Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-01-08
An Isolated Existence.

The exodus of the Mennonites from the valley of the Volga to America began about two decades ago. The love of peace on the part of these simple minded folk led them to forsake Russia as their forefathers had departed from German provinces, and they came in large bodies to the extreme west.
 In 1874 a body of them purchased 1O0, 900 acres of land in central Kansas, and the settlers came in one company to make it their home. They wore queer sheepskin coats and odd kerchiefs and attracted as much attention on the streets of Kansas towns as would q freak from Midway. But they soon were seen no more outside their own territory, where they built their own villages and began tilling their own farms. Another colony went far into western Kansas back many miles from the railway, and entered on its similarly isolated existence. This colony has per haps kept itself most strictly to native Russian customs, and not even the Min nesota settlements retain so unCorrupted
 a heritage of old world strangeness. Such names as Herzog, Catherincstadt,
 Liberthal, Pfeifer and Obermundshuh are given to the villages, and their appearance | Is as queer as their nomenclature. The Russians still cling to the primitive meth cd of residing close together and tilling farms outside the settlement, a relic of the | days when protection to life demanded | that help should be within speedy call. Hence at morning there is 0 scattering of workers from tho central hive, and in the | evening the teams and drivers come back | to the cozy village.
 Many have not been naturalized, and | they take as close an interest in the doings of the Russian empire as ever. The recent | f,, hn knncahnlI rasl | much attention and were discussed eagerly in native patois, the death of the little | father" being particularly deplored, not l withstanding tho old time oppression. When they first located on the prairies, l they built their homes in facsimile of those left behind on the banks of the Nolga. | Their chief villages arc of stone the houses l square and flat roofed, erected close on a
 single long street, with yards in the rear. | The people wore their queer foreign vest l mentS for a long time, but now show signs | of adopting conventional dress. The stable | manure Is manufactured into peatlike fuel | for the big Russian ovens with which the houses are equipped. These ovens also
 burn straw and prairie hay, so that the
 expensive coal question is to a degree an l swered.
 Within the houses are in many instances
 furnished partly with heirlooms from the
 firesides of their native dwellipgs-old
 chairs, settees and dishes brought with
 them in the exodus.
 Their Churches.
 A notable feature of the settlements are
 the churches, the large stone edifices being
 the most prominent features of the narrow
 streets. Some of these are very expensive
 and magniflcently furnished, considering
 the character of the communicants. The
 priest Is the most important parsonage i'll
 the community, and the utmost faith ex
 ists in the power of religious rites. Dur
 ing the long continued drought of last
 summer the MennoDites of western Kan
 sns became thoroughly alarmed for their
 crops and decided upon Q pilgrimage as a
 last resort in bringing the much desired
 rain. One Sunday morning an entire con
 gregation, men, women and children
 headed by the priest bearing sacred em'