and her daughter. Another had been French governess to the children of a Russian Minister of State. They had at the same time an English governess, a woman of great volubility and charm, who was Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 169 much liked by her employers because of her uni- form high spirits and naive talk. The French governess, however, had doubts about her Eng- lish, and gave a hint to that effect to her mistress. The latter reported it to her husband, who, sus- pecting that the French governess was jealous of her 'English co?i/re re, bade her not be stupid. He had had the most excellent recommendations with ** Miss," he said, and, besides, what should she, a Swiss, know about English ? Mademoiselle apologised, said she had lived a little while in England, and thought, etc., etc., but felt she had been indiscreet. So the gale blew over, and the children went on quietly with their French and their English until the following summer, when an Englishman of some note, who was touring in Russia, spent a few days at the country estate of the Minister. The evening of his arrival, the children, after dinner, were brought in to con- verse with him, and show how well they had got on with their English. They chatted with rare volubility, and in such a rich North-of-Ireland Drogue that at length the visitor broke out into irrepressible laughter. It was impossible to avoid an explanation, and, in short, the host learned, to his inexpressible chagrin, that mademoiselle had been quite right in her doubts as to the purity of her little charges' English. Another of these women had spent many years in England as a governess, and had in some way come in contact with George and Andrew Combe 170 Swiss Life of Edinburgh, and was deeply imbued with their views in regard to education and kindred sub- jects. She had, as I understood, contributed ar- ticles thereon to Swiss periodicals; but I never saw any of her writings. I should say that the keeper of the pension in question had herself been a governess, and had spent the happiest days of her life in the family of a Derbyshire magnate. It was highly amusing to hear this lady relate her experiences in England. She had relations in the hotel-keeping line, and in her early days had heard a great deal about the " mad English," who travelled to and fro with, in short, " lashings " of money, and about the same amount of eccentri- city. This talk had reference, of course, to the old days of foreign travel, when "my lord'' knocked about in his coach-and-four, and dropped his sovereigns as though they were as cheap as cigar-dust. Stories of those times are, or were a few years ago, still recounted by the older hotel- keepers with a mixture of respect and amusement not difficult to realise. The little governess, therefore, came to England with the full expecta- tion of finding everybody as mad as the proverb- ial March hare. ** I was so much surprised," she would say simply, " when I found them so different from what I had expected. Mais, voyez vous,'' she would add with a laugh, '' je les ai trouve tons un peu tocques " ("I found them all a little touched "). One of the things that struck her as extraordinary was the fact that, a day or Swiss Women and Swiss Homes 171 two after her arrival, two of the elder girls she was to instruct went out before breakfast in the misty autumn morning to gather mushrooms, both of them wearing a pair of old boots without stockings, and both, as she put it, without a scrap of hat i^pas un brin de chapeaiC). The fact that they simply went into a meadow adjoining the house did not count. More amusing was her story of the two maiden ladies who, wishing to be kind to the tramps who passed their house, but being afraid to have them come through the garden to the door, had a little seat built at the gate, whereon each morning they placed an equal number of tracts and pence, and over them a card bearing the inscription, " Take one of each," They thought the method worked well because the tracts as well as the pence in- variably disappeared. Having given these governess stories about the English, I must add one told me by the little lady who had been gouvernante to the daughter of Georges Sand. The illustrious writer was the heroine of the story, which, according to my in- formant, she used to tell with great enjoyment. She and her mari were taking the waters at some Swiss Bad. Shortly after retiring for the night the gentleman was taken with severe headache, and Madame Sand, to give him relief, rushed downstairs to the kitchen to get a towel wrung out of hot water. With this piping hot, the good lady hurried back to the sufferer; but in her haste 172 Swiss Life and confusion she unfortunately entered the wrong room, and clapped the scalding towel on to the wrong man's head. " Madame," said the narrator, " did not wait for the end of the incid- ent; but she heard the gentleman's imprecations all down the corridor." Which one can well understand. CHAPTER XII SWISS CHII.DRKN THE subject of Swiss life and work must not be left without a few words about those who in the coming generation will have to carry on the toil and the tradition of their country — the child- ren of to-day. The upgrowing men and women of Switzerland have always appeared to me very delightful. In town and country alike they in- variably meet one with a frank, ingenuous look, and not uncommonly with a bright, sunny smile. Though they are quick to mark the stranger, and to note, perhaps, his outlandish garb, yet it is rare to observe in them any rudeness, either of speech or manner. Indeed, I may say that, so far as my own experience goes, I cannot recall a single in- stance of impoliteness on the part of a Swiss boy or girl. I do not know that, taken as a whole, Swiss children are better than others. They, no doubt, have their faults, as all have; but I must say that I have never found children anywhere better behaved than in this land of mountain and lake. In the villages and on the country roads they rarely meet you without a polite Guten Tag 173 1/4 Swiss Life or Bon jour, and if you should happen to inquire the way to some place, they will not infrequently take considerable trouble to see that you go right. As a rule, they show the greatest trust, and with a little encouragement they will enter into conver- sation, and prove themselves very agreeable com- panions if they chance to be travelling your way. I remember once in particular falling in with a little fellow who was trudging home from school with a small knapsack of books on his back. It was late in the year, and the days were getting short. But though it would be dark before the little fellow could reach home, he showed no fear. Yet his way lay alongside a grim pine forest, full of strange whispers and uncanny sounds, that would have made many a taller man feel queer in the dark. I was not sorry to have the companion- ship of one who was sure of the way, and during the mile or two we had to go together I found his boyish talk extremely enjoyable, and to a stranger not a little enlightening. He knew all the live things of the forest, and could tell the names of the flowers that grew by the wayside in the sunny season. One steep slope he pointed out as being specially notable for its Erdbeeren, or wild strawberries, and spoke with a certain pride of the number of tiny basketfuls he and his brothers and sisters had gathered the previous summer, and sold either to passing tourists or in the near-lying town. It is worthy of note that one never sees Swiss Swiss Children 17S children gathering unripe fruit — destroying it, that is — as is so common amongst the young at home. In England not only town children when in the country, but country children, who ought to know better, will pluck unripe nuts and green fruit wherever it is to be found, totally oblivious of the fact that they are thereby spoiling a pos- sible future pleasure for themselves, to say no- thing of others. In this respect, at least, Swiss children are better taught, and though the way- sides are often thickly planted with fruit-trees, neither boy nor girl is ever seen to take the fruit in an unripe condition. On the contrary, they are taught to regard the plucking of unripe fruit as something criminal. I shall never forget the cry of horror or disgust which spontaneously burst from a group of boys w^ho were fishing in the Aar when they saw an Englishman draw down the bough of a plum-tree, and pluck a still green fruit. It was as though he had committed some sacrilege. The wild strawberries are never touched until quite ripe. This is part of the edu- cation of the young. But when the fruit is ripe for gathering, these little men and w^omen will travel miles, and ascend to considerable heights on the mountain side, to gather these delicacies, which, in the districts frequented by tourists, sell at a good price. They assist in garnering the whortleberry harvest in the same way. But before either the wild strawberry or the whortleberry is ripe these little sons of the firn will ascend to 17^ Swiss Life dizzy heights bordering on the regions of eternal snow to gather the whitish-green blooms of the edelweiss, pale emblem of the eternal peace that for ever reigns in those vast solitudes. These they tie up in tiny bundles, and sell to travellers for a few centimes apiece. They will stand by the roadside in the hot sun for hours in the hope of getting a purchaser. It is wonderful what knowledge many of these children acquire through their intimate contact with nature. It is not, of course, * * book know- ledge," and so in examinations it would perhaps not tell, but it is of the very kernel and essence of knowledge, nevertheless. This, Swiss peda- gogy has of recent years been finding out. For in Switzerland, as with us, a movement was some time ago set afoot to bring the school, so to speak, more in contact with nature. Teachers were re- quired to be well read in science, so as to be able to instruct their young charges in the common objects of the country. But though the science thus imported into the school served well enough for town-bred children, it was found in the rural districts that these dispensers of popular science were really novices in the subjects they pretended to teach in comparison wnth many of their schol- ars, who knew at first hand, and often with rare fulness, the things their instructors knew only from books, and to a certain extent perfunctorily. Thus, in numberless instances, the teacher found himself going to school to his scholar. This fact Swiss Children 17? has been noted and commented upon by educa- tionists, and from such a direct people as the Swiss we may expect some practical results to ensue. The same thing has been noted by English teachers. In one instance in particular that came under my own notice the teacher of a mixed village school used to take her older scholars on long walks through the fields and over the commons to give them lessons on the flowers, grasses, and other natural objects they met with on their rambles. But she soon found how inconsiderable was the knowledge she could impart to them in this respect, while from them, with their intimate knowledge of nearly every living thing, she was filling up the lacunae of her book-knowledge all the time. A Swiss teacher whom I recently met reported a similar experience. *' I had read deeply in science," he said, " but I only came to know what a true knowledge of natural things meant after I was appointed to a rural school. The boys could tell me no end of things I did not know even in regard to matters which I had made the subject of special study. My science was too much a conglomeration of words, theirs was knowledge of the thing itself." One day, per- haps, we shall learn to place our schools less un- der the obsession of books. But to return to my little man of the mountain, who knew the natural things of the forest so well. He had heard, too, of the supernatural beings 12 17^ Swiss Life supposed to haunt its fastnesses — beings, some bright and beneficent, others fearsome and evil. Of these things he spoke with awe, and when I asked him if he was never afraid of them in pass- ing the wood at night, he said he sometimes felt a little timorous, but he added that his mother had taught him, whenever he felt anything of the kind, to repeat the words: ** Du lieber Gott, ich bin dein Kind, Mach mich zu allem Uebel blind," which, Englished, would read: " Dear God above, I am Thy child, Make me to every evilbUnd — " a very prett}^ and wholesome way, it must be confes.sed, in which to banish fear. It is astonishing, too, to note what distances children sometimes have to go to school, and how sturdily they trudge to and fro, even in the cold weather, and though the hours of school-going are much earlier than with us. Seven o'clock in summer and eight in winter is the usual time for being in class. This is rather early, according to our ideas; but then the business of the da}^ be- gins, as a rule, much earlier in Switzerland than with us. Some of the educational associations, however, are at present endeavouring to bring about a modification as regards children under ten years of age, to whom they think it would be Swiss Children 179 beneficial if school-time were made an hour later ■^that is, eight in summer and nine in winter. The change would, no doubt, be advantageous, especially to children of the more rural districts, with whom winter is often the chief season for schooling, so many calls being made upon them for labour during the open weather, and the school authorities making every possible allow- ance on that account. Possibly in some cases too much latitude is thus granted, with the result that little ones are at times made drudges of to their hurt. One cannot help sometimes pitying thr? tiny girls, undersized and apparently under- fed, that one sees seated in front of wayside chalets making pillow-lace to tempt the passing stranger. In like manner one is sometimes moved to pity by seeing a small boy or girl help- ing, along with a dog, to draw the Swiss milk- distributor's cart. Perhaps the labour in these cases is not exces- sive, and it is not that which gives the children their pinched looks; but one unfortunately gets that impression. One thing is very sure, and it accounts to a large extent for the pale faces and shrunken forms of so many Swiss children, and it is that, though the houses of the peasantry are very charming and picturesque to look upon, they are often enough far from being all that could be desired from a sanitary point of view. The rooms are narrow and confined, and though they are blown through by the fresh winds in summer, i8o Swiss Life that does not altogether make up for the close and stuffy atmosphere that has to be put up with in winter, nor for the too often unwholesomely packed sleeping quarters at all seasons. The criticism applies equally to the chalet on the brae-side and to the houses of the poorer folk in the towns — exquisite pictures they make for the camera, but nothing less than deadly are they within. It is this condition, probably, more than anything else, which accounts for the sickly looks and pinched frames of so many Swiss children, even in the healthiest parts of the country — aided, no doubt, by the great amount of labour that is put upon them, and to which they devote them- selves so patiently. I well remember a little girl, still almost young enough to be sung to sleep her- self, who used every evening to spend a couple of hours, within sight of my window, hushing to sleep a baby half as big as herself. As she walked to and fro she sang the lullaby: " Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf ! Dein Vater hiitet Schaf— " SO well-beloved of Swiss children. It is next to impossible to put the spirit of it into English words, but some idea of the ditty may be obtained from the annexed rendering: " Sleep, baby, sleep ! Thy father tends the sheep, •Thy mother shakes the little tree, A tiny dream falls down for thee, Sleep, baby, sleep ! < en CO Swiss Children 18 1 " Sleep, baby, sleep ! In heaven walk the sheep, The stars they are the lambkins small, The moon it is the shepherd tall, Sleep, baby, sleep." And so on, through three or four more stanzas of dainty, childlike nonsense. As a contrast to this little baby nurse one may present the picture, so often witnessed in the summer season, of troops of children, headed by the schoolmaster or schoolmistress, often by both, wending their way along the mountain paths, vasculum at side, enjoying the fresh air, the fra- grant woods, and the flower-lit meadows, joyfully gathering knowledge and health at the same time. Then are the schools set free; for when the tem- perature has reached a point at which the children become listless, school doors have to be thrown open — de par la lot — and the scholars dismissed. To