The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-06-18

on work. They lived on next to nothing
and never spent cent without long con
sidering the expenditure, Last year their
reward came. Many Russian sold f.,
| 600 and j, 900 bushels of wheat at 81 a
bushel from a quarter section farm. Still
the Russians never evinced any satisfac
ton over their sudden prosperity. They
pocketed their money without Il word and
started back to their farms te prepare for
another crop. The Russians as Il rule
have no use for American banks. The
fate of Kansas and Nebraska banks has
not encouraged their confidence They
avoid the Western money lender. The
average Russian either carries his money
in leathern pouch about with him or Sc
cretly buries it in jar on his farm until
he decides where he can use it to advan
tage in buying more acres or new stock for
his farm The merchants i'll the regions
where the Mennonites abound say that il
good share of the coin and paper money
received shows signs of having been buried
in the ground A Mennonite bank check
would be curiosity Two years ago a
rich Russian farmer was killed by light
ming at Hays City. He had received
some ST, 200 just previous and no one
knew where he had buried that sum and
more, too. For year the mans numer-
Gus progeny vainly dug and ploughed the
ground over.
The Russian Mennonite Of the West is
about as little progressive as one can
imagine His riches never alter his per-
sonal appearance. A Kansas Russian
worth $3.50, 600 is no better off, so far as
comfort is concerned, than when he came
over from Russia with his fur cap and his
sheepskin jacket and handful of dollars
in his belt There are few Russians in
Ellis county who are worth half million
of dollars and whose annual income Is
$50, 900 in fair year of prosperity, but
the stranger would never be able to pick
them out from IA lot of the poorest farmers.
The records at the County Recorder S
office reveal the difference in the worldly
riches of the Russians, and the big new
barns and the growing herds and focks
also tell how the Russians may be walking
into wealth.
There is no way of guessing Russian
Mennonite means by the appearance of
his home. Nothing but the plainest and
most primitive furniture is there. Such
things as Brussels carpet, Il mahogany
sofa, or fancy wicker chair are undreamed
of there Seldom even is a picture seen,
and when one is it is some cheap chrome
of Biblical scene, and was given away
with pound of coffee or cake of soap.
Congressman Jerry Simpson once boasted
that he wore no socks. This was said in
speech where several hundred Kansas
Mennonites were present, and he knew
how the statement would strike home.
Many Mennonites who have property worth
SO, 600 and $40, 600 have no carpets on
the floors of their houses, only few cheap
wooden chairs, pine tables and bedsteads,
yellow earthen crockery, and a mammoth
German or Russian Bible, while they may
have 81, 900 or so invested in barns and
corn cribs. A bathtub is positively I'M
known among the Mennonites.
All the Russians dress alike. They are
generally blue or gray eyed, have the light,
fiorid compilations of the Saxons, and are
stocky in statue. They have prodigious
growths of hair, and all the men wear
great bushy whiskers. 1t looks strange to
an Eastern man in market town Of Il
populous Mennonite region on busy day
to see 81 per cent of all the men with a
bulging mass of tawny and sandy whiskers
about their faces and throats. The Men
nonites are very serious in their religion
and they wear boards in imitation of
Christ. They cut their hair off square,
about the neck, and a barber would be
about as useful in Mennonite colony as
a liveryman would be in Venice. Some
people say that they fit bowl over their
heads and have wife or friend cut the
hair off about the rim of the bowl The
women wear their luxuriant tawny locks in
long braids down their backs They would
be reprimanded by the Mennonite leaders
for spending any time in seeking to make
themselves look attractive. The men
dress in calico shirts and coarse blouses and
trousers, and wear long, heavy overcoats
in cold weather Many of them cling to
the fur caps and the great boots of Russia.
The women wear the plainest OF woollen
and calico gowns, and almost always have
shawls over their heads. Some women
wear chip bonnets after the manner of
Quakeresses. Ribbons and jewelry are
discOuntenanced outside of the rings with
which they are married.
The Mennonites are very clannish and
seldom consult any one outside of their
own sect. They are peaceable and law
abiding to a marked degree. No one in
Kansas pays taxes more promptly. They
have had but one murder among them in
all the years they have been in this State.
They never speculate and never borrow
money unless they are compelled to do so
and they know how they shall he able to
meet their obligation.
The Mennonites take little or no interest
in politics. Many of them have never
voted, except on bonding questions, In
1896 they took more interest in the issues
than ever before in political campaign,
and nearly all who did vote were in favor
of the gold standard. They know good
land seemingly by intuition and they make
poor land good. They are simply farmers
and they do not pretend to have any knowl
edge of worldly affairs outside of growing
wheat and corn and rearing cows and hogs.
All manner of efforts have been made to
induce them to engage in politics, but in
vain. They will listen to persuasive
speaker with a stolid expression, and then
90 home without word or an act by which
their thoughts may be OWNED. The
women are as hard workers as the men.
They are superstitious A growing rooster
in the night seems to portend some fatal
disaster The breaking of lamp chimney
will alarm n family fnr a uaak The ovar