Appenzell

“ To the outer world the canton of Appenzell is best known by its institution of Landsgemeinden, or primitive democratic assemblies held in the open air, in which every male citizen (not being disqualified) over twenty years of age must (under a money penalty) appear personally: each half-canton has such an assembly of its own, that of Inner Rhoden always meeting at Appenzell, and that of Ausser Rhoden in the odd years at Hundwil (near Herisau) and in the even years at Trogen. ”

“ An Alp in Vorarlberg made a shining island in the sky. The postilion was loud in his regrets, yet I thought the picture best as it was. On the right lay the land of Appenzell,—not a table-land, but a region of mountain ridge and summit, of valley and deep, dark gorge, green as emerald up to the line of snow, and so thickly studded with dwellings, grouped or isolated, that there seemed to be one scattered village as far as the eye could reach. To the south, over forests of fir, the Sentis lifted his huge towers of rock, crowned with white, wintry pyramids. ”

“ THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL.
The traveller who first reaches the Lake of Constance at Lindau, or crosses that sheet of pale green water to one of the ports on the opposite Swiss shore, cannot fail to notice the bold heights to the southward, which thrust themselves between the opening of the Rhine Valley and the long, undulating ridges of the Canton Thurgau. These heights, broken by many a dimly hinted valley and ravine, appear to be the front of an Alpine table-land. Houses and villages, scattered over the steep ascending plane, present themselves distinctly to the eye ”

“ In the canton of Appenzell, where a conference had been opened, there suddenly appeared a band of Roman-catholics, armed with whips and clubs, and crying out: "Where are these preachers? we are resolved to put them out of the village!" These strange doctors wounded the ministers and dispersed the assembly with their whips. Out of the eight parishes of the canton, six embraced the Reform, and Appenzell became finally divided into little sections, the one Romanist and the other Reformed. ”

“ How diverting it is that there is not just one monotonous type of Swiss, but that there are various stamps of people from Zurich and Bern, Unterwalden and Neuenburg, the Orisons and Basle, and even two kinds of Baslers; and that Appenzell has a history of its own and Geneva another! This variety in unity--which God preserve--is the proper school in which to learn friendship, and it is only where political homogeneousness is transformed into the personal friendship of a whole people that the highest plane has been attained ”

“ The mountains continued to increase in height; they were more and more naked and sterile; their colour was whitish-grey, grey-brown, often spotted with white, the upper part disposed in horizontal strata, or in narrow stripes; and some isolated summits rose in the most grotesque forms, and the general appearance reminded me of the calcareous mountains of Appenzell, in Switzerland. In the steep wall of the south bank we saw, at a great height, the antlers of a stag projecting, which must have been imbedded in the alluvium, which was now washed away by the river. ”

“ Charming villas and manufactories, with their tall, smoking chimneys, lay interspersed with groves and cultivated fields. Before us, arose in the distance, the snowy Alps of Glacis and Appenzell.
At Kapperschwyl, we took a carriage, and entered and ascended the Canton Schwytz. The weather had become stormy and wet. After a three hours' drive, we arrived in rain and gloom, at the little town of Einsiedeln, which for the greater part is a town of houses of entertainment for the pilgrims to the convent and its Holy Virgin. Lights shone from every window in the town. ”

“ The Protestants alone are “established” in the Outer Rhodes of Appenzell; while the Romanists alone are “established " in 71/2 cantons (Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Ticino, the Valais, and the Inner Rhodes of Appenzell) , but only jointly in the 3 other cantons (Fribourg, St Gall and Soleure) in which they are in a majority. In June 1907 Geneva decided on the complete separation of church and state, and now stands alone in Switzerland in not having any “established church” at all (previously it had two—Protestants and Christian Catholics) . ”

“ One thing gives me great pleasure: from one of my windows the whole chain of the Tyrolean Alps is visible as far as Appenzell; and as the country is flat to their very base, I see them better than we see our Alps from the plain. It is a great pleasure to have at least a part of our Swiss mountains always in sight. ”

