The Dickinson press., 1883-09-15
How Russian Squires Live.

Up to the time of the liberation of the
serfs in 1861, says a 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 a rich marriage, by getting an inher-
lance from a maiden aunt having a fol-
BILE for brilliant guardsmen-nephews, by
a 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 we're far
from numerous, the N 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 magnates. are gone, how
ever, not to return any more. At the
present time Mr.. W., my host, for in
stance, owns IN n corner ofthe govern.
ment of Toula, a handsome estate of
some 10000 acres, and gets an income
of 2 1000 or t%hereabout. 10 get tits he
has to work hard enough though, not.
withstanding the factor may be be-
cause Of it-there are six or eight differ
ent superintendent, bailitfs, overseers,
ETC., appointed by him to direct the
work, al. getting handsome salaries
Nj. w. retains but 5000 acres Of land for
himself, letting the other 1000 to his
dollar-and even more-an acre, since
they have no land Of their own worth
speaking about. When the peasants
were liberated, % ear ago. every
grown-up man received some ten acres
Of land from his former proprietors
Since then young families OF peasants
have grown into men and women, hav'
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 lanS in many
rural districts agents of the revolution,
ary party, spreading the among
peasants that all the land will soon be
theirs: but now that the car. at his lat,
coronation, a emphatically declared
to the peasants deputies that he will no.
allow any new subdivision of lands tx
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 and former owners. MI
w. is offered now by his peasants Isl
rub!esa "%dessiatina," amounting to SOM
three and a half acres. twenty-five dol
lars an acre may seem a high price t.
pay Tor Ind in Russia having already
been under cultivation for nearly 3U
years. Mr.. w. and his peasants rails
oats, buckwheat. but chiefly rye and pc
tatoes, since their last products are uset
by the whisky distillery conducted b,
Mr.. w. himself. Apart from what
consumed in food by peasants and tn,
cattle, all is sold On tho place to the
proprietor, and gets transformed int
whisky, from which Mr.. w. derive
then his chief income.