A BLACK FOREST INTERIOR

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2182, 11 July 1890, Page 6

A BLACK FOREST INTERIOR

Of the portion of the house assigned for dwelling purposes, the stube, or common dwelling-room, says H. W. Wolff in his " Rambles in the Black Fortst," is invariably situated on the ground floor. It ia a large room, with a big tile stove, generally put up like a steep flight of steps, occupying a considerable space on one side. This stove is a genuine temple of Vesta, the centre of domestic life. The seats which run all round it are the gathering place for the whole family, including the servants, in their hours of rest ; and round the stove, too, do the young women collect with their spinning wheels in winte" time. In the recess at its back, the warmest corner of the whole house— which maybe shut off by a private door — do the aged and infirm spend their days of honoured helplessness. Prom a diminutive fireplace, let into one corner of the stove, pretty high up, in the evening streams forth, from a fire of beechen logs or chips of highly resinous firewood, tbe light which illumines the room. Where there is no such fireplace, and modern candles or lamps have sot ye\ found entrance, the illuminating material is the same, but held in an apparatus resembling our own old-fashioned rushlight holders. The uses of the stove do not end in this room. The ascending smoke heats the bed-rooms above, into which it is, after a very primitive fashion, conducted bodily, without pipe or flue. When not required in the bedrooms, it is turned directly into the barn, or else allowed to escape by the ( Schild.' A genuine old-fashioned Black Forest Stube is a curiously picturesque object. At the door there is invariably the atoup for holy water. From it do all who enter — family and servants alike, for living in the Black Foreßt is still patriarchal — sprinkle themselves. Close to it is the handgiessle, a more secular water-vessel, made of tin, with the help of which all entering wash their hands by affusion, as in the East. Religion does not end at the door. The room has its hergotts winkel — God's comer — in which stands the kausterle, or house altar, at which family prayers are offered. It is hung round with gay but cheap finery. In this ecclesiastical corner also does the big, round oaken table, which is handed down as an heirloom from father to son, find a place. The wall of the room is lined all round with wooden seats, under some of which are fixed handy chests, in which to stow things wanted for the household. Curious vessels, such as kat, z a dieh for cats' food, and the iron schuhloffel, stan I about. At the back of the stube is the stiible, the bed-room for master and mistress. The remainder of the ground- floor is occupied by the gediogestube and that most important apartment, the kitchen, with spacious apartment and larder adjoining. The kitchen is always a roomy place, and earned upwards through both storeys. There may be more than one fireplaca in it. However many they are, they a. c, of course, always fired with wood, and the smoke ascends straight to the outlet above — curing, on its way, goodly store of provisions, with which the top part is hung — escaping eventually into the barn. The bedrooms of the family and servants are situated on the first floor, and are accessible by steps, which, to economise room, are made very steep.

It is not surprising that over-indulgence i n , port should make a man portly. |