do otherwise is regarded as cruelty. The higher schools follow the same plan, and it is no uncommon thing, in rambling about the Alps, to meet long strings of girls, evidently of the better classes, tripping along the mountain slopes, headed by their teachers, and perhaps with a guide to lead. They have carefully-done-up bundles at their backs, containing a rug or water- proof, and etceteras; they carry tins with sand- wiches and the like; and, with alpenstock in hand, their look is one of businesslike earnest. Nor is it by any means make-believe ; for some of these slight misses will walk, with little trouble, 1 82 Swiss Life twelve or fifteen miles a day, and arrive at their hotel at night with nothing more the matter with them than a bad hunger. They do not show quite so much gaiety towards evening, perhaps, as when met earlier in the day ; but it is very pleasant to see their fresh looks and their cheeks almost as ruddy as the Alpenr'dsli^ with which, in true Swiss fashion, they have adorned the heads of their climbing-poles. These girl- parties do not show such a readiness for song as the companies of men who in the summer season take long jaunts together and make the moun- tains, if not the '* welkin," ring with their voices; but one may occasionally hear their shrill trebles waking almost bird-like echoes as they take upon their lips such songs as that known as Singen und Wandern : ** Nun ist die schone Friihlingszeit, Nun gehtes an ein Wandern. Bald ist 's allein und bald zu zwei'n, Bald trifft es sich mit andern. Wie junges Griin und Sonnenschein, So muss beim I^enz das Wandern sein." This is a great favourite; but still more be- loved for a shrill out-of-doors shout is Roslein im Walde — ** Irgend und irgend im Wald Bliihet ein Roselein, — with its telling chorus,— Swiss Children 183 *' Singet mein Herz juchhe Hallo ! Ju heissa ! Trara!" Songs, these, which, with the companionship of the sweet air of the woods and mountains and the scent of the meadow blossoms, keep the heart young Hke the unspoiled hearts of children. CHAPTER XIII MII.ITARY SYSTEM THERE is nothing in Europe so unique in a military sense as the Swiss army, and it is unique in more ways than one. Take the item of cost, for instance. The British army costs over ;^ioo per man per annum, the Russian army about ^23, but the Swiss army only £'] per man. This wonderful difference arises from the fact that the army of the Swiss Confederation is a citizen army. It is organised on what has been called the ' ' voluntary compulsory ' ' system, to which the Swiss of their own free will have resigned themselves in order to maintain the independence of their country. And it is interesting to note that they were the first nation in Europe to intro- duce universal liability to military service. This arose from the oppression to which the men of the prhnitive cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwal- den were subjected by Austria and her bailiffs, which made it incumbent on every able-bodied man to familiarise himself with the use of arms. This law has been so long in force that soldier- ing has become to the Swiss a second nature. He 184 _ Military System 185 takes to the knapsack and rifle as readily as a bird to the wing. By Article i8 of the Federal Constitution every Swiss male is liable to military service from his seventeenth to his fiftieth year. But long before he has reached the age of seven- teen the Swiss boy has, as a rule, learned to march, to do the manual exercises, and to go through much of the military drill; for all this is taught him in the school playground. There is, indeed, so much of this military spirit in the Swiss that not many years ago it became a nuisance, inciting the young fellows to enroll themselves in amateur companies, and to go strutting and marching about in uniform, until they became such a public pest that the custom had to be put down by law. The Federal forces fall into three divisions, named respectively the Aiisziig^ or Elite ; the Landwehr^ or First Reserve; and the Landstunn, or Second Reserve. The Elite consists of the flower of young manhood, all being liable to serve in it from the age of twenty to thirty-two. At the age of thirty-two a man passes into the Land- wehr^ to which he belongs until he is forty-four. To the La?idstiir7?i, or Second Reserve, all are liable from the age of seventeen to fifty who are not incorporated in the Elite or Layidwehr. In- deed, those over fifty years of age are not exempt if capable of service. To this liability to service there are but few exceptions, and they consist mainly of members of the Federal Council, some of the members of the Federal Tribunal, docl ors, 1 86 Swiss Life and officials connected with hospitals, prisons, the postal and telegraph service, etc. All the brothers in a family are liable to serve, and there is no exemption on the ground that a family is dependent on a man for support. A citizen is only exempt if he be physically incapable, or if he be under size. No one is enrolled under 5 feet 1^2 inches in height, unless, by reason of special qualifications, he is deemed eligible for particular branches of work. The percentage of those who pass muster is slightly over sixty of the entire manhood of the country. In a recent year the levy produced for the regular army, or Elitey 117,179 men; and the La?idwehr for the same year numbered 84,046; making a total of 201,225, which is no inconsiderable proportion of a popu- lation of three millions. The Swiss hold it to be a very advantageous ar- rangement that all, poor as well as rich, labourer like professional man, must serve in the ranks, side by side. They believe that it tends to pre- vent any sharp division of classes; they think further that it has the effect of welding all ranks together in closer bonds of sympathy. There is, moreover, no picking and choosing in the service, as, for instance, selecting this or that arm, this or that regiment, because it is more respectable or more fashionable than another. Each man is placed where he will tell to the best advantage. At least that is the rule. Thus a civil engineer becomes a military engineer, a civil veterinary Military System 187 surgeon is put into the cavalry or artillery, while a butcher or baker would be drafted into the commissariat department. A man has this choice, however, that he may elect to be in a cavalry regiment. So much is almost necessary, because, under certain conditions, the cavalry soldier has to provide and keep his own horse. Not onl}" is this the case, but, the military sys- tem being " territorial," every man serves in the division and regiment belonging to his own dis- trict. Thus a man, when doing his soldiering, finds himself shoulder to shoulder with the neigh- boiir who was once his school-fellow, and whom, when at home, he meets daily in the common work of the commune. There are eight territorial divisions, each of which furnishes one complete infantry division. The year's recruits, as soon as they join, are sent to one of the Ecoles des Recrues, which are held at the following places: Lausanne, Colombier, Berne, Lucerne, Aarau, Liestal, Zurich, and St. Gall. At these schools the recruits undergo six w^eeks' training. After that they are only required to go up for sixteen days' training every two years. Bach year, how- ever, everyone belonging to the army is ex- pected to do a certain amount of practice with the rifle, to keep his hand in, and every commune throughout the country is provided with a rifle- range (ySchutz-grabeTi) for that purpose. The double sovereignty existing in Switzerland — that is, the sovereignty of the canton and the 1 88 Swiss Life sovereignty of the Confederation — is evidenced in everything relating to the army. All laws which affect its organisation emanate from the Confederation, but the duty of carrying these laws into effect is vested in the cantonal authorities, who see that no man evades the duties of service, and who are responsible for the recruiting and maintenance of a military force proportioned to the area and population of the canton, although no canton is allowed to keep on foot a permanent force of more than three hundred men. The nom- ination of the officers of the cantonal troops to the rank of commandaiit de bataillon^ or major, is vested in the authorities of each canton; but be- fore they are accepted they must have satisfied the Federal military authorities as to their capa- city and fitness for the rank to which it is proposed to appoint them. Ofiicers of higher rank than major hold their commissions from the Federal Council. Switzerland possesses no special military col- leges, like those of Woolwich and Sandhurst ; but every soldier before he can become an officer has to attend the courses of instruction held at regular intervals in one centre or another. For instance, there is a central military college at Thun for the instruction of officers of the general staff, and an- other for regimental oflBcers. Here, also, are tht- principal artillery and cavalry barracks. At Base) is a school for the training of infantry instructors. There are other schools for other departments oi Wm :;^«^'-1 Q. < o o h- o z cc < a. Ul (E a. CO DC Ul o m CO CO Military System 189 work, as, for example, for ambulance work and for shooting (specially for ofl&cers). But these schools for instruction are open only at certain periods, not continuously. The infantry, the field artillery, cavalry, and certain other troops are recruited by the cantons, and are known as cantonal troops. But the engi- neers, guides, sanitary and administrative troops, and the army train are enrolled by the Confedera- tion. Arms are supplied by the Confederation ; but the equipments and uniforms are furnished by the cantons, for which they are afterwards reimbursed by the Federal authorities. The army, on a peace footing, is absolutely complete in every depart- ment. The medical, commissariat, and veteri- nary departments are thoroughly organised. There is a fitting proportion of cavalry, artillery, engineers, and transport. Each battalion is kept up to its full strength, and all in readiness for serv- ice. In short, all the adjuncts for making the army mobile in the field are, with the Swiss sys- tem of administration, complete and in thorough working order. The Federal Military Department exercises the executive power over the army; and in order to facilitate the discharge of its duty this department has at its disposal twelve heads of the various branches of the service. The Federal Council selects the ofl&cers of the general staff, or Etat major, which, on a peace footing, consists of three colonels, sixteen lieutenant- colonels or majors, igo Swiss Life and thirty-five captains. The chief of the general staff is nominated for three years, but the appoint- ment may be renewed. The bureau of the £fal major at Berne is divided into two distinct sections — the general section, which is under the immedi- ate supervision of the chief of the Corps d' ^tat vtctjor, and the railway section, consisting of nine- teen officers of various ranks. The officers of the cantonal troops are nom- inated by the Grand Council of the canton, upon the recommendation of the cantonal military di- rector, after having successfully passed through the schools of instruction. Promotion from lieu- tenant to first lieutenant takes place according to seniority; but the succeeding steps from lieutenant to captain are given in consideration of the officer's general fitness and aptitude without regard to his seniority. The same is true as regards the ap- pointment of ofi&cers up to the rank of colonel. In other words, promotion is by merit, and every soldier must first begin his career in the ranks. With the exception of those filling the post of in- structors, the general staff", and a few other officials, Swiss officers receive pay only during the short period they are called upon for training. It should be said that no officer rises to a higher rank than colonel, unless he be selected for com- mander-in-chief, when he becomes a general. Hence there is only one general in the Swiss army. In time of war the commander-in-chief is entitled to receive £2 a day by way of remunera- Military System 191 tion, while the pay of the private would be about eightpence. Since the time of William Tell, or the period in which he is reputed to have lived, the Swiss have recognised the immense importance of shooting; and from that day to this it has been the aim of all their successive governments to encourage by every means in their power excellence in marks- manship. The Tir Federal (Federal Shooting Association), generously supported by the Con- federation, is only one of the many institutions with the same end in view. Almost every com- mune has its shooting club, and this with the in- ter-communal and inter-cantonal matches, tends to keep up a high excellence of rifle-shooting. All those who have spent any time in Switzer- land must have been struck with the amount of gun-firing to be heard on Sundays, saints' days, and holiday's. Sometimes it becomes a nuisance to the visitor, for from early morning until late at night there is hardly anything to be heard but the continual banging and "pink-pinking" of firearms. The men seem to have no other enjoy- ment but using their rifles, and the women no other pleasure except watching them do it, unless it be accompanying them to and from the ranges. But such is the way the Swiss prepare themselves for the defence of their country. On fete days one may see men in all the different grades of the serv- ice, from the newly joined recruit to the major of his battalion, standing side by side in the 19^ Swiss Life Schutz-graben of the commune, thus voluntarily spending their holiday afternoons in perfecting themselves in the use of the rifle. And no one can have watched their practice at the butts with- out being struck with the general excellence of their marksmanship. These gatherings are util- ised for general musketry instruction; for every Swiss soldier is compelled to fire thirty-five rounds annually. If he does not complete his score at the cantonal rifle-meetings he is obliged to attend a three days' course of shooting under military supervision. As a crowning feature of this admirable system of national defence, with the few exceptions above mentioned, no one is paid for the service he gives to the State as a soldier. He is, however, put to no expense while doing his soldiering. When going up for drill his uniform serves in lieu of a railway-ticket. Nor is the soldier entitled to pension; but if, during his military service, he has been injured and so incapacitated for work, he may claim some support in case of need. If killed, his family stand in the same position, should they require assistance. Apart from those who are exempt from service because of their call- ing, every Swiss male who does not perform mili- tary service is subject to an annual tax in lieu thereof — and this, whether he resides in the Con- federation or not. This tax amounts to six francs per man, with the addition of one franc fifty cen- times for every thousand francs of fortune he may Military System 193 possess, or one hundred francs of income, until the age of thirty- two, and one half the same for that age until the age of forty-four. M. Marsauche says, in his work on Switzer- land,' that the Swiss in e&ect possess the strong- est and perhaps the best-drilled army among nations of the second rank. This in the main is no doubt true. One cannot see a body of Swiss troops without being struck with their, in gen- eral, good physique and many soldierly qualities. If they show a lack in any respect it is one that could be quickly rectified by the drill-sergeant. However, some of the most competent judges in matters military have pronounced the Swiss army to be admirable for its purpose, and ' ' a veritable model of democratic organisation." There is certainly one very praiseworthy thing to be said in its favour: it is the most powerful instrument of the kind we know, obtained at the smallest cost to the community, whether we consider its cost in money or the drain it entails on civic life. No man is constrained to spend some of the best years of his life in garrison, with all that means to a young man, and to the community at large. ^La Confederation helvetique. CHAPTER XIV WORKINGMEN'S SOCIKTIES AND CO-OPKRATION IT would, perhaps, be hard to find a country in which workingmen have learned so well the • lesson of organisation and have profited so much by it as they have in Switzerland. This has arisen, of course, in a very large measure from the democratic constitution of the country; but an ^ auxiliary cause has lain also in the fact that there are no vast accumulations of wealth in the hands of a few whereby the worker could be starved into submission in case of disputes. These