Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-30

| they have been born. found one woman
here, governess, whom I know to have
I been a fashionable leader in the ''English
circle" in Berlin in 1882, while a tutor IN
another establishment is an Oxford linguist,
who has published creditable book in Lon
don within five years last past. Both o:
| them begged me in Gods name not to reveal
their present whereabouts and condition
Outside of the great estates, the Galiclan
peasantry in general are Of two distinct
races-the Ruthenians, of Russian descent,
| and the Poles. Their conditions are equal,
but they have many distinct characteristics.
Neither actually possesses foot of soiL
Most hold their patches of ground, or huts,
when they are simply cotiers and laborers,
at the will of the lord; and rent is seldom
collected in money, for of money they have
little or none. Field products are some
| times taken in lieu of money, but rents are
usually, almost universally, collected in
labor, amounting to from 80 to 100 working
days in each year to each man.
The More Manly of The Two.
The Ruthenian is the tidier, thriftier,
more mantul of the two. His dress is OF
coarse, hempen stuff, with his shirt hanging
outside his trousers, with occasionally o
sack-like coat made of the coarse, long hair
of the mountain sheep. His feet are COW
cred with moccasins pointed at the toes and
laced from the toe to the ankle. He wears
no stockings, but loosely winds his legs
with cord from his ankles half way to the
knees, where it binds his baggy trousers
closely. In the summer he wears O straw
hat, and in the winter Lapland hood. He
is a coarse, clean man, never fat, of splen-
did muscular development; wiry, active,
alert, and by all odds the best workman or
laborer in Galicia.
The Ruthenian woman has some odd ideas
of dress. The material Is usually of coarse
linen. Her gown, which Is in reality her
chemise, is open from neck to knees and is
belted in loose folds about tho waist An.
other curious and distinguishing article of
dress is her woolen apron. She is never
without this, but it is worn behind, never
in 'front.' She has no stockings or under
garments, but her feet are shod like her hus-
band's-with pointed and laced moccasins
Her head, In winter and summer, is always
bound in gaudy handkerchief, but she pos
sesses no other article of clothing whatever,
except a. sheepskin coat for winter use
What she lacks next her skin she makes up
in ornamentation. I have counted more
than score of brass rings on the fingers OF
her two hands Her earrings of hollow brass
would hold enough oil to light the family
freside for an evening; and her necklace OF
glass or imitation coral beads, coiled half
dozen times about her by no means charm
ing neck, is always yards in length.
A Box of Treasured Keepsskes.
Often five to ten families live under one
roof, but usually the doma or house which
the Ruthenian calls his buda, is q tiny hut
of one room. All tho furniture In this
cots, stools, tables and chests-are hand.
made and almost always made by the peas
ant himself There is invariably one box
on which he has lavished his most loving
art 1t contains his keepsakes and treas
urcs and all his kreutzers and gulden. He
never relinquishes the key to this, and not
even his wife knows how little or great Is
the store it contains.
The Polish peasants stove is square box
of stone or brick, with a square hole in
front and another square hole on top. As
his stove is more modern than the Ruthen-
ian's, his food is more varied and better.
He is lover of all vegetables, and cabbage
is almost a staple of food This is varied
by his barsz soup, or O vegetable soup con.
tanning chunks of pork, and each Polish
peasant is said to consume half a ton of
gorGen, or cucumbers preserved with bay
leaves and salt, every year. Another meal
of which he is very fond is potatoes and
sour milk. The latter costs but kreutzers
per quart, or cents per gallon. He is
q slave TO spirits. and the average Polish
peasant consumes one gallon of vile Ger
man schnapps every week.
The houses of both Ruthenian and Polish
peasants are but one story high, with one
room open to the roof They are made of |
slabs and bits of refuse timber from the |
mills. These bits are rudely |
mortised together. When the inner struc-
ture is completed, pegs are driven into the
sides Clay mortar is then thrown upon !
The pegs and pounded until it is solid. The |
surfaces are then wet and worked by hand |
and light mallets until perfectly smooth |
and dry, when the huts are whitewashed |
and thatched. Little groups of these charm |
ingly diversity the often dreary Galician |
landscape. EDGAR L. WAKEMAN. |