Cover of Die Inshurance Business A serio-comic drama in the Pennsylvania German vernacular, "as she is spoke" in the German districts of Pennsylvania — Key Ideas to Explore

Die Inshurance Business A serio-comic drama in the Pennsylvania German vernacular, "as she is spoke" in the German districts of Pennsylvania — Key Ideas to Explore

(0 User reviews) 186

In Category - Adventure Picaresque Fiction

Authors: Grumbine, Ezra, 1845-1923 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2018 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Pennsylvania German dialect -- Texts; Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pa.) -- Drama Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 8,026

Reading time 35 min

Text sections 2

The source record for Die Inshurance Business A serio-comic drama in the Pennsylvania German vernacular, "as she is spoke" in the German districts of Pennsylvania — Key Ideas to Explore measures this digital text at 8,026 words, 35 min estimated reading time, and 2 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 11.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Pennsylvania German dialect -- Texts,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #57044

Ezra Grumbine's 1880s serio-comic drama in Pennsylvania German vernacular follows Yokle Brownschweiger, whose farm debt and insurance scheme involving his elderly mother-in-law drive the plot. The play's language, stage directions, and pacing reveal tensions between tradition and commerce.

Editorial Edition Score 4.4/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg57044

Read the Text

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Transcriber’s Note: Obvious printer’s errors, such as inconsistent spelling of the characters’ names, have been corrected.

DIE INSHURANCE BUSINESS.

A SERIO-COMIC DRAMA IN THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN VERNACULAR, “AS SHE IS SPOKE” IN THE GERMAN DISTRICTS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

BY E. GRUMBINE, M. D., MT. ZION, PA.

Sent Post-paid by the Author on Receipt of Price. Sold also by J. A. DeHuff, Bookseller, Lebanon, Pa.

PRESS OF REPORT PUBLISHING CO., LTD. LEBANON, PA.

_Yokle Brownschweiger_ and _Frany Brownschweiger_,—An elderly couple with a debt on their farm.

_Sallie Brownschweiger_,—Their daughter.

_Old Grandmother Aunshitz_,—Mrs. Brownschweiger’s mother; a “good subject,” old and sickly, rather deaf.

_Henner Hoffman_,—An old neighbor who believes in the good old times of “Lang Syne.”

_Wm. Shwinefelt_,—Insurance agent for the Yubee Co. and other wild cat life insurance companies.

_Augustus Eslinger_,—A young store clerk of the village. Sallie’s lover and Shwinefelt’s rival.

_Dr. Fraud_,—Examining physician for the Yubee Co.

_Abe Brownschweiger_ and _Ike Brownschweiger_,—Sallie’s brothers, school boys.

_Yokle_ ought to have about three yards of plaited corn husk, _i. e._, half of an unsewed door mat, and, as the curtain rises he is plaiting, seated on a stool or chair, while _Ike_ picks corn husks out of a basket and hands them to his “dawdy” as the latter needs them. Perhaps a spinning wheel for _Frany_ would be better than sewing, or darning big woolen stockings. The costumes ought to be suitable. For _Yokle_, _Frany_ and the rest of the family, farmers’ ordinary clothes, but not ragged nor dirty. _Shwinefelt_ should be loudly dressed—large stand up collar with a red necktie, big cuffs, etc. _Gust_, like a clerk, not quite so flashy. _Sally_ ought to be the well dressed beauty of the play.

DIE INSHURANCE BUSINESS.

SCENE I.—_Brownschweiger’s sitting-room and kitchen. A family scene. Yokle smoking pipe and plaiting corn husk mat. Ike on the right picking and handing husks to him. Frany, in the center sewing, dressed in cap and white handkerchief pinned across her breast. On left, Grandmother Aunshitz in huge white cap and spectacles seated in arm-chair, scraping an apple and eating it. To her left, Sallie crocheting. Seated on the floor to the left, Abe is covering a ball. Empty chair between Yokle and Frany. Grandmother coughs a great deal._

YOKLE. Hurry up Ike und mach die wish net so dick. War der huxliter hide do, mam?

FRANY. Yaw, den nu’midag.

YOKLE. Wie feel hen die oyer und der butter g’macht?

FRANY. Der butter is yusht 14 and die oyer yusht 16. Und du waisht das dee hinkle net orrig layia by dem kolta wedder. Alles tsomma hut yusht $1.92 g’macht, und des mus ich hovva. Dee Sallie mus en Polenay und en hat hovva und—

ABE. O yaw, sell is der wake. Dee Sallie mus alles hovva und ich mus worta. Der shool-maishter hot hite weeder g’saut ich set en neyee cheeografee greega.

IKE. Yaw, dad, und ich mus en mental hovva.

YOKLE. Hob ich net neyee bicher grickt letsht winter?

ABE. Yaw, ovver sie missa widder all neyee greega den winter.

YOKLE. Well, boova, ich kan eich ken neyee bicher kaufa shun widder. (_Granny coughs._)

FRANY. Horich! ’skomt ebber. Wos net alles drunner und drivver. (_Bustles about and dusts chairs._)

(_Enter HENNER HOFFMAN. GRANNY coughs._)

YOKLE _and_ FRANY. Denky! Nem der’n sitz, Henner. (_He seats himself near GRANNY._)

HOFFMAN. Kalt wedder.

YOKLE. Yaw, ’sis mechtig kalt.

FRANY. Dee kelt hot aw so free awgfanga den winter.

HOFFMAN. Yaw! (_To GRANNY in a loud voice._) Wee macht’s by eich als?

