Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-09-14
How Russian Suuires live

I. i Up to the time of the liberation of the
serfs in 1861, says correspondent of
the New York Times, the majority of
Russian noblemen had pretty we'll pre-
served their fortunes, though it was al
ways the custom to send the young men
OF the family to serve a few years in the
imperial guard in the capitals, and these
young men just as regularly used to live
there far beyond their means, unless re-
called to the country in time by their
parents, yet they would quite as often
find the means to mend their fortunes
by rich marriage, by getting an inher-
lance from maiden aunt having a fol-
bic for brilliant guardsmen-nephews, by
lucky stroke at cards, or some other
means. The only industry noblemen
ever engaged in was the raising of
horses on which some of them real
lied fairly good profits. Such were far
from numerous, the majority of coun-
try squires knowing nothing beyond
hunting, the directions OF field labors.
the tilling Of land, the management of
thousands OF peasants and hundreds OF
so-called house servants. Those happy
times, when Russian squires lived like
so many petty nagnates, are gone, how
ever, not to return any more. At the
pl resent time Mr.. w., my host, for in
stance, owns IN one corner ofthe govern.
ment Of foula, handsome estate OF
some 10000 acres, and gets an income
of $4,000 or thereabouC. TO get this he
has to work hard enough though, not
Wlthstandlng the factor may be be-
cause Of it-there are six or eight differ
emit superintendents, baillfs, overseers,
etc, appointed by him to direct the
work, ali getting handsome salaries.
Mr.. W. retains but 5000 acres of land for
himself, letting the other 1000 to his
former serls, who are happy to pay a
dollar-aud even more--an acre, since
they have no land Of their own worth
speaking about. When the peasants
were liberated, % years ago, every
grown-up man received some ten acres
Of land from his former propretors,
Since then young families OF peasants
have grown into men and women, hay.
ing children in their turn; the Old lots
OF land exhausted, subdivided,
and unable to feed them any
more the greatest misery prevailed
thanks to that scarcity of lana in many
1ufal ulStTlCIS nus OF the revolution
airy party, spreading the rumor among
peasants that all the land will soon be
theirs: out now that the car. at his late
coronation, has emphaticalIy declared
to the peasants deputies that he will not
allow any new subdivision Of lands to
take place, the peasants have grown rec
onciled to their lot, and their only con-
Germ now is to hire and buy land from
their neighbors anu former owners. Mr.
w. is offered now by his peasants $50
rub!esa "dessiatina," amounting to some
three and a halt acres. twenty-five dol
lars all acre may seem high price to
pay tor Ind in Russia having already
been under cultivation for nearly 800
years. Mr. w. and his peasants raise
oats, buckwheat, but chiefly rye and po.
tatoes, since their last products are used
by the whisky distilery conducted by
Mr.. W. himself. Apart from what il
consumed in food by peasants and the
cattle, all is sold On tho place TO the
proprietor. and gets transformed into
whisky, from which Mr.. w. derives
then his chief income.