Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-18
TYPICAL FINNISH VILLAGE
Seventeen Hundred Inhabitants Are
Following Ancient Customs.

lust % miles from the heart of Bos-
| tol there is a typical Finnish village.
| The inhabitants are loo strong and
| they are following the century, old Gus
toms Of their race as If they were still
living in a bleak village of their native
land. They have their own sports.
their own recreation, their own foods
and their own fete days. They even
make their own clothes and weave
their own wooden garments, and they
| resolutely refuse to learn to speak
| English.
They live in a town ruled by Ameri-
cans and they work in the village mill
beside them, but they continue
strangers in a strange land and their
fathcrland remains the lake-strewn re-
sion in the North of Russia.
MANY tyres are found among the
Firms of Maynard There are the old
and the young. the peasant and the
clerk. the illiterate and the man OF
birth The great majority are of the
peasant class but ALL men and women
alike, work in the wooden mills.
In spite of The long hours in the fac
tory they spend much time out OF
doors. They have brought their own
skates and skis from Finland. and
while the ice is good and there is snow
on the ground they spend hours IN
these healthful sports.
THE old customs of Finland are being
followed so closely in the Maynard set
tlement- that a doctor is persona non
grata. In Finland the people are very
widely scattered among the farming
districts Doctors are practically I'M
f.ifi
the people become their own doctors
If a man is sick his wife does what
she can. and then she summons the
neighbors. who all come In and add
their mite of skill Between them
they manage to effect a cure. There
is usually in the village an old woman
vino has studied the cure of the herbs
and the position of the bones ana
muscles and for anything very serious
she is called into homes for many miles
around to administer her pungent
remedies and to massage their aching
| muscles or set the broken bones.
| All the women of the Finnish village
are frugal and make nearly all their
| own clothes.
In their own country they weave the
cloth for their dresses, both the WOOL
| on and the cotton, but here they can
get the proper materials. They knit
| Ill of their own stockings, however.
| and the men who have no women folks
here buy the home knit product from
| their country-women at about rs cents
a pair These women are very proud OIL
the stockings they make and of their
durability. Three pairs will last a
year Some of them have curious
little knitting machines which they
brought with them from Finland. ana
on these they make undergarmehts
ard jackets of stout warm wool at
a low cost.
| There are several among the VII
layers who make shoes as they are
worn in Finland. These are moccas'n-
like affairs of leather, stitched ana
fashioned all by hand very easy I'd
walk i'm and very durable.
All of the carpets in the Finnish VII
lage proper are home made, woven on
hand looms and made of strips OIL
colored cloth. The table covers are
made of really beautiful crothet WORK.
which is one of the arts Of the country.
and many of the ornaments are fash-
ioued of wood, carved out by hand
Boston Post.