Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-02-09
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60
SETTLERS FROM RUSSIA.

Remarkable Success In Agriculture by the
Mennonite Exiles.
Ouick as are Americans to criticise the
,,onners and customs of Russia, and in
forior as the subjects of the czar are fire.
ouently considered, the settlers on the
restern prairies might well learn lesson
# the Russians who have their unique
oettlements among them. The Mennon-
ties. exiled from southern Russia because
Of their religion, made as systematic an
exodus as did the Israelites of old. They
sent out their agents to spy out the land
md purchased 100000 acres of the Santa
Tsand Kansas Pacific railways for homes.
Then the people packed up their house
hold goods and came to America. On
the depot platforms they landed, wearing
shccpskin coats, the woolly side out, and
black handkerchiefs over their heads.
~hey carried iron teakettles and regard
ed the gazing Americans with as much
curiosity as they themselves attracted.
They built their villages of yellow lime
stone, the houses having queer hip roofs,
green blinds and double doors like those
seen in q mill. Curious ovens, in which
prairie hay or straw could be burned,
overcame the lack of fuel, and street
looked for all the world as though it had
dropped out of an illustration in aSiberi-
an sketch. Such names as Catherine
stadt," "Leberthal" and "Pfeiffer" grace
their towns, and no man not of Mennon-
ite persuasionis allowed inside the limits
as resident, though visitors are cordial
ly welcomed.
The Mennonites number several thou
sand, but they GI2 N9Ycr heard of in poll
tics. They are busy tilling their 100000
acres, raising stock, planting orchards
and pling up wealth. The wide awake
westerner standing on the street corner
explaining the contraction of the cur
rency" to knot of listeners sees a half
dozen odd looking wagons come toiling
up the road. They are loaded with
wheat and solemn faced Mennonites, who
guide the sober teams, pocket the pay
ment and trudge homeward. The ora
tors hold forth in the country school
house, 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 become the richest
class of farmers probably, their num-
bers considered, that Kansas affords.
They take few papers, they do not vote,
they care nothing whether the govern
ment is Republican or Democratic in its
management. They are as isolated as
though they were upon sea island, ex-
cept as they bring in their produce to the
shipping 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 store
houses of garden and field products. To
step into them is like visit to the land
of the Volga. Curious furniture, strange
garb and peculiar habits impress one
with the feeling that he is in another
land and another age. The houses are
for the most part surrounded by stone
walls and old country fashions in fenc-
ing. Barns and implements are every
where apparent.
They have their own minister, their |
own church and their own schools. |
When a "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 college to
acquire it,
There is an important lesson in their
success. They have shown by their works
what industry and frugality can accom-
plish upon the prairies and what can be
done with the right kind of effort. Still,
it is doubtful 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. Abilene
kan Cor. st. Louis Globe Democrat,