Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-03-16
EXILES FROM RUSSIA.
Remarkable Success of the Mem
nonites In Kansas.
A seIf-sustaining and Independent People
Who Have Nothing to DO with
the Outside World Save In
Commercial Way.

Quick as are Americans TO criticise
the manners and customs of Russia,
and inferior as the subjects of the ear
are frequently considered, the settlers
on the western prairies might well
learns a lesson Of the Russians who have
their unique settlements among them,
The Mennonites, exiled from southern
Russia because of their religion, made
as systematic an exodus as did the Is
raelites of old, says Kansas corre-
spondent of the st. Louis GlObe-DemO-
crat They sent out their agents 10
spy out the land, and purchased one
hundred thousand acres of the Santa
Fe and Kansas Pacific railways for
homes. Then the people packed up
their household goods and came TO
America. On the depot platforms they
landed, wearing sheepskin coats, the
woolly side out, and black kerchiefs
over their heads. They carried iron
teakettes and regarded the gazing
Americans with as much curiosity as
they themselves attracted. They built
their villages of yellow limestone, the
houses having queer hip roofs, green
blinds and double doors like those seen
in a mill. Curious ovens in which
prairie hay or straw could be burned
overcame the lack of fuel and a street
looked for all the world as though it
had dropped out of an illustration in
Siberian sketch Such names as Cath
crime stadt," "Leberthal' and "Pfeif-
fer" grace their towns, and no man not
Of Mennonite persuasion is allowed in
side the limits as a resident, though
visitors are cordially welcomed.
The MenOnnites number several
thousand, but they are never heard of
in politics. They are busy tilling their
one hundred thousand acres, raising
stock, planting orchards and piling up
wealth. The wide-awake westerner,
standing on the street corner explain
ing the contraction of the currency"
to a knot of listeners, sees haf-dozen
odd-looking wagons come toiling up
the road. They are loaded with wheat
and solemn-faced Mennonnites, who
guide the soberer teams, pocket the
payment and trudge hOmeward. The
orators hold forth in the country
schoolhouse, and the eager real estate
agent plats 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 class of farmers,
probably, their number considered,
that Kansas affords. They take few
papers, they do not vote, they care
nothing whether the government is re-
publican or democratic in its manage
ment. They are as isolated as though
they were upon sea island, except as
they bring their produce to the station.
1t is noticeable that nearly all the
lands are in the much discussed 'arid
belt" yet the Mennonites never ask
aid or seed wheat. They prosper every
year. and their homes are veritable
storehouses of garden and field prod
ucts. To step into them is like visit
TO the land of Volga. Curious furni-
ture, strange garb and peculiar hab-
its impress one with the feeling that
he is in another land and another age.
The houses are for the most part sur
rounded by stone walls and old cOun-
try fashions in fencing barns, and inn
plements are everywhere apparent.
They have their own minister, their
own church and their own schools.
When higher" education is desired
land some of the young people are as
forward in their ambition for learning
as American YOUTH there is plenty of
money in the village bank to send
them to Europe or to some eastern col
lege to acquire it. During the last
year, when common complaint OF hard
times went up from the dwellers on
the plains, when seed wheat has been
sent by the thousand bushels to Amer
lean settlers, the Russians have con-
tinued to thrive. Their old-fashioned
vehicles have come regularly to the
railroads, and carload after carload
of wheat has been sent east. Lumber
dealers in the towns where they do
their buying say that there has been
no diminution in their purchases, and
that by far the larger portion Of their
yards sales have gone TO their Russian
customers. There is an important les
son in their success. They have shown
by their works what industry and fru-
gality can accomplish upon the prai-
ries, and what can be done with the
right kind Of effort. Still it is doubt
full if the American settler could bring
himself and his family to the grinding
economy of European peasant life
which the Mennonites have trans
planted in their settlements.