PEN PICTURES OF RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 71

PEN PICTURES OF RUSSIA.

We may look upon the Russian peasant from two points of view. Observing him through the eyes of Mr John A. Logan, jun., a favoured guest of the Czar, and a gentleman not given to close investigation, we push the Russian rustic^ aside as a brute, totally unworthy of our notice, a menace and burden to his country and Government. On the other hand, if we look through the telescope of Stepniak, who brings Conditions as they are into reach of our full understanding, we see a picture that calls for pity, that arouses indignation, that stamps the peasant as a maryr hero and his superiors as the brutes.

But to-day we will look through our own eyes, and get acquainted with the external appearances of 65 per cent, of Russia, the real foundation upon which the present empire is built, and which is destined to support in some future time the greatest republic of the eastern hemisphere.

The very features, stature, and walk of the Russian peasant express suffering, and speak of the burdens he has borne during the time of serfdom under the landlord, and the burdens that are crushing him now in his serfdom under the Government, the "kulak," or moneylender, and the Church.

His race, a mixture of Slav and Tartar, is by no means void of beauty. Sporadically springs forth a peasant child), male as well as female, that in form and feature is well worthy to be the model for an ancient divinity, but these children grow rarer from year to year. Privation, labour, and starvation push the Prussian peasant steadily down the physical, mental, and moral grade, and what he 19, is not by choice, but by force of the most trying conditions.

The Russian peasant is the natural link between the Orient and Occident. Even his dress is a picturesque mixture of Eastern colour effects and Western sobriety. He wears his shirt outside his trousers. It is either of bright i*ed, pink, . or white, and, when possible, the little standing collar, the lower edges of the shirt and sleeves are richly, yes, even artistically, embroidered in red silk. The trousers are really bloomers tucked into high boots, and the favourite material for this voluminous garment is a cheap grade of velvet. In strange contrast to this gay house -dress - stands the coarse, illfitting overcoat of a dull brown, and the sheepskin fur coat worn by men and women, making it difficult to distinguish the sex from a distance.

The peasant woman's attire is not less picturesque. A comfortably-fitting shirtwaist with a low neck and short, puffed sleeves^ partially covered by a loose "mieder" and straps across the shoulders, a skirt which is of modest shortness, and a iieadgear "kakoshnik" of bright-coloured silk ornamented with tinsel, and) encircling a generally heavy mass of hair like a crown, form fitting ornaments of the Russian woman that is only rare to-day. . This is the way the Russian peasant drasssd in the good old times, and how few, probably not over 10 per cent., dress so to-day. The rest go in rags, glad to have something to cover their nakedness and protect them from the burning sun. of the suxpTQer and the icy cold of the winter. Since 1861 ti:« liberated serf became the slave of the Government, and the Russian Government, like the American trusts, has no heart. The Russian

misconceived, misapplied, and misinwrageO reform. Free as the preasant is supposed {•> be, he is a slave worse than ever. Before 1861 he haa only one master, and even to this one he used to say. "My vashi, no zemlia nasha" ("We are yours, but -the soil is ours"), but now he is the prey of the Government, the kulak or usurer, anoi the Church, and between those thrco vampires he is staggering through a miserable life to a miserable grave.

Even in purely social externalities hi- is a slave. At the approach of one of superior rank he wiD jump to his i*At, even in his own house, or, rather, fcnfc. He will stand bare-headed for Wars in the burning sun or the piercing cold, la asking a favour, he will fall upr-r. hU knee's and touch the ground with his forehead before a man or woman that is nob worthy to be mentioned in one breath with him, the free peasant. Still, he is human. His heart" is open to hatred and love. He may be driven to despaii, and thus 75 per cent, of all crimes committed by Russian peasants can be traced to a state of mind which, would drive the higher classes to suicide. Even his love is tarnished by lm masters. He can but seldom many the choice of his heart — he has to consider the productive ability of his life's partner. He can't pay the taxes, the interest on liis debts, and the dues tc the church by the work of two hands. He needs four, and as soon as even his babes' iittl? hands can, grasp they must help -to keep biead in bhe ihome. /What a home it is ! A faback o? rough logs thatched -with straw, a g: *at part of it filled by a'huge oven, tbe top of which serves the family as a bed. This is the home to which he takes his bride afteF a short courtship.

