The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-09-15

the further you get from st. Petersburg the
better they grow. / am told that in the north
ern part Of Finland you will never see a
drunken man, a cripple, or beggar, and that
the people are very industrious and very re-
ligious.
Let me tell you how they look. The men are
Of about medium. ight. They have fat faces.
high cheek bones, and their eyes are small and
are of blue or light-gray color. Their boards,
which they wear long and ragged, are usually
blonde or red and their forms are lean and
muscular. They have an honest sort of look
about them, and they are more like the Nor
wegans which come to America than like the
Russians They wear in the Summer long,
loose woollen coats, which they tie around the
waist with girdle, and in the Winter they use
the sheepskin coat with the fur turned in
ward. They are fond Of bright colors, and they
usually wear red vests, and their belts are,
when they can afford it, Of red silk.
Some of the best servants of ST. Petersburg
come from Finland, and the Finnish nurse girl
and the Finnish wet nurse are seen everywhere.
The latter has costume of her own, and part
Of this is a cap of bright colors with a paste.
board crown covered with blue silk and en-
broidered with false pearls, which runs over the
top Of the head from ear to ear. She wears
dress cut low, with short sleeves pulled up at
the elbows and around her sturdy neck and
WI 0tA DOcoll uobS many va
beads. The nurses not, as rule, very pretty,
bat they extraordinarily healthy, and the
better class Of Russians use them very largely
for nursing their children.
The Finland maiden is quito as fond OF dress
as her American sister, and the costumes of the
back districts are very striking. The dresses
of the women are covered with metal buttons.
They wear a leather strap around the head
which is studded with yellow buttons, and
their fingers are covered with rings. They are
fond Of red chemises and their skirts are often
Of red They are, like the men, generally very
muscular, and you will not see a more healthy
looking people anywhere. They die young.
however, and they are subject to all sorts OF
epidemics. Among other things the light is
very hard on their eyes. and thousands Of peo-
pie are half blind.
The chief business of Finland is agriculture,
and the barrenness of the country is such that
they cannot produce more than enough TO keep
them. Finland is in fact great ledge of gram
lite rising from six 10 eight hundred feet above
the sea, and the northern part of it almost en-
tirely covered with forests. Ii is in the south
that the best farming goes on, and the people
have Agricultural Colleges, and they cultivate
the soil much better than the peasants of Rus
STA. They have never been serfs, and they are
naturally, think, of a higher grade of intel
lgence than the Russians.
1ney arc especially SkllleO In DAIRY farming
and in cattle breeding and the Finnish butter
lie known all over the world. They pack butter
in tin cans, and hare eaten this butter as far
east as Japan, and a great deal of il is sold
here in ST. Petersburg. IL is as solid as cheese
is made without salt, and is so sweet that you
can eat it without bread and enjoy il. The in
crease of exports Of butter from Finland goes
steadily onward, and butter has now become so
valuable 10 the people that the peasants who
make il use il only on holidays and sell the
most that they make. They have many i'm
ported cattle, but the best COWS in Finland at
the present time are OF an old Finland breed
known as The North Savolaksisk stock one of
which produced 300 quarts in one year, and
which are said to be the best mixers in Eu-
rope. They are small yellow cows, weighing,
judge, not more than 600 pounds, but they
seem to thrive in Finland, and their milk is
very rich.
The most of the Finnish butter is now
churned from sweet cream and the cream is
often heated before churning, and butter made
from warm cream is said 20 keep better than
that made from the cold article. The Firms do