Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-07-20
THRIFTY EXILES.
A KANSAS COLONY OF RUSSIAN
oIENNONIrES.
They Occupy 100, 900 Acres of Land
and 1.-Two In Queer Houses
They Arc Very Indus
trlous and Prosperous.

i successfully defied the ele-
6 ments and has made sue
cess OF farming, regardless of tho
droughts and all other natural disad-
vaptages with which the settlers ON
the far Western plains have had to
contend. These aro tho Russian Men
nonites, the most Industrious people
that ever plowod furrow of Kansas
soil. They have no time to attend to
anybody's business except their own,
and, above all, they never meddle with
politics
The Mennonites, exiled from south.
ern Russia because of their religion,
made as systematic an exodus as did
the Israelites of old. They sent out
their agents to spy out land, and pur-
chased 100, 900 acres from tho Atchi-
son, Topeka and Santa Fe and Kansas
Pacific railroad companies for homes
Thon thepeople packed up their house
hold goods and came to America. On
the depot platforms they landed, wear
ing eheepskin coats, and black kcr-
chiefs over their heads. They carried
iron tea kettles and regarded the gaz-
ing Americans with rs much curiosity
as they themselves attracted.
They built their villages of yellow
limestone, tho houses having queer
hip roofs, green blinds, and double
doors, like those seen in mill. Curl
Gus ovens ill which prairie grass or
straw could be burned overcamo tho
lack of fuel, and street looked for
all tho world ms though it had dropped
n n
sketch. Such names us Catherine
stadt, Lebertbal, and Pleiffer grace
their towns, and no man not Mon
monte is allowed inside their limits as
resident, though visitors arc cor
daily welcomed.
Tho Mennonites number several
thousand in the State, but they are
never heard of in politics. They aro
busy tilling their 100, 900 acres, rails.
ing stock, planting orchards, and pill
ing up wealth. The wideawake West
ern politician, standing on the street
corner explaining the contraction of
the currency to IL knot of listeners,
sees half-dozen odd-looking wagons
toiling up the'road. They arc loaded
with wheat, and solemn faced Men
nonites, who guide the sober teams.
pocket the payments, and drive home
ward. Orators proclaim i'll the country
schoolhouses and the eager real estate
agent plots additions to the towns, but
the Mennonites pay no attention to
either. They keep on selling wheat and
corn and cattle until they have become
the richest farmers, their number
considered, that Kansas affords. They
take few papers; they do not vote they
care nothing whether the Government
is Republican or Democratic in its
management. They arc ms isolated MS
though they were on sea island, OK
cept as they bring in their produce to
the shipping station.
1t is noticeable that nearly all their
lands are in the much discussed arid
region. yet tho Mennonitcs never ask
aid or seed wheat. They prosper
every year and their homes nre verita-
bic storehonses of garden and field
products. TO step into them is like
visit to the land of the Volga. Curl
Gus furniture, strange garb and pecu-
liar habit impress one with tho feeling
that he is i'll another land and another
age. The houses are for the most part
surrounded with stone walls and old
country fencing; barns and nipple
ments arc everywhere apparent. The
people have their own minister, their
own church, and their own schools.
When higher education is desired
and some of their young people are as
forward in their ambition us American
youth-thcre is plenty OF money in
the village bank to send them to
Europe OF to some Eastern college to
acquire it.
During the year 1893. when COM
plant of hard times has gone up from
the jewellers on the plains, when seed
wheat has been sent by the thousand
bushels to American settlers, the Rus
Sims have continued to thrive. Their
old-fashioned vehicles have como reg
nlarly to the railroads and carload
after carload of wheat has been sent
East. Lumber dealers in the town
where they do their buying say that
there has been no diminution i'll their
purchases, and that by lar the larger
portion of their yards sales have gone
to their Russian customers.
There is an important lesson in their
success. They have shown by their
works what industry and frugality can
accomplish upon the prairies, and
what can be done with the right kind
OF effort. Still, it is doubtful if the
American could bring himself and his
family to tho grinding economy of the
European peasant labor which the
Mennonites have transplanted in their
settlements. Chicago Record.
Lnr Ernm Adam,s Timn