The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-10-02

work, aud In the winter they put great
heavy boots OF felt upon their feet.
Neither sex wears stockings and they
wrap a cotton rag around the foot and up
the ankles to about the middle of the calf.
Tying II round and round with string.
Their dresses are short and they tuck them
up while they are working. They wear lit
tie or no undercl0the5 and their summer
dress consists Of this shirt, chemse and a
snort sack which extends only to the waist
Even on fete days their dresses are not ex-
penslve. and costume consisting OF white
chemlse, cut low at the neck, with long, full
sleeves, and dropping down to the knees,
with an apron tied around over the bust.
constitutes woman's outfit. This chemlse-
Ike dress is fastened over the bust and
under the arms and is held by braces over
the shoulders. The apron is tied around
Ine waist AS we'll as over the shoulders, and
the SKIRT reaches nearly to the feet. The
dress Is embroidered with cross. stitch Of
req and blue. and the neck above the che
mise Is often covered with strings of beads.
1hese costumes vary in different parts of
the country. In Little Russia the dresses
are often one mass of embroidery. and the
women wear very pretty embroidered
crown over their heads, and the dresses
come nigh about the neck. The nurses every
where have costumes OF their own, and the
French girls, who act as the wetnurses of
the babies OF st. Petersburg, always have
crowns upon their heads, and you can tell
nurse as far as you can see her. The peasant
woman knows nothing OF the corset, and
she has nc idea of fashion. The people
wear the same costumes from year to year,
ana the peasant dress of today is the same
as that OF generations ago. / saw in KaZan
M0hammedan women who wore sacks over
thelr heads with the sleeves hanging down
on tneir shoulders and with only crack at
me 'front.' through which they conld see as
they went along the street, and the dress OF
OF the women of koren.
saw other women there whose heads and
breasts were covered with gold coins just
IKE nose OF the women whom you see in
the Hlmalaya Mountains OF India on the
BORDERS of Thibet, and these Tartar women
nave the same bronze faces and high cheek
ZONES that are found in the girls OF the
hiihaaya Mountains. They are OF Mon
CONAN origin and they lock more like Chi
heSe than Americans. The coins which they
wear are real coins and they generally rep
resent the dover which the woman brings
INTO the family when she is married. Some
Oh the women Of Little Russia have a simi-
lar way Qf ornamenting them elves. and |
GOT photograph OF one who had breast
pIate covered with gold coins and whose
heaa was loaded down with them.
speaking of woman's work among the
peasants the hardest field work is done by
the women, and they get lower wages than
the men. Their hours are from about
O'Clock In the morning to Z or s o'clock in
tue evening, and Is cents dayis big wages.
Ii they receive food their wages are even
less Than this, and In some parts of Russia
girls get cents day and board them
serves. In other regions their wages rise ss
nigh as 20 cents, and In very few parts of
the empire they are paid even more than
tills. Ihey are as a rule better workers
than. the men, and they do not seem to ap-
preclate how badly eff they are l hear
them singing in the fields As / travel
throughout the country, and they do not
seem 10 think their life a hard one. They
seem TO think they were made for work,
and married or single their life is one of toll
almost from birth until death.
1hey marry young. and the rule here Is
large family. Nearly every woman YOU see
has baby at the breast, and Russia has
perhaps more children to the population
than any other country on the globe. Mar
rlages among the peasants are often ar
ranged Dy the parents and there are fire.
quent love matches at which the priest is
not called in. The habits Of the people are
such that II is wonder there is not even
greater per cent of illegitmate births than
there are. The sexes herd together like
cattle In these little Russian huts, and young
girls and unmarried men and the women
and men Of several families will crowd to-
getner upon the ledge of the Russian stove.
Above the peasants is the merchant class,
and the women Of this class are to a urge
extent dlferent from those OF the nobility or
the neasants. They do not do the hard
work OF the peasants nor have they the in
teliigence of their sisters of the nobility.
The merchants of Russia form to a large
extent the middle class and the merchants
wives and daughters are kept out of sight.
They spend their time in dressing, smoking
and eating, and their husbands when they
chat with their fellows about women USUALLY
speak of them as "the children of the devil"
and they are full of all sorts of superstitions
concerning them. In none of the Russian
churches is woman permitted to 20 into
the inner sanctuary, and if one is going out
hunting it is considered bad luck to meet a
woman and he had better turn back.
The daughters OF these merchants are
often very religious and very superstitious.
Their marriages are usually made by match
makers. and the merchants expected to give
a good dowry with his daughter when she en-
tiers matrimony. Long engagements are not
common and they seldom last more than
two or three months. Among the peasants
the girls usually weave and embroider their
own wedding gowns, and they begin TO get