RUSSIANS IN AMERICA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1166, 29 July 1885, Page 4

RUSSIANS IN AMERICA.

San .Francisco haa a very considerable Russian colony, some of whom are among its earliest pioneers- They are, for the moat part, a mild people, uaually blondes or red bearded, if from the south or west of Russia, the Tartar merging- into the 1 German along the border. Among them are many who left their country from political discontent and not a few' of' them ire students, with a special interest in social questions. The New Odessa colony, comprising about forty of them, endeavored to test the community system of life ! in Oregon, but did not succeed, and the , scheme was for the time* abandoned. "We did not quarrel," said one of the members, " but some expect too much of human nature. We cannot become perfect all at once. Then, although we worked very hard we could not pay the mortgage on our land, for we were too far from market, and had but little money. No American can understand the poverty and misery that exist in Russia. Even in the south, where the conditions are better than mother parts, the peasants live wholly on bread and a sort of whisky. The' flour is mixed with ground bark r and lime, and they do not have enough of this wretched food, They wear wickerwork shoes, and their shirfis are dipped in asphaltum to give them 'thickness, and worn for, yeara without washing. Many of them' live in burrows, and eighteen hours is a very usual day's work. Yet these people adore the Czar as a divine being, and un,til they get over that, idea 'there is little hope for much improvement in their condition. Crimes of ' Violence are very rare among the poorer •■ Russians ; they do not draw a weapon" at every quarrel. As, to the threatened war, Ido not see why, poor Englishmen and Russians shouldslaughter each other with no good result to their class ; it is a crime more detestable than all others. I have no 'sympathy with either Government. The nobles in Russia hold vast tracts of land uncultivated; they are absent at Paris or St. Petersburg, and do not care for their poorer countrymen." These opinions and observations are, quite general among the educated Russians. Another gentleman added : "A newsboy here will make in a day more money than I ever saw until I became a man." The farming people paid their rent by giving so many days' work, and we had no money." But even in Russia great social progress Is going on among her hundred million subjects, though with Nihilists on one side and Imperialists on the other, "the falsehood of extremes" is better illus*trated in Russia than in any other country of Europe.— Exchange. , ,

" Yes," remarked a landlady, "it costs money to get knives sharpened every week, but its cheaper than buying tender meat.'**