THE TRAVELLER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 81

THE TRAVELLER.

. „, — „ HEIDEN. By Edith M. Buchanan, M.A. Out democratic development has not been ' the work of theorists ; li is tlte evolution of ages. Democracy was borr on our soil in ' the commune — in the simple, industrial or _ agricultural corporator also , it reached ' .later cantonal ground, and then, in cur \ century only, federal ground. — N<unca Droz- | If any paintef or poet is in aearah of a countryside where rural peace, contentment, and happiness express themselves in every scene, let him go to Heiden, a village in tjhe high la>nd of North Switzerland, looking out over Lake Constance. Follow any of its white, winding, wellmade roads : on either side are the richest green pastures — unfetnoed generally — shaded here and there by great spreading fruit trees; sheltered on the hill side by small forests of fir, beech, and pine ; studded with glossy, silky-coated cows of the finest bre/d ; everywhere, as far as eye can see, like a beautiful park in perfect order i But this is not 9 park ; the whole vil- ' lage, the whole canton indeed, is divided up into homestead, of several acres. To the casual passer-by the only hint of private ownership is conveyed by the large, ' comfortable, well-built, beautiful farmhouses, standing each in its own fields, tenanted by its owner. There are no large farms, but the most striking feature la that all seem equally prosperous, perfectly ordered, and maintained. Every nil 1 looks down on a smiling valley, rich green pas r turage clothing all the slopes and vales with a garment of beauty — not content to be beautiful only, but giving three generous crops of hay every year. Everywhere utility and beauty are oombined, leaving nothing to be desired. The houses are much like those of. "Mayflower" time in New England. « . . . and gables projecting I Over the basement below protected- «nd shaded the doorway. j High sloping roofs overhang one Hde as well as the front of the houses ; the other side runs lengthwise into a great barn, communicating with the l;rrge comfortable well-built stable, where the cows spend several months in winter. The outside of the hoiiee is generally protected from the weather by a fish-scale shingling, painted a warm red-brown, that develops wonderful fiha.de* when weatherworn. Rows of small lattice windows, daintily curtained, mark the three storeys ; h gay window-box of flowers decorates the hv'ng room on tl 1^ second storey. The lower storey is given up to looms for weaving linero. calico, and muslin, and machines for em-broid r rinjr the muslin — they are specially noted in this district for muslin and net curtains, for which they design their own embroidery patterns Exquisite hand work is done in the nunneries and m the private houses also of the Catholic part of this canton : the work is all sent to depots Ln St. Gale. 60 that the whale district is employed in this industry as well as farming. One . generally sees the old people at the looms and machines, which nre very easily worked ; thav have had their day of hard, farm labour, and sit there now in the clean, well-lighted sunn\ rooms working away most c'leerfully. No one is ever idle. j A staircase, often outside the house, leads to the Living rooms, where everything is remarkably clean and comfort- ' .tble Large porcelain stoves warm the rooms in winter, fed from those wonderlully symmetrical wood stacks of pine, piled high to the cave, that overhaage the

