Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-03-18
NINE. DURAND'S LECTURE
A DELTGHrFUL oRAr ON RUSSIA
BY "HENRK GREYIEEw.p


IA day night, chairs ncing placed along the
u aisles to accommodate the cultured audi
~ ~ enee attracted by the lecture. or rather
o delightful chat without manuscript. of
e Mime. Durand, Henri Greville) on s.Rus-
J. sian Home Life" 1t was only fitting that
!, sueh tine assemblage should have been
:, shown geats by four of Wilmiuatop'e
Q dress
= DR.. II. Il. Wilson, in few sentoncea.
3 heartily welcomed the celebrated novelist
s to this city, and Nine. Durand after
o neatly acknowledging the welcome, seated
9 nerseif upon the platform to the right of
the pulpit and SO renamed during the
, evening. Henri Greville" is lady 43
years OF age. of probably below Medium
: hight and of decidedly niatronIy plurn,,-
ness. She wore n blnek velvet BASQUE
} and black silk skirt. and having seated
nerselt, at once npologized for her Eng
iish which, however, she said WAS tie
best she had. Her ii yenra and six
months III Russia Ind given her amula
opportunity for studying the customs Of
al ciasses of Russians irelnding the peas
ants whom she first consider,ri. The
homes of these peasants generally consist
OF one room with benches along the
walls on three sides, table. images
OF the saints in one corner and
q stove in the middle of the room.
The steve is practically the family physi
cian, as it is mainly relied upon TO cure
all Ills. Being, as most of the peasants
are, many miles away from any railroad
or considerable centre of population, they
are generally equally distant from the
home OF any regular physician. Con-
sequently when any one is III. the o,tiy
thing that seems TO be done is to move
the patient close to the stove whore he
can lie quietly three or four days and
toast himself into convalesoence ft Ia
hardly surprising that this remedy should
naturally be suggested in bitter cold
weather. A point in its favor is the fact
that around the stove is probably to be
had the best air in a room which is had
room, parlor and kitchen in one. The
benches around the room serve as beds. and
tne night-dresses are of sheepshins with
sleeves the wool being turned in. These
are very pretty when new, but they be-
come shiny, in fact greasy and not
pleasingly fragrant.
Most Russian parents have from eight
to twelve children, but only about one.
third of them live to be grown. There
are several ways to account for this. In
the first place Russian baby must be
baptized the day after it is born. The
priest holds its nose and mouth with one
hand and its body with the other, and
aouses lt into water of natural tempera-
ture, which in winter is necessarily very
cold. The baby comes out black or blue.
and possibly scratching and kicking.
This, Mime. Durand happily remarked
often resulted in one more Christian and
one less baby. Then suppose the child
to have run this gauntlet and have
reached the age of is months. IL
must then be weaned. This NAV
seem of little Importance. but
when fast-days are taken into oon-
sideration, it is not. With lent of seven
weeks, and from one to three or four
weeks OF fasting at various other times
Of the -year, even in July, and every
Wednesday and Friday a fast-day, about
half the year is thus taken up. No
meat, chickens, eggs, fish, butter and
milk can be eaten on these days. What
DO they have leftg Cucumbers, onions
and black bread. Now il will be seen
that this is severe diet for children less
lhan two years old, and helps explain the
tables. These peasants are
very poor, and look upon any one
who can read and spell as yery
learned and upon all learning beyond this
rs unnecessarily luxurious. Madame
Durand said they often came to her for
Idvice and said they would repay her
iome time. And she was much touched
when one spring morning she found
huge table piled two feet high with
which some of these poor
people had gotten up early and stopped for
lours to pick for her. She was asked to
ak to husband because he did not
owe his young wife. She said she did
lot want to interfere, but asked how
hey knew he did not love her. The
nswer came, because he did not beat
ler. Beating a wife is sign of love,
hey say, because it shows the husband
8 duly jealous MS every good husband
hould be.
Among the merchant classes life is some
1hat different, and the lecturer dwelt
,artieularly upon their method of court
hip. On stipulated afternoon the
lothers take their 6-years-old daughters
nd seat themselves, as on the seats Of o
ark, along q prominent promenade.
he young men then march up and down
q twos and threes, and elbow one another
S they note the charms of the different
air ones, who of course never see the
oung men looking at them. Then the
oung women are taken home. In few
ays, if all has gone favorably, a woman
alls upon n mother. This woman has
er head tied SO tight with handkerchief
hat it seems as if would burst. These
wo spend an hour or SO talking about
he weather and such topics, and finally
he woman comes to the point by OBJ
erving, "By the way, l have he turtle
owe and you have she turtle-dove and
ly he turtle-dove would like to marry
our she turtle-dove." Then the mother
emonstrates that the she turtle-doye is
90 young. Whereupon the woman re-
lies fftybat did oh hes ~. kLo
romenade for then," which is q settling
rgument, and whether the young woman
kes it or not her husband has thus been
elected for her. She never has chance
D see or speak TO him before they are
latried, MS il is argued there Will be
lenty of time for all this afterward.
The lecturer proved that the Russian
entry are fond of dancing by Gescribing
party where 40 or so young people
rove some of them probably 80 miles to
he house of friends and there began
ancing about 10 o'clock in tho morning
nd often, with only intervals for re-
reshment, danced until dawn the next
lorning. OF course there would not be
enough TO accommodate all
hese people and if they wanted to sleep,
be young women could lie around much as
be peasants do and the young men could
brow themselves down on the hay in the
table. And Madame Durand intimated
hat she herself had indulged in Just such
especially about Easter, which
me takes the place of our Christmas
olidays.
The lecturer closed with nm impressive
description of the day in February 1869
1hen the slaves were freed. Their re-
option of the millions of posters which
'ere placed all over the empire and read
rom the churches by the priests, was
ignifed. Thousands of them knelt in
he snow before the winter palace in st.
'etersburg nnii blessed the Gear for the
ct. While this made them free, It did
ot make them citizens, and the great day
Or the Russian people will be when they
ct constitution and enjoy the rights of
NJ. and Nine. Durand are guests Of Mr..
nd Mrs. James G. Knowles at S06 West
treet, to the latter of whom Wilmington
, mainly indebted for her present visit.
SsoI.... S,ooa. aH..n...~..a a r>N