Show ODD SWISS CUSTOMS peculiarities that appeal to the western Tray traveler eler unconscious humor in the C columns of a berne newspaper how wayward wayward ci lens eizens are Pu punished nishel special correspondence the tireless tourist whose aim it Is to cover as much of the ground of switzerland in as relatively short a time as ad possible darting from gen geneva eva to the Ober lard cd or from lucerne lucern to the falls of the rhine and back again over one of the alpine passes with pleading impartiality seldom it if ever sees or hears of the thousand and one peculiarities and ot of cus toms that are in vogue in the various towns and villages through which he has made his gaping way it Is only after long residence and a familiarity with the languages that these are brought to one a attention while even then many may be missed tor for the swiss are too phlegmatic a people to draw attention to their own little adlo idiosyncrasies take for instance the custom of aune annexing xing the wife s maiden name to that of ber her husband by means of a hyphen then signs over the shops are generally lettered in that way and one may read aver the door of a con arnold through which sign the public is immediately informed that mr married miss niev bergelt and that no error in the name of mr s mother inlaw in law need be made which is comforting to say the least the different distri ts have an boffl caal organ cai cal ed the an 0 or r literally the informer which is nothing more or less than the ancient town crier modernized for present usage and put on paper in berne this advertiser for the city of berne Is 13 published every morning and distributed grate grat to each householder by women messengers who carry the publication in market has bets or ausia it in old perambulators humor frequently plays a generous part in the columns of the An as the request of ofa a young man to learn billiards from an exper encee player in exchange for gratis refreshments consumed by the teach er during the lessons or another i 4 ply of forbidding them to enter an inn placing as ft it were a ban upon val meetings for a certain length of time each male citizen in switzer land must serve in the swiss army it if physically capable and it if he be es ex empt from service upon grounds of 4 vear t 4 f V 11 A uv fly lu 6 at basel non capability a tax must be paid in its stead if this tax remains unpaid the or literally saloon ban as the law Is designated Is called into force and the name of the delinquent la Is published in the cial paper mentioned above while a penalty Is imposed upon an innkeeper who wittingly caters to such a person the government believes that it if a man has money to spend for beer and laiq bors be he must certainly be in a poel pool tion to adjust his small dues 0 o the state and in consequence of publicity this loss of the privilege of hobnob bing with ones friends in a favorite resort is felt greatly by the erring ones who realize keenly the hu cumilla milla tion caused by the tbt prohibition and pay at their earliest opportunity even though such a law can be but par partially Rally enforced it ap appears pears to serve its purpose another peculiar law in certain of the cantons is that which compels a man to vote at local election elections whether he so desires or not A fine of a small sim Is exacted from those who do not go to the polls and the only excuse is absence death in the family famil Y or a condition of health that renders it necessary for the citizen to remain at home this enforced voting may tend to bring out a respect abia biz percentage of electors yet the proverb you may lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink in this case might well be varied so that one could say you may lead a voter to the poll ing place but you canno prevent his casting a blank or mutilated ballot the more money one deposits in a bank the less interest Is paid A largo sign posted next to the tellers win dow in the swiss people peoples s bank states the amount of interest til th bank pays aft ow aag 44 k a ff A AN 4 4 11 fountain which read for sale TWO canary birds and a small cook stove cheap whether or not the stove was indis pen sable in its connection with the conary birds or whether the young man found a person to partake of his gratis refreshments the nature of which by the way was not give will have to be learned f om private sources in several of the cantons notably berne ard vaud and in a few smaller ores a Is inflicted upon wayward citizens which consists sim aji upon certain sums amounts under 1000 1 draw 4 per cent interest per an num from 1000 to 3 3 Is paid while if one has an account of more than 3 he receives but 3 per cent although economics explain this seeming singularity the statement causes momentary wonderment |