The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1905-06-22
RUSSIAN ESTATE
RI LATloNs OF THE RoYAR AND
THE PEASANTS.
Land Owner and Land cultivator
More Friendly Than Is Generally
supposed-Timber Built Dwellings
the Rule in the Country.

IN no country in Europe are the
conditions of existence more strik-
ingly national than in Russia. The
idea carried away by the average
visitor that Russian life is much like
that in other European countries is
based on a misconception, a failure to
grasp salient features of the Russian
national character. A visit to the
country home of a Russian landowner
reveals the immense contrast pre-
sented by the life Of the Russian
noble in town and his more nearly
normal existence on his country es-
tate. Nothing shows more clearly the
versatility of the Slavonic nature than
this ready adaptability to either mode
of life. The man seems transformed.
Once back in the country the mask of
the cosmopolitan dweller in n Of the
gayest capitals in the world, st.
Petersburg, falls away like a wornout
garment and he is again a Boyar, like
his fo%refathers.
A group of peasants, large or small
according to the size of his estate,
will be waiting to greet him on his ar
rival there. Their warm welcome to
the khazyaeen (master of the house)
is evidently sincere, and as they bend
reverently to kiss his hands, or pos.
sibly his feet in the case of the older
ones, just as they would have done in
the days Of serfdom, one begins to see
that the real relations between land
owner and peasant are much more
friendly than is generally supposed.
The heart of the average Russian
landowner, however, is not, and never
has been in his country estate. Thus
his personal influence in his own To-
cality, which would, no doubt, have
led to the development of a healthier
national life than is possible under
present conditions, is almost entirely
lacking.
Wood is the material employed in
the construction of all buildings in the
rural districts, with the possible ex-
ception of the churches. In the eli
mate of Russia, where the average
life of these wooden buildings will not
exceed seventy years, there are no
castles like those of the old feudal
mobiles of England or of the continent
to connect past and present.
The timber-built dwellings of ever
the richest landowners in Russia lack
the picturesque construction familiar
to travellers in Norway and Sweden
Tho y.-o11c orn ra,oro11r forpan1 M
square beams, from n foot to eigh
teen inches in thickness, laid one or
the other and neatly Joined at the
corners. They are fastened together
by wooden bolts, sometimes three fee
in length, driven at short intervals
The interstices are made alright will
! dried moss, saturated with pitch, the1
dried in the sur, and the whole il
covered with a sheathing of thi1
planks, on the inside as we'll as the
outside of the walls. When these
walls are covered with paint on the
outside and plaster within, they are at
~impenetrable to the winter blasts az
the hull of a ship, and far warmer
than the same thickness of stone o,
brick would be.
The old houses have matched roofs
like those of the peasants izba (cot.
tage), but more modern dwellings are
%shingled. The rooms are almost al.
ways lofty mi some of them, notably
the drawing room and the dining
'oom, are of large dimensions.
The MASTER walls are tinted with a
wash of some light shade for the
drawing and bedrooms, and a darker
one, possibly brown, for the dining
room. The furniture is simple, very
likely homemade, or, as is frequently
the case of late years, one of the
cheapest varieties Of American and
English manufacture. = Montreal
Herald.