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â- M>iiii<ii.»'ii»ii»i> im iiHi>, \tmva$ "Tr â- *»'* » f'im* < *v ^ v an mim ^I' fumw Ni 'l u i n M M^ ^ij^ iiiti ' t f . ' i»»» m ' ' "^nmt^tmf^fmmi^^t^^mm THE RUSSIAN PEASAflT AWFI'L IGNORANCE OP THESE POOR PEOPLE. Always Poor and Generally in Debt •~Is the Land of the Cznr Doomed. The population of Russia to-day is estimated in round figures at 147,000,000 persons. Of this num- ber 100,000,000 are peasants, and they lag so far behind the times in regard to education, manners, cus- toms, and general enlightenment that they have been compared to the medieval German peasant of the fourteenth century. Indeed, so ignorant are they that a young man who can read is regarded by them as a wonder. They believe in witches, demons, and wood-devils, and live under such conditions that in ordinary times in the Russian villages 50 per cent, of the children from birth to five years die, and 360 to 400 per 1,000 of those from birth to one year. Truly an awful rate of infant mortality I Is is surprising that people ask, Is Russia doomed 1 or that the coun- try should have been so soundly beaten in warfare by the enterpris- ing Japs) As a matter o! fact, the Russian peasant does not live â€" he merely exists. "Nitchevo" ("It is noth- ing"), he merely says, when any- thing happens to him. Nothing matters, nothing could be worse, and "Nitchevo" is HIS PANACEA FOR ALL EVILS. And yet the Russian moujik is real- ly a fine fellow. Ordinarily, Mr. H. P. Kennard tells us in his book, "The Russian Peasant," he is a eplendid, well-built man, large limb- ed, large-headed and healthy. He is equally unaffected by 20 degrees of frost or twenty glasses of vodka. He is clothed in uncured sheep- skins, and carries in winter more clothes than the. average English- man could stand up in. He is unspeakably stupid, how- ever, and his dream of happiness is to gorge, to sleep as much as pos- sible through the winter, and dance and sing in the summer. But the stranger's first objection to the moujik is that ^e smells â€" not be- cause he does not wash himself. As a matter of fact, in every village there are public bathsâ€" baaza â€" and the peasants wash themselves there unfailingly every Saturday in order to be allowed to go to church on Sunday ; for the Orthodox Church enjoins cleanliness. HOW HE LIVES. The moujik, however, apparently thinks that he has done all that is required of him by the church if he washes himself ; for, according to Mr. Konnard, you can smell his iz- ba, or hut, long before you reach it. As a rule, there are two rooms to an izba, a living-room and an outhouse, and, while the former 's usually clean and whitewashed, the latter is fearfully dirty. Moreover, his uncured sheepskins do not give off the most pleasant of odors, and when, as during the Russian fam- ine of 1906-7, three or four families combine, and live in the best hut, pulling down the others in order to use the timber for fuel and the thatch as forage for horses and cat- tle, it will be readily understood that the odor of that particular iz- ba was not generally improved. The Russian peasant is always poor, and generally in debt. He ploughs the land in the same way that his father ploughed it, and gets as little for his labor. His main worry in life is how to pay the Governor's taxes. If he says he cannot pay he is flogged ; or per- haps he will sell part of his next year's power of work (i.e., work for nothing for several months) to raise a loan ; and, of course, he is worse off than ever the following year. The moujik's festivals to-day are the same as those of a century or 80 ago. Here is a description of one. It will show the extraordin- ary mummery practised in cotjnec- tion with marriage, although, at the game time, the description contains a very good hint to bold and daring spinsters in this leap year of 1908. ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT at dusk the marriageable village girls go out into the streets and meet their young men, and one says, "What is your name?" The young man answers, "Foma," and she replies, "My husband's name is Foma." Some days later, at the girl's home, relations are gathered to- gether ; there comes a knock at the door, the starosta and the young man enter carrying loaves of bread. The staro:.ta says something like this : â€" "We are German people, come from Turkey. We are hunters, good fellows. There was a time once in our country M'hen we saw â- trav.ge footprints in the snow, and my friend the prince here saw them, and we thought they might be fox's or marten's footprints, or it might be those of a beautiful girl. We hunters, we good fellows are determined not to rest till we have found the animal. We have been in all cities from Germany to Turkey and have sought for this fox, this marten, or this princess, and at last we have seen the same strange footprints in the snow again, here by our Court. And "we have come w. Come let us take her, the beau- tiful princess, for we see her in front of us â€" or can it be you would keep her till she grows a little old- er?" Thus does the moujik ask for a wife. â€" London Tit-Bits. DANGEROUS OPIATES. Most of the liquid medicines ad- vertised to cure stomach and bowel troubles and summer complaints contain opiates and are dangerous. When