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despised on account of his talents and laughed to scorn for his business dealings. As I knew them both well, and was thinking about what sort of fate might now be theirs in the realm of the dead, I was moved to let them speak to each other in the land of shadows..." [Voellmy, v 3 p 241] At the end [p 274] Bräker says that no human eye would read this dialogue and it was to be "locked into my little cabinet".2nd Nov. Bräker adds to his dialogue, in which a farmer called Rudolf envies Bräker because his cotton trade provides an easier way of making a living. Bräker rejoins that his losses this year have been heavy and that the farmers are better off because Nature especially favours them. [Chronik, p 330]
16th Nov. Bräker feels depressed at the approach of winter, and adds some more to his dialogue, introducing more characters, including his own dead children. At about this time five men are arrested for counterfeiting money, after being active in Wattwil for many years. [Chronik, p 330]
23rd Nov. Bräker reads Johann Wilhelm Archenholz' "Geschichte des siebenjährigen Krieg in Deutschland" [History of the Seven Years' War in Germany] and has doubts about its accuracy, since some of it contradicts the notes which Bräker himself had made during his time in the Prussian service. [Chronik, p 331]
7th Dec. The cold weather continues. The Wattwil section of the new road is almost complete, but Bräker thinks that amid the current widespread poverty it will be difficult for the people of Wattwil to pay for it by the proposed one per cent tax. Bräker urges them to do so, as it will benefit them in the long run by encouraging foreigners to visit the area and spend money there, and more merchants will pass through. [Chronik, p 332]
4th Dec. Winter has set in and Bräker is very listless. He has piles and Salome is plaguing his life out. Although the harvest has been good, food prices have not come down, and in the cotton trade there is much unemployment. This leads to many bankruptcies and forces many people to turn to begging. On the 21st he considers what can be done to relieve this situation
22nd Dec. At Lichtensteig rumour has it that the five forgers will be publicly flogged that day, which attracts a large number of spectators. But all except one are set free, the ringleader is to be put into garrison service. At first the authorities and many other people thought they should suffer the death penalty, but owing to pleadings by their friends and Pastor Imhof they will be spared. But they were not only guilty of passing counterfeit money, "the stupid fellows were doing all kinds of superstitious tricks and foolishness - they thought to rear mannikins or heaps of money from their own seed in warm manure-heaps - dig for treasure in the midnight hours - and devote themselves to silly alchemy
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- but met with no other success - than that the longer they kept at it the poorer wretches they became". [Chronik, p 333]26th Dec. "Christmas"
"O you holy days of Christmas, wrapped round and about with mourning! In mourning, because it is the custom with us to go dressed in black to the Lord's table and make our devotions, in mourning, because the whole of nature lies dead, dead and buried under deepest snow, in mourning, because the winds rage, roaring and howling, hideous whirling snow makes
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This refers to occult practices whose adepts hoped to create magical beings who would serve them, or turn base metals to gold. Criminals such as Bräker's contemporary Giacomo Casanova also used such practices to play confidence tricks on the unwary - even though he may himself have half-believed in occult science.
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