“ To the impression made by the efforts of the Capuchins the great dissension in Appenzell bears witness, the canton actually breaking up into two hostile divisions. The Catholics removed to Inner, and the Reformers to Outer Rhoden, and each managed its own affairs independently of the other; the latter, however, soon began to prosper more than the former. In the Valais, the Protestant party, though strong, was quite swept out by the Jesuits, before 1630, and fled to Vaud and Bern. The history of lacerated Graubünden will occupy the next chapter. ”

“ The confederated cantons thankfully acknowledged what Basel and Schaffhausen had constantly done in these heroic days for the whole Confederacy, and that warlike Appenzell had never been backward at the call of glory and liberty. Therefore Basel, June 9, 1501, and flourishing Schaffhausen, August 9, 1501, were received into the perpetual Swiss bond, and finally, 1513, Appenzell, already united in perpetual alliance with most of the cantons, was acknowledged as coequal with all the Confederates. ”

“ Through a strange and happy combination of circumstances this ancient custom may still be seen in the Cantons of Uri, Unterwalden, Glarus, and Appenzell. The homely peasants who tend their own cows and goats upon the mountain-side, and by patient industry raise their little crops from the narrow patches of soil, hemmed in by rock and glacier, meet to discuss the affairs of their Canton, to make its laws, and to swear to observe them; a parliament of Swiss peasants, differing little in manner or habits from their forefathers of the thirteenth century. It affords a rare study in politics ”

“ When the guide made the latter known, they almost invariably said, "But, of course, you were born in Appenzell?" The idea of a traveller coming among them, at least during this season of the year, did not enter their heads. In Teufen, the large and handsome houses, the church and schools, led me, foolishly, to hope for a less barbarous dialect; but no, it was the same thing everywhere.
The men in black, with swords under their arms, increased in number as we left the village. They were probably from the farthest parts of the Canton, and were thus abridging the morrow's journey. ”

“ Eastern Switzerland is the industrial portion of the land, though watchmaking and some minor industries are carried on in the Jura. The textile industries are by far the most important in Switzerland, Zürich and its neighbourhood being the main centre both for silk (this branch was revived by the Protestant exiles from Italy in the 16th century) and cotton, while St Gall, Appenzell and Thurgau are mainly devoted to embroidery, and Basel to the silk ribbon and floss silk departments. ”

“ I only just thought that Appenzell was better than Paris.”
“Good heavens! And you want to go away from here? What have we done to you? You are slighting us. We, we love you Swiss. You are the honest little mirror in which we see ourselves just as we are. O please say something rude to me!”
“I can’t! I don’t know you well enough.”
“O—then you don’t know Paris very well. How is it possible that no one has fallen in love with you here? In Paris—everyone is loved by some one. Even soldiers have sweethearts.. ”

“ The inhabitants are largely employed in the production of embroidery, though also engaged in various pastoral occupations. About 21/2 m. by road south-east of Appenzell is Weissbad, a well-known goat’s whey cure establishment, while 11/2 hours above it is the quaint little chapel of Wildkirchli, built (1648) in a rock cavern, on the way to the Säntis. ”

“ Under him Zurich became a centre of learning and religious enlightenment, and its influence spread over other Swiss lands, South Germany and elsewhere.
The reformed faith penetrated, but only gradually, into the northern and eastern cantons. Bern was reached in 1528, after a brilliant disputation held in that city. Basel and Schaffhausen followed in 1529, and then St. Gall, Appenzell, Graubünden, and Solothurn, though some of them had serious struggles within themselves and fell in only partly with the reforms. ”

“ It should be noted that the proportion of the land devoted to pastoral pursuits increases, like the rainfall, from the west and north-west to the east and north-east, so that it is highest (nearly 90%) in Appenzell and St Gall. ”

