The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1922-03-16

At times they even captured Polish
peasants and sold them as slaves to
the Tatars, who in turn passed them
on to Persians.
Lovers Of the Soil.
The Little Russians have worked
hard and fought hard, and they have
emerged fairly united and still vigor-
Gus people. The population increases
more steadily than that of Great Rus
sa. as the people are greatly attached
to home and do not care to wander
far from their native villages. They
are great lovers Of the soil and cling
to it with a passionate tenacity.
The Ukraine includes old southeast
ern Russia, with the exception of the
province known as Bessarabia. which
partakes of the character of the Bal
kan states and Is peopled with Ru-
manians and Bulgarians The great
seaport Of Odessa and the surround
ing country were added to it under its
new alignment after the breakup of
the Russian empire.
The Ukraine does not reach much
north of Kiev or east Of Kharkov. but
1t is large state In itself, about as
large as the German empire with
some twenty-five or thirty millions Of
people living in 1t.
The largest city of the real Ukraine
is Kiev, around which national life
centers probably because Of the deep
with the shrines and many holy places.
It was at one time the capital of all
Russia Kharkov is the leading COM
mercial town in IT unless Odessa, on
the Black sea, IS considered.
There is a lure about the limitless
stretches of the steppes in the Ukraine.
In wide. level spaces or in gentle
undula tons, they reach out until sky
and horizon meet In barely percept-
lille line. Parts Of it remind one very
much of our own western prairies. In
spring and winter it is an ocean of
verdure. with the varied shades Of
green of the growing vegetation inter
spersed with flowers of many hues;
later. in the autumn. after the crops
are harvested. it becomes a brown
waste of stubble and burnedup pas
lures: In winter II is white, glisten-
ing expanSe of snow.
WindmiIls in General USE :.
Windmills are exceedingly common
and dot the landscape on every hill
side. Silvery gray they appear from
age. as all are built of wood, and they
are usually implanted. Many of them
seem ready to fall to pieces from age.
The general use of windmlls is due
not so much TO lack of water, for they
will be found near streams, but the
flatness of the country does not give
enough fall to allow the use of wateS
power. They are used to grind grain
Kiev is the holy city o. the Ukraine
and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims
visit it each year. The natural END
scape is helghtensd al Al times in IT.
pictorial effect by the picturesque
groups Of pilgrims, slaves in hand and
Wallets on backs, who may be seen
clamboring up the hills. resting under
the SildubW VI nm. VI
bowling the head at the sound OF a
convent bell.
The pilgrims made ii point to Visit
the CHASTITY catacombs in which are
rows upon rows of the skulls or re-
puted monks Access is had by narrow
steps, and then through labyrinthine
subterranean passages one descends
deeper and deeper into the bowels OF
the earth, winding hither and thlther
along a pathway Finally there be-
gins a series of inches. in which re-
nose the bodies of the sanity re-
cluSeS
The pilgrims pass each holy tomb,
reverently kissing the shriveled hahds
laid out by the monks for that purpose.
| They do not distinguish between the
holy and holier, but pay tribute 10
each one impartially in order to con-
| ciliate all.
Much contagion must he spread by
| this insanitary method of homage. NO
doubt many an Infection and possibly
even great pestilences, could be traced
| directly To this spot where the lndis-
crimipate OSCILLATION of church relics
is practiced.