The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-10-27
Ihe Nebraska NIennonites.

Prof j ID. Butler writing up u recent visit
to Nebraska, gives the following account of a
Mennonite COLONY he there encountered
Nothing rejuvenates one SO much as a ramble
through new country,-unless perhaps
through an old one Accordingly dedicated
last month to Nebraska Between the Platte
| surveyed the hunting ground of the ante
lopes, elks, and butlalocs | now see the dwell
| lings of hundred thousand settlers.
Leaving the beaten railroad track made
excursions, each Of day or mOre-from Lin
coin. Crete, Seward, York, Friendville, How.
ard, Hastings, etc, etc But none of my tours
gave me more OF surprise and pleasure us well
than those about Beatrice and Sutton. Near
each of these places there is a colony Of five
hundred Mcnnonites These people, like Qua
kcrs, hold ii wrong to serve as soldiers. Their
ancestors who were of German stock four
score years ago immigrated to the north shore
of the Black sea, with the promise of eIemp
ton from military services. Being now deni-
ed that exemption they have sought new
homes. They bring with them some money
though sheared, teeced and sometimes tlay
ed before they escape Russian masters. But
they bring what is better than money
alone for building up a country-skill in til
gality which buys nothing it can do without,
judgment how to buy as well as an industry
which never wastes Il minute They
will burden Nebraska with no paupG, no
|drunkard, no criminal. Suicidal is the policy
which cXpels them, and happy is the state
where most Of them shall fix their abode.
Before them the wilderness literally bios
SONS, for they all have flower gardens, and
feel that while grain is Gods bounty flowers
are his smiles One of them led me to the first
peach ripening on a tree he had set out only
two years before. Another measured for me
a cottonwood Of equal size. AT four feet from
the ground its girth was fifteen and a half
inches. Ii must have been growing year o.
two before it was replanted. | am glad 10
learn that their average wheat crop here Is
twice as great as they harvested in Russia. It'll
proves tia; We can undersell Russians in the
British market,
IN Jefferson county one Of these cxiles for
conscience sake has tried his prentice hand on
twenty three hundred sheep. His fecsiing was
criticised by principal shecp-raiser of Sc
ward But the fleeces of the Mennonite turn
ed out heavier than his critics. Let him
laugh who wins,
The Russian Quakers often quote tie text
prove all things; hold fast to that which is
ranch its chief manager had gone to Wiscon-
sin for still finer class of bucks. Our plows,
harness, horses and wagon-brakes they admit
10 be superior to theirs The Yankee who
shall introduce into Russia our windmills for
raising water, they say will become mil
lionaiic
Nevertheless in some things we may learn
of them. One of them in quest Of water
privilege was told at York that there was none
there, though one had been much sought for
in that place, as there was no mill within
eighteen miles. The poor outcast knew better
He perceived that Beaver creek was just like
one near the Cuban river where he had once
built mill himself lie dared to act on his
convictions and his millstones have already
turned out -four for half year. This mill
wright is agcd--but his sons have learned his
cunning and while adding much desderat-
ed element TO the prosperity of York, they will
do more lucrative business for themselves
than in slaughtering Turks. ! hope they have
learned the couplet
How happy is the man who lives in the mill,
| The mill turns round, he takes what he WILL r,c.
Sure am | that they will feast on western
turkeys, while but for emigration they would
be suffering in the field
But our greatest economical debt tn Russian
refugees is for fuel. How much time, talent,
and money have been expended in search of a
Nebraska coal mine-a finding that is still in
the future But something as good was dc.
tec,ed by the Mennonite at glance 1t was
my fortune four years ago to travel with the
deputies who first examined Adams and Web
ster counties. | cndeavored to apOloriZe for
the treelessncss and said that timber would
grow; that coal was not dear, etc. NV labor,
as | soon discovered, was needless Here Is
plenty of fuel" said they, pointing To prairie
grass and straw-hcaps With this, they add.
ed, 1--WE have always cooked, warmed our
houses, and even burnt brick" Their words
| remembered, but their truthfuncSs was rath-
or beyond belief OF late, however. have
eaten dinner cooked by grass aS well rs ex-
amincd StrawiurnaCcS in the HOUSES Of Bishop
Peters and scores of his flock. There has been
no freezing in his house j4sN2G) during the
two years since it was built Yet his only
winter fuel has been straw and his furnace
| the rOnwork of which cost Sis heated only
three time day What Nebraska had wasted
now warns thousand Muscovitc, Russian
furnaces, | notice, are already set up in the
houses of the Yankees. who see that if their
| fuel shall he hcnCeiOrh costly or their dwell
ings cold, the fault will be all their own.
Near Sutton | entered the home of another
Russian exile. 4 thrcshcr was at work ON
stacks which would turn out twelve hundred
bushels. He had twelve children, the Young
est years old, and all were at work about the
place The mother, not only Of this dozen hut
of three Others, seems 10 bc still in her best
years Her eight boys will each inher, a
forty-acre lot Providence thought il too bad
for them 10 bleed under the Turkish cime,ers.
PRoF. J. ID. BUTLER.