influences, however, do not cover the whole field of causa- tion; many other circumstances have tended to the same result, not the least weighty of them, possibly, being the smallness of the areas and populations involved. An instance in point was the agitation which took place in the canton of Glarus a little over thirty years ago for the reduction of the hours of labour in factories, which in some cases appear to have extended to fourteen a day. In a statement of their aims and intentions issued by the factory workers it was said: *' In working fourteen hours 194 Workingmen's Societies 195 the workman gains but the bare necessaries of life; he could not gain less with a day of eleven hours." The document included a sentence which is very characteristic of the aims and out- look of Swiss workmen. ** We wish," it said, * ' to be the proper guardians and defenders of our own interests, to educate ourselves, to read, judge for ourselves, and to learn to understand ourselves and what is going on around us. ' ' This document was issued by five federated societies of workmen, whose cause was espoused and supported by two sections of the Griitli Society belonging to Glarus. The agitation was so well organised and con- ducted, and was so well backed up at the La7ids- gemeinde by Dr. Nicolas Tschudi, that it was entirely successful, the working day being re- duced to a maximum of twelve hours, and night- work being totally abolished. The Griitli Society above named is one of the most considerable and at the same time the most generally influential of all Swiss political organ- isations. It takes its name, of course, from the little meadow on the Lake of the Four Cantons, said to have been the rendezvous of the three legendary founders of Swiss freedom — Werner Stauffacher, Erni of Melchthal, and Walter Fiirst. Founded in 1838 at Geneva, the Griitli Society soon spread its ramifications all over the country, and falling shortly under the direction of a man of large ideas and wise guidance, it became a power of no mean order in the land. It may not 19^ Swiss Life since always have been under the inspiration of Galeer's noble spirit, although it appears in the main to have worked with a high and extremely- practical purpose in view. Albert Galeer's great idea was the education of the people; but the ed- ucation he had in mind was that larger one of ideas and development which in our days is so much lost sight of. To such education he looked for the evolution of a nobler society rather than to the interference of the State. He appears to have had great contempt for ' ' little demagogues and little systems." What they wanted, said he, was " a great demagogue and a great system." The Griitli went through a period of persecution — in the canton of Berne more particularly — because it was considered dangerous to the public welfare. But it came out all the stronger for the trial, and has never since ceased to exert a powerful influ- ence in politics. Although composed for the most part of workingmen, there is a strong infusion in it of men of the professional classes, and these, without attempting to " capture it," have tended to broaden its outlook and purview. Thus Profes- sor Carl Vogt presided over the proceedings of the Griitli y^/^ of Geneva in 1870, and other equally prominent men have identified themselves with the association in other parts of the Confederation. Many of the principles now enshrined in arti- cles in the Federal Constitution were first strongly agitated, if not primarily initiated, by the Griitli. Among such may be mentioned the right of as- Workingmen's Societies 197 sociation, the abolition of military capitations, the Federal law in regard to education, the guarantee of personal rights, etc. The partial revision of the Constitution of 1866 having resulted in no ex- tension of the rights of the people, the Griitleens at once set on foot a movement for the complete revision of the Constitution, which was finally brought to the successful issue of 1874. It is not a little surprising to note how many fruitful ideas sprang out of these associations of workingmen. They were the first to make the suggestion of a central caisse d' assistance, of people's banks, of a central labour bureau, of a Federal school of trades and industries, of conservatoires of arts and crafts, exhibitions of the work of artisans, and many other similar ideas. It was in connection with the Griitli that the first co-operative association, properly so-called, was founded, although the Swiss had, almost from time immemorial, been familiar with, and accus- tomed to act in accordance with, its spirit. This was a natural outgrowth of the communal spirit. For instance, in Canton Vaud, all the young men of the villages go, towards the end of the winter, to stay a few days in the woods, to fell timber, and to bring it down the steep slopes to where it is needed, the timber and the fuel-wood being either divided among the various householders of the commune, or sold for their benefit. Out of this kind of associated work doubtless sprang the associations of peasants, fairly common, who join iqS Swiss Life funds to buy meadows and fields, and cultivate them as co-owners. In nearly all the cantons are to be found, too, what are called Burgernutzen clubs or associations in connection with the com- munes. All have a certain right or property in the communal lands, and they will either cultivate them in common and divide the produce, or they will hold a sufficient number of cows in common to supply each family with milk, butter, and so forth. This kind of co-operative helpfulness ap- pears to be of very ancient date in Switzerland, and there are still communes wherein, when a man sets about building a house, all the carting of ma- terial required is done by his neighbours, and should such assistance be withheld, he regards it as the result of some ungracious conduct on his part. It was not until 1850, however, that a distribu- tive co-operative society was formed on the lines now so general. This society, which still exists, was, I believe, started on a capital of seventy-five francs. It aimed, in the first' instance, at nothing more ambitious than the cheapening of cigars to its members, and this object was so successfully attained that operations were presently extended so as to include shirtings. One Carl Biirkli was the father of this association, and he wrote some- what later in regard to it: '* Individualism and communism are the two extremes or poles of the society — and there it is cold ; between the two is the happy zone of the association: it is there Workingmen's Societies 199 where it is good to live." The saying is an apt one, and characterises very naively the spirit of Swiss socialistic thought. The Griitli has always associated itself more or less intimately with socialistic leanings, and it may almost be said to have adopted the formula of Klein, that political without social libert}^ is only a half-way house. Perhaps those sections be- longing to French Switzerland were the most strongly indoctrinated with socialistic ideas — this perhaps because of the strength of the French and Italian element. The Swiss themselves are, as a rule, so cool and practical in temper that it is only the small minority who are carried to ex- tremes. It is largely owing to this practical and, I must add, moderate, temper that the Swiss workmen have succeeded so completely in pro- tecting their interests. Industry in Switzerland is regulated by the law relating to factories of March 23, 1877, ^^^ ^Y ^^^ ^^^ regarding the civil responsibility of employers of July 25, 1881, amended and completed by the law of 1887. These law^s for the protection of workmen are the most humane of any in Europe. They are also, says Marsauche,' an argument against those who pretend that the regulation of industry by the State interferes with its successful operation, trade and manufacture being as prosperous in Switzerland as in other countries. Nothing could be more to the credit of a society ^ La ConfM^ration helvetique. 200 Swiss Life like the Griitli, and the popular Radical Volks- verein, with which it worked during the years which brought about the first great constitutional revision, than the numberless measures of a popu- lar character which were embedded in the Federal Constitution and in the statutes of the various cantons as the result very largely of the devoted advocacy of these and other workingmen's asso- ciations. One matter which they had much at heart, and which they succeeded in introducing in many cantons, was the gratuitous supply of school material. Another was assurance against a time of non-employment. It was not until the seventies that a practical attempt was made to federate the various societies of workingmen. This first federation Schweizer- ischer Arbeiterbund numbered about ten thou- sand members, of whom four thousand belonged to the Griitli. This and a kindred association, founded a few years later, and called the Swiss Social-Democratic Party, soon went to pieces, however, and gave place to three other associa- tions, one being a federation of workmen, and the two others being companionships of Social Demo- crats, one of native Swiss and the other of Ger- mans in Switzerland. These three associations, together with the Griitli, always vital and to the fore, and a number of German workmen's socie- ties, elected a common committee and discussed their affairs at a general congress of Swiss workers. Workingmen's Societies 201 Some idea of the strength of these combined or- ganisations of Swiss workers may be gathered from the numbers represented at the congress held at Aarau in April, 1887. In addition to the Griitli (with thirteen thousand members), there were delegates present from fourteen other socie- ties, numbering in all something like one hundred thousand members. The federation of workers then organised took for its aim ** the representa- tion of the economic interests of the working classes in Switzerland." The federation appointed a secretary, whose importance has grown year by year. Indeed, of so much consideration has the office become that the Federal Council has thought fit to attach to it a subsidy of twenty-fiv^e thousand francs. The chief secretary is aided by two assistant secretaries for French Switzerland, one of whom is stationed at Bienne and the other at Geneva. The duty of this secretarial department is to as- sist workmen with information and counsel, and to collect material of a scientific and statistical nature such as may aid in the work of labour leg- islation. It has been found to be useful both to the Federal Government and to the federated so- cieties of workmen, whose numbers are now put at something like two hundred thousand. Those of the workers who are of a more independent dis- position would prefer to see the '* secretariat " free from all dependence upon the Federal authorities. They think such connection might tend, under 202 Swiss Life certain conditions, to less freedom of action than would be desirable. However, the prevailing opinion appears to be that the Government grant is not in any way intended to influence the opinions of those who benefit by it, and that there is no reason, in this as in other matters, why there should not be a certain amount of give and take between the parties concerned. In comparing the condition of Swiss workmen twenty years ago and to-day it must be acknow- ledged that there is evidence of a remarkable ad- vance, and it can hardly be doubted that the change has been brought about very largely by the steady pressure the workmen themselves have exerted upon the Federal and cantonal authori- ties. In no country is the workman treated with so much consideration as here. He is protected on every side; nor can it be said that this protec- tion amounts to coddling. The normal working day has been fixed at eleven hours; the labour of women and children has been limited; Sunday labour is allowed only in exceptional cases. The factory laws have been extended so as to include other branches of labour, such as printing-ofiices and watch- making establishments. The responsi- bility of railway companies for w^orkmen injured in their emplo}^ is unlimited, that of manufac- turers extends so far as to require them to pay to those hurt an indemnity equal to six times the amount of the sufferers' yearly earnings, or a maximum of six thousand francs (^240). Working-men's Societies 203 Many other enactments might be mentioned which have tended to the amelioration of the con- dition of labour; but it must suffice to refer to two or three only. For instance, by recent laws it has been made illegal to work any man connec- ted with railways, trams, steamboats, or the pos- tal, telegraphic, or telephonic systems longer than twelve hours at a stretch. The same enactments require that all employes of these services must be allowed from eight to ten hours' rest, according to the class of work they are engaged in, and that all, without exception, shall be allowed fifty-two days of rest in the year, seventeen whereof must be Sundays. Several cantonal laws have regu- lated the work of apprentices, and limited the work-hours of those engaged in shops and public houses. Thus in Zurich the law for the protec- tion of women engaged in the lighter kinds of in- dustry, such as millinery, dress-making, and the like, has fixed the hours of labour to nine hours on Saturdaj^s and ten hours for the other days of the week. M. Theo. Curti, an authority on these subjects, remarks very emphatically on the great improvement in the condition of the working pop- ulation of Switzerland which has been brought about by these legislative measures. *' Thanks to them," he sa3^s, " many a workingman now enjoys a position of modest comfort and well- being." This improved condition of things is un- doubtedly due in a very large measure to the 204 Swiss Life democratic Socialists, of whom it has been well said that they have done more by what in Eng- land would be called constitutional methods than has been done by Social Democrats with their methods in other countries. Side by side with these political, and what I may term fighting organisations, other and equally important agencies in their way have been at work improving and elevating the condition of the working population. I have already referred to the natural genius of the Swiss for co-operation. Indeed, it has been claimed for Switzerland that it was the birthplace of distributive co-operation. All the same, it was not until they had adopted the Rochdale method of profit-sharing, as Dr. Hans Miiller acknowledges, that the distributive societies acquired their full development. Co- operative effort takes many forms in Switzerland, such as mutual assurance, associations for credit, the supply of water, and so forth; but perhaps the most popular of all the ways in which it has shown itself is that of the People's Bank — an in- stitution which possesses thirteen branch estab- lishments, numbers nineteen thousand members, and has a capital of over seventeen million francs. More important, however, as regards the trade of the country are the associations for production and sale that have developed so enormously of late years in connection with agriculture. Associ- ations of the kind in West Switzerland date as far back as the beginning of last century. Several in < o en z O < z < o z UJ o _J < cr ui I- z u. O z < o Workingmen's Societies 205 Canton Vaud are specially noteworthy. They have to do with the production of cheege. Similar associations are now in existence all over Swit- zerland, and they have proved so important an adjunct to husbandry that it would now be impos- sible to do without them. In all there are up- wards of fourteen hundred of these " cheeseries " {fromageries in French), as they are called, some of them having to do with that most charac- teristic of Swiss cheeses, the Schabzieger, made almost exclusively in the small canton of Glarus. Another form of productive co-operation is that which concerns itself with the rearing and the im- provement of the breed of cattle. Associations of this description are exceedingly numerous, and very useful, as they enable small farmers gradu- ally to improve their stock. Other associations of hardly less importance, and equally extensive in their operations, are those having to do with for- est preservation, arboriculture, vine-growing, the cultivation of tobacco, etc. Co-operation in re- gard to the sale of milk has not proved so success- ful as in other departments of agriculture; nor has co-operative production in other branches of trade and industry achieved any better results in Switzerland than it has in England. I simply state the fact: the cause of this failure lies pro- bably in the nature and character of those brought up to trades, and it would take too