GRANNY. Feicht draus, is es? (_Coughs._) I ich hob net g’wist os es ebbes runner macht!

HOFFMAN. (_Louder._) Nay ich hob g’froagt wie deer aw kommt. Sider als g’sund.

GRANNY. O, nay, ich bin shlecht—greislich shlecht. Ich hob evva den orriga hushta (_coughs_) un wer so eng. Und no bin ich so shlecht uf mina baw! Ich bin evva olt—hair aw so shlecht!

HOFFMAN. Yaw, du guksht shlecht!

GRANNY. Was? (_Coughs._)

HOFFMAN. (_Louder._) I, ich sawg du guksht alendig!

GRANNY. Yaw, du awe! (_Coughs._)

HOFFMAN. (_Turning to YOKLE._) Ich say der side busy?

FRANY. Yaw, ich hab na gsaut sie missa shoobutzer flechta oder sie derfa mir nimmy ins house met eera drekicha shtiffle.

YOKLE. Yaw, ’sdate note mer date dawg und nacht shoffa and ’swill doch net longa naryets. Bis dee wibeslite dee fashions noche g’macht hen und dee boova hen olly winter onnery bicher, bleibt ke cent ivverich bis es yore rum is.

Continue Reading →

Ezra Grumbine's Die Inshurance Business (1880s) opens with a striking stage direction: Yokle Brownschweiger plaits a corn-husk mat while his wife Frany sews and their daughter Sallie crochets, the family engaged in quiet domestic labor. The dialogue immediately establishes the Pennsylvania German vernacular—"Hurry up Ike und mach die husk net so dick"—and a preoccupation with small sums: butter at 14 cents, eggs at 16, total $1.92. This precise economic grounding anchors the play's central conflict: a debt-ridden farm and an insurance scheme targeting the elderly Grandmother Aunshitz. Grumbine's stage directions specify costumes—Shwinefelt "loudly dressed" with a red necktie—and props like a spinning wheel, signaling a performance attuned to visual comedy.

Vernacular Voice and Cultural Specificity

The play is written entirely in Pennsylvania German, a dialect Grumbine's title describes as spoken "in the German districts of Pennsylvania." The dialogue mixes English loanwords—inshurance, shool-maishter, cheeografee—with German syntax, creating a hybrid that reflects the community's linguistic reality. Characters' speech reveals social roles: Yokle's practical concerns ("Wie feel hen die oyer und der butter g'macht?"), Sallie's emotional distress ("Sis gar nimmy in unsererm house we's war"), and Shwinefelt's slick patter. The stage directions also embed cultural details: plaiting corn husks, the daufshein (baptismal certificate) as a plot device, and the reference to "Lang Syne" through old neighbor Henner Hoffman. Grumbine uses the vernacular not merely for authenticity but as a vehicle for humor and tension—misunderstandings arise from Granny's deafness and the audience's familiarity with the dialect's nuances.

Pacing Through Stage Business and Dialogue

Grumbine controls pace by alternating static family scenes with bursts of action. Act I, Scene I is deliberately slow: Yokle plaiting, Frany sewing, Granny coughing and scraping an apple. The dialogue meanders through household finances and school supplies, establishing normalcy. Scene II shifts to a private conversation between Sallie and Gust, where the pace quickens with revelations—the altered baptismal certificate, the poison (later revealed as plaster of Paris), and Gust's inheritance of $10,000. The emotional rhythm accelerates: Sallie bursts into tears, wrings her hands, then cries on Gust's shoulder. Scene III returns to the family setting but introduces a suspenseful silent action: Shwinefelt empties a folded paper into Granny's teacup while Gust and Sallie witness it from the entrance. This tableau—two characters frozen at the door—creates a dramatic pause before the climax. The play's short scenes (three in Act I) and rapid entrances/exits maintain a theatrical momentum suited to its 35-minute reading time.

Evidence of Character Through Stage Directions

Grumbine's stage directions are unusually detailed for a vernacular drama, revealing character through physicality and costume. Yokle is introduced plaiting a corn-husk mat—a humble, repetitive task that underscores his economic straits. Shwinefelt's "loudly dressed" appearance—"large stand up collar with a red necktie, big cuffs"—marks him as an outsider, a city slicker preying on rural trust. Gust, by contrast, is "like a clerk, not quite so flashy," aligning him with respectability. Sallie is "the well dressed beauty of the play," a detail that positions her as the object of rivalry. The elderly Grandmother Aunshitz is described in a "huge white cap and spectacles," scraping an apple and coughing—a figure of vulnerability. These visual cues, combined with actions like Shwinefelt's surreptitious paper-emptying, build character without lengthy exposition. The play's moral landscape is thus sketched through objects and gestures: the teacup, the altered certificate, the plaster-filled poison packet.

Readers should attend to the play's performance dimension: the corn-husk plaiting, the coughing, the silent witnessing of Shwinefelt's act are all cues for comic or dramatic timing. The incomplete excerpts leave the resolution unclear—whether Gust's inheritance saves the farm, or whether Shwinefelt's scheme is exposed—but the structure suggests a swift denouement. Grumbine's work offers a rare record of Pennsylvania German dialect in dramatic form, where language itself becomes a character.

Years of shelving have taught me that Die Inshurance Business holds a quiet ache beneath its Pennsylvania German laughter—the cost of saving a farm, paid in family dignity. That same gentle discomfort lingers in Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour — Text and Context, where honor tussles with practical need. Both simply watch their people stumble toward a compromise, nothing more.