St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-05-05

hand, hurried alongto church, where
companies of men in immaculate lin
Ell and stiff embroidered coats stood
in solemn rows like supernumeraries
on stage The church. was already
partly full when we entered, and
there was a hustle of many people
settling themselves in their places,
and a constant stream of worship
pers coming in It different doors. We
sat there marvelling at the strange
dresses, enchanted by the brilliant
colors, all the while unable to realize
that this was the customary weekly
ceremony, not a dramatic pageant
arranged for our benefit. The sexes
sat apart, and the married and the
single each entered the church by
different door. Near the altar the
marriagea maidens came clump-
ing in with their red boots, always
in parties of three or more, each with
a little bright-colored rug, a prayer
| book, and d bunch of flowers.
Spreading out their rugs on the
stone floor, they kneeled down in
rows facing the altar, and, after care
fully arranging their pleated Sunday
manned a few moments in the atti-
tude of PRAYER, and then rose and
! took their seats Of all that great
| congrega tion there was not one who
| did not wear the costume, and, with
the exception of some of the orna-
ments and finer textiles, all the arti-
cles of dress were ofhOme production.
Every thread of the linen and wool
had been spun on the busy distaff as
the women went to and from the
| fields to their work, and woven in
the winter time, when the clatter of
the loom is heard in every house.
| During the sermon we hurried
away to be present at the close of
| the church service in the neighboring
village of Bezdan, inhabited by Mag
vars. 1t was a few miles away, and
we arrived only in time to see the
| quiet streets enlivened with people
totally different III type and dress
from those we had just left. In the
Pickering shadow of the trees, under
the MONDAY sun, the women strobe
off homeward with an energy of &C
ton that made their stiff petticoats
balloon out still more Near the
| CLuI( lliC GU III
to listen to the crier who was an
nouncing various articles for sale.
The unmarried girls of the village
wear white linen dresses with short
sleeves and embroidered waists,
wreaths of flowers in their hair,
! bright red ribbons down their backs.
black stockings, and dainty red and
yellow slippers. The matrons wear
colors, sometimes green or black,
but usually red, and the men are
chiefly noticeable for their loose linen
garments and elaborate boots, often
with a survival of the spur in the
shape of a brass ornament on the
side of the heel Even as we stood
watching the people the streets be-
came quite deserted again, and so
we FASTENED on to another village,
where, in the populous Servian quar-
ter, we caught our first glimpses of
Oriental life in the groups of women
sitting in the road in the shadow of
the houses, disdaining, like true
Orientals, all such luxuries as chairs
and tables, and disturbed bv no hor-
ror of dirt. Our Sundays excursion
also included a gypsy settlement
not common sight, for these peo-
pie are seldom permitted to occupy
houses. 1t disagreeablv contrasted
in its squalor and filth with the per-
fiction of neatness and tidiness
among the Schokatzs and Magyars,
but gave US a notion of the range
of types easily studied in this
neighborhood.-[ From From the
Black Forest to the Black Sea-"
by F. D. Millet, in Harper's Maya
zine for Nav