The Polish peasant in Europe and America
by William Isaac Thomas
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Excerpt:
On the other side of the lake was a thick and rather large forest, where mushrooms, strawberries, blackberries grew abundantly, which we often went in a boat to pick. On the north side, scarcely one wiorsta from the village, was a wood which had the greatest importance for me, for many nuts grew there, which I often went to gather. On the west side was a forest about three wiorsta away, but I went to it seldom. On the east side was a fourth forest, about one wiorsta distant, where plenty of mushrooms grew.
And thus Lubotyn was surrounded with forests on all sides; precisely these forests and the lake made my village so beautiful. The forest on the south side came quite near to the lake; only a few yards of meadow separated them. This meadow extended in a narrow ribbon almost up to the village. It began again beyond the manor-garden and spread out as far as the forest on the west side. I had also much joy from it. I gathered the forget-me-nots which grew abundantly; I liked to put them around a plate. I strewed some sand on the bottom of the plate and thus, when watered often, they blossomed at home for a long time. But this was not all that adorned Lubotyn. I must add that in the triangle between the church and the tavern was a pond, and around it a meadow from which the tavern-keeper gathered hay. This triangle contained six morgs of land. The pond made the village still more beautiful, for on summer evenings it was pleasant to listen to the croaking of frogs, that were not silent until late in the night. And to this must be added the song of the nightingale that made its nest every year in the manorial garden.1
1 Wiadek's home was a typical manorial village, and its social character differs completely from that of a peasant village. The latter is a community of equals, in spite of differences of wealth, with a large amount of autonomy 'in internal matters. There is religious dependence upon the priest, a remnant of respect for the noble, fear of the official, but the influence of the community is incomparably stronger than any external influences. In the manorial village all the inhabitants are more or less dependent upon the manor-owner, and there is the most minute social hierarchy from the manor-owner down, in the order of priest, steward, teacher, tavern-keeper, organist, butler, teamster, blacksmith, carpenter, shepherds, etc., and finally, the common laborers. There is no real community, no unique and consistent social opinion, no permanence of tradition; servility, desire to climb, with little opportunity to climb. In Volume II (Sekowski series) we have characterized this milieu. Although Wladek's parents were not really manor-servants they fitted perfectly into this environment.
Before I begin to write about myself, I must say who my parents were. In his youth my father was a blacksmith. He did this handiwork up to the time he was called to the army, where he remained for seven and a half years.2 When he returned he got the post of land-constable in the small town of Wladyslawow, in the district of Konin. There he got married. He was constable for fifteen years and made a small fortune.3 He opened a groceryshop and succeeded well enough, so he closed the shop and rented the tavern in Lubotyn, where I grew up, and not only I, but my five brothers and four sisters. Two of my brothers, Aleksy and Stanislaw, were born in Wladyslawow, as well as two sisters, Florentyna and Marya. The rest of us came into the world in Lubotyn. I was the third among the boys, but before Stanislaw and me came the two older sisters, then after me came Pawel, then Ludwik, then the sisters Zofia and Stefania, and the youngest,
1 To a boy of Wladek's class nature in Poland can have hardly any positive ( educational influence; it does not, as in wilder countries, force the develop-/ mem of energy and enterprise, and the enjoyment of its aesthetic side by Wiadek is evidently artificial, developed later under the influence of reading
'He served so long because he was a peasant. Wladek prefers not speak of his peasant origin.
1 For the way in which this fortune was made, see Wiadek's account of his own career as constable.
