The Social Life of Rural Denmark, 1915
It is well to realize that two things at least are necessary if we would hold a strong population on the soil: first, the returns from the land must be…
“The Social Life of Rural Denmark“ from Rural Denmark and its Schools by Harold Waldstein Foght, 1915
Economic Prosperity and Satisfactory Social Life
It is well to realize that two things at least are necessary if we would hold a strong population on the soil: first, the returns from the land must be commensurate with the money and labor invested; second, the daily life on the farm must be made socially attractive and wholesome. Without these no man can really feel content to remain there all his life. This condition is universal.
Denmark has solved this side of the question largely through its schools. In our own country many farmers are becoming wealthy and are freer from care than are their city brothers; but the fact remains, nevertheless, that if one leaves out of consideration the unearned increment in land values, American farmers are not, on the average, getting as large returns as they should have on the investment made. This has caused considerable shifting about from place to place, often leading to the abandonment of the farm for town.
Even when agriculture is made more profitable than is usually the case now, this alone will not be sufficient inducement to keep people in country districts. The social life of the farm must contain all the elements that normal human beings crave. If the simplest social satisfactions are wanting, country people are sure to go where they can get them. This is, perhaps, one of the most aggravated causes for much moving away from the farm in some sections of the United States to-day.
Denmark is centuries old and has either long ago mastered, or perhaps never had, many of the problems of everyday social life that American farmers must contend with. The American people have settled an empire in a few short generations, bringing, as it were, an old civilization with them. The European nations have evolved slowly and painfully, checked first by the beasts of the forests, then by human enemies, plagues, and what not. The United States has become settled in spite of, or, at least, unchecked by, all such enemies. But we are young upon the prairies, and plains, and mountain sides; and vast distances, and comparative isolation, family from family, make the task of thorough socialization comparatively slow and difficult.
A Social Life in Harmony with its Natural Environment
The first thing to strike one forcibly in the study of Danish rural life is that this life accords and harmonizes with the environment in which the people live. Our great country life worker, L. H. Bailey, says in one of his books that "the country man must be able to interest himself spiritually in his own native environment as his chief resource of power and happiness." This is what
Danish country folk do. Their first love is for the soil. They understand in good measure the meaning of the phrase that the soil is holy. Whether it is on account of the forethought of their leaders or just because the world moves more slowly on that side of the Atlantic,—it is hard to say which,—at any rate, we could find none of your enthusiasts over there trying to transplant every form of city entertainment to country districts, to keep farmers from moving to town.
There is often grave danger of overdoing country life affairs by trying to transplant bodily—as some of our reformers would do—the cheap social life of the town to the open country. This Danish love of nature takes form in flowers and shrubbery, in small formal gardens with their graveled walks and vine-clad arbors. Life is not so strenuous as with us—and this has both its good and bad sides; but, at any rate, the farmer finds time for more than merely work from starlight to starlight to accumulate an abundance of this world's goods. With his wife he has time for more than 'a wearisome round of labor, of eating and drinking, of saving and skimping, of doing without farm conveniences and household helps—solely to make money.' Not that this is intended as a general charge against the American farmers, for no farmers in the world live better than ours, wherever they have the right outlook on life; but it is a great thing, after all, in the midst of the workaday struggle, to be able to sit down in the midst of one's flowers and rest, without worrying about the cabbages and the pigs all the time—and this is true of the average housewife in rural Denmark.
Feast Days and Hospitality
The country home is made as attractive as the owner's means will permit. If anything, many Danish rural folk stretch their incomes to the breaking point, in order to show their hospitality.
Such seasons as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, are celebrated with great festivities, never to be forgotten by those so fortunate as to be partakers. Seed time and harvest, also, have their own rollicking merry-makings. The hearth is no longer the literal fireplace, but it is still in spirit the center of the rural home. Of an evening one can still hear song and folklore dispensed as of old. Many of the household industries, which with us have long ago passed away, are still doing much to hold the family group together and are still giving the head, heart, and hand education that we have begun to reintroduce through such school subjects as manual training and household economics.
Trained Artisans Important Factors in Rural Social Life
Rural Denmark has, as was stated above, a double social life. First, there are the farmers who devote their time to the soil; and, second, the country artisans—such as blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cobblers, weavers, and short-time laborers—who are trained in the schools for country occupations. This really gives a twofold social life to the country. Some of the folk high schools and local agricultural schools offer carefully planned courses for young men who will cast their lot as builders and small-scale manufacturers with the villages and open country. But the special schools for smallholders offer, perhaps, the most attractive and practical courses for this group of workers. Some of the smallholders who have secured their few acres through government or credit union assistance combine some form of artisanship with small farming, thereby enhancing their incomes materially. The artisanship influence has certainly tended to keep the rural social life from becoming monotonous through one-sidedness and sameness of routine.
One cannot help but believe that there was more real sociability in our American farm communities in the early times than now—at the time before the passing of the barn raising, the quilting, the husking bee, the singing school, and the folk dance. These have gone for good and always, and the trouble is that the schools and the other organizations which must furnish the modern substitutes have not yet been able to do so.
Significance of Church and School
All of the everyday life of the Danish country people is lived around or at the common community center; that is, their everyday activities, their thoughts, their life plans, are all centered in the work of the two great country institutions—the school and the church. And, when the term "centered" is employed, this embraces not alone the immediate work of the church and school, but all the influences for better life that indirectly emanate from them.
