The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

At last I saw a light to my left-hand side. Without delay I walked down to it through a meadow. Whether there was one house there, or two or more, I don't know. I saw only a woman with a lamp near the well, and asked her to show me the road to Dorlikon

[sic]

. The woman proved very friendly and obliging. She went with me a good musket-shot's distance to the side and through a field to a good road. She said this road led straight to Dorliken. Just stick faithfully to it, always straight on, turning neither right nor left. I asked her how far I had to go, and what sort of inns there were. None, was her answer. I had a good half-hour more to go. Right at the near side of the village there dwelt a man who sold a little wine and sometimes gave shelter to beggars and travelling craftsmen.

I thanked the woman heartily and groped briskly onwards on my road. But it seemed to me a good hour before I reached the village. Where the nearest light showed, I enquired after the wine-shop. They told me the house and I was able to grope my way into it almost level with the ground. In it there was a great table all covered with potatoes, and round it sat at least a dozen men and women, day labourers, farmhands, maidservants and I don't know what. I realised then that it was the time of the potato harvest. I asked for lodging for the night. No, said they, no chance of that. No beds available here and for the benches in the hall there are enough people here already. So is there nowhere here I could lodge for the night? asked I. Oh yes, over there in the village, said a lad, with the Captain. Yes, perhaps there, said a man. I promised the lad a few schillings if he would come with me and show me the house. The boy was very willing and led me for a long distance down a long street. Without him I would certainly have had to ask again ten times. The village seemed very long, with scattered houses. At last the boy led me into a house which did not seem to me like a captain's residence. The table here too was covered with potatoes. A little old man who they called Captain was sitting by it. A young woman near him and some farmhands or day-labourers. I asked for lodging for the night. It was granted me. I paid the lad his schillings and dismissed him. Then the old man began to examine me in the following manner:

Capt: Where do you come from and where are you going? Which canton are you from? Sit yourself down, we have had our supper already. Will you have some potatoes or eggs?

I: Only a glass of cider, Captain. I am not at all hungry. I am from the Toggenburg. I have been on a journey to Zürich. Today I came from Flach. I stayed too long in Adelfingen. Then I went an hour's walk out of my way or I would have gone on to Altiken or even Elliken. But I am happy now to be in your house.

Capt: Very well, if that's to your liking - what's your business, then? What was your errand in Zürich? What did you do at Pastor Michel's in Flach? Relation of his, are you?

I: I'm by way of being in the cotton trade, but in a small way. A few spinners and half a dozen weavers. Pastor Michel is well known to me and my good friend. For many years he was my pastor in the Toggenburg.

Capt: How are things, then, with the cotton trade? Is business still going on well?

I: No, very badly. There's little money to be made by it now, at least where I come from. That's why I'm going abroad a little, to see how things are in other places, and in what articles it might be possible to earn something. But I saw that it was bad all over.

Capt: You're right. I'm glad to hear it. If only the blasted rags of stuff would all fall into the muck and nobody bought any more. By heck, there's no luck in the whole country since the blasted cotton came in, there's nothing but haughty beggars, weavers and spinners alike. They can't stand either the sunshine or the rain. They have the whole thing left on their hands. Day-labourers and servants - O, the devil is in it.