Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-21

side facing the room, leaving about two feet
for the chimney, there was cut out under
the ceiling ledge about three feet high
and of the depth of the stove. This was in
fact the top of the stove, and it formed,
was told, the bed of the family in the win
ter time. This family included several
married sons and daughters, and it had in
addition to the old folks about II children
and grandchildren. In some way or another
they all packed themselves in on this ledge
at night, and they huddled together upon
the log floor below in the day time.
No Effor. at ornamentation.
The whole space in the room was not
much larger than that of one of a slx-room
house occupied by an American day laborer,
and its furniture consisted of four rude
stoves some benches which ran around the
walls, and a rude table, on which the family
ate their meals There were no pictures on
the walls and no plaster nor paper. In one
corner hung rude painting of the Virgin,
with little candle burning before it, and I
noted that while I was present one of the
girls looked at this and crossed herself On
one of the benches lay a sheepskin coat,
and saw one garment hanging from the
wall Ii there were any other clothes be-
longing to the family they may have been
stored in box, which 1 saw in the room
outside, but they were not in sight
The Russian peasant requires but a small
wardrobe. He puts on one shirt and wears
it out, sticking to it night and day. Neither
sex has any use for night shirts and all the
family sleep in the same clothes that they
wear in the day time. They know nothing
of bed clothing nor of the luxury of clean
sheets and soft pillows and they sleep more
like sheep than like men. Young girls and
young men, married and single, babies and
grandmothers, all crowd in together, and the
animal heat of the whole added to that of
the stove must give them warmth. Their
winter clothing is made up largely of sheep
skins with the wool turned inward, and the
people seem to stand the heat and cold
equally we'll Their clothes must cost them
but little. The men wear calico pantaloons
in the summer and they have red calico
shirts, which they wear outside of their
pantaloona
Bow the Feet Are Dressed.
The latter are held up by string around
the waist and often turned in at the legs be-
low the knee, being wrapped about with
the rags which form the stockings of peas
ant Russia These rags are wrapped about
the feet and over the ankles and around the
lower part of the calves If the Russian is
rich enough he pulls pair of high boots
over them, and into the tops OF these he
stufs his pantaloonA 1t he is poor, as is
the case with ninety-nine hundredths of his
kind, he wears felt boots in the winter and
low slippers in the summer. These slippers
are of woven grass or bark. They are made
without heels and are worn by all, The
peasant girls, in fact, wear the same kind of
tootgear as the boys, and the belle of one of
the Russian villages never knows the de-
lights of barber-pole stockings, and her
garters do not cost her shilling in a lite-
time.
Neither sex wears any underclothinp, and
a great step will have been made when YOU
can make these people believe that such
items as drawers and undershirts are among
the absolute necessities of life As il is
their needs are so small that they have not
the incentives to work to satisfy them that
we have, and q mans whole summer outfit
would not cost as much as an American far
mer spends for coat Their headgear is as
cheap as the rest of their clothes, and the
men all wear caps-when they wear any
thing-and the women tie up their heads in
bright colored handkerchiefs, fastening
these by knotting them under the chin.
Toilet of Village Belle.
No Russian peasant eirl ever dreams of
buying or wearing corsets or stays and her
entire outfit at this time of the year consists
of this handkerchief for her head, q Mother
Hubbard gown of white cotton or red or
blue calico which reaches almost to her
ankles, and an apron which is gathered in
and cut low at the neck, and which tails to
below her knees, sometimes being belted in
at the waist and sometimes left to fall over
her full bust without being so tied. In ad-
dition to these she has rag stockings reach
ing to the tops of her calves and a pair of
bark shoes In many cases she dispenses
with the belt, apron and shoes
This habit of wearing the same clothes
day and night and the lack of underclothing