Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — Cleaning the Slate. [ARTICLE]

Cleaning the Slate.

A singular custom is said to obtain in the Passeyer Valley, Tyrol. On the first Monday of Lent the inhabitants of the valley meet every year at St Leonhard, the largest of the villages of that region, for the purpose of settling, according to an ancient custom, the pending affairs of the past year. In the open field near a bridge, outstanding debts are squared, interest is paid; in short, all business obligations are discharged and new connections made. Woe to the debtor who dare to stay away—his credit would Inevitably be ruined throughout the valley.