the mother gives Baby's Own Tablets to her little ones she has the guarantee of a government ana lyst that this medicine contains no opiate or narcotic. And sb<i has the assurance that no other medi- cine will so speedily cure stomach and bowel troubles, if they come unexpectedly. Give the well child an occasional dose of these tablets and they will prevent sickness by clearing the stomach and bowels of offending matter. Mrs. Wilbert Bone, Carrville, Ont., says: â€" "I have used Baby's Own Tablets for stomach and oowel troubles and know of no other medicine so satis- factory." Sold by medicine dealers or by mail at 25c a box from The Dr. Williams' Medicine Co., Brock- ville, Ont. â€" == * USES OF VANITY. A Personal Blessing Vouchsafed to Muii, Thinks Mr. MacBliuk. "The longer I live," said Mr. MacBlink, "the more I think that the greatest personal blessing vouchsafed to man is personal van- ity. "Do the mighty snub us? We smile and think that we are better than they. Are some men richer than we? Why, we know for some we could have made twice their money with half their chance. "Are we homely? We think we are handsome. Why, the men we see, old and young, looking in the mirrors are proud of their hair, yroud of their neckties, proud of their clothes, proud of themselves from their heads to their toes. "They may live narrow lives, and if they only knew it, with no hope of ever getting cut on the broad road ; but they are satisfied with, more than that, they are vain of themselves. And what a blessing ! "Are we not content to wear cheap clothes because in our fond vanity we think that we ourselves give to them an air of distinction ? So in many instances. "And does not the same hold true us well to our views of all our be- longings? Don't we think that our lumbering old clumsy gaited six minute horse could go in 2.22Va if we dared to give him his head ? Don't we think that our yacht or our power boat could make any- thing else in the water look like thirty, yes, like twenty or even fif- teen cents if we were once disposed to show what it could really do ? "Do we not think that our chick- ens are really the very best speci- mens of their breed, and do we not think that ours is the finest lawn? And our children ! Do we not all think that our children, whatever they may be, are the finest children that ever were born? "It is so of many things, and all these are cheerful, happy, helpful notions that even the most timid and shrinking of men may cherish. Our vanity is not only a protector and a shield, it is for us a castle within whose walls we can dwell in serenity and security, in sweet sat- isfaction with ourselves ; and in a world so full of things that other- wise would jar us, is not this a great blessing? Many a man's lot in life has been softened, has been made happy, by his harmless personal vanity." * . Traveller â€" "Here, landlord, what's the matter with your dog? I've driven him away a score of times, but he always comes back again, and sits close up to my arm- chair watching every mouthful I take. Do turn him out, and let me have my dinner in peace." Land- lord â€" "Please, sir, my Carlo is such a knowing brute. I expect you have got the plate he generally eats off." FROM ERIN'S GREEN ISLE NEWS BY MAIL FROM LAND'E SHORES. IRE- Happenings in the Emerald Isle of Interest to Irish- men. A North Wexford Farmer's Soci- ety has recently been formed. A movement is on foot for the establishment of a boot factory in Arklow. At the last pig fair in Tralee, the remarkable number of 1,050 pigs was on view. Over one thousand pigs were kill- ed by local bacon factories of Kerry during a recent week. The Merchants' Hall, where the eld Dublin Guild of Merchants for- merly met, has just been sold by auction. A domestic named Jane McCush was asphyxiated by blowing out the gas at the home of her employer in Belfast. A huge fish, said to be a sunfish or "thrasher," and weighing 1,500 pounds, was recently taken in the harbor at Dunmore. The Lord Chancellor has appoint- ee James P. Hughes, Castleganny Mills, Borris, to the commission of the peace for the county of Carlo w. The death took place recently at Garvagh, of James Febridge John- stone, late chief draughtsman in the Belfast Queen's Island shipbuild- ing yards. Michael O'Callaghan, the driver of a mail train, was knocked off his engine when going at sixty miles an hour, and sustained but trifling in- juries. The commissioners of National Edu(5ation have awarded the Car- lisle and Blake Premium to Mrs. Mary K. Dick, Cornahilta school, Belleek, for the year 1907. A constable at Cappagh, near Mohill, County Leitrim, found a parcel containing some sixty-three letters concealed in a hole at the back of a ditch alongside the road. The fine and historic old seat of I the late Geo. Davys, J P., at Clon- bcnny, consisting of about 500 acres, has been purchased by John Rhatigan, of Kilcrowe, for the sura of $7,500. Messrs. Workman and Clark, shipbuilders of Belfast, have receiv- ed an order from tho Boston United Fiuit Company, United States, for four new steamers aggregating over £i,000 tons for West Indies' fruit trade. The Dublin and South-Eastern Railway Company have increased the facilities which they had already provided for tourists desirous of visiting on Sundays the various spots of