The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-03-20
THRIFTY EX[LES.
A KANSAS COLONY OF RUSSIAN
MENNONITES.
They Occupy Toe ,OOG Acres of Land
and Live in Queer Houses
They Are Very Indus
trious and Prosperous.

one class of citizens that has
successfully defed the ele-
ments and has made sue
cess of farming, regardless of the
droughts and all other natural disad-
vantages with which the settlers on
the far Western plains have had to
contend These are the Russian Men
nonites, the most Industrious people
that ever plowed furrow Of Kansas
soil. They have no time to attend to
anybody's business except their own,
and, above all, they never NEEDLE 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 the Atchi-
son, Topeka and Santa Fe and Kansas
Pacific railroad companies for homes.
Then the people packed up their house
hold goods and came to America. On
the depot platforms they landed, wear
ing sheepskin coats, and black ker-
chiefs over their heads. They carried
iron tea kettles and regarded the gaz-
ing 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 mill. Curl
Gus ovens in which prairie grass or
straw could be burned overcame the
l. 81 ,,o1 c{r al F.,
all the world as though it had dropped
ont of an illustration in Siberian
sketch. Such names as Catherine
stadt, Leberthni, and Pleiffer grace
their towns, and no man not a Men
monte is allowed inside their limits as
resident, though visitors are cor
daily welcomed.
The Mennonites number several
thousand in the State, but they are
never heard of in politics. They are
busy tilling their loo, 900 acres, rails
ing stock, planting orchards, and pill
ing up wealth. The wideawake West
ern politician, standing Oh the street
corner explaining the contraction of
the currency to a knot of listeners,
sees hslf-doZen oGd-looking wagons
toiling up the road. They are loaded
with wheat, and solemnfaced Men
nonites, who guide the sober teams,
pocket the payments, and drive home
ward. Orators proclaim in 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
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 are as isolated as
though they were on sea island, ex-
cept as they bring i'll their produce to
the shipping station.
It is noticeable that nearly sill their
lands are in the much discussed arid
region. yet the Mennonites never ask
aid or seed wheat. They prosper
every year and their homes are verita-
BILE storehouses 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 the feeling
that he is in another land and another
age. The houses are for the most part
surrounded with stone walls and old
country fencing; barns and imple-
ments are 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 rs American
youth there is plenty OF money in
the village bank to send them to
Europe or to some Eastern college to
acquire it.
During the year 1898, 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
slams have continued to thrive. Their
oid-fashioned vehicles have come reg
ularly 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 in their
purchases, and that by tar 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 the grinding economy of the
European peasant labor which the
Mennonites have transplanted in their
settlements. Chicago Record.