Hurdy Gurdy Girls.

During the 19th century , usage of the hurdy-gurdy took a turn towards the sinister in Germany(then a principality in the state of Hessen), beginning in the early 1800’s. Much of the rural population at this time face sever poverty, in part due to an increase in population that had led to greater division in farm land due to inheritance. This problem escalated until using viable farmland became nearly impossible. (http://www.hotpipes.com/hggirls2.html)  Around the 1820’s, farmers began crafting various items, such as fly whisks and brooms. These were later sold during the summer. This trade expanded out through Europe and also into Russia, were poverty had increased, causing transformation in industry and ways of life throughout. Eventually someone realized that having a pretty girl playing a hurdy-gurdy as entertainment increased the sales of the peddler who used them. Over time, the presence of this girls, eventually to be known as hurdy-gurdy girls, became more and more important to this trade, until finally it was realized that more money could be made off of their exploitation then off of the brooms and other crafted wares.
      This attracted German “soul merchants”, who put these young girl under contracts, often under the approval of their families who were given high promises of wealth and esteem resulting from their daughters newfound careers. These women traveled far and wide, even being documented as performing in gold-rush California (were they were known as Rhinelanders do to their place of birth), Cuba, and Australia. (http://itotd.com/articles/315/the-hurdy-gurdy/) Unfortunately these girls were largely preyed upon by their new bosses, some being forced to enter into prostitution or simply not profiting personally off of their own work as musicians. Few returned home having profited off of this way of life, but far more returned sick, malnourished and penniless.
      These practices soon took the attention of the church, whose own values were of course greatly opposed to this. Humanism would ultimately triumph, beginning in 1848 when Pastor Schallenger drew up a petition to the government to end what he called “sale of souls into foreign lands.” Though this petition was unanswered, later resistance from the church, including a novel called “Hurdy Gurdy” that aided in bringing attention to the problem among the general public. In 1865, the government prohibited the use of girls in this trade, which along with the growing awareness and disapproval of the public put an end to this sad leg of the hurdy-gurdy’s history.
       Also worthy of note in the anthropological spectrum is that it was this chapter in the instruments history that led to many of the other uses of the word “hurdy-gurdy”, including the term “hurdy-gurdy house”, a term for a cheap dance hall in North America that cropped up at the same time were barrel-organs where typically installed. (http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/07/11/1263168/hurdy-gurdy-girls-on-frontier.html) This also certainly aided the confusion of the term “hurdy-gurdy”, which among many English speaking nations also means a barrel organ or something similar to it.

The following is a song written by W. Sawney in North America entitled "Bonnie Are The Hurdies 0!"


There's naught but care on ilka han',
On every hour that passes, O!
An' Sawney, man, we hae nae chance
To spark amang the lasses, O!

Bonnie are the hurdies, O!
The German hurdy-gurdies, O!
The daftest hour that ere I spent,
Was dancin' wi' the hurdies, O!

A warldly race that riches chase,
Yet a' gangs tapselteerie, O!
An' every hour we spend at e'en,
Is spent without a dearie, O!

Last summer we had lassies here
Frae Germany-the hurdies, O!
And troth I wot, as I'm a Scot,
They were the bonnie hurdies, O!

There was Kate and Mary, blithe and airy,
And dumpy little Lizzie, O!
And ane they ca'd the Kangaroo,
A strappin' rattlin' hizzy, O!

They danced at night in dresses light,
Frae late until the early, O!
But oh! their hearts were hard as flint,
Which vexed the laddies sairly, O!

The dollar was their only love,
And that they lo'ed fu' dearly, O!
They dinna care a flea for men,
Let them coort hooe'er sincerely, O!

They left the creek wi' lots o' gold,
Danced frae oor lads sae clever, O!
My blessin's on their 'sour kraut' heads,
Gif they stay awa for ever, O

                                            (Taken from http://www.exulanten.com/hurdy.html)

    A few images of the hurdy-gurdy girls, note the bottom image is obviously of a child.