much space to attempt to elucidate it here. But in the same measure that co-operation in 2o6 Swiss Life the department of manufacture has failed, in that same measure, and even greater, has it succeeded in the department of distribution. But, as al- ready said, that success was not fully realised until the Rochdale principle was adopted. Then followed, quite naturally in a country like Switzer- land, the federation of the various co-operative societies. First came the federation of the agri- cultural ''co-operations" of East Switzerland. This was followed (in 1890) by the union of retail societies, composed chiefly of workingmen in the large towns and industrial centres. Finally, in 1898, these two organisations were amalgamated in one general federation of Swiss co-operative as- sociations. At the end of 1899 the total number of societies of consumption in Switzerland was 344, with a membership of 117,600 and a turn- over of forty-six million francs. In these figures are comprised a number of agricultural supply as- sociations, which are essentially societies of con- sumption. But in addition to these there are in existence some four hundred organisations wholly and solely for the purchase of stock, seeds, and other matters necessary to the farmer. It will be seen from this digest how closely the two classes of workers— that is, the artisan in the towns and the toiler on the land — are associated in this work of social economy; and when it is further explained that the Swiss Federation of Co-opera- tive Associations has for aim and purpose the defence of co-operative organisations and co-op- Workingmen's Societies 207 erative principles, and for the dissemination of knowledge in connection with the same, it will be understood what a powerful influence it is exert- ing on Swiss life and thought. CHAPTER XV RELIGIOUS LIFE AND INFLUENCES MUCH has already been vSaid in respect to the religious character and life of the Swiss people, and I do not propose to say a great deal more, except to show, in a general way, how the various churches are organised, and how they affect the life of the different cantons. The sharp divisions existing between cantons and parts of cantons in this respect constitute one of the most striking peculiarities of Swiss life, and indicate, in a very marked way, the effects produced by the little regard which was had in the past for re- ligious tolerance. However, all that sort of thing has now disappeared, or nearly so. The Constitu- tion of 1874 proclaims liberty of conscience. Throughout the Confederation no one can in any way be molested because of his religious belief or non-belief; nor can anyone, according to the Fed- eral law, be compelled to pay a tax or impost for the support of a church or religious organisation to which he does not belong. But while the law of the Confederation thus enacts, it wisely leaves a certain margin of action to those cantons which 208 Religious Life and Influences 209 still recognise and subsidise an official Church or, as in some cases, more than one. The Confederation itself subsidises no Church ; having recognised that Churches exist and need to be protected in the free exercise of their wor- ship, it leaves the matter to the cantons. But while the Federal law provides for the absolute freedom of religious opinion, it at the same time leaves no room for those who claim Swiss citizen- ship to shirk civic duties on the ground of re- ligious conviction. The Doukaborsti, therefore, would not find Switzerland, any more than Can- ada, quite the ideal place to live in, according to their view. While the Confederation is thus tol- erant as regards religious opinion and the free ex- ercise of worship, it reserves to itself the right, and reserves also the right of the cantons, to sup- press or eject from the country religious organisa- tions which are dangerous to the public peace or to the general welfare. Article 50 of the Consti- tution says expressly that ' ' the cantons and the Confederation may take such measures as may be found necessary for the maintenance of public or- der and for the preservation of peace between the members of different religious organisations, as well as against any encroachment on the part of ecclesiastical authorities upon the rights of citi- zens and the State. ' ' The same article makes it illegal for bishoprics to be established or bishops to be appointed on Swiss territory without the permission of the 14 2IO Swiss Life Federal authorities. This clause was introduced in consequence of an attempt which was made by the Vatican authorities some thirty years ago to place a vicar-apostolic over Geneva and the neighbouring canton of Vaud, which led to a somewhat sharp conflict between the papal and the Federal powers. By another article the Jes- uits are forbidden to establish themselves in Swit- zerland or to have anything to do with the Church or in the schools. This interdict can be extended to other religious orders, if they are deemed to be in any way dangerous to the public peace. It seems strange, but the Salvation Army was con- sidered of the category " dangerous," and, like the Jesuits, had to be kept curbed. One would think it unnecessary to proceed to such extremes with so apparently innocent an organisation as the Salvation Army. It must be remembered, however, that the " Army's " methods are of an exciting nature, and it would require very little fanaticism to set fire to a community like that of Switzerland, in which the two dominant sects are so nearly balanced as regards numbers that it re- quires a firm hand and great tact to keep them at peace one with the other. The task is not an easy one, and on more than one occasion of late years the Federal Government has had need of all its wisdom and discretion to hold the more inflam- mable elements in check. The Kulturkampf, which made such wild work for so many years in German}^, was no less disas- Religious Life and Influences 211 trous to the public peace of Switzerland. It di- vided the Catholics into two sections, and though the ' ' Old Catholics, ' ' or those who do not accept the Vatican decree of papal infallibility, are a small body compared with the Ultramontanes, still they constitute a power that has to be reck- oned with, seeing that they include not a few men of singular prominence and force, like Herzog, Munzinger, Michaelis, and Keller. Happily, the strife of religious parties was ended by a truce in 1878, and since then both divisions of the Catho- lic Church have worked with more or less har- mony side by side. It may be said here that while a certain number of convents and religious orders do exist in Switzerland, it is illegal to add to their number. In 1889, the Old Catholics of Switzerland joined with those of Holland and Germany to form a union which, while it left full liberty of action to each community, tended greatly to strengthen the body as a whole. Later the union was augmented by the adhesion of the Old Catholics of Austria, Italy, and America, and year by year this inde- pendent section of the Catholic Church has gone on steadily with the work of development and or- ganisation. In no country has it a better record of work, according to population, than in Switzer- land. Communities and associations of Old Cath- olics, or Catholic Christians, as they seem preferably to call themselves, exist and are re- cognised by the State in the cantons of Aargau, ^12 Swiss Life Basel (Stadt and Land), Berne, Geneva, Neu- chatel, Schaffhausen, Soleure, and Zurich. There are others, not officially recognised, in the can- tons of Lucerne and St. Gall, while smaller associations, in some cases not fully organised, communities rather in the making, exist in the cantons of Aargau, Basel-land, Berne, Geneva, Lucerne, Soleure, and Zurich. The total num- ber of adherents claimed by this section of the Catholic Church in Switzerland, is put at about forty thousand, while the list of its clergy, accord- ing to the Synod of 1898, includes fifty-nine names. A very important service was rendered the Old Catholics by the canton of Berne in 1874, when it founded a chair of Catholic theology in the State University, and to enable students to take advantage thereof, bursaries of the total value of one hundred thousand francs have been founded. If the Old Catholics have been active of late years, the Ultramontanes have shown themselves no less so. After the rebuff it received in regard to the vicar-apostolic of Geneva, the Vatican wisely drew back pour mieux sauter, and Mon- seigneur Gaspard Mermillod was, a little later, duly recognised by the Federal Council as Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva. The event put an end to a state of things that was no less dangerous than exasperating to those concerned. A number of Catholic priests of the canton of Geneva, not being able to take the oath which the new ecclesi- Religious Life and Influences 213 'fe astical law imposed upon them, saw themselves replaced by others; while at Zurich, at Berne, and in several smaller towns the supporters of papal infallibility were deprived of churches which they had built with money speciallj^ subscribed for the purpose — to the profit of the Old Catholics. Possibly in the end no one was much hurt by what had taken place, the awakening through- out the length and breadth of the land which re- sulted from the stir having greatly stimulated the general warmth and earnestness of the religious life of the country. One of the evidences of this new spirit was seen in the accomplishment of a hope which had been cherished by the Catholics of Switzerland for several centuries, namely, the creation of a university at Freiburg. A faculty of philosophy and a faculty of jurisprudence were installed ; then to the faculty of theology were ap- pointed two Dominican fathers and two secular priests. Finally a chair of science was added, and the academic edifice stood forth complete. The credit of creating this school, which has been pronounced ' ' the most important work of the Swiss Catholics during the nineteenth century," is due in the main to the activity and intelligent appreciation of the chief of the department of pub- lic instruction of the canton of Freiburg, M. Georges Python, a man of great qualities, and very highly and deservedly esteemed. As already stated, the organisation of religion is an affair for the cantons separately, and as in 214 Swiss Life the matter of religious instruction, and almost everything else, so in this regard also the greatest diversity obtains. Each canton has the choice of the religion, or " confession," as it is usually termed, it will adopt, which then becomes the re- ligion of the canton, and is supported either b}^ a special tax or out of the ecclesiastical properties of the State. Sometimes the revenue is derived from both sources. Where there is a special tax, no one except those belonging to the established Church of the canton is obliged to pay it. In some cases both Protestants and Catholics are equally favoured by the State. This is the case in the canton of Geneva, where there is also a joint-consistory for the supervision of the religious instruction of the young. In Neuchdtel there are, so to speak, three national Churches, for with a fine breadth of tolerance rarely met with, the State pays towards the support not only of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, but for that of the Jews also. In the Catholic cantons the general ecclesiasti- cal organisation is, of course, under the super- vision of the bishops, of whom there are six, namely, those of Basel, Chur, Sion, St. Gall, Lausanne and Geneva, and Freiburg, besides an apostolic administrator of Tessin. All ecclesias- tical property, however, is under the charge of popularly elected local bodies, and no priest can be appointed except with the approval of the secu- lar authorities. In the purely Catholic cantons Religious Life and Influences 215 the Church has immense power, or perhaps one should say influence, for it consists almost wholly in forming opinion, no ecclesiastic being eligible for public office, except in connection with Church administration. Uri, Schwyz, and the Unterwal- dens, Tessin, Valais, Schaffhausen, and Appen- zell-inner-Rhoden are almost wholly Catholic and Ultramontane; Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gall, the Orisons, and Geneva are about equally divided between the two confessions; while Lucerne, Zug, Soleure, and Freiburg contain small numbers of Protestants. The only cantons almost wholly Protestant are those of Vaud and Appenzell-ausser-Rhoden. The latest statistics give about fifteen thousand Catholics to Vaud and between six and seven hundred to Ausser-'Rhoden. Protestantism, how- ever, predominates very largely in the cantons of Zurich, Berne, Glarus, and Neuchatel, and some of these being among the most populous districts of Switzerland, they bring the aggregate bal- ance of population in favour of the freer confession. In other words, broadly put, Protestants stand for three fifths of the population, the remaining two fifths being in the main Catholic. It is curious to note that while Catholicism prevails generally in the more mountainous districts. Protestantism takes the lead in the flatter cantons. The ecclesiastical affairs of the Protestant can- tons are conducted by mixed authorities. But the constitution of the same, and especially the 2i6 Swiss Life organisation of the Church itself, and the position of the clergy in relation thereto, are extremely varied, because these are matters which come un- der the province of the cantonal authorities. There is, however, a general resemblance, and a description of how matters are arranged in Vaud will give a good idea of what obtains elsewhere. The affairs of the Church are, in short, governed by a Synod, but that Synod is subject to checks and control both from above and below. The origin of authority is the parish assembly, which elects a parish council, consisting of from four to fourteen councillors, according to the size of the parish, and the local pastor or pastors. This council, besides having a general supervision over the parish as regards its religious and moral well- being, sends delegates to the District Council, which is again concerned with the general gov- ernment of the Church, although its work for the most part consists in selecting deputies for the Synod, in inspecting parishes, and in supervising pastors and the parish councils. The deputations sent to the Synod from each District Council con- sist of three pastors and six laymen, all chosen by ballot; but, in addition to these, the Synod must include professors of theology connected with the canton, and three delegates chosen from the State Council. Its meetings are annual, and take place in one of the principal towns, which is always se- lected the previous year. The duties which de- volve upon the Synod are such as concern the Religious Life and Influences 217 general welfare of the national Church — religious instruction, the books used in worship, discipline, the ordination of pastors, religious festivities, etc. It will readily be seen what a wide ramification of activities this means, and how much it enters into the public and private life of the people. And when it is considered how many agencies there are besides, auxiliary to these more regular func- tions of the Church, it will be easily understood that there is little time for stagnation or dulness even in the smaller rural parishes. When not in session the Synod is represented by an executive committee composed of three pastors and four laymen, by whom all business brought before the body is prepared. Although the Synod has to do with the ordination of pas- tors, it does not choose them. The method of choice is as follows: the candidate for the pastoral charge of a parish in which a vacancy occurs must send his name to the cantonal department of public instruction; and he can only do that when he has completed his twenty-fourth year, and either possesses a degree of the University of Lausanne or has passed the examination of the Commission de Cofisecration. This body consists of four delegates from the State Council, eight from the Synod (four of them being pastors), and three professors of theology chosen by that faculty. A list of the applicants for a vacancy is sent to the parish council, whereupon that body calls a meeting of the assembly, which proceeds to select 2i8 Swiss Life by ballot the names of two candidates. These are then submitted to the State Council, which finally names the one it thinks most suitable for the post. It seems a roundabout way to get at a very simple result but on the whole it works well, and gives everybody, as it were, a finger in the pie — and therein, in truth, consists a large part of wise government. The religious life in the Protestant, or strongly