The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-03
| MENNONITE SETTLEMENT ON
THE PRAiRiES OF DAKOTA.

The Rear Of the House in Front-Mak-
Ing Cigarettes-How Walls are Built.
An Evening Meal.
When Peter the Great, czar of Russia, be
gan to lay the foundation of the present pow
erful autOcracy he invited the more civilized
peasantry Of Germany AMI France to settle
on the vacant lands Of his vast dominions,
guaranteeing to all who would do so certain
great concessions, among Others an entire ex-
emption from military duty. OF this liberal
offer large numbers of the people Of Ger
many and France took advantage and
removed to southern Russia, settling in the
provinces bordering upon the Black sea,
where they founded towns and villages, and
enjoyed the benefit of their guaranteed rights
Subsequent rulers Of Russia set aside many
Of the grants of Peter the Great, and re-
quired q certain amount of military duty
performed by the subjects of the car, ire
specttve OF all former exemptions, and to
avoid this duty many of the descendants of
these German settlers left Russia, coming to
the United States 1t is of these immigrants
that the village population of Menno and
nearly all the surrounding farming com
munity is composed and here / had come in
my ransblings.
Resolved to inquire into the reasons for
such wholesale migration from Russia, l
ing to interview some of the inhabitants. At
last l found some one who spoke enough
English to understand me and tell ME what
wanted to know. After an hours talk with
this man l went on my way about town,
stopping here and there to ask a question,
sometimes to be answered, oftener to see the
inimitablc shrug of the shoulders and hear
the "Nichverstay."
RUSSIAN VILLAGE.
Travellers in the countries of Europe have
often described the customs and habits, as
well as dress, of the peasantry, and here
have it in all its oddity and originality, for
here we have n Russian village reproduced
in all its essential features. The women wear
the little square shawls folded and tied over
their heads, some of these head shawls being
richly embroidered while others are simply
plain pieces of figured cotton cloth, hemmed
at the edges. to be worn while working with
the men in the fields, all women do here
In building their houses the rear of the house
is placed fronting the street-if you will
allow the lrishisnl-and the only entrance is
by going around to the back part. Only the
plain, blank siding of the gable faces the
street, without window or door.
Here everybody smokes cigarettes except
the women they are not considered anybody
here. Stop to converse with one of the men
and he'll begin hunting for his cigarette paper
silk embroidery. 1t is wonderful what skill
is acquired by constant practice. One of the
Mennonites will detach a paper, sprinkle a
little tobacco on 1t, make u turn with his
fingers and 10! it's done. l have tried it
many times but always failed, either tearing
the thin paper or spiiling the tobacco while
a great, coarse listed farm laborer will twist
one daintily and easily as "A professional
One day while stopping here / was invited
nv tn rial will .h. 10,
to visit some patients to whom he had been
called; and as l wanted to see their
mode Of life more closely. and the
doctor spoke the language, i very gladly
availed myself of the opportunity thus Of
fered We drove over n very fine country
for some miles, past groves of cottonwoods
and naples that had been set out in regular
rows by owners of farms, and here noticed
what seems a very peculiar way of building
their houses far from where they had planted
their groves and shade trees, the houses
standing out in the open glare of the sun, far
from any shclteriDg shade Houses here are
built of mud, n sort of clay mixed with straw
They first lay n very loose, rough wall of
small bowlders, cementing them together with
clay. They then plaster this wall thickly
over with the mixed clay, and allow it to
stand until thoroughly dried by the sun,
when it is again plastered with clay. This is
repeated number of times, the last coat
being given n thorough whitewash of lime
The walls, when thus finished, are nearly two
feet thick, and enclose about as damp, i'll
ventilated and unhealthy habitation as can
be found or constructed.
AN EVENING MEAL.
Arriving at our destination about the time
for the evening meal, we were invited to take
supper before returning The doctor, being
acquainted, at first hesitatsd but on my ex-
pressing desire to stay and see what
would see he accepted the invitation, and we
entered the house, STOPPING and cropping
through a shed-like structure into the kitchen,
which also served dining room, sittirg
| room. as well as nursery. Phew! On enter
ing the room we were made aware of the
most fearful odor arising from tho compost
which was used for fuel. After sitting few
moments, my oifactories becoming some
what accustomed to the smells and my eyes
accustomed to the dar kness, relieved only by
the family struggling Tight that forced its
way in through two small narrow windows
set deep in the thick mud walls, found time
to take IA survey of the inside of the room,
and this is what l saw: A small square room,
with a large bed i'll one corner, a table in the
| other, while ut one side was an oven made of
clay and covered with sheet iron, upon which
| the woman was cooking the supper of which
| we were soon calletl to partake.
Perhaps this may reach the eye of some one
anxious to Learnt the secret of tastily spreading
| an evening repast, so l will attempt to tel
! you how they had put upon the table what
the doctor said was far better than the aver
age supper to he gotten in the neighborhood.
In the center Of the table was placed large
| bowl, containing a soup OF which some of the
| ingredients We're prunes, dried apples, flour
| and water, onions and milk. In addition to
the soup huge loaf of dark looking rye and
wheat flour bread was placed on the table
| and we We're asked to "ess,n which we pro-
cecded to do in hearty manner as the
circumstances would allow. Coffee was
served in glass tumblers and drank without
| sugar, though We did have milk. L ate my
| dish of soup To convince the Doctor that was
| accustomed to good fare like this, while he ate
| his tn cnnN inc, me that he ikeu To live nmnnr