The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

The next day Bräker is further irritated by dropping his new watch, so that it stops and will not start again. They go partly on foot and partly by boat to Konstanz and stay overnight at The Cross.

On the 30th they see the sights of the city in heavy rain, then they go on to Diessenhofen, again partly by boat. On Oct. 1st they go on early in the morning to Schaffhausen, where Bräker cannot find anyone who knew him during his stay there 29 years earlier. They travel by cart to Zürich and stay at The Sword. In the morning they again see the sights in bad weather, and in the afternoon continue by boat towards Schmerikon, but because of a storm they get only as far as Uetikon, where they and the boat's crew are taken into the house of a baker. At one in the morning they are woken by the crew and go on to Schmerikon. They drink coffee there and arrive home about midday. Bräker resolves not to travel in bad weather again and not to try to cover so much ground in a short time. Bräker feels that his wife's complaints about this journey are justified, though his son and daughter disagree. He has a fever, toothache and pains in the throat, also much pain from a leg which was bruised by a cart in Zürich. [Chronik, pp 265-266]

18th Oct. Bräker goes to market in Lichtensteig as usual and sees another display of shooting by the militia. He thinks it is a foolish business, but all in the world is vanity. [Chronik, p 266]

29th Oct. Bräker has migraine again, and thinks it may be caused by dampness in the house from the wet yarn on which he works. On the 30th he goes to Lichtensteig and sees Dr Joseph Anton Wirth, who recommends bleeding, Bräker undergoes this on the 31st. In spite of this he feels "mortal bad" the next day and tries a poultice of white of egg, meal and brandy. [Chronik, p 267]

18th Nov. Bräker goes to St. Gallen with his young cousin Johann Ulrich Looser (1769-1849). Business is only so-so, as it has been for some time. [Chronik, p 267]

6th Dec. "Yesterday, as the first Sunday in December, the usual school sessions took place. I and a few other fathers of families from our district asked for a school for the Hochsteig. It was granted to us for a year, because we had been refused four years ago. I hope that with neighbourly friendship and mutual favour towards the people of Steinthal, we will now retain the same." [Voellmy, v 2 p 94]

12th Dec. Business is better and the weavers are busy setting up warps. Bräker is more contented with his lot. On his 49th birthday, the 22nd, the sun shines into his house and fills him with gladness. [Chronik, p 268]

25th Dec. Bräker has no desire to write anything, he is quietly content to be at home with his children. God, who knows his heart, would not be offended if he did not go to church, but to keep up old customs and avoid criticism he will go to Communion in Kappel [Chronik, p 268]

"[...] I will be as brief as possible, and observe first of all: that in that space of time [1782-5] my circumstances have generally improved from year to year, and, if I had at the time converted my goods and debts to cash, I could have completely satisfied all my creditors, and had my little residence, house and garden, entirely free, unencumbered and all my own. But in the summer of the last of these years (1785), together with many other people both great and small, I suffered a fairly severe blow. After the well-known edict of the King of France

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there was such a sudden and severe fall in price of manufactured goods, that my modest little trade lost certainly more than 200 guilders. And since then there has appeared no sign that the trade in cotton cloth in our