The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1891-01-22
REAL RUSSIA.
Continued from Ist page.J

NEAL NUOOlA.
Continued from Ist paseJ
looking straight at me from the front and
both 1anks, together with Hotchkiss ma
| chine cannon and Nordenfeldts en- JarBette at
the angles of the bastiOns to rake the mOats
from end to end, that if KGnigsberg was
not impregnable in the Russian way of
thinking, was perfectly willing to consider
1t so as far as / was personally concerned.
The frontier on the Eydtkuhnen- Wirbal-
len line is formed by small creek, which
the railway crosses by neat iron bridge,
with foOtways each side OF the track, the
boundary being marked by plate with q
line drawn vertically across it. Except q
German sentinel in blue af the west end of
the bridge, and Russian in gray great-coat
and hat-tOpped cap at the east end, there
was nothing to mark the transition from one
GREAT wARLIKE EMPIRE
TO another.
There was much in the aspect Of the
terrain on the respective sides of this imagi-
nary line to indicate the boundary Of two
different types Of civilization. On the Ger
man side the evidences of excellent agri-
culture extended right up to the line. On
the Russian side the characteristic rural
features of that country began immedi-
ately. On the German side, about quarter
of mile south Of the railroad track, and
about the same distance west of the bouu-
dairy, stood in bold relief on the snow-cov-
cred plain an East Prussian farmstead of
more than ordinary picturesqueness, with
its brown walls, it's high gables, its red tiled
roof and its little hamlet of barns OutbuiId-
ings and neatly Fashioned ricks of hay and
straw, around which stood groups Of fine
belted black cattle, together with brood
mares, colts and other livestock This was
the last farmhouse that / saw standing by
itself in the midst of its own farm for some
months! As if to accentuate the difference
in agricultural methods, could see on the
Russian side Of the line, not more than a
mile to the eastward, a group of 10 or 20
thatched log cabins near the edge Of for
est. This was Russian "djgievnia." or
village commune; and it was Just exactly
like every other one that saw from there
to st. Petersburg, or from ST. Petersburg to
the banks of the Don.
The farmhouse, as understood in America,
England, France and Germany, standing by
itself in the midst of its acres, is unknown
in Russia There the tillers Of the soil
and the hewers Of the forest invariably
cluster in little villages of rarely less
than 10 or 90 or more than 40 or 50 rude,
one-story log houses, with thatehed roofs,
strung along the two sides of wide road,
which is full Of snow six months in the
year, with the other six about equally divided
between slush and mud in Fall and Spring,
and dust in Midsummer. Each of these
cabins has its garden patch, and generally a
more or less ricksty log barn in its rear, and
the encourage is completed by stacks OF hay,
grain and straw, among which cattle, colts,
sheep and pigs burrow indiscriminately,
together with whatever rolling stock the
peasant farmer may be possessed of, and
agricultural implements, if he happens to
have any. Externally these tiny villages, in
such strong contrast to the thrift Of the
Pomeraniau and East Prussian farms that
had been surveying all the way from Berlin,
impressed me with the idea that they must
be the abOdes Ofwant and squalor, on first
sight, though soon afterWard found out that
their runprepossessingw walls usually inelosed a
good deal Of primitive happiness, rude plenty
and the most sincere hospitality have ever
encountered in any land. 1t must be un-
derstOOd that Pomerania, Posen, East Prus-
sia, Gumbinnen and Silesia display a degree
of comfort and even Opulence among the
agricultural classes not to be met with
in western and southern Germany, where
the lands are poorer, the population much
denser, and feudal prOprietaries more op-
pIes5iye. In fact, agricuIturally speaking,
eastern Germany is to the West End of the
Empire about what our Western States are
to the Atlantic Seaboard; while West or
white" " Russia, and particularly the ECU
bernOi," or provinces Of KoYno and wilma,
which | entered at Wirballen, are among the
porest portions Of that vast domain, at least
in equivalent latitudes. This communal
tendency of the Russian peasantry is one of
the most interesting traits of that people,
and when studied intelligently affords key
both to the social instincts of the race and
TO many dark pages in the sad and savage
traditions of the early history Of the Empire.
Ito be eoatiHued)