“ St Gall) , or because they contain great towns (e.g. Zürich) . The highest rates of increase were shown by Geneva (107% increase) and the half canton of Urban Basel (278% increase) . As to the actual distribution of the population, the Alpine regions are the sparsest generally (with the exception of the Outer Rhodes of Appenzell) , the Jura region has a much higher ratio, while the densest region of all is the Swiss plateau. ”

“ The remaining Cantons insisted on subjecting the action of both Zug and Schwytz to the verdict of the union, thus effectually establishing a precedent of federal practice; but in the first decade of the fifteenth century the Cantons of Schwytz and Glarus are found on their own account helping the men of Appenzell to win their independence; and when the successful Appenzellers, who had developed a turn for aggression and confiscation, sought to join the union, they were accepted only as allies by the Cantons individually, Berne holding aloof. ”

“ For this purpose the district of Berne was parcelled into the cantons of Vaud, Oberland, Berne and Aragau; several small cantons were united in one; as Uri, Schwyz. Unterwalden and Zug in the canton of Waldstatten; St. Gallen district, Rheinthal and Appenzell in the canton of Santis; several countries subject to the Confederacy, as Baden, Thurgau, Lugano and Bellinzona, formed new cantons. Valais was also added as one; Grisons was invited to join; but Geneva, Muhlhausen and other districts formerly parts of Switzerland, were separated from her and incorporated with France. ”

“ As I loitered about the village, talking with the people, who, busy as they were, always found time for a friendly word, the movement in the landscape increased. Out of fir-woods, and over the ridges and out of the foldings of the hills, came the Appenzellers, growing into groups, and then into lines, until steady processions began to enter Hundwyl by every road. Every man was dressed in black, with a rusty stove-pipe hat on his head, and a sword and umbrella in his hand or under his arm. ”

“ In the east we meet with the famous House of Kyburg, to which belonged young Werner, the friend of Ernest II. of Swabia. Their ancestral manor house near Winterthur is still in good condition. They had numerous vassals and followers. In Zurichgau the barons of Regensberg and others, and the counts of Rapperswyl were harassing the people. The most powerful nobles in the east were the abbots of St. Gall, who governed part of St. Gall and Appenzell, and the counts of Toggenburg, and in Chur-Rhætia and the Rhine districts the counts of Montfort and Werdenberg. ”

“ Free Towns are: Bremen, Lübeck, Hamburg.
(b) Member-States of Switzerland:
Zurich, Berne, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden (ob und nid dem Wald) , Glarus, Zug, Fribourg, Soleure, Basle (Stadt und Landschaft) , Schaffhausen, Appenzell (beider Rhoden) , St. Gall, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Tessin, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Geneva. ”

“ It has ports on the lake of Constance (Rorschach) and of Zürich (Rapperswil) , as well as Weesen and Walenstadt on the Walensee, while the watering place of Ragatz (q.v.) is supplied with hot mineral waters from Pfafers. The main railway lines from Zurich past Sargans for Coire, and from Sargans past Altstatten and Rorschach for Constance, skirt its borders, while the capital is on the direct railway line from Zürich past Wil to Rorschach, and communicates by rail with Appenzell and with Frauenfeld. ”

“ Another legend claims that the Devil once came striding across northern Switzerland with a huge bag slung over his shoulder. In this sack he had packed away a large number of houses, together with their inhabitants, and was carrying them away with the intention of removing them for ever from Swiss soil. While taking a leap278 over the Sentis, however, he burst a hole in his bag, and the houses all tumbled down in Appenzell, where they still stand in irregular groups, just as they fell. ”

“ Canton Zürich is, after Berne, the most populous, and beyond comparison the most wealthy of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland; and the city of Zürich, one of its most beautiful and most flourishing cities. Since the walls of its fortifications have been removed by order of the Grand Council, it has extended and developed itself daily in every direction, like a vigorous tree in the spring. Science, industry, benevolent institutions increase, as if in emulation of each other; and gardens and plantations encircle the increasing city with beauty. ”