ALSACE-LORRAINE

By George Wharton Edwards

 “Section 11”

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The Quaint Houses

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(Intentionally blank)

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I cannot do better than quote the description of the houses given so admirably by M. Anselme Langel:

"The houses are usually in two stories; the first, a sort of 'rez de chaussee' above the cellar, contains a vestibule, from which mounts the stairs, the kitchen, and two chambers, one usually with two windows opening on the street, occupied by the master, and the other, much smaller, on the inner court. The interiors are immaculately clean, the floors scrubbed and covered with fine white sand. The ceilings, with beams exposed, are of boards painted brown and highly varnished. Often in the center of the room will be a wooden post heavily and lavishly carved, and sometimes picked out with rosettes of pale red or green paint, which upholds the center beam. The furniture of the principal room is that of an apartment used jointly as dining room and bedroom; one of its sides is formed by a partition in which are two large open-work carved doors, through which is had a view of the monumental beds, all hung with curtains and showing treasures of embroidered sheets and pillow cases. This is a

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country in which the mattresses and pillows assume immense proportions, rendering the ceremony of going to bed a sort of gymnastic performance, not always enjoyed by the stranger. Between the doors of this apartment, or alcove, as it should be called, stands the clock, considered one of the most important pieces of household furniture, upon which much money and care is expended. “The beating heart of the household,' it is called. The high benches affixed to the walls are opposite to the great table, before which are arranged the highly-carved and painted chairs. In a corner is built a huge press, an indispensable part of every well-ordered household. This is generally a superb piece of cabinet work, and contains the trousseau of the mistress of the house. It is lavishly carved and decorated by gorgeous rosettes and flowers painted in red, yellow, blue, green and gold. A great stove of iron and porcelain occupies a considerable part of one side of the room, with large pipes and carriers connected with the beams overhead. Of a square form at base, it is rounded above like a column, and topped off by an urn or ornamental finial.1 Above the stove is a rack or series of poles, upon which clothes may be hung to dry. Behind the stove is a sort of cabinet of shelves, upon which are various pots and pitchers used in the cuisne. On the wall usually there will be an ornamental

1 My drawing shows such an interior and stove as M. Langel describes. Author.

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mirror, and various small frames containing photographs, sacred pictures, or the diplomas belonging to the owners' military service.

"The kitchen opens opposite the main door and the small vestibule; it is generally quite roomy, and contains the bin and the oven in which the bread is baked. The oven protrudes outside the wall of the house and looks something like a large mushroom growth beneath the low eaves of the roof of the kitchen extension. Here each week, on Saturday, which is bake day, the week's supply of bread is baked. Opening on the kitchen is another room, where the young people may sleep, or maybe it is a sort of grain house, according to need. Beside the house are grouped the various dependencies, such as the stable, or carriage house, or what not.

"The Alsatian houses always bear, in some form or other, the date of construction and the name or initials of the proprietor. The most ordinary dates seen are those of 1790 to 1825. It is easy to see that following the Revolution, there arose in the soul of the peasant a 'sentiment of property,' and he proudly placed in his housefront, above the date, the name of his family or that of his wife. At Schleithal, for example, I have found the following on a gable: 'Anduni Armbrust i  March den lar Republik' (Antoine Armbrust built me in

the first year of the Republic). This is a rare example of revolutionary notation, for one finds generally that

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they follow the calendar, with the dates simply, such as 1792, or 1794.

"The habitations of the Lorraines differ radically from those of Alsace. In construction they recall the meridionals, with flat roofs of tile. The houses are low, and very well planned, divided curiously in their length into two parts; one in which they live, the other for what may be called 'exploitation.' The lodging part is generally composed of two chambers and a kitchen. There are rarely chambers on the second floor. This space is always reserved for a granary or storage place. The end of the kitchen is occupied by an enormous pyramidal open chimney, in which is suspended for curing, pork and hams or long links of the succulent sausage of Lorraine. From this room open two chambers with huge mountains of beds, elaborately trimmed with embroidered quilts and pillows themselves as big as feather beds. The domestics generally sleep either in the kitchen, or in the stable adjoining."

Except in the more remote villages of the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, one rarely now comes upon the spinning wheel.

Up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war, however, I am told that they were quite commonly in use, and formed one of the principal occupations for women. Andrew Lang, writing of the idyl upon the distaff in the works of Theocritus, says:

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Distaff, blithely whirling distaff, azure-eyed Athene's gift,

To sex the arm and object of those whose lives is households' thrift,

Seek with me the gorgeous city raised by Neilus, where a plain

Roof or pale green rush o'erarches Aphrodite's hallowed fame,

Thither ask I Zeus to waft me, fain to see my old friend's face,

Nicias, o'er whose birth presided every passion-breathing Grace;

Fain to meet his answering welcome; and anon deposit thee

In his lady's hands, thou marvel of laborious ivory.

Many a manly robe ye'll fashion, and much floating maiden's gear,

Nay, should e'er the fleecy mothers twice within the self same year

Yield their wool in yonder pasture, Theugenis of the dainty feet

Would perform the double labor; Matrons' cares to her are sweet."

Lang notes that the idyl accompanied the present of a distaff, which Theocritus brought home from Syracuse to Theugenis, wife of his friend Nicias, the physician of Miletus. On the margin of a translation by Longpierre (Theocritus, Idyl XXVII, translated by S. C. Calverly) Louis XVI wrote that this idyl is a model of honorable gallantry.1 Occasionally now one will be found in a country home on the top of a quaint old wardrobe, made of pear wood inlaid with ebony and ivory, with light, most gracefully fashioned legs, its turned cap and high bobbin and distaff tied with faded ribbons, suggesting a whole life of laborious solitude and peaceful contemplation of passing events. The distaff may sometimes be seen in use at the present day in the household in the evening. And once we came upon a girl in the fields spinning skeins with a spindle while tending her sheep,

1 Andre Theuriet.

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recalling the pictures of Bastien Le Page. This is the simplest and most ancient form of spinning. She held in one hand a stone, to which the bunch of hemp was fastened; and with the other she pulled and twisted the tow, which she moistened with saliva, and thus transferred into thread, winding it around the spindle, to which she gave a rotating motion.

The wheel is, of course, more complicated, the bobbin I taking the place of the distaff, while a pewter cup of water fastened to the post serves to moisten the thread, which is drawn, twisted and fixed on the bobbin, which when filled is reeled off and made into skeins by means of an instrument called the "Giroinde," now rarely met with, as it has almost entirely vanished as a piece of furniture. It may be seen in Chardin's paintings, however. It is a kind of reel, mounted on a pedestal, and has the shape of a wheel each spoke of which, however, is a branch terminating in a vertical pin. This wheel is operated by the hand instead of the foot, and the thread from the bobbin winds about the circular pins in such a manner as to make the skein. I am told that in the winter the wheel is used in the long evenings when thee young girls gather at some arranged rendezvous in one of the large farm house kitchens, lighted by candles and oil lamps supplied by each comer. Young men come too; bringing with them large bundles of faggots to burn in the wide fireplace, and baskets of provender such as

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cheese and sausages for the evening's feast. The host usually supplies plenty of the light wine of the neighboring vineyard, and loaves of bread. While the wheels are humming and tongues are going, all the news of the region is exchanged. The births, engagements and marriages, especially the latter, are discussed at length. All the love affairs of the region are twisted and woven and tangled into the skeins on the bobbins. These are occasions welcomed by the boys and girls, who thus come to flirt and coquet, the only chance they have, indeed. And here are told the best tales of ghost and adventure, for the store of these is inexhaustible.

[End of Section 11]

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