Protestant, cantons is very active, and in none, perhaps, more so than in Geneva, where things are seldom left on the simmer, least of all matters theological. The city of Calvin, small though it be, is in the world's main current, and few are the tides of thought that do not wake a responsive heave of the waters there. Vaud is said always to have shown a strong sympathy with religious movements in Scotland. In Geneva the sympa- thetic link is rather with the newest wave of thought, whencesoever it may come. It was in that city, I believe, that the Eglise litre — ^the Free Church — took its rise, spreading thence to Vaud and Neuchatel. At any rate, it early took a firm hold there, and at the present time it is probably the most vital religious influence at work through- out the Confederation. It is interesting to note, however, that in this ** city of the spirit, built of stoicism on the rock of predestination," Calvinism is as dead as Calvin himself. And, says Dr. Montet, professor of theo- logy at Geneva, * ' si da7is la Suisse frangaise, le Religious Life and Influences 219 Calvinisme a completement disparu, dans la Suisse alleTuande V orthodoxie trinitaire d' origine alle- ma7ide n'a qu'un tres petit 7iombre de represen- tantsy In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, however, the evangelical churches are far from possessing the same complete organisation en- joyed by the Eglise libre of la Suisse romande. They resemble somewhat in general features the Congregational bodies in England, and are marked by the same diversity in doctrine. Of Lutheran origin, for the most part, the Protestant community is now broken up into numberless sects, in which Lutheranism is an altogether van- ishing quantity. It is said that, among other bodies, the Irvingites have their little knots of believers in East Switzerland as well as in West. Be that as it may, the American Methodists cer- tainly have a strong following, and one of the pleasantest recollections I have of a recent visit to Switzerland is of a little group of young men and maidens who had come across the Atlantic on a twofold errand of evangelisation and pleasure, their destination being Zurich, where a great Methodist conference was to be held. One could not help thinking that if our friends the Ameri- cans continue to send over such bright and en- thusiastic missionaries they will stand a great chance of converting the whole country — the youthful part of it, at all events. Still, notwithstanding the earnestness and 2 20 Swiss Life activity of the almost numberless sects of Christ- ians everywhere, one cannot help recalling to mind the parable of a little sexton of Interlaken. Asked why the bells of the church commenced to ring so early on the Sunday morning, he said it was because three sects used the edifice one after the other. **It is, perhaps," said he, "a sign of Christian feeling that they can agree to worship in the same building ; but it would be more Christian still if they could sink their differences and assemble all together, seeing that it is the same Christ we worship." CHAPTER XVI POPULAR FKTES AND FESTIVAI.S THE Swiss throw the same zeal into their pop- ular y?/^^ and rejoicings which they throw into almost everything else they take in hand. It is rare that they can be charged with entering into any enterprise, be it of work or play, in a half-hearted manner. Thus far the virus of ennui and its sequent cynicism, which are so apt to at- tack and to enervate great and successful nations, have not touched the Swiss people. They are yet, as it were, in their buoyant youth, with the man's task still before them; and whenever there is an undertaking which appeals to the national heart, they apply themselves to it with all the abundant energy of youthful days. In nothing is this spirit so strikingl}^ shown as in connection with some of the popular /e^es and gatherings that break the monotony of the revolving year. These celebrations, if added together, form a host. They are, however, of two kinds — first, national, in the sense of uniting the suffrages of the whole people, and, second, cantonal. Can- tonal /e^es are generally of a semi-religious 221 222 Swiss Life character, as celebrating some supreme event in the history of the canton — a battle, the winning of independence, an evidence of Divine mercy, or what not. Of such is the annual feast that takes place in the canton of Geneva on the first of June, in commemoration of its union with the Swiss Confederation. It is held religiously as a gen- eral holiday, and the day is always opened with service in the churches. Another celebration of the kind is that of Nafels in the little canton of Glarus, which is held on the first Thursday in April, that being the anni- versary of the battle fought there against the Austrians in 1388. On the 9th of April in that year some six hundred men of Glarus encountered a force of between five and six thousand Aus- trians, and, utterly defeating them, preserved the independence of the canton. In remembrance whereof the Glarner, peasant and workman alike, makes his way on the day in question to Nafels, and listens, under the open sky, to a sermon tuned to the occasion, and after returning thanks to God for His great mercy then and since, grasps his Fahrtstecken with a tighter grip, and goes homeward again. Many other celebrations of a similar nature are to be met with in various parts of Switzerland, simple, heartfelt affairs for the most part, extremely local in character, and highly characteristic. Very different are the more general, and more truly national, /^/^^ and assemblages that mark Popular Fetes and Festivals 223 the festive season. Of these the most noteworthy is the annual shooting-match, the Tir Federal^ as it is called in French. This is held at a different place every year, most towns of any importance in the Confederation having been the scene of the Fest at one time or another, some of them more than once. This movable nature of the gathering tends to give spirit to its annual recurrence, each town vying with its predecessor in the heartiness of its welcome to competitors and visitors and in the splendour of its preparations. These shooting-matches are of very ancient date, and can be traced back to the fourteenth century, when Zaehringen had a society for the encouragement of shooting, and Soleure had a Tir aux fleurs. In the course of time, however, these and other societies of the kind fell into de- cay, and it was only after the effects of the French Revolution had begun to crumble away that the memory of the old-time shooting-matches began to revive. The improvement in firearms tended to strengthen the reawakening, and while active- minded Swiss citizens were bus)^ in other direc- tions, establishing their societies for the study of natural science and for matters of public utilitj% others, whose thoughts turned to national de- fence, were launching the Swiss Society of Cara- bineers. The first Federal Tir soon followed, and since that time (1824) the festival has grown yearly in strength and importance. It was pointed out in the early days how 2 24 Swiss Life important these gatherings were, not merely for the purpose of improvement in shooting, but for encouraging a love of the beautiful. There is no reason why the two things should not be cultiv- ated at one and the same time, and they have, as a matter of fact, been so cultivated, though it may be with varying degrees of success. Another aim which, it was seen, might be furthered by means of these national gatherings was that of breaking down that spirit of local patriotism — that Kant'dn- ligeist, as it has been so well called — which for so long stood, and still to some extent stands, in the way of a broader and more general progress. That they were turned to good account in this re- spect may be seen from the fact that it was at one of these annual gatherings that Dr. Zidler, of Zug, started the movement which led to the con- stitutional revision of 1848. Other movements of equal importance for the welfare of the country have had their initiation at the banquets of these Schiitzenfest, among others — if the popular mem- ory may be trusted — that which led to the sup- pression of the Order of Jesuits in Switzerland. It is well to remember these things, as show- ing that, notwithstanding that the spirit of these fetes is in the main festive, underneath that spirit of gladness and rejoicing lies a very serious inten- tion and endeavour. Although the competitors and visitors assemble at the place of meeting de- termined to enjoy the scenery of the district, the beautiful weather, and the open-air life, yet they Popular Fetes and Festivals 225 never forget that, before all, they are met as Swiss citizens. Hence, when there are urgent public questions to the front, the sport side of the Schui- zenfest is apt to be lost sight of in the heat and urgency of political discussion. For your Schweizer, workman, merchant, or whatever he may be, is first and foremost a politician. He is rarely loth to enjoy '* a good time," but he does not forget that he is one of the supports of the State, and that if he neglects his duty the country may neglect him. If the Schutze7ifeste had a modest beginning, they have grown and strengthened with the years. During the closing years of the century just past, the prizes reached a total of between two and three hundred thousand francs, and the number of cartridges spent in front of the various targets amounted to an average of a million and a half, and I believe at last year's gathering this number was exceeded. The Society of Carabineers numbered at the end of the century 1348 sections, with a membership of between sixty and seventy thousand. Its in- vested funds amount to 146,000 francs, and since 1899 it has subsidised the cantonal sections with a view to encourage and stimulate the practice of rifle-shooting and good-fellowship, believing that in so doing it is advancing the interests not only of the Confederation as a whole, but of each individual citizen. Next in importance after the Federal rifle- is 2 26 Swiss Life meeting, whicli is held in June, come the per- iodical gatherings or tournaments in connection with the various gymnastic societies existing throughout the country, and the different clubs and associations for the encouragement of national sports of all kinds. These assemblies, in what may be termed their national aspect, date from the year 1805, when on one of the few bright days of that rainy year an ^Iplerfest, or feast of shepherds, was held near the ruins of the Castle of Unspun- nen, facing the chain of the Jungfrau and its neighbouring peaks. It was simply the antique fete of the mountain people enlarged to admit of the participation of other cantons, which were cordially invited. Brilliant was the gathering of spectators, some from the far outland, to witness this unique display, and great was the emotion roused, especially among the Swiss themselves, when at a given signal the procession of singers, players on the Alpine horn, wrestlers, and throw- ers of the stone made their way into the arena around which the spectators were gathered, amid songs of welcome and the moving notes of the alphorn, which, echoed and re-echoed by the sur- rounding heights, stirred the hearts of the native- born to their profoundest depths. The Bernese wrestlers, famed from of old for this sort of thing, bore off the palm from all comers; but it was to a sturdy Appenzeller that fell the prize for casting or putting the stone. Other games followed, and then, as the evening fell, all Popular Fetes and Festivals 227 joined in the dance, under the shade of the cen- tury-old walnut trees, to the sound of the hack- brett and the violin. When, three years later, there was a repetition of these games, six thousand spectators assembled on the classic ground of Unspunnen. Madame de Stael was among the number, and it is said that the procession of old Swiss notables, founders of their country's liberties, made a very deep im- pression upon her, as is noted in her work on Germany. Down to a very recent date the ^Iplerfeste^ or gatherings of mountain shepherds and herdsmen for the purposes of sport, were the only fetes char- acteristically national held by the Swiss, and of all the games practised thereat that of wrestling is the most ancient. Everywhere throughout the Alps the art is cultivated by young and old alike; but in no district is it brought to such perfection as in the Bernese Oberland, the Emmenthal, and the vale of Entlebuch. The men of the last- named valley in especial are celebrated for their prowess in wrestling, having no superiors in any part of Switzerland. It is a sight to see them on the occasion of one of their periodical Schwing- feste, as they are called, of which three or four are generally held in the summer months, the chief of them falling on the first Sunday in Septem- ber, when the stout men of Entlebuch pit their strength against whoever comes, and generally manage to hold their own. The Emmenthalers, 2 28 Swiss Life a particularly sturdy race of men, run them very close, but hitherto have been bound to acknow- ledge the precedence of their neighbours. The Swiss method of wrestling is very different from the English. The competitors strip to their shirts and hose. The latter are of twill, and are made of double and even treble thickness at the waist and knees. The right hand of each wrestler grasps the waistband and the left the kneeband of his adversary. The head of each looks over the other's shoulder, while the legs are kept well apart, and the left as far back as possible. The aim of each is to lift his antagonist and get him with his back on the ground. There are many different methods of attack, and of course as many- parries. One of the special features of these ^Iplerfeste is the procession known as the ' ' departure for the Alps," in which everything connected with the annual start for the mountain pastures is gone through as though it were the actual thing. But in addition various games are played, including that of casting the stone, wrestling, etc. Nothing seems to please the great body of the Swiss people so much as to see a good wrestling- match. I refer, of course, to the great mass of those whose labour is mainly with their thews and sinews, and who therefore know the value of en- durance and physique. A meeting of the kind, such as takes place on the Ramparts at Berne every Kaster Monday, is sure to attract a con- Popular Fetes and Festivals 229 course of spectators. These particular gatherings are famous, and bring together some of the stout- est wrestlers of the Bernese Oberland, of the Emmenthal, as well as of Lucerne and the Unter- waldens. But other cantons also have similar athletic displays. A grand festival of the kind took place at Zurich in 1894, when a Federation of Swiss Wrestlers was formed, with the object, amongst other things, of preserving the national games. The last fete of the Federation took place at Berne last year, when, in view of the pat- riotic aims of those concerned, a particularly in- teresting gathering took place. The intention is to revive in all its glory the old-time Ailplerfest, or feast of the mountains. It may be doubted whether they can do that, any more than we can revive the old village-green and maypole time. All the same, it may aid in the work of cementing the Swiss people more thoroughly together as one nation — the great aim now of Federal politicians — to revive and encourage such games and sports as casting the stone, playing the alphorn, " jodel- ling," joining in native dances, ballets, and other rustic pastimes, such, for instance, as the Swiss form of rackets, known as Hornus, the play with flags, etc. Very popular, too, are the gymnastic clubs and societies, which, like our cricket and football clubs, lead to a good deal of intercourse between districts and cantons, to many popular gatherings of one kind or another, and every three years to a 230 Swiss Life grand national/?/^. These gymnastic gatherings date back to the time of I^udwig Jahn, the " father of gymnastics," who, by his enthusiasm for physi- cal culture, did so much for the physical develop- ment of German youth. The idea was taken up with zest by the students of the Universities of Zurich, Berne, and Basel, and while timorous politicians regarded their meetings as nothing better than schools of savagery, revolution, and immorality, they were in reality doing a patriotic work for the common country. It was not long before gymnastic societies sprang up that were not connected with the uni- versities, and, the idea spreading, there was a Federal fete. It was thought that, while the Swiss youth were thus strengthening their bodies for the well-being of themselves and their coun- try, they would be drawn together more closely in the bonds of patriotism. For, said the moving spirits and patrons of these y^/ecially are the Tessinese papers. Ar- dent and entiiusiastic in their advocacy of the side they take, thev are good specimens of the more militant type 01 Wiss journalism. The difficulty of the Tessin newspaper is that its influence is strictly confined within the boundaries of the can- ton, while it suffers from the competition of the journals of Turin and Milan. