. The fascination of Switzerland. lt their houses in the same place as before,and again the same thing happened. The villagersconsidered it was the will of the Saints and a manreckoned the loss of his home and flocks threetimes in a lifetime—but to reduce the loss, hebuilt his house each time less strongly thanbefore. But atter the worst avalanche Berne interfered ;she sent engineers down to look into the peasants whose own stupidity had broughttheir ruin asked for money : Berne gave thempines and looked after the planting. Furtherthan that, she prohibited the use of the woodmansaxe
. The fascination of Switzerland. lt their houses in the same place as before,and again the same thing happened. The villagersconsidered it was the will of the Saints and a manreckoned the loss of his home and flocks threetimes in a lifetime—but to reduce the loss, hebuilt his house each time less strongly thanbefore. But atter the worst avalanche Berne interfered ;she sent engineers down to look into the peasants whose own stupidity had broughttheir ruin asked for money : Berne gave thempines and looked after the planting. Furtherthan that, she prohibited the use of the woodmansaxe, and since then Selva has been spared. It is little wonder that in 1885 a clause wasadded to the Federal Law bringing forests, riverimprovements, roads and bridges under the eyeof the State. The State did not undertake tomanage then, but reserved to itself the right tointerfere should the cantons or communes courtdisaster by neglect. Fire is another enemy to be reckoned with,especially where some narrow valley acts as a flue40. OF SWITZERLAND science and natuhe to a smouldering pile. Twice has the village ofGrindelwald been a prey to this devouring dragon,and so even in the depths of winter, when theFdhn wind appears, the order goes forth to putout all the fires. The bakers oven is closeddown ; the peasants have a cheerless hearth. Inthe big hotels, where central heating is thesystem of warming, the boilers are allowed to bekept going, but firemen are alert and watch eachcorridor through the night. A stove in someglass-covered verandah is put out, and this informalmeeting-ground is deprived of its genial welcometo snow-covered skiers or tobogganers. Themen suffer great hardship, for no smoking isallowed indoors. One spark would be enough tostart a blaze, and the warm Fohn wind blowingright up the valley would carry the blaze fromhotel to shop, and shop to chalet, till once againbeautiful smiling Grindelwald would look withsorrow on the smoking embers of her ruinedvillage, an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1912
