532 



MENNONITES. 



fuel pressed straw, which they burn in clay- 

 built stoves, so placed that each of three sides 

 heats a room, and they are able to keep up a 

 comfortable temperature even in the frigid 

 winters of that extreme climate. While in- 

 dustrious and excellent farmers, they are miser- 

 ly, and will not purchase anything that they 

 can manufacture. They make their own fur- 

 niture, and are very expert mechanics. The 

 Marquis of Lome said of them, after paying a 

 visit to the Manitoba villages : " Where the 

 land on which their communities settled in the 

 valley of the Bed river needed draining, they, 

 with true German energy and thoughtfulness 

 and Russian perseverance, set about the work; 

 and nowhere will you see better-cared-for colo- 

 nies, though on a humble scale, than among the 

 Mennonites of Manitoba. They form by far 

 the most satisfactory instance that I am ac- 

 quainted with of an aggregation in one place 

 of men, women, and children, belonging to a 

 foreign race." 



The Mennonites are temperate, though they 

 like luxuries, such as liquor and tobacco, when 

 they can be obtained free of cost, their nig- 

 gardly spirit being a principal element of their 

 character. They can all read and write, but 

 never look at a newspaper, or read any book 

 except school-books and the Bible. They pre- 

 serve their German speech, and are generally 

 suspicious of strangers. The interiors of their 

 houses are exceptionally comfortable, although 

 the floor is generally made of hard-pressed 

 earth, but the cleanliness about walls, floor, 

 ac.d furniture proclaims the presence of thrifty 

 and industrious housewives. In the corners of 

 each living-room may be seen on one side a 

 cupboard garnished with china, and on the 

 other an array of shelves for various uses. 

 The roads that they have made from village 

 to village, and their entire system of rural econ- 

 omy, are highly praised by all Canadian officials 

 and others who have visited them. They are 

 a religious and God-fearing people, having their 

 own system of justice, and this is so well ap- 

 plied that they hardly know what crime is. 



Each village consists of thirty or forty fami- 

 lies, and is ruled by a council, with the elder 

 or priest at its head. The land is held as the 

 property of the community, and out of the crops 

 covering it a long strip is assigned to be cul- 

 tivated by each family. When the harvest is 

 reaped the result is "pooled," and divided 

 equally among the families constituting the 

 community. Their cattle are herded in one 

 huge pasturage and looked after by a herds- 

 woman, who is one of the two officials to whom 

 they pay a salary, the other being the priest. 

 As a rule, the crops raised by them, and their 

 whole system of farming, display a neatness 

 and abundance rarely found either on Canadian 

 or American farms. 



Of late the Mennonites of Manitoba have 

 devoted themselves with great energy and in- 

 dustry to raising flax on a large scale, finding 

 it more profitable than wheat, which is so ex- 



tensively cultivated ; and in this undertaking 

 they present the possibility of a remote result 

 that would, if it occurred, furnish one of the 

 most startling events recorded in the history 

 of peaceful measures ; for the extensive produc- 

 tion of flax by the Mennonites would render 

 them the instruments of one of the greatest 

 dangers that ever threatened the commerce 

 of Russia. 



This plant, yielding three profits one from 

 the fiber, another from the seed, and a third 

 from the refuse, which is made into paper- 

 offers peculiar inducements to the thrifty and 

 money-getting Mennonites. A writer on this 

 subject in an English paper says: u The time 

 is not far distant when flax and hemp grown 

 upon the boundless plains of Northwestern 

 Canada will supersede the analogous products 

 of Russia in every European market, and when 

 the linen manufactories of Belfast will draw 

 their raw materials from a country to which 

 the simple and thrifty Mennonites were ban- 

 ished by the overreaching ambition of the 

 Romanoffs." With two hundred and fifty 

 millions of acres awaiting cultivation, either 

 under wheat or flax and the latter far the 

 more remunerative crop this prediction is far 

 from being impossible of fulfillment, particu- 

 larly as the Mennonites, with their remark- 

 ably intelligent and persevering system of 

 farming, backed by their cupidity and their 

 keen insight into the best objects of commerce, 

 will meet with fewer obstacles in the cultiva- 

 tion of flax than are common with this un- 

 usually difficult plant to raise. 



Hitherto the flax grown in Russia, although 

 enormous in quantity, has been inferior in 

 quality to that produced by Holland, Belgium, 

 and Ireland. Yet it has lately constituted one 

 of the most important exports ot that country, 

 while its tallow and wheat trade have gradu- 

 ally declined. Meanwhile the quality of the 

 Manitoba flax is admitted to be the finest in 

 the world, and the crop, which is believed in 

 Europe to be of an exhausting character, can 

 be grown without fertilizers for generations to 

 come in the rich loam of the Canadian prairies. 

 Moreover, the Russians have recently imposed 

 prohibitive duties upon the linen manufactures 

 of Great Britain, and have instituted an an- 

 noying system of espionage and interference 

 with the importation by the manufacturers of 

 that country from the Baltic of the necessary 

 raw material. So persistent has this become 

 that the British manufacturers are beginning 

 to look hopefully to the increasing crop of su- 

 perior flax for which the Mennonites of Onta- 

 rio and Manitoba are becoming famous. Dur- 

 ing the year 1886 a single firm in Ontario sent 

 over a thousand tons of