Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-27

Russia. / have Travelled thousands Of miles
through the Cars farming regions, seldom
finding q peasant home that was sanitary
or clean. The Canadian Doukhobor women
scrub almost as much as the Dutch, and
all the people take regular sweat baths.
Every village has its bath house This is a
little log cabin containing a brick oven. 1t
is entered by a low door, but has no win
dows other openings. When the bath
house is to be used the oven is heated red
hot, and then the bathers enter stark naked
each carrying a bucket or so of water
They throw these on the red hot stones,
and within few moments the house is
filled with steam. Each bather has a bunch
of willow twigs with which he whips and
rubs every part of his body. In a short
time he begins to perspire, and 1t is not long
before he is thoroughly cleansed.
A Thrifty Community.
The Doukhobors are rapidly amassing
wealth. 1 was told in Winnipeg that they
had brought In as much as 100000 at one
time, and that they are steadily improv-
ing their property and towns. They are
now building elevators for TIER own grain
and have put up mills to grind their
own flour. Some of their villages have
constructed fax mills and linseed oil mills
and some will put up WOODEN mills.
AS 1t is now the Doukhobors have their
own sheep and spin the cloth for their
clothes Much of their machinery is being
driven by steam and they have some steam
plows l understand that they have dis
covered clay on their land, and that they
expect to put up brick plant and have
brick dwellings for the future. They also
talk of a narrow-gauge railway to connect
their villages; and they will probably intro
duce the telephone soon. Their communal
system gives them a large capital to work
with; and they take advantage of this by
buying their supplies in quantity and at
low rates. AS 1t is now, each village has
one large stable for Its horses, another for
its cattle, and shed for its agricultural
implements. This is in striking contrast
with the average Canadian settler, who
leaves his machinery and often his stock
out of doors, at the mercy of both wind
and weather.
The Naked Fanatics.
1t will be seen from the above that the
average Doukhobor is a good citizen. In
deed were it not for his communal inter-
ests he would be far better than most of
the other Europeans who are now coming
into Canada. There are many exceptions,
however, and especially the fanatics. The
Doukhobors have among them, number of
men and women who seem hair crazy on
the subject OF religion, and who every now
and then break out in what might be called
spiritual revival, which Is far more radi-
cal than any revivals in the United States.
At such times they say Christ is about to
appear on the earth second time, and
they start out on pilgrimage to meet
Him. They then go back to first principles,
and try to subsist entirely on roots and
vegetables, turning their live. stock out on
the praries to be taken possession of by
whomsoever pleases. They imagine that it
is wrong to eat meat. and even to wear
wooden clothing, as the sheep had to be
robbed of their coats before it could be
made. Some resort to the state of Adam
and Eve and go naked / have seen photo
gra phs of DoukhoborS taken at the time of
such revivals. Both men and women were
snapped in a nude state. and the photo
graphs form the most disgusting groups Of
living statuary ever taken by camera.
The Government and the Pilgrimages.
The Canadian government has been try
ing to stop these pilgrimages. 1t has ar
rested the pilgrims and made them put on
their clothes, and even held them for some
time in prison. In 1902 number of Douk-
hobors turned their horses, cattle and
sheep out on the prairies and at another
time they got the idea they should have
nothing to do with metal, and the women
cut the hooks and eyes out of their gar
ments. Some said that they should not
work the earth for fear they would spoil
It. and some threw away their shoes be-
cause certain animals had been robbed of
their skins to make them.
II was along in May, 1903 that forty-flve
Doukhobors got revelation thai Christ
would appear somewhere In the neighbor-
hood of Winnipeg. have never heard why
Winnipeg was the chosen point, although, l
ina CINE that city needs regeneration quite
as much a. any place else At any rate,