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1793 aged 57

2nd-4th Jan. Bräker wishes he were in Zürich and able to see Ambühl's play "William Tell". But instead he is in Wattwil drinking coffee with a dear old friend [not named]. The roads are swarming with beggars. On the 3rd Bräker expects a payment of some debts but his debtor does not show up. On the 4th he records that he does not believe most of the news that he hears, all is quiet in the Toggenburg, except, of course, in his own house. Salome has been preaching to her daughters, he thinks some of her sermon is really directed at himself, but pretends not to notice. The weather is so cold that he has to put up the shutters in the living-room. [Chronik, p 390]

6th Jan. "These days the horrid cold of winter reigned. I thought: ha, if down by the Rhine it was as cold as it is here, the good Frenchmen would hardly stand it, especially if they are as hungry and ragged as some writers in the newspapers say. But I do not believe the half of what comes here out of Germany. For me, there are too many betrayers of their country, enemies of liberty and slanderous windbags whose joy it is to publish abroad all the worst they can think of about the honest Frenchmen. Let them do as they wish! Law and justice, true liberty must conquer in the end and all tyrants and barbaric rulers be swept from the face of the earth." [Voellmy, v 2 p 289]

[At this stage the French were willing to respect Swiss neutrality because they needed Swiss produce, and they also needed the corridor that Switzerland provided for the produce of other countries to reach France, avoiding the blockade by the Coalition countries. These were: Britain, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Sardinia, Naples, Portugal, Hanover, Baden and Hesse, with some support from Holland and Russia. Bräker would not have been alone in finding reports of French successes difficult to believe, but the French army was now much larger, and had better leadership now that replacements had been found for the officers of the ancien régime now dead or in exile. One must also bear in mind that his reading of newspapers would be rather selective because he could not read any language other than German.]

8th Jan. Bräker wants to help his daughter Anna Katharina, but has no money left and so has to leave her to her fate. Quarrels with Salome become even more frequent. [Chronik, p 390]

12th-31st Jan. Bräker's financial situation deteriorates further, his weavers have done bad work and he has been too lenient with them. [...]. Many textile factories have closed down. On the 28th he appears to be near the end of his tether as regards Salome, he would like to leave home: "Better to live on bread and water and hard work - spend my last remaining days in peace". On the same day he visits Glarus

8th Feb. "At the end of last month and the beginning of this one I made once more two small journeys, one to Glarus and the second to St. Gallen. But truly neither of them was made for pleasure. No, but with a fearful heart!

[...] A panic terror has overcome the whole of trade. To all human appearance we must expect terrible times, while eight hundred thousand people are assembled in our neighbourhood.

195

What contentment I often enjoyed on such small journeys, when I was making good progress in everything, and afterwards I ate my supper in a cheerful company, and looked at all objects around me with joy - even the narrow Glarus valley, walled in with pyramids that reach the sky. How often I stood still for an hour at a time and with bliss observed these majestic works of the Creator. How dreary everything is now, buried under snow and grey cloud. And my mind is also enveloped in thick fog, so that even the most charming objects are scarcely capable

195

This was an influx from neighbouring lands due to the unstable political situation.

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