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, a number of Tessinese papers have had a long and brilliant career. The newspapers at present in the ascendant are the Liberia, Catholic-Conservative in politics, the Dovere and the Riforma, both Radical, though with somewhat different shades of the faith, and finally the Corriere del Ticino, which, since 1892, Literature and the Press 249 has been the propagandist organ of the I/iberal Conservatives. It is a virile, vivid Press, this of Canton Tessin, albeit a little too much inclined, perhaps, to take things, as one of its own journalists once put it, *' on the point of the sword." This man was one of the most apt in this respect; he had. however, the wit to see it, and so he used to make a trip annually to north-east Switzerland, and there for a week or two took a course of the whey cure. Gais was his favourite sojourn — Gais in Appenzell- ausser-Rhoden, famous for its cure of goats' whey. It is not clear that he got any good from drinking the whey; but he used to aver that the calmer moral atmosphere of the north-east worked won- ders with him for a time. I cannot say whether other Swiss journalists are in the habit of going to quainv little Gais for moral restoration, al- though I have known those of Geneva to take an occasional course of the ** grape cure " in Canton Vaud. They used to say it was '* going back to nature " ; but when I told my Tessinese friend of this, he exclaimed, with a laugh, " Back to na- ture! Back to Mother Nature, eh ? Is that their notion ? Then why don't they go to Heinrichs- bad ? ' ' There was a subtle irony in the saying^ for Heinrichsbad iss noted for its cure of asses' milk. These cures pli^y a great part in the national life, but if they had nothing worse to heal than the faults of the Swiss Press, their failure would be a matter of little inoment; for, taken as a 250 Swiss Life whole, it is a calm, clear-headed, and high- minded Press. It has been said of it that, if it is not tres palpitante, one more honest or more disinterested it would be hard to find. And the judgment is a true one. The transparent honesty of the Swiss Press is its most abiding characteristic. It has no interest other than that of the common weal, and there are no yellow strands in its woof. Those who direct its fortunes are proud of the position their country holds in the world of international politics, and knowing that such position has been won by the good sense, civic virtue, and sturdy moral worth of the Swiss people, they, as the voice of that people, endeavour to do what they can, in a humble way, to heighten that position, and to make it still more useful for the general welfare. This very creditable position which the Swiss newspaper Press holds it owes, I believe, very largely to the intimate connection which has always subsisted between it and the best writers which the country has produced. I have already referred to the con- nection of Keller, Switzerland's greatest ro- mancist, with the Press. One might mention the names of others who, in more stirring times than these, fought as what Heine would have called Knights of the Holy Ghost in the ranks of jour- nalism, such as Zschokke, author of the History of the Swiss for the Swiss People ; Frangois Roget, author of the Pensees Ginevoises ; John Coindet, the historian of Italian art, etc. CO z < I- z D o us X co uJ cr (- CO < o. ir u CO Literature and the Press 251 These, however, are names of the past, and if there are none as great as Gottfried Keller still living to illumine the page of the country's litera- ture, he has at least many worthy successors. Switzerland, however, labours under a great dis- advantage in regard to literature. Its people as a whole are not literary. Possibly this springs from the circumstance that, with the majority, life is too hard and too serious for letters to find a niche in their hearts. Hence it arises that, though Switzerland has produced poets, historians, ro- mancistsof high quality, its most talented writers have too often only been revealed to its people by the admiration they have evoked abroad. This is particularly true of Keller and Conrad Ferdi- nand Meyer, both of whom were thought little of until the Germans began to revel in their crea- tions. In short, a Swiss writer has little or no hope in his own country of that large fame which is as the very bread of life to his soul: for that — and especially if he would win fortune too — he must appeal to the wider and more appreciative public of Germany and France. Keller complained that his native land was a hard bed for the poet, and I^eutboden, singer of the harmony supreme, addressed to his country verses full of anger and fierce invective because of her indiflference to those who sing for her psalm- odies of sweetest measure drawn from suffering hearts. It is for this reason that the best literary products of la Suisse romande become merged in 252 Swiss Life the literature of France. Perhaps, however, it is not quite exact to say ** the best," because there is a quality of poetry, like that of Juste Olivier, which cannot be detached from the place of its birth, where, as he himself wrote: *Un genie est cache dans tous ces lieux que j'aime . . . But, in truth, we have only to think of the Rousseaus, the Madame de Staels, the Benjamin Constants, and a score of others, to learn how de- plorable is Switzerland's fate in this respect. Even the original and strikingly characteristic Rodolph Toepffer, author of the well-known Voy- ages en zigzag, Ste.-Beuve annexed, as belonging to the literature of France. The works of two other Genevese writers, Marc Monnier and Victor Cherbuliez, now passed whence their living voices can no more be heard, gravitated as by right of language to the literary heritage of the great neighbour. And yet what matters it ? If the Fatherland produces worthy sons, who go forth into the world and do great work, the people at home cannot but profit, even though others claim them as of a larger citizenship. Moreover, apart from these, there are others who, like Juste Oli- vier, cannot be alienated, so strongly and peculi- arly do they cling, like the edelweiss and the alpenrose, to the native soil. Among such I may name Charles Spitteler, a man of marked origin- ality, both as to style and matter; Otto Hagen- macher, and O. Suttermeister, who has rendered Literature and the Press 253 a signal service to literature by making a collec- tion of folk-poesy in the German Swiss dialect. Nor should we forget Adolphe Frey, son of the famous Jacob Frey, or Isabelle Kaiser, of Zug, who writes poetry full of imaginative depth and lyrical ardour. Another authoress, daughter of a man who may almost be said to have invented a new form of literature, the peasant epopee, — so popular were the stories of Jeremias Gotthelf in the earlier part of last century, — unites to a more chastened style not a little of her father's humour. Her tales are very pretty and very readable, but alas ! they are lacking in that pervading strength which made the pastor of Liitzelfluh such a power in his day. Many imitators he has had, and not the least of these was Keller, if we may call him an imitator, who so greatly improved even upon his master. Not a few of these writers have a native tang, a local colour, very hard of appreciation by the stranger who has not lived the life of their mountains and of their mountain cots, but when once the native atmosphere has been caught, they go to the heart like a melody of childhood's days. Many other names might be mentioned, but it must suffice to single out one or two only, and first let me refer in a line to Auguste Bechlin, whose romance of village life in Neuchatel, en- titled Jean-Louis, is a psychological study of the highest value, and one that ought to live. Some of the best things in Swiss literature are these pic- 2 54 Swiss Life tures of village life; and another excellent limner of them is Oscar Huguenin, also a Neuchatelois. The like gift for the portrayal of peasant charac- ter is witnessed in the writings of a lady of the same name as the latter, although she writes un- der the pseudonym of T. Combe. In her later works, however, this writer has gone a step be- yond her earlier ones, and in such stories as the Sentier qui Monte and CEuvre d'' amour, she takes upon herself the mantle of the social reformer, and as such ranks with the foremost writers of Swit- zerland. Edouard Rod has been referred to else- where, and I must pass over some others, such as Virgile Rossel, Louis Duchosal, and Philippe Monnier, well deserving of mention, to say one word about Alice de Chambrier, whose volume of poems, Au Delh, caused something of a sensation when it first appeared, and has since been called for in edition after edition, though its talented au- thor died almost at its birth, at the age of twenty. One would have liked to add something about the literature of Tessin and Graubiinden, but at least I must quote a spirited little poem from the Romansch tongue by way of a closing word to this brief sketch of Swiss literature. It is by Antoine Huonder, the greatest poet of the Romansch peo- ple, and sings in simple yet passionate verse the liberty of the Grison peasant: ** Quel ei miu grepp, quei ei miu crap Chen tschentel jeu miu pei ; Literature and the Press 255 Artau hai jeu vus de miu bab Sai a negin marschei. " Quel ei miu prau, quel miu clavau Quei miu regress e dretg ; Sai a nagin perquei d'engrau Sun cheu jeu mez il retg. ** Quei mes aflfons, miu agien saun De miu car Diu schengetg, Nutrescbel els cun agien paun, Els domaan sut miu tetg. ** O libra, libra paupradat Artada da mes vegls, Defender vi cun tafFradat Sco popa de mes egls. ** Gie libers sundel jeu nascbius, Ruaseivels vi dormir, E libers sundel si carschius E libers vi morir." The only merit of the following translation is that it is fairly literal, and so gives some idea of the indomitable spirit that has ever animated, and still characterises, these descendants of the Rhaeti : ** To me belong these rocks, to me this stony soil ; Here I walk with a firm foot. For this is the earth of my fathers, And for it I owe homage to none. ** These fields and these meadows — To me alone they belong ; As a free citizen I exercise here my rights, I am king over my inheritance. 25^ Swiss Life i( Here are my children, confided to me by God ; It is my blood that flows in their veins, It is my bread which nourishes them, It is under my roof they repose. *' O free, O gentle simplicity, Richest treasure of my fathers ! With joy would I sacrifice myself to thee, Even to the last drop of my blood. *' Free I came into the world, Free I have laboured for my daily bread. Free, too, I sleep under the eternal stars. And free will take the hand of death." Who would not wish to sing such a paean of freedom — and wish it for all the world ? CHAPTER XVIII TYPES AND CHARACTERS ONE cannot live long in Switzerland without meeting, here and there, some very striking types of character — types which, though they may be seen elsewhere, strike one as having a stamp and hall-mark essentially Swiss. I have referred to one, the Genevese huissier, on a preceding page. Though a very humble servant of the State, he was a man of some education and of vast observa- tion. A patriot of the first water, who had been out with the hastily mobilised corps d' armee, called out when General Bourbaki and his host crossed the frontier to avoid capture by the Germans in 1871, he had the most unbounded admiration for his country and for his countrymen — if they agreed with him. For his nation's great deeds, as well as for the notable features of the country, he had no less an admiration. There was one word which best expressed and almost invariably clinched his eulogy ; it was ma^nific — brought out with a very large note of admiration. William Tell etait magnific ; De Candole Staif magnific. 257 258 Swiss Life He hated Calvin, but he was all the same mag- nific. Every hill and vale and lake in the country was magnific, albeit few of them beyond the D61e and the Lake of Geneva had come under his eye. It would seem, perhaps, as though he had no sense of perspective; but in truth that was not lacking in him, nor was he without a certain hu- morous outlook and appreciation. This was shown one day when he was describ- ing the Hotel de Ville to an English visitor. He was explaining that the way up to the council chamber was by a gradual ascent instead of by steps. It was thus arranged, said he, so that in olden times the councillors might mount stir leurs dnes (upon their asses). To which remark the stranger dryly replied, '^ Et maintenant, I sup- pose, les dnes montent seulsf (" Now, I sup- pose, the asses go up alone?"). The huissier looked grave for a moment, but then broke into a hearty laugh. He hastened to report the jest to a member of the city council, adding that, though the remark was a little rude, detait magniftc. This man once took me at night through the Electoral Palace after a Federal election. The doors were wide open for the people to pass in and out, the place was well lighted, and, guard- ing the ballot-urns, which had been sealed by the authorities, were a number of soldiers with fixed bayonets. The scrutiny was not to take place until the morning. There was such an air of openness, simplicity, and security about the affair .c ii-U SWISS GUIDES Types and Characters 259 that one could not help thinking of my friend's favourite word magnific. This man was one of the best types of the Swiss bourgeois class I met with. He was thoroughly imbued with the idea of each standing and striv- ing for all and all for each. " We do our utmost for the children while they are young," he would say, ' * and when we are old they will do the best they can for us. What could be better ? We spend ourselves while we have strength, and have confidence that we shall not be neglected when the day of decline comes." There was in him, too, a touch of pride at the thought that the little Re- public might have its mission to the larger nations. Another Swiss type, very pleasing to me, was that presented by a small peasant farmer of the Jura, not above an hour from Geneva. I, with a companion, made his acquaintance one night after a day of wandering. We had, in fact, lost our way among the hills, and by chance stumbled into the midst of a herd of his cattle. A lad conducted us to the house, where we were royally enter- tained with such as the place afforded, put up comfortably for the night, and in the morning au revoir'd with a cordiality that left nothing to be desired. When we had offered to pay for our en- tertainment, this homely and rough-handed peas- ant declined with a '* Many thanks, gentlemen; but let it be for the honour of the thing." Subsequently I saw much of this man. It hap- pened that on this first visit we slept late in the 26o Swiss Life morning, and, as the farmer's wife told us, missed a fine view of the sunrise on Mont Blanc in con- sequence. Seeing that this was a disappointment to me, the worthy host invited me to pay him a visit any time I liked — my friend, an American student, being then on his way home. *' There is a spare bedroom always ready, ' ' he added, * ' and, such as it is, at your service." We hear much nowadays of going back to na- ture. To town-bred people it seems a hard thing to do. But one had only to go and live with this peasant farmer to feel how much and how com- pletely one may be in touch with nature. His house, a substantial structure of wood built upon a stone foundation, was as truly a part of nature as the martin's nest in the sandy clifi^, the gleam from his window o' nights as autochthonic as the tiny lights of the glow-worms that, stuck on our hats, so often served to illumine our after-dark way. There was not a touch of luxury in the whole place, unless it were the luxury of coarse linen sheets in which to sleep, in a bedroom with the barest modicum of furniture, and with nothing in the shape of carpet or rug on the floor, save a clean sheep-skin by the bed. To anyone sick of stuffy rooms and overdone furnishment these things were a luxury, and especially the feeling of airiness about you — the airiness of the hill-tops and the spacious vales, the fine aroma of the breath of life filling the pine-clad slopes. Every- where, too, was the sweet smell of cattle and of Types and Characters 261 growing things, meadows in the spring radiant with flowers, in