TVEOLESK SIMPLICITY

Otago Witness, Issue 2558, 25 March 1903, Page 65

TVEOLESK SIMPLICITY

But troubles came the moment she left her home among those mountains of beautiful Tyrol and among those simple Tyrolese peasants — one of the peoples of Europe that are able to combine perfect self-respect and perfect courtesy to those who are above them in station. You all know those Tyrolese peasants, with their green and feathered hats, their knee-breeches, their multicoloured stockings, and zithers ; their rollicking" dances, their songs that have something in them of the wail that haunts the mountaineer whenever he finds himself far away from the lonely and iceclsd mountain tops of his home. I have been told that the Tyrolese are so privileged in their "simplicity that they are allowed to tutoyer even the Emperor — that is to say, to address with the "thou," which is never used among Germans or Frenchmen except as a term of endearment and familiarity to those who belong to them by the closest ties of blood or of intimate friendship. Among the many millions of his subjects, there was only one individual outside the Tyrolese who was ever known to tutoyer Jie Emperor — for etiquette is still omnipotent in the oldfashioned Court of Vienna — that was the late Count Taaffe; and even Count Taaffe was not allowed tc do so in public ; it was only when he and the Emperor, finding themselves alone, were able to indulge in the luxury of feeling and affection.