interest in picturesque Wicklow. Two brothers, William and Mat- thew Pelan, of Tullynacross, near Lisburn, died within a few hours of each other, both having been in ill health for some time past. Their double funeral was very largely at- tended. At a meeting of Belfast butchers recently, it was decided in conse- quence of the high prices at pre- sent being paid for sheep and cat- tle, which renders prices unremun- erative, to raise the price of beef and mutton Id. and 2d. per pound. A train on the G. N. R. near Bel- turbet was delayed an hour and forty minutes owing to the failure of the electric train staff instru- ment. On investigation it was found the failure was caused by a spider gettng between the contact point and the key lever in the instrument at Belturbet, causing a disconnec- tion. 4, sued a in the "Riches, my friend," said the plutocrat, "do not bring happi- ness." "Maybe not," said the so- cialist ; 'but It must be a heap of satisfaction to have a lot of money and be able to talk like that to a chap that hasn't got any." THE ONLY WAY. Not long ago a farmer cattle-dealer for damages local county court. "When I bought the bull," said complainant, "he told me it was gentle and perfectly harmless â€"a child could play with it, in fact. Half an hour after I got the ani- mal home, he disabled a couple of my farm hands, and then turned on me " "Perhaps the beast was excited by his strange surroundings," sug- gested his honor. "Is he quiet enough now?" "Well â€" yes; but you see " "Ah," remarked the defendant, "then my description was correct, after all. I said if he did get ex- cited at first he would quieten down." "Yes," responded the plaintiff grimly, "but you didn't tell me I should have to shoot the beggar to quieten him down! That's what I had to do!" How can a man love for a woman hair? have undying who dyes her HBra'9 a Real Summer Delightâ€" SHREDDED WHEAT with milk or cream and fresh fruits. Discard heavy foods and try this natural diet for a time and uoto how your energies will increase an'l vour spirits revive, NiViMHIMG WITHOUT BEI]!ir« HEATIIfti SOLD BT .ILL KBOCERS lose W H E AT PANGO For Neuralgia, Headache, Rheumatism, Pairi) Etc. 50 CENTS. ALL DRUGQISTS, OR The Pangjo Company, Toronto WHOUMALB LYMAN BROS. & CO., Toronto and Montreal; LYIMAN KNOX ft CLAnKSON, Toronto; NATIOi\.4L DRUG CO., London. A.J.PATTISON&CO., 33-35 SCOTT ST.» TORONTO. Bonds and Stocks Bought and Sold on all all Exchanges CorrespoBdeots - Chas. Head & Co., ricnibers New York and Boston Stock Excbaasea. Larder City Gold Mines LIMITED. <No Personal Liability) Authorized Capital, - $4,000,000.00 Directorsâ€" President, Arthur Dinnis, contractor, Toronto ; Vice-President, A. S. Wigmore, Manager Holmes Electric k Protection Co., Toronto; Secretary-Treasurer, Fred Armstrong, contractor, Toronto; F. H. Herbert, architect and engineer, Toronto ; J. C. Holtby, contractor, Toronto ; George Duthie, manager Roofers' Supply Co., Toronto; J. H. Tighe, miner, Larder City. Bankersâ€" The Crown Bank, Toronto. Auditor â€" Henry Barber, Toronto. The property consists of ?S 40-acre claims immediately ad- joining the now famous Harris Maxwell and upon the same amount of development should prove equally as good. 100,000 shares are now offered to the public at 15 cents per share. Do not lose this golden opportunity of investing in one of the most promising properties in the district. For full par- ticulars apply to UENRY F. D.\RRELL • - FISCAL AGENT. No. 8 Colborne Street, Torouto. The hard part about an easy job is the getting thereof. SENTENCE SERMONS. Honesty is being better than you have to. He who does not doubt at all is doubtless damned. It is always safe to be sorry for the self-satisfied. If you would find folks you must first be yourself. It's not the things laid on it that make the life larger. A crooked path is the straightest road to the traps of sin. Helping always brings happiness, and happiness always helps. It is following the stars we have that will lead to the day to be. Any man can talk religion, but only those who have it can teach it. There always is some character being determined by our conduct. The field of this world is not to be worked by digging at our neigh- bors. It's the daily dull grinding that produces the ken edge for some crisis. You have no right to sigh except when you are alone, and then you won't. It's the man who forever is run- ning away from pain who gets most bruises. The man who has much starch in his neck is likely to have none in his backbone. If you cannot be saved by work it is certain you will not be saved by whining. The man who can carry all his religion in his head never lets it bother his hands. It is simple ignorance of ourselves that makes us harsh in our judg- ments of others. A 'theological student was sent one Sunday to supply a vacant pul- pit in a country town. A few days after he received a copy of the weekly paper of the place with the following item marked: "Rev. supplied 'he pulpit at the Congre- gational Church last Sunday, and the church will now be closed three weeks for repairs." We can die only once â€" much to the regret of the undertaker. 1 When you are going shopping don't simply say "A pound of tea," because you can secure better tea, more delicious tea, if vou only ask for "Salada." \ JL