Evening star., 1900-09-25
THE RUSSIAN PEASANT.
His Primitive Life is Almost Animal
in It's Nafure.

His Primitive Life is Almost Animal
In It's Nature.
From the New York Press.
Here is the life of the Russian peasant,
as seen by an Englishman living in Russia,
in the government of Smolensk:
THE Russian village consists of from
fifteen to forty log cabins, each twenty-five
to thirty feet square and about seven feet
high to the square. They are heated by a
large brick stove, about six feet square in
the center of the hut, and on three sides Of
the stove there are wood benches, about
three feet from the floor. On these the
Russian sleeps, and under this bed or
bench, the pig sleeps and the hens roost
The only other furniture is a table, about
three feet square, and a plank on the side
of the hut to sit upon. In one corner you
will see the store of onions and potatoes,
and overhead are sheep and calfskins being
dried and prepared ready to make the win
ter coat. In one of these huts three, four
five families huddle together. The viii
layers work the land together, blowing
sowing, tilling and reaping and now
ing in a body, and they divide the pro-
duce. not equally. Their flocks Craze in one
lot, and are attended by herders, usually a
couple of boys or girls They have plots of
ground for cabbages and potatoes, and some
villages have a few fruit trees-apples
pears, plums and cherries. The crops they
raise in this district are hay, rye (the staple
food of the peasanD, barley, millet and oats
fax, beans and peas. There is either a
windmill or horse mill in most villages to
grind the rye.
''The whole of the peasants work lies in
attending to his cattle and land, cutting his
wood for fuel and carting any surplus he
may have to the nearest town to sell so
that he may be able to buy any of the iron
tools he requires, such as plow spade ak
saw or stew pot of iron, the only cooking
utensil most of them have. In addition, he
may buy a little tea, sugar, tobacco, gin or
some salted herrings. a piece of gaudy cot
ton print for a Sunday dress for his wife
or print handkerchief for her head These
are about all the things the peasant wishes
for that he does not produce himself. They
spin and weave by hand their own wool and
flax, and make their own clothing out of
the cloth. Their feet they cover with strips
of the homemade cloth. and they make
sandals from birch bark He is thought
rich peasant who can afford a pair of
leather boots.for Sundays and HOLIDAYS His
winter coat consists of home-cured or tam
ned skins OF sheep or calf, and his dress in
winter consists of a shirt, a coat of skin, a
pair of homespun trousers. rags for his
feet and a skin cap. They make their own
wooden carts and sledges. Some of them
have iron hoops on their cart wheels, and
that is all the iron on them: many have not
even that. The whole of the fuel is wood
and the artificial light is furnished by
pine stick or spill. lit and stuck in a crew
placed by another.
They seldom get meat and their food is
mostly rye bread. cabbage and onion and
potato soup. fat bacon and millet porrdge
and skinned milk The butter they make
they sell in the towns Few OF them can
read or write, and few can tell the time
from a watch or clock. Many villages have
no clock or watch at all. The people are
about in the same stage of civilization that
the English attained in the seventeenth CEN
tury, although. of course, they are rapidly
being transformed by means of the railway
Another thirty years will completely
change the whole tenor of their lives and
the change will increase their wants, and
in this way find markets to absorb the goods
Whicn their own mills and workshops pro-
duce. OF course, there is no opening for
foreign textile goods, because the protective
tariffs are too heavy. If these tariffs were
abolished the Russian mills would get their
machinery for 25 per cent less money. and
this is no little item when the interest on
money ranges from to II per cent"