the later months redolent of hay. Nor was the harder, the more tragic side of na- ture wanting. For how often, as the year drew round again towards the later equinox, the time for their southward migration, have I not seen thousands, nay,myriads of birds, swallows chiefly, covering rocks, trees, house-eaves, every little coign that could serve as a resting-place, with their tired and panling bodies? Some of them, already worn out, would never win across the great barrier of snow-clad peaks gleaming right in front of them, white and jagged as a carnivor's teeth, and so short a distance away. Many could be picked up, just as they had dropped, almost as light as the air they navigated, with nothing on their tiny bones save a bit of skin and some feathers. Their little fires were out. Thousands thus fall ere they reach the Jura, thousands more must yield the vital spark ere they touch the passes of the neighbouring range. The plainness of the fare, too, on which these people thrive — and it is much the same all through the Alps — is another reminder of how close, when with them, one may get back to na- ture and natural ways. Bread, cream, curds, but- ter, cheese, dried or fresh fruits — these are the things on which you chiefly feed. Meat is a rarity. Coffee is almost the only exotic, and that, made with milk alone, and thickened with cream to your liking, serves as a timely reminder of the 262 Swiss Life distance you are from civilisation, though so near. I found it much the same in most parts of the Alps: if you happened to fall into the good graces of the herdsman in the mountains, he would give you a cup of coffee to remember. In stature the Jura farmer was a little above the medium size, squarely built, with a broad, high forehead and strongly marked features. They would have appeared hard but for his fine grey eyes, inclining to blue. Slow of speech, his words came out much as a careful man would count down money. They dropped from him like coined gold. He said he did not care much for Geneva. **They jabber so much in the town," said he; " they are always jabbering. But," he added, " I once heard a man speak there — a preacher — who gave me enough to think about for a year." It was not his habit to talk about his religious views; one could see from the few words he now and then let fall that they were very distinct and strangely idiosyncratic of the man. Once a month he went to church. " It is enough," said he. *' Church- going may become a sin like everything else. Re- ligion is living well and doing good, not listening to words." "I don't want people to say," he remarked on one occasion, " how religious I am, because I go so regularly to church, but I want them to think I would do nothing mean or underhand to obtain an advantage, and that I would not refuse to help a neighbour in trouble so far as I could." One Types and Characters 263 thing about his religious character was very strik- ing. "My dear mother," he said once, " never troubled me much about religion, but she got me to learn the four Gospels by heart, and she asked me to repeat portions of them to myself from time to time, so as not to forget them. That I have done ever since I was a boy," he added, " and I find it simplifies matters very much just to try and act as near as possible in accord with the spirit there inculcated, leaving all the glosses of word- spinners to those who like them." I give these views of my Jura farmer friend be- cause they are so strikingly characteristic of the directness and simplicity of the Swiss mind as I found it in so many fresh and vigorous specimens of manhood, not only of West but of East Switzer- land. I hold them to be the more worth giving because, as it seems to me, the spirit of simplicity, not only in regard to religion, but in other mat- ters also, is growing, and it may be that these Swiss thinkers and "doers" are going to have their influence upon the world as the}^ had in past time; for we all know what a tremendous thing came out of Geneva " in the days that are gone." I met at this house another characteristic Swiss type, a feminine one. I never saw a second like her, and I doubt whether I ever shall. She was a little above the medium height, beautifully formed, with a face that would have been beauti- ful, too, but for the passionate intelligence ex- pressed in it. I can describe what I mean in no 264 Swiss Life » other way. A woman endowed with so high a quality of intellect I never knew; and I certainly never knew one, and can hardly conceive of one, in whom intellect and the passion of enthusiasm were so intimately commingled. Her face had all the tender and harmonious lines of a beauty well- nigh ideal ; but the brow was too pronounced, and with her grey eyes gave an expression to her countenance that was almost masculine. Her hair, the colour of her eyes, intensified the ex- pression. I never learned much about Mademoi- selle C.'s past. That she was Genevese by birth and parentage, that she had spent some years of her early womanhood in England, where she had seen much good society, and that she had been in Paris during the Commune — these things I knew, but little else. The Commune had made an in- delible impression upon her, and it was easy to see that her sympathies were largely with the Communards. She declared that Paris was never so well governed as under their rule. But what a martyrdom that episode must have been to her! Her description of the last days of the Com- mune, when the Republican troops were pressing in the Communards on every side, and when one of the last stands was made at a barricade at the end of the street in which she lived, and they could see the fighting from the balcony, was a thing never to be forgotten. One afternoon, when the sunshine was filling all the street, a sudden Types and Characters 265 rattle of chassepot fire called them to the window. Looking towards the barricade, they saw a Com- munist soldier throw away his rifle, tear off his blouse, and make off hastily along the street. Opposite the house he was met by a Republican officer coming the other way, who commanded him to stand, and bade him hold up his hands. This was to see if they showed the marks of hav- ing held a rifle. Mademoiselle and her friends could not hear the short colloquy that took place, but it was all too plain what it meant, and the deno2iement — the young Communard struck down with a pistol-shot point-blank — came like a flash of lightning. " The officer hurried on, the young fellow writhed on the ground like a crushed worm," said Mademoiselle. "We watched our chance, and when there was no one about we went out and fetched the dying soldier in. It turned out to be the brother of my friends. ' ' Afterwards these people got into trouble for removing the dy- ing man. An officer and a file of soldiers called, and would have carried him off, and his friends with him, but for the spirit of this Swiss heroine. She threw herself in front of them, and cried: " But, gentlemen, what sort of conduct is this? Take me too; I helped to carry him in — I, who am not a relative, out of compassion and humanity. What would you have them do, then — they who are his sisters ? Would you have your sisters be heartless were you at the point of death ? Messieurs^ messieurs ! Soldats, mes hommes / " In 266 Swiss Life the end they stationed a sentry at the door, and that was all. Mademoiselle — I can imagine Madame Roland being like her — had two regrets: one that she was not a man, the other that she had not a son. * ' He should have been a mnn ! ' ' she once ex- claimed. ** But it was not to be. The men who sought me as wife were not men enough for me." Her ideals of manhood were found among the Englishmen she had known in the days of her early womanhood. Youthful impressions may have biassed her judgment; but to her view the cultured Englishman was the finest type of manli- ness in the world. To make him perfect she only desired that he should worship nos ideals, ' * Our ideals " meant the acceptance of equal rights and privileges for all and the abolition of caste distinc- tions. But notwithstanding all her intelligence — per- haps in consequence of it — the woman was a dreamer. The last time I saw her was on the shore of the Lake of Geneva, watching the last paling splendours of the declining day as they tinged the glittering white of the Alps with the hues of the dying dolphin. *' When I look on that," she said, '' I dream of the eternal love and of peace. How beautiful they are, those things! Mais, mon Dieu ! How happy it must be to be a simple little farmer's wife, and not dream too much of such things! " She was thinking of our friend, the Jura husbandman, with the never-ceas- Types and Characters 267 ing labour and the ever-present solitude of the hills. I should like to present another type, but I fear lest m}^ attempt ma\^ prove altogether inadequate. He was an officer on the permanent staff of the Swiss army, and had to do with the drilling of recruits, and so forth. I travelled with him once as far as Olten to attend an Old Catholic confer- ence, and as we spent much of two days together, I learned a great deal about his attitude towards the world and things in general. He, too, had his ideal, and a very simple one it was. " Every boy and girl ought to be taught a bread-winning handicraft, to shoot straight (if a boy), to nurse (if a girl), and to know and do their duty to their neighbours and their God." For the rest, he was a true Catholic, albeit opposed to Ultramontanism, which he held to be hostile to the best interests of democrac3^ Et le Christia7iisme — voila la V7'aie democratie ! That was his view — and his political faith. Elsewhere I have endeavoured to limn in out- line two or three governesses. Let me add here the broad general lineaments of a schoolmaster. I met him in a hotel where he was spending his summer vacation. Sitting at the end of the table opposite to me, and being a very grave person, or to all appearance such, I got the idea that he was greatly scandalised at the light talk and frequent laughter that enlightened my end of the table, where we were English, Irish, Dutch, German, 268 Swiss Life and Russian, rather indiscriminately mixed. If he intervened in the general conversation, it was somewhat heavily and, as one might say, profes- sionall}^ Finally he left, and as the landlady was regretting his absence, I remarked that we seemed to breathe more freely without him. " Ah," said she, " that is because he is worn out with work. But if you will go with us one day to visit him in the mountains, you will find him very different — so amiable, and so — how do you say it ? — so fond of doing nothing with just enough to do to make it comfortable." A week or so later a party of us drove over to see this schoolmaster in his mountain retreat, and I learned to know him for what he was truly — a man who had almost a passion for the training of the young. Near to where he was lodging there was a house for school-children during the holi- days, and it was a picture to see him romping with the small fry in the meadows and upon the hillside. This man had one thought, although he had many ways of expressing it; it was, ''The world has not yet learned how malleable child- hood is." And he often gave it as his conviction that the time would come when the world would be governed from the nursery and the schoolroom. By way of contrast let me give the portrait of an hotel-keeper, a woman. Her house is in Ge- neva, on the northern side of the lake. It does not rank among the first ; but it is probabl}^ the more comfortable on that account. Anyway, all Types and Characters 269 wbo stay in it once want to go again ; for Madame is a model hostess, and not only makes her guests comfortable, but takes an interest in each person- ally. Moreover, she is a good story-teller, and, as a story-teller should be, full of humour. In days long gone her father had kept one of the best hotels in the city, one historically famous, and had thus been brought in contact with many notable men. It was not of these, however, that Madame told her stories, but about the eccentrici- ties who had left their mark upon the hotel. The English ** my lord " was a stock character, and it must be confessed she had some amusing stories about him — about his oddities, his forgetful ness, his often querulous tongue, his " cracktness " (if one may coin a word), his generosity, and what not. A favourite story was that of the nobleman who had told his coachman overnight that they would start for home in the morning — for these reminis- cences went back to pre-railway days; but when he appeared at the door to get into his carriage he found the horses' heads turned in the direction as though they were going to Italy. " I told you we were going home, "said his lordship to the coach- man. " Oh, I beg your pardon, sir! " cried John. *' I '11 have the horses' heads the other way in half a jiff." ** Never mind," replied the noble- man, with the utmost sang-froid ; " since j^ou have got the horses' heads that way, we will go on to Rome." Another of these amiable maniacs 270 Swiss Life always dragged his bed on to the floor, and slept there; a still odder variety used to put the dining- room chairs back to back, and play leap-frog over them, to prepare himself for dinner. ' ' Father did not object," observed Madame, with a smile, *' because if * my lord ' happened to break one he never objected to -psLying double what it was worth." These stories were told with infinite gusto, but none tickled the good hostess so much in the telling as the story of the gentleman who, when nearing Paris on his way home from Italy, missed a favourite white beaver, and returned all the way to Geneva, inquiring at every stopping- place, * ' Haveyou seen anything of my white hat ? ' ' At that place he found that it had been inadvert- ently crushed into a portmanteau among some soiled linen. But, bruised and rumpled though it was, he clapped it on his head, and set out north again, perfectly happy. "Ah, Monsieur," said Madame, after telling this particularly tall confe, *' we repeat these things, and amuse ourselves with them ; but, all the same, there was no one we liked to receive better than these Englishmen, for, odd as they might be, and crotchety, they were always gentlemen, and that is more than one can say of all who travel about nowadays. I my- self saw an English nobleman drive his own car- riage to my father's door, while his coachman, who had been taken unwell, sat inside." This woman spoke three languages with equal facility. Two of them, French and German, she called Types and Characters 271 " my mother tongues." As to English, " that," she said, ** my father made all his children learn because, as he used to put it, ' English spells money.' " I could add many others to these types of char- acter, but one more must suffice. Most persons who have visited Switzerland have made the ac- quaintance of Alpine guides. It can hardly be said that these men form a class apart, because they are all of peasant origin, and most peasants will on occasion act as guides about their own mountains, which they know co^nme ma poche, as the saying is. But some become more expert in this sort of work than others, and so are better known and more frequently employed. Some, in- deed, there are whose names are world-famous, like the brothers Hans and Christian Grass of Pontresina, Alexandre Burgener of Saas, Mel- chior Andregg of Meiringen, or Mathias Zur- briggen, whose exploits have not been confined to Switzerland, or even Europe. But there are many others equally capable in their calling whose names have not been sounded abroad, but are none the less worthy of such fame, if that could help them or add to their comfort in any wav. There is one trait which characterises most, if not all, of these men. It is their large-hearted- ness. They are like a providence haunting the most perilous places of the Alps. There is hardly any risk they will not run, scarcely any exposure 2 72 Swiss Life they will not endure, to save life or help those in danger or difficulty. The common run of men in East Switzerland give one the impression of being rough and a little hard; but these men, rugged though they are in externals, can be as gentle as women. All who know them are ready to sing their praises in this respect. I remember once three young men, strangers, wandering about in the neighbourhood of Chamouni, and losing their way. Late at night two of them chanced upon a lone hut, in which they found one of these peasant mountaineers. Without a moment's hesitation he set out with one of the young men to fetch their companion, an American student, who, having sprained his ankle, bade the others leave him and seek assistance. It was, perhaps, a small matter for a man of his breadth of shoulder and strength of limb, but it seemed a marvellous thing to those to whom he gave his assistance that he should be able to bear a youth of twenty-two over several miles of rough mountain road, and almost in total darkness. When they were finally landed in an auberge the young men made up a sum of twenty francs to reward him for his pains. But he would not accept a sou. ' ' Keep me in your kindly re- membrance, ' ' said he, ' ' and that will be pay enough." INDEX Aargau, 32, 233 Abbaye des Vignerons^ 112 "Act of Mediation," 32 ^Ipler/est, 226, 229 Agriculture, 117 Alcohol, 7, 36, 37, 158 Alemanni, 4 Aletsch glacier, legend of, 143 Allmend, 119 Alpenrosli, 127, 182 Alp-horn, 124 Alpine music, 123 Alpine year, the, 122 Alp-land, 16 Alps, the, 118 Altdorf, 55 Annies de lajeunefille, 88 Appenzell-ausser-Rhoden, 105, 215 Appenzell-inner-Rhoden, 73, 156, 157, 167 Aristocracy, 93, 94 Asses' milk, 49 Assurance, 82 Back to nature, 249, 260 Basel-land, 115 Bechlin, Auguste, 253 Beer-drinking, 158 18 273 274 Index Bergsturz, 22 Berne, 31, 52, 53, 136 Bernese Jura, 5 Bernese Oberland, 13, 100, 137, 229 Birds, destruction of, 127 Birds, migration of, 261 Bishoprics, 209 Book-knowledge, 176, 177 Books, gratuitous provision of, in schools, 68 Bund, 31, 32 Burger, 48, 49 Burgess class, 94 Burgundians, 4 Byron (I^ord), 34, 134 Ci^AR, 3 Calvin, 74, 218, 258 Catholics, 56, 64, 67, 72, 149, 155, 156, 161, 164, 166. 