side of thie house, and every cottage, even,H is fitted with electric Kght, which is so cheap everywhere in Switzerland ; and: still more strange for a country village, almost every house has a telephone, consequently J those long, dark, cold days of winter axe j no longer dreaded. Abundance of good water from artesian wefle flows continn- j ally into great wooden troughs vi the , fields to water the cattle, and near the roadside on© sees at Tegular intervals small squaTe reservoirs, of water, fenced in, but uncovered — these are for uee "in case of fire. Every man in the village is com- j pelted to belong to the fire brigade and take his turn at the frequent practices with all the modern equipments' of motor enre, movable pumps, and scaling ladders. 1838 a fire swept the whole village away in one night ; now the houses are all • built far apart, and as the State rebuilt they are very uniform in. size and style. } There are some shops, but not easy to find" «t .first. When you have passed through a beautiful garden of phiox, asters. : aad hollyhocks (you guess eaeily they have succeeded the narcissi, tulips, , peonies, -' liktes, *«K»es,' 'and' carnations oi spring aod summer) a brightJy-poliished door-plate t«11s- you ;if you, have found the shop you seek : the whole of the- lower | storey is given up to that, the two upper Sate are thw living rooms. There is little , trafiic/no.noisdj'atf do»9t* evety day scents ] ' like- Sunday! One of the villagers is appointed fc act>a* magistrate, if needed, but there are no lawyers, anii a policeman from a village near pays - a visit once* a Week. Every day* the streets 'are swept, and even more scrupulously on Saturday, when the ~ -flagged we-also-scrubbed, and at' suneet the church bells ring in the Sabbath rest. Tiie Sw»s pay a progressive annual .tax, which on large, incomes amounts to ss much 86 25 per cent and 30 per cent. This i provid«BS -liberally for education, ohuTchesi'j fire insurance,- an extremely - efficient militia; , hrispitak, aftd the l^pow ; - consequently oere, as elsewhere in Switzerland, ths school is a, large stone building -where the most modern educational methods ayeemployed. The hospital is roomy abd i well appointed, fhe doctor 4n charge ful- * filling ako the duties of member of Par- . Ihttnent and chief hotel proprietor. He does not -usticate here, but bis triple capacity meets constantly many of fehe celebrated Swiffi and German doctor*. The village is well knowm as an "air cure," and* attracts many patients suffering from nervous complaints. Although' 4000 ft .above sea level, the aspect :s: s very warm and sunny "in summer. One celebrated German doctorTias beer going tjfoere every summer for 12 yea<rs, and patients from America, Great Britain, France, and other { countries comA hereto consult him, especially those afflicted with paralyse*' and locomotoT ataxia * He has a gymnasium; ' where he teache|.,his patients to wait as ! babies are' taught*, "educating those sets of ! muscles that are in abeyance until after the death of the first set, when they are summonsed to do their work by what Hfehe French doctors call "re-education. ' The' patiemts leaam Ho walk without crotch or stick, imd appear the some as >hoee who are well. even, if not wholly cured. - - The chief hotel there, outside and in, has all the appeasfenoe of a country house, the two front balconies and verandah just now draped with Virginia / ctteeper of " palest yellow and hecjea Ted," ehadang' by infinite degrees to richest bron«e and .deepest cardinal, melted into one r»weet ha.rmony of colour by that evanescent bloom Nature rases to veil and enhance i beauty. , I Just at the entrance the hotel gardens take in a piece of the public road, -wad, seated under the verandah, the "idle stranger sees glimpses of the ' village .life passing before him like scenes in a play. Three wedding parties passed one day, returning from the, sbarcn quite near, walking, as the custom is, the bride wearing a new black frock, with long white tulle veil. Swiss women pride themselves on being "pratique," and make no exception with the wedding gown; the biidegiroom » dressed iv his Sunday black suit, very glossj an<» new. One lovely morning, when the fields were scattered with the large mauve jtocub of autumn, a mat) hurried jpiast with a Jp-eat cross of £feesc-bea«fcifui flowers, wa, fitting emblem -for -me of. -the patriarchs of the village,- whose,, long , life. ha*L v been jspent in those fields,- and for whose burial eervice later in the day the sweet village i chimes, summoned his friend's — the whole" 1 community. He held' aill «he traditions" ot prehistoric limes, that cling only to the land that passes in unbroken succession for ' ages, in one family, for whom, indeed, centuries pass as years. Yet he saw the introduction of all kinds of American machjnu *y in the field's, the construction of the familiar railway that led to the coming of strangers from all lands to his mountain village, the use of electricity in his own home for lighting and motor power, of the telephone, and last of all he saw some of the finest motor-cars in the world, whirling along those roads built in Roman times, and trodden by the Crusaders. Inside the hotel the long low rooms are beautiful with treasures of old furniture, flowering plants «nd palms, book cases of literature in several languages, and underlying ail Appearance is the practical comfort of modern invention. As one would naturally expect, too, Frau Doctor has endless stores of fine linen and old china — the hoard of generations. The wonderful beauty of the village in its peaoefulness %nd simplicity has inspired at least one artist there — a .photographer, whose studio is full of beautifui pictures- of every aspect of pastoraMife 1 — choosing, as he does, scenes that' express its poetry: the tender budding leaves of springtime, the happy life of cou and calf, knee-deep in Bowers, leisurely drinking from an overflowing trough of water ; the wealth of summer bioasoir od tree and meadow ; sunny fields skirted by pleasantly cool paths, across which long, dark tree-shadows -falling- run up into the sunbathed slopes; haymakers, -in the afterglow of ihe sunset, reluctant to leave

their fields, ,-standingf tor a moment ia silhouette .against the glowing sky ; swallows assembled in a great flock ready to fly to Africa; the contrast of the dark leafless trunks and boughs with the dazz- | ling whitenes of the enow-dad fields and roads ; the village covered with snow, which rests lightly, •however, op the high, sloping roofs and barns stored plentifully, witfr food and fuel. This village of Heiden, with its 4000 inhabitants, stands in the Canton. Appenzell, one of the oldest pastoral districts- of <■ Switzerland, and as many o! the families have owned the same piece of land for countless generations, customs, laws, and ■ rights naturally are mostly traditional I and prehistoric. The canton if unique in that it is divided into two half-cantons, onie of winch, the central portion, is | Roman Catholic, surrounded by a wide circular band of Protestant villages. Each half -can ton has separate autonomy. Thia , intimates in some slight degree the ddffi1 oulties- oi the Swiss Federal Government, : which promises to pre&erag. tie .identity .,o£. -the 22 cantoris (and .ffifee* separate halfliantons', 'wfiicfi makes u£*ast*2s u&jotifciesj", eaclf.TiTth its own pecmrarcustams^yawis, religion, and language.- - 'But the"" Constitution «fr Switzeruatx? has been so admirably summarised V E. Rambert in his " Etttßes Kationales et Bfetdrniues;" that • xnothing further re* ' mains to be said: }'*$'. " .. " A Cerman majdntv- Respecting a Roman*' minority ; 'jft: " 'Protestant majority ' respecting a CatlieJie minority; a certain number of Stated .comparatively thicklypeopled and so<JMJjjg,>. launched, with all -sail- set, on thY stream' of modern life, respecting tho^^ ancient psstoral democracies, for /whom ienturie pass as years — that .is .the- example Switzerlandgives to the world-^that is the mission Nature has jmposecf upf>ii her."