At the crossroads or on the edge of the quaint old hamlet lies the schoolmaster's house, a rambling place, neatly kept without and within. Flowers, graveled walks, and rustic seats fill the front yard. To the rear, are a vegetable garden and an experimental plot, in which the schoolmaster and the children work from day to day, side by side, while the earth preaches sermons for their ears, making them love to live dose to nature's heart. Then there is the schoolhouse, in ample grounds, just beyond. Here, too, the love of nature is apparent, both in planting and in growing things. The school-master dwells in the midst of his people twelve months out of the year. In this way he learns to know them, becoming a more and more useful community force, able and competent to give assistance in practical farm life affairs.
Just beyond the schoolyard lies the fine old manse or parsonage and the century-old stone church, which is never lacking in a Danish rural community. Just as the schoolmaster lives in the midst of his people, honored and revered, so the pastor dwells in the midst of his flock, ministering to them, baptizing them, marrying them and, finally, burying them in the graveyard out beyond the church. There can be no question of dying country churches in a community where such a pastor labors. He is a scholarly man; he has studied the needs of his people; and now he has rightfully taken his place as spiritual leader and adviser who, together with the schoolmaster, gives the country community the high level of idealism necessary sin order to keep pace with the progress made at the industrial centers.
One often hears the statement that "the Danish farmer leans for support with one shoulder on the school-house and the other on the church while plowing his fields." For all this he is not much of a Puritan. He attends church zealously enough on Sunday morning, but follows the continental European custom of making the afternoon a time of amusement and entertainment.
Most of this is devoted to innocent neighborly calls. Many spend the time in field and forest with lunch basket on one arm and the family, figuratively speaking, on the other. In a few backward places one can still find drinking and carousing; but this is less frequent than it used to be.
Wholesome Recreative Life
It may be well at this point to be more specific as to what Danish country people do for recreation.
First of all, they sing. The music is not classic by any means; but it keeps alive an emotionalism and love of rhythmic movement that saves the somewhat phlegmatic Scandinavian farmer from his own mysticism. Folk songs and patriotic songs are sing everywhere and are known by heart. Even the long, slowly swinging church hymns are favorites at all sorts of gatherings and speak well for the religious tone of the community.
Athletics are next held in high esteem. The schools, as has been said, all teach physical education in the form of gymnastics and play, from the first years of the elementary schools up through the entire system. The young men and women who have graduated from the advanced rural schools continue these physical activities all their lives, in the community gymnasium. Nothing, can be more striking than to see, as one commonly does in rural districts, white-haired old men turn somersaults and handsprings as limberly as the young folks. And why not? Is it not true that a man is young just about as long as he acts young? These farmers seem to have the same love of personal prowess that marked their Viking forefathers of some centuries back.
Ring riding—a form of horseback tourney—is a favorite pastime, especially during Lenten week. Each season of the year, indeed, has its favorite pastime. Of the seasonal gatherings none is more enjoyable than the Höst Gilde or Harvest Festival, When the last sheaf is tied, the harvesters, both men and women, march in triumph to the largest granary on the place, which has been made festive with garlands and flowers. Here the good housewife has a great feast spread for them. Later comes singing of folk songs, with dancing and play games on the green. Occasionally a little discord may be injected into the rollicking fun by the dispensing of intoxicants, but this is getting less and less frequent.
The monthly market day plays a great role in the recreative life of the country folk. It is much like the annual country festival day that is now being introduced so successfully by country life leaders in some of our states. The chief difference is, in Denmark the gatherings come twelve times a year. First of all, the market is the "clearing house" for the extra stock that may have accumulated at the farm place. Long lines of horses, cows, and sheep may be seen, up and down the village street, under the inspection of critical buyers. But there are sports and games, feasting and dancing, and meeting of old friends, and, occasionally, too much drinking of beer. With all due allowance for the latter the market gatherings do much to bind the country folk in common ties and to satisfy the many soul cravings which nothing short of city glamour and glare could otherwise fill.
Aside from what has been mentioned here, the rural teachers and pastors do much for organized recreation, which tends to offset many counter attractions away from the soil. Lecture courses, extension courses, gatherings of young and old people at the assembly halls for such occasions as the narration of Norse myths and fairy tales,—all come within this field of work.
Dearth of Rural Recreation in the United States
At this point it is well to consider a law of labor and recreation which must always be reckoned with, whether one lives in country or town. It can be stated briefly in these words: Systematic labor must always react in organized recreation. That is to say, whenever the human being is tied down to hours of self-repression, his body craves a certain amount of relaxation to be sought in play or amusement of some sort. If this is wisely provided, all will go well; if ignored as unnecessary and wasteful, the person affected will be sure to seek relief or an outlet for his pent-up desires in questionable ways and places.
Acting upon this principle, factory owners and other great corporations in the United States, employing many laborers, are beginning to furnish their employees attractive recreation, such as individual gardens, play-grounds equipped for baseball, volley ball and croquet, swimming pools, reading rooms and social chat rooms. Now our country folk have had no such organized recreation to speak of, to offset their natural cravings. As a result, great numbers of young men and women of the convivial type and strongly developed social instincts have abandoned the country for the towns and cities in search of just these things.
Let us remember, it is generally the lack of spiritual things as much as a lack of material things that attracts the youth to the city glamour. How often could not the condition that the poet here besings have been escaped had we only recognized the fundamental craving of the youthful soul for recreation:
"The old farm home is Mother's yet and mine,
And filled it is with plenty and to spare,
But we are lonely here in life's decline,
Though fortune smiles around us everywhere;
We look across the gold
Of the harvests, as of old—
The corn, the fragrant clover, and the hay;
But most we turn our gaze
As with eyes of other days.
To the orchard where the children used to play."
Foght, H. W. Rural Denmark and Its Schools. The MacMillan Company, 1915.
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