The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

travelling companion home from Prague. I have not seen him these 25 years - until this September - when he sought me out and paid me a visit. In rather poor circumstances, indeed - yet he was not an unpleasant guest as far as I'm concerned. He chattered to me a great deal about his unlucky fate and hunting until I was sick of it. He wrote to me asking me to go to Zürich and pay his debts, and get some of his things out of pawn here and there. But I shall decline." [Voellmy, v 1 pp 376-377] On the 18th "Herr L." forwards Bachmann's papers to a guildmaster in Zürich [Chronik, p 255] [Bräker had reason not to feel very charitable: it was Bachmann who had come near to shooting him in a fit of temper on their journey home from Prague.]

21st Feb. Bräker reports the suicide of Anna Elisabeth Abderhalden, a niece of Salome, at the age of 25. She had been mentally unstable since her marriage in August to Hans Kaspar Grob of Bleiken and her condition had deteriorated in spite of medical treatment. [Chronik, p 255]

12th Mar. Bräker goes to St. Gallen in wintry weather to seek a new customer for his yarn, the previous one, in Herisau, having left the partnership. [Chronik, p 256]

18th Mar. The weather is very wintry and people are afraid there will be confrontation between the two cantons Appenzell over the execution of Franz Anton Joseph Suter, Landammann of Inner-Rhoden, which took place ten days ago. He had been deposed from office and banished by his political opponents, but in 1782 was lured back across the canton border and falsely accused of having planned an uprising. The people of Ausser-Rhoden viewed his death as judicial murder,

Voellmy [v 2 p 384] describes Suter as a witty and popular democrat in constant opposition to the aristocratic family Geiger. Later the same year he was rehabilitated by giving his body a decent funeral.

[but this recounts the previous Sunday, the 11th, Easter Day]

"My eldest son took Communion for the first time. I conducted him to it publicly as the custom and law is. But he is unfortunately still a right unsteady and ignorant boy, though he has become a man in body, in his spiritual part he is a dwarf. [...]" [Voellmy, v 2 p 102]

2nd May The unseasonable wintry weather continues, Bräker has to stay at home and dreams of freedom. He is not content with adequate means and reasonable health. His sons are making the same mistakes as he did. [Chronik, p 259]

15th-16th Bräker suffers from "Migräne". On the 10th, still in acute pain, he goes to Herisau and is somewhat relieved by taking a bath. On the way home on the 11th the pain comes on again and Bräker has himself bled by the surgeon in Lichtensteig and feels better. He takes two days' rest and reads another travel book.

12th Sept. Bräker has given in to Johannes' plea to own a gun and bought him a flintlock. Now he finds to his dismay that his son has a passion for hunting birds and squirrels. He does not believe that the animals would become too numerous if man did not hunt them: "O no, no need for that - every creature has its own enemies which would not let them grow so strong [...] I do not believe that he can have a kind heart who can be cruel even to an animal - he will certainly be cruel to his brothers and fellow human beings - if he can." [Chronik, p 263]

26th Sept. - 7th Oct. On the 26th Jakob indulges in unseemly behaviour on the way to church, and Bräker is obliged to scold him, against his own will. He resolves to take a short holiday. On the 28th he sets out before dawn with Anna Katharina and Johannes, for Herisau. The weather is bad and he is unable to sell his yarn. He is unsuccessful in St. Gallen too, and has it sent back to Herisau. The family are able to ride on a wood-cart to Rorschach, where they spend the night.