The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-07-19
Russian Social Life.

1t is naturally to be expected that, in a
land SO backward in modern civilization
as Russia, the social life of the people
should present to the stranger points of
novelty and quaintness even beyond what
is usually met with in an unfamiliar land.
In the primitive there is always something
of the picturesque, and there is much OF the
charm of antiquity in the manners and
customs of nation whose habits have
practically undergone but little change for
centuries.
Although serfdom is abolished in Rus
STA, traces of the old feudal system which
so long prevailed there are still strongly
marked, and the gulf between the upper
and the lower classes is almost as wide as
ever Even now the peasant has virtually
no remedy at law against the noble who
wrongs him; for a small grievance it is
hopeless to proceed against his superior in
rank, while, if the great man seriously in
lures the poor one, the matter can easily
be settled by the former paying few rou-
bles to the local magistrate. The result is
that the peasantry often take the law into
their own hands against their oppressors,
by acts of petty and secret malice, such as
rickburning, which of late years has be-
come terribly prevalent in Russia.
Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the
lower classes of Russia are an unhappy
people. The peasantry are industrious
and ingenious, and though their services
can no longer be commanded gratuitously
by the landowners, they are always ready
to work for the rich for small consider
alton. And the Russian peasant can turn
his hand to many things. One day he will
be at the plough, the next he is weaving
cloth or cotton, on the morrow he will help
to build house, and the following day he
will be ready to mount the box and drive
four horses with admirable dexterty, if
some great man should need an extra
coachman.
He is generally we'll fed and well dressed,
his costume consisting of red shirt,
fastened around the waist with leather
belt, a pair of loose trousers tucked into
boots reaching half way up the legs, the
whole being covered in winter with warm
overcoat of sheepskin, worn with the wool
inside. His hair he wears parted at the
top and down the middle, and cut evenly
all around the neck, to which it descends,
though he generally ties band around
it, TO prevent its falling into his eyes when
he is at work.
But by far the most slightly class of
people to be met with in Russia are the
famous singing gypsies of Moscow. These
people, who are generally well-to-do, and
are not accustomed to wander about like
others of their race. dress with great finery,
but vet with natural eye to art istic effect.
Their songs, which nearly always consist
of an air with a chorus, and are usually
accompanied on the balalaika, a sort of
guitar, are greatly admired by travellers.
In fact, it has been said of them that If
they are not the best singers in the world
there are no other singers in the world at
all like them; and there is story current
that the famous Catalani was once so de-
lighted with a certain female gypsy vocal
ist, that she threw around the shoulders of
the singer costly shawl which she herself
had lately been presented with by the en-
pres.
Another peculiar and exclusive order of
people TO be met with in Russia, though
of widely different sort, are those strange
pstriots known as the Old Religionists.
TheRussians are not much given to change,
bat these people are as conservative a. the
Chinese themselves. They detest all mod
ern manners, insist upon wearing the old
Russian eaftan, and never cut their boards,
allowing them to grow to prodigious
length, from purely pious motives, because
ssmsn il made in the image Of God" But
still more singular is their religious objec-
lion TO tobacco, for they look upon smok-
inR-so common in Russia-as sin de-
nounced BY Scripture in the text, mot
that which goeth into the mouth dehleth
: man, but that which coueth out OF the
uoush, this defleth man." One would
1hink they might get over the difscuity BY