The Forest Farm: Tales of the Austrian TyrolRosegger, Peter
General
The Forest Farm: Tales of the Austrian Tyrol
Rosegger, Peter
Domestic fiction; Historical fiction; Short stories, Austrian -- Translations into English; Tyrol (Austria) -- Fiction
The Jackler is quick in his work and moderate and discreet in his
pleasures. There are rich and poor in this region as in others, but not
in the ordinary sense. The householder is "rich" who is not in debt in
respect of his real or movable estate; "rich" is applied to the carrier
who has saved a little silver, to a farm-girl who has flax and linen in
her trunk and perhaps hides a savings-bank book beneath it, with the
amount of her reaping pay. "Poor" are the debt-ridden cottager, the
landlord whose property is mortgaged up to the hilt, the incompetent
salter or pickler. No one is ruined by privation: people, it is true,
are often harsh to the poor man, but they help him.
Nearly everything that the peasant needs is produced by his industry;
there is little ready-money in the district; but, for that reason, it
has two or three times the value as compared with the prices ruling in
the railway districts.
"A thousand gulden!"
That expresses their utmost conception of wealth. The occasional
stranger who happens to have strayed into this region is surprised when
he finds himself charged no more than eighty kreuzer for a good night's
lodging and an excellent supper and breakfast. On the other hand, when
a Jackler, for once in a way, travels on the railway, his wonder never
ceases at the high fares which he is called upon to pay; and he
considers that the shorter time the train takes to cover a distance,
the less the charge should be.
The inhabitants of the Feistritz district supply the Mürzthal with
poultry, eggs and fruit at a very cheap rate; and the women who carry
and deliver them earn barely twenty kreuzer a day. Wood and coal also
find their way into that ravenous and industrious valley; and the
Jackler artisans make their bit of money there. They have the making of
good masons, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, smiths, watchmakers,
gunsmiths and so on. These workmen from the Jackelland are greatly
appreciated in the Mürzthal and round about; they work hard, well and
cheaply, and are not particular in the matter of board and lodging.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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