The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-05-27

teriously sent to the Car and his of
! ficials and revolutionary posters appeal
on the walls of public buildings. Thu
letters are torn up, the posters are takeI
down, extra spies are placed around anC
in the royal palaces, and keen policemen
patrol the streets night and day. While
a spy mods or patrolman turns corn
er another letter falls upon the Emper
or's private table or an incendiary sheet
flares from blank brick wall. The Nj
hilists compose the visible invisible op
position to the imperial government OF
Russia.
To resume. The communal land is OF
three kinds. First is the village plat
including the house gardens; second, the
arabic land; and third, the meadow land
The arabic land is divided into a number
of long, narrow strips. Sometimes it is
necessary to divide the field into several
portions, according to the quality of the
soil, and then to sub-divide each of these
portions into a requisite number of
strips. Thus in all cases, every house
hold possesses at least one strip in each
field; and in those cases where sub divi-
sion is necessary, every household pos
sesses strip in each of the portions
into which the field is subdivided. The
complicated process of, division and sub
division is accomplished by the peasants
themselves, with the aid Of simple meas
uring rods: aud the accuracy of the re-
suit is truly marvellous.
The meadow, which is reserved for the
production of hay, is divided into the
same number of shares as the arabic
land There, however, the division and
distribution take place annually. Every
year, on day fixed by the Assembly,
the villagers proceed in body to this
part of their property, and divide it
into the requisite number of portions.
Lots are then cast, and each family at
once mows the portion allotted to it.
In some communes the meadow is mown
by all the peasants in common, and the
hay afterwards distributed by lot among
the families; but this system is by no
means so frequently used.
As the whole communal land thus re-
sembles, to some extent, big farm, it
is necessary to make certain rules con-
corning cultivation. A family may sow
what it likes in the land allotted to it,
but all families must at least conform
to the accepted system of rotation. In
like manner family cannot begin the
autumn blowing before the appointed
time, because it would thereby interfere
with the rights of the other families
who use the fallow field as pasturage.
A Russian village is as different from
German, Dutch, English or American
village as the Arctic ocean is from the
Mediterranean sea. Some little dis
lance from the road stretch two rows of
mud or log huts, with not school house
in sight. There is a gilded church, with
a grand spire, and beautiful altar and
many rich decorations within. The cost
ly church is drawn from the home of
the peasantry-one- third of his earnings
90 to it, and he must not ask any
questions or complain. The result is
that in summer the hut of the average
peasant is too close and squalid to be
occupied, and whole villages sleep in the
streets or in the balconies of the houses.
Few of their homes boast the luxury of a
bed, and in winter they stow themselves
around the stove. The stove is of brick
and whitewashed, and an enormous shelf
is often constructed from it to the wall,
upon which portion of the family
sleeps. In very cold weather even some
of the members may sleep upon it, for
there is no limit to the heat or the cold
which a Russian can endure.
The fact is most evident when the
peasant takes his regular vapor bath
every Sunday afternoon. With him it
has religious publication. Some vii
lagos have public or communal baths.
but many peasants take their steamings
in the great household oven in which the
family cooking is done. From tenn
perature which we should hesitate to
designate in figures, they rush into the
extreme of cold and roll in the snow
The houses outside are sometimes adorn-
ed with bright colored carvings, the
cracks between the logs being stuffed
with moss and lime.
But the peasant pays two-t thirds OF
substance to the church and to the
crown, eats his cabbage soup and drinks
his tea and liquor and worships thank
fully in the grand church because he
knows no better. When the tax collect.
or comes around, once a year, he has his
money ready and sees it go into the bag
of the Cars representative, without a
murmur. But the Russian peasant is fal
from cheerful; he is merely resigned
under a despotism. The women do not
show the attractive weakness of theil
sex for personal adornment. They veal
a loose robe, fastened at the neck anG
buttoned down the front, and over this
an apron fastened over the shoulders by
two short braces. Those of the better
class wear boots reaching to the knees
but the majority of them are barefooted
The merchants belong to the town pop
ulation, and they have, as fellow citizens
divided into separate guilds, burghs ant
artisans. Anyone may engage in mer
camille pursuits by joining the guild ant
/ L. - III, I