The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-08-07

anywhere else in the world. They are fer
superior to what the peasants are accGs-
toned to at home and they grow fat on
them,
HOW THE PEASANTS EAT.
don't know whether this peasant board
ing house contractor furnishes the dishes
or not, but SUPP ose he does. [ watched
meal of the workmen and the extra ex
pense in this regard could not be large.
The men ate as | have seen the peasants IN
many places where they are served with
dinners by the famine relief people, and in
fact just as they eat in their own homes.
The only dishes were wooden bowls the
size of those in which the ordinary Ameri-
can family chops its hash or the farmers
wife works her butter. These bowls were
about three inches deep and they were
filled with thick soup. The tables were
knocked up only of rough piauks, and were
two feet wide and 100 feet long, with
benches running along both sides of them
so as 10 form seats for the men. There was
no cloth upon them, but the white surface
of each table was marked off with char
coal into squares, and each square had
number up TO ten, and at the end of the
ten squares second series OF
ten numbers began. Each man had thus his
own square place at the table, and one
of these bowls vas set in the center OF
each gang and contained enough for ten
persons. Instead of a plate. cup or
saucer, each man had in his hand spoon
of yellow woo0 which would hold abOu
twice as much as the ordinary tablespoon,
and the men took their turns IN dipping
their spoons into the soup and carrying it
to their mouths. There was rigid order
about the whole and there was no chance
for man to get q spoonful more than his
snare. AS 10 this service, however, not
one Of the hundred long bearded men at
the table objected, and the majority of
them would not know how 10 handle
dishes of porcelain and knives and forks.
LIVING ON LESS THAN 3 CENTS A DAY.
The above is, as 1 have said. fat living
for these people. They are furnished 1t by
a contractor, who makes some money out
of it and who is dependent for his
custom on the excellence Of his bread
The famine relief kitchens, which are
supported by the government and charity,
give dinners for ) kopecks apiece
or "a cents day. During the worst part
of the winter dinners were given for
less than ] cent meal, and during
tbs famine one such meal was given daily
to thousands who could not even pay
this amount for nothing. There was
one of these kitchens, Mini Novgorod,
which was serving hundreds OF these ~
cent meals to ali who paid for them and
giving them to such as could prove them
selves destitute. For this ~ cents they
gave bowl of soup, with DIT Of meat as
big as the palm CT your hand and pound
and half of bread, and on fast days fish
took the place of meat. One of the Gus
toms in regard to this dining room seemed
to be an excellent one, and If eating rooms
on similar plan could be established in
America it would be good thing. This
custom was the giving of beggars meal
tickets instead OF money. The proprietors
of the establishment sold twenty Of their
dinner tickets for 80 cents and the ciIizens
of the town bought these by the hundred,
and wheu approached by beggars for aims
they gave them tickets for these 1115-cent
meals instead of money. Such tickets
could not, of course, be used at the Vodka
shops or saloons and they prevented fraud
| on the part of the beggars.
A RUSSIAN GOVERNOR on THE FAMINE
During lunch which DIR. Hubbel and
myself took with the governor of Mini
Ncvgorod we had long talk about the
famine. and as Mini Novgorod was one Of
| the first districts TO take measures to cid
! the people his story of the situation was