211^ 214 Cattle-breeding, 117 Cattle (Swiss), 119, 137 Celtic, 3 Chambrier, Alice, 254 Chamois, 16 Character, cantonal, 131 ; Swiss, 257 Chaux de-Fonds, 98, 231 Cheese-making, 117, 128, 205 Cherbuliez, Victor, 252 Chestnuts, 10 Church in Switzerland, 209 Coleridge, 25 Combe, T., 254 Communal Assembly, 48 Commune, 46, 47, 52, 187 Condensed milk industry, 105 Consistory, 72 Index 275 Co-operation, 204 et seq. Costumes, 46, 156, 166, 167 Cotton manufacture, 100-102, 104 Cow-bells, 122 Cretinism, 6, 7 Cuisines scolaires, 84 Culture of the vine, 106 Cures, 249 Dancing, 155 Democratic government, 29 *' Derbyshire neck," 6 Dialects, 133, 149 Domo d'Ossola, 6 Drama, the rural, 138 Drunkenness, 36 Education, 9, 61-63, 167, 168, 176, 177 Elm, 21 Embroidery, 102-105 Emmenthal, 117, 137, 227 Engadine, 147-149 Engineers, 18 Entlebuch, 137, 227 Factories, 154 Factory laws, 202 Farmer, Jura, 259 Father Bacchus, 112 Federal Assembly, 43, 44 Federal Council, 44, 45 Federal Pact, 32, 34 Festivals (popular), 221 Festspiel, 237 et seq. FHe des Vignerons, 112 Firtiy 24 Flax-spinning, 104 276 Index Flowers (Alpine), 126, 127 Forest Cantons, 30, 32 Forests, 18, 19 Freiburg, 133, 134, 136, 213 French (language), 4, 34, 93, 132, 244 Fruit-trees, 175 GalEER, AI.BERT, 196 Game, 16 Gemeinde^ 47, 49 Genva, 76, 9 7, n 5, 132, I95, 201, 210, 21S, 234 Geneva Convention, 88 German (language), 4, 5, 14, 31, 50, 51 Glaciers, 20, 24 Glarus, 5, 21, 31, 54, 55, 94, 205, 222 Goethe, 33 Goitre, 6 " Gospel of work," 82 Gotthelf, Jeremias, 253 Governesses (Swiss), 168 et seq. Grape cure, 249 Graubiinden, 5, 17, 71, 107, 114, 146, 149 Grisons. See Graubiinden. Grutli Society, 195, 200, 2or Gruyere, 117, 133, 2^ Guides (Swiss), 271 Gymnastics, 229, 230 Hackbrett, 156 Hagenmacher, O., 252 Heinrichsbad, 249 Helvetii, 3 Home life, 160 Homes (Swiss), 153 Hornus, 229 Hotel-keepers, 116, 268 Index 2^1 Houses (Swiss), 163, 179, 180 Huguenin, Oscar, 254 Huonder, Antoine. 254 Hygiene, 154 Industry (Swiss), 95-97, 100, 103, 106, 117, 205 Initiative, 39, 42 Insects (Alpine), 127 Intemperance, 7 Italian (language), 4 JAHN, LUDWiG, 230 Jeremias Gotthelf, 253 Jesuits, 34, 210 Jewellery, 97 Jews, 214 "Jodel," 135, 157.233 Jura farmer, 259 Kaiser, Isabei,i,e, 253 Keller, Gottfried, 138, 246, 251, 253 Kiltgang, the, 137, 165 King (Edward) and sanatoria, 90, 91 Kuhreihen, 134, 135 Kulturkampf, 210 Labour colonies, 83 Lace-making, 179 Ladin (/. e. Latin) dialect, 149 Lake Constance, 9, ii7> 233 Lake Leman, or Geneva, 10, 34, 107, 117, 258 Lake of Zurich, 115 Landamman^ 55-59 Landsgemeinde, 39, 41, 43, 46, 55-59. I95 Landsgemeinde cantons, 54 Landslip, 23 278 Index Landsturniy 185 Landwehr, 185 Lausanne, 9, 69, 133 Leutboden, 251 Life in the Alps, 118 Life (length of), 7 Lightning, 25 Linen-weaving, 104 Literature, 243 et seq, Locle, 98 Lucerne, 72 Lugano, 232 Lullaby, 180 Luther, 234 Lutheranism, 219 Madrisahorn, legend of, 150 Maienstecken, 165 Manufacture of machinery, 104 Marmot, 16 Marriage customs, 160 et seq, Methodists, 219 Meyer, C. F., 251 Michelet, 97 Migration of birds, 261 Military system, 184 Milk cures, 77 Monnier, Mark, 252 Montet, Dr., 218 Morgarten, 30 Mount Pilatus, legend of, 138 Music, 234 et seq. Musical-boxes, 97, 99 NaFEIvS (battle of), 222 National Council, 44 Index 279 National industry, 93 Neuchatel, 98, 218 Newspapers (Swiss), 244 et seq. Oi,D Catholics, 211-213 Olivier, Juste, 252 Peasant, the Swiss, 119 People's Bank, 204 Pestalozzi, 62 Philanthropic work, 78-80, 89 Pilatus (Mount), legend of, 138 Polytechnic, 36, 74, 75 Popular /^/(fj, 221 Poverty, 96 Press, 243 et seq. Productive land, area of, 16 Protestants, 60, 71, 72, 132, 148, I55. 156, 161, 162, 214 215 Public education, 61 Public Utility, Society of, 79, 81, 84 Ranz des Vaches, 123, 134 Reclus, Elis^e, 154 Red Cross Society, 87, 88 Referendum, 39, 42, 68 Republican manners, 159 Revision (of Constitution), 35 Rhaeti, 3, 32, 255 Rhaetia, 5 Ribbon-weaving, 103 Roads, 26 Rod Edouard, 133 Roget, Fran5ois, 250 Romance dialects, 133 Romans, 3 Romansch, 5, 149 28o Index Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 27, 62, 252 Rum bold. Sir Horace, 62 Rural exodus, 122, 125, 130 St. Jakob, battle of, 114 Sanatoria, 90, 91 Sand, Georges, 168 Schabzieger, 205 Schaffhausen, 114, 115, 231 Schiller, 33 School, 67, 68, 176-178 Schoolmaster (Swiss), 267 Schutzenfeste, 224, 225 Schweizer Bluf, 114 Schwingfeste, 227 Schwyz, 8, 166 Seippel, M., 62 Senn (cowherd), life of, 127 Shoe-making, 104 Shooting, 191 Silk manufacture, 100, loi Simmenthal, 115, 137 Social Democrats, 200, 204 Soleure Jura, 99 Sovereign rights, 37 Sovereignty of the people, 29 Spitteler, Charles, 252 Sports, 228, 229 Straw-plaiting, 103, 105 Struggle with nature, 12 Sunday labour, 202 Suttermeister, O., 252 Swiss army, 184 Swiss children, 173, 179, 180 Swiss girls, 154, 155, 181 Swiss songs, 123, 124 Index 281 Swiss women, 152, 153, 167 Synod (Protestant), 216, 217 Taverns, 157, 160 Tell, William, 31, 33, 191 Temperance, 158 Tessin, 4, 5, 32, 114, 115, 145, 146 Thurgau, 32, 115 Ticino, 4, 145 Tir Federal, 191, 223, 240 Tissot, Victor, 247 Tobacco industry, 105 Toepflfer, Rodolph, 252 Trychlen, 122 Tyndall (Professor), 23 Types (Swiss), 257 et seq. U1.TRAMONTANES, 211, 212, 215 Unit of political life, 47 Universities, 36, 70, 74, 213, 217, 230, 231 Unterwalden, no, 166 Uri, 30, 73 Vacation colonies, 77 Valais, 6, 71, 108, 115, 125, 141, 142 Vaud, 76, no, 113, 132, 133, 197, 210, 218 Vegetation (Alpine), 125 Vine, culture of, 106 et seq. Vintage, in Viticulture in Tessin, no Vogt, Carl, 74, 146 Volkslieder, 22 Voralpen^ 10 Watch-making, 97, 98 Wealth, 95 Whey cure, 249 282 Index Wine-making, 106 et seq. Women, work of, 121 ; Swiss, 152 Wood-carving, 99 Woollen manufacture, 104 Working-men's societies, 195, 200, 20I Workmen (Swiss), 195 Wrestling, 136, 226, 228 Wulsch cantons, 51, 94, 153 ZSCHOKKE, 250 Zug, 31, 41 Zurich, 53, 54, 68, 71, 219 Zurich Oberland, 100-102 Ji Selection from the Catalogue of G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Oomplete Catalogue sent on application Our European Neighbours Edited by WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON 12°. Illustrated. Each, net $1.20 By Mail 1.30 I.— FRENCH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Hannah Lynch. "Miss Lynch 's pages are thoroughly interesting and suggestive. Her style, too, is not common. It is marked by vivacity without any drawback of looseness, and resembles a stream that run* strongly and evenly between walls. It is at once distinguished and useful. . . . Her five-page description (not dramatization) of the grasping Paris landlady is a capital piece of work. . . . ,Such well-finished portraits are frequent in Miss L,ynch's book, which is small, inexpensive, and of a real excellence." — The London Academy. " Miss Lynch 's book is particularly notable. It is the first of a series describing the home and social life of various Europf an peoples — a series long needed and sure to receive a warm welcome. Her style is frank, vivacious, entertaining, captivating, just the kind for a book which is not at all statistical, political, or contro- versial. A special excellence of her book, reminding one of Mr- Whiteing's, lies in her continual contrast of the English and the French, and she thus sums up her praises: 'The English are admirable : the French are lovable.' "—The Outlook. II GERMAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By W. H. Dawson, author of " Germany and the Germans," etc. "The book is as full of correct, imijartial, well-digested, and •well-presented information as an egg is of meat. One can only recommend it heartily and without reserve to all who wish to gain an insight into German life. It worthily presents a great nation, now the greatest and strongest in 'Europe."— Commercial Adveriiser. III.— RUSSIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Francis H. E. Palmer, sometime Secretary to H. H. Prince Droutskop-Loubetsky (Equerry to H. M. the Emperor of Russia). " We would recommend this above all other works of its charao ter to those seeking a clear general understanding of Russian life, character, and conditions, but who have not the leisure or inclinar tion to read more voluminous tomes. ... It cannot be too highly recommended, for it conveys practically all that well-informed people should know of 'Our European Neighbours.' "—Mail and Express. Our European Neighbours IV.— DUTCH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By P. M. Hough, B.A. •' There is no other book which gives one so clear a picture of actual life in the Netherlands at the present date. For its accurate presentation of the Dutch situation in art, letters, learning, and politics as well as in the round of common life in town and city, this book deserves the heartiest -praise."— Evening Post. "Holland is always interesting, in any line of study. In this work its charm is carefully preserved. The sturdy toil of the people, their quaint characteristics, their conservative retention of old dress and customs, their quiet abstention from taking part in the great affairs of the world are clearly reflected in this faithful mirror. The illustrations are of a high grade of photographic reproductions."— Washington Post. v.— SWISS LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Alfred T. Story, author of the *' Building of the British Empire," etc. " We do not know a single compact book on the same subject in which Swiss character in all its variety finds so sympathetic and yet thorough treatment ; the reason of this being that the author has enjoyed privileges of unusual intimacy with all classes, which prevented his lumping the people as a whole without distinction of racial and cantonal feeling."— 7Va^zo«. "There is no phase of the lives of these sturdy republicans, whether social or political, which Mr. Story does not touch upon ; and an abundance of illustrations drawn from unhackneyed sub- jects adds to the value of the hoo)s.:' —Chicago Dial. VI.— SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By L. HiGGiN. "Illuminating in all of its chapters. She writes in thorough sympathy, bom of long and intimate acquaintance with Spanish people of to-day."— 5^. Paul Press. "The author knows her subject thoroughly and has written a most admirable volume. She writes with genuine love for the Spaniards, and with a sympathetic knowledge of their character and their method of Vd^."— Canada Methodist Review. Our European Neighbours VII.— ITALIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By LUIGI ViLLARI. " A most interesting and instructive volume, which presents an intimate view of the social habits and manner of thought of the people of which it treats." — Buffalo Express. " A book full of information, comprehensive and accurate. Its numerous attractive illustrations add to its interest and value. We are glad to welcome such an addition to an excellent series."—' Syracuse Herald. VIII.— DANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Jessie H. Brochner. " Miss Brochner has written an interesting book on a fascinat- ing subject, a book which should arouse an interest in Denmark in those who have not been there, and which can make those who know and are attracted by the country very homesiek to return." — Commercial Advertiser. " She has sketched with loving art the simple, yet pure and elevated lives of her countrymen, and given the reader an excellent idea of the Danes from every point of view."— CA/ca^o Tribune. IX.— AUSTRO=HUNGARIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Francis H, E. Palmer, author of ** Russian Life in Town and Country," etc. " No volume in this interesting series seems to us so notable o* valuable as this on Austro-Hungarian life. Mr. Palmer's long resi- dence in Europe and his intimate association with men of mark, especially in their home life, has given to him a richness of experi- ence evident on every page of the book." — The Outlook. "This book cannot be too warmly recomnvended to those who have not the leisure or the spirit to read voluminous tomes of this subject, yet we wish a clear general understanding of Austro-Hun» %sxi3Xi.\\i^," —Hartford Times, Our European Neighbours X.— TURKISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By L. M. J. Garnett. *"■ The general tone of the book is that of a careful study, the style is flowing, and the matter is presented in a bright, taking way."— 5^. Paul Press. "To the average mind the Turk is a little better than a blood- thirsty individual with a plurality of wives and a paucity of vir- tues. To read this book is to be pleasantly disillusioned."— /^Wiic Opinton. XI BELGIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Demetrius C. Boulger " Mr. Boulger has given a plain, straight-forward account of the several phases of Belgian I,ife, the government, the court, the manufacturing centers and enterprises, the literature and science, the army, education and religion, set forth informingly." — The Detroit Free f^ess. " The book is one of real value conscientiously written, and well illustrated by good photographs. "— 7%*? Outlook, XIL— SWEDISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By G. VON HeidensTam. "As we read this interesting book we seem to be wandering through this land, visiting its homes and schools and churches, studying its government and farms and industries, and observing the dress and customs and amusements of its healthy and happy people. The book is delightfully written and beautifully illus- trated." — Presbyterian Bannet. "In this intimate account of the Swedish people is given a more instructive view of their political and social relations than it has been the good fortune of American readers heretofore to ob- tain." — IVashingion Even. Star. Our Asiatic Neighbours 12 o. Illustrated. Each, net $1.20 By mail * • • • 1*30 I^INDIAN LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By Herbert Compton. " Mr. Compton 's book is the best book on India, its life and its people, that has been published in a long time. The reader will find it more descriptive and presenting more facts in a way that appeals to the man of English speech than nine-tenths of the volumes written by travellers. It sets forth the experiences of a Suarter of a century, and in that period a man can learn a good eal, even about an alien people and civilization, if he keeps his eyes open. If the other volumes in the series are as good as ' Indian Life in Town and Country ' it will score a decided suc- cess." — Brooklyn Eagle. " An account of native life in India written from the point of view of a practical man of affairs who knows India from long residence. It is bristling with information, brisk and graphic in style, and open-minded and sympathetic in feeling."— Cleveland Leader. II.— JAPANESE LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY By George William Knox, D.D. " The childlike simplicity, yet innate complexity of the Japanese temperament, the strangely mingled combination of new ?jnd old, important and worthless, poetic and commercial instincts, aims, and ambitions now at work in the land of the cherry blossom are well brought out by Dr. Knox's conscientious representation. The book should be widely read and studied, being eminently reason- able, readable, reliable, and informative."— J^ecord-Herald. " A delightful book, all the more welcome because the ablest scholar in Japanese Confucianism that America has yet produced has here given us impressions of man and nature in the Archi- pelago. "•^£z'