Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-24

Why They Are Popular.
In Canada there is always some sort of
hotel connected with the bar. Nothing is
more creditable to the Doukobohr than the
TACT that he is industriously downed by
the drink-seller and constantly sought after
by the contractor and employer of labor.
One road builder who hires them nv tina
hundred tells me that they are the best
workers in the west. They give a good
gay work and woe to the tmekeeper who
builds upon beating one of them out OF
cent he has honestly earned They ara
as shreWd as they are industrious and as
honest as they are clean, and when it comes
TO bathing they beat the English.
All these men we see lounging and resi-
ing about here have thrown aside their
soiled. lll-smelling working clothes, have
bathed and dressed clean this morning.
ana they are clean-minded too these men
ana women who are pioneering in the new
northwest. The severely critical will tell
you that there is abroad Photographic evil
dence of their immodesty. So there is but
no shade or evidence that they are not I'M
usually Virtuous. If a Doukobohr damsel
diVed off the bank of the Assiniboine bsfurs
your eyes 1t is because there is water be-
low She is after swim and means to
have It, Set your curious face another
road and try to hold your breath until she
calls or beckons you back. She is not
brazen Neither is she ashamed, because
to the pure in mind all things are purs.
note our sidelong glances. They have heard
that a northwest mounted policeman, who
suffered himself to be photographed in
front of a band of Doukobohr bathers in
the natural. got two years for his folly.
They Will figure that in some vague way
ii is not nice to be caught unclad with a
native and will cover themselves accord.
ingly. The daughters of these damsels will
battle as we battle and do as we do The
next generation will not shock US with
their open-air additions but swim and sin
secretly and suffer the same as we suffer
for our sins.
Quiet Contentment.
The change will come rapidly to these
people. Only a few years ago some of
them were destroying machinery. Today
they are using steam plows that turn eight
burrows. They will break 81, 600 acres Of
wild land this year. Only a few years ago
they went by thousands in search of the
Messiah. This year just thirty-fve pill
grims started mostly old men and women.
and only a few finished Already they are
applying individually for work on the rail-
way, and you must settle on Saturday with
each man for his work. Knowing all this,
like to look upon this Sabbath scene Of
quiet contentment About the houses a
few elderly women are seen. Two small
boys are driving cattle home-rolling fat
they shuttle through the wild grass, drift
down to the village street and into the
common corral. Upon the slopes some
unafraid They lift their heads and gaze
at us standing bely-deep in the grass.
On the mesa above the village a flock of
girls, gayly clad, playing hand ball;
the maidens shy. but the horses come
up, poke their noses into the wagon and
hang their heads over the front wheels as
if they would make us welcome.
The wild duck and the tame duck swim
together in the pond; the chicken and prai-
RE chickens play together in the lot and
far down at the end of the road near the
river bank house cat and a cotton tail
cut funny capers and kick up dust All
things seem to dwell here in harmony and
quiet contentment. 1t is as If the gentle
Nazarine had come and walked here and
written on the hills and wales and on the
quiet sky that bends above the one word
Peace"
So peaceful are these Doukobohrs they
say, that even the creeping things are dis
armed and made gentle.
They tell of a woman who left her door
ajar, as she explained to a visitor SO that
Eden could get in and amuse the baby.
The visitor, who happened to be journal
ist stepped back, when the woman was en-
gagged in the garden, peeped in and saw
Eden" Eden was a rattlesnake coiled
close by the babys feet. He was laughing
and rafting his rattles to beat the tam
BOURNE girl, all to the JOY and delight of
the Doukobohr babe