He probably could earn more, sufficient even to support his family in a way ; but here his religion, or rather the Church, puts in her veto. He has to celebrate saints' days and anniversaries, and spend his mite in wax tapers and church contributions, until out of 365 days only 235 remfiin for work.

Idleness is the root of all evil ; poverty is not induciye to family happiness, and to escape the bore of a holiday, the grumbling of his . wife, often the hungry cry of his child, he goes to the "kabak," and exchanges his coat for a brain unbalanced ' by. liquor. He can't buy 'bread for his clothes, but he can lose an hour's memory, "and that is worth something more than -a coat — it is happiness to him.

It takes a Russian peasant to surviveunder such conditions, but he not only survives, he even manages to find some happy moments in spite of all the misery that surrounds him.

Let us step on a Monday to the edige of the river that generally passes a Russian village. \lt is wash day. The women stand on narrow boards which reach a few feet into the water, and after rinsing tho clothes, beat them in rhythmic cadence with dented, pieces of wood shaped like miniature oars. Unconventional jokesand laughter ring through the air as if it were a picnic of happy children, and' not the hard labour of down-trodden women. In winter the ice takes the place of the boards, and a hole cut into it brings the cleansing fluid) within reach; of all. Although the fingers sting and pain from the cold, the women joke and laugh, and seldom one hears a complaint.

These peasants do not work to live, but live to work. Their labour is done semiconsciously, almost automatically, like th© act of breathing, and when the hour of rest has come, the sun's work is also done, and the tired body stretches upon the brick bed of "the oven top, and Mr Logan's brute sleeps the sleep of the just, because ignorant of a better life.

The holiday, and one has to stay but a short time in a Russian village to live through one, is the time to get acquainted •with the amusingly childlike character of the Russian peasant. At a wedding they feast, at least they think they feast, while the gentleman in Folsom stripes would revolt if he had to nut up with such food. The men get gloriously drunk on alcohol, often made of musty grain, or half rotten potatoes, the ill-smelling fusel oil giving it a flavour worse than wood alcohol. The women relish pastry filled with cabbage, hot cakes that weigh a pound to the square inch, and candy madie of a pound) of flour, an ounce of sugar, and a liberal amount of colouring matter. Thus they feast for three days, and -necessarily recuperate for another three days from the unavoidable "Katzen jammer" in the head and stomach. . On Saturday before Easter, after fasting a whole week, the village assembles at the church. After the priest has sung a long and tedious service of which tho congregation has -not understood! a word, except the ever-returning "Bospody poiniluy" ("God have mercy"), and after the faithful ihave spent every copper they ought to spend for bread to buy wax tapers, the man of God, followed by thechoir, oaarying a glass coffin in which there rests a caricature of Christ, makes th« rounds through the church, sprinkles th» congregation with holy water, and disappears m the holiest of holiee. In a few minutes he returns with uplifted hands, and proclaims in a voice that sounds like the distant bellowing of a maddened bull, "Ohristos voskress" ("Christ has risen."^ "Christos voskress*" answers the church, and everybody kisses anybody. Of course the belle of the village has sore lips tho next morning, and the old maids look happy.

The villagers return home. Their huts are decorated with fluffy first sprouts of willow ; on the table stands a gaily-paintedf wooden dish filled with red, blue, and/ yellow coloured eggs, another one withi ai? mixture of pressed fresh cheese, creamy sugar, and raisins, the unavoidablo bottlol of cheap vodka, and whatever else. th« poverty-stricken, household! can furnish; \ The feast begins and lasts for & week* Everybody ipepa open fcous& f l&Jept thu priest, TO r livesj- uurlpg t«e t&fea dayljt

— The Russian people are composed of the aristocracy and the common class ; there seems to be no middle class. In ro other European country is there such a .gulf between the high and low classes of eoeioty. The officers are almost exclusively taken irom the upper class, and the comp«»i soldiers iroca '&&. Icw&r class*.

— The Tibetans have a week of five days, named after iron, wood, water, feathers, and earth. j — The 18 principal English railway com. panics paid £12,139,000 in wages during ! the first half of this year. The London ' and North-Western paid the largest sumr|_«2,3B4 JO(KLJ O(KL "

ing his blessmg i _&E<3 filling liiuiself up with something more substantial. Such is the Russian peasant, his character, and hfs life. It may sound ridiculous to call him the backbone of his country, but still it is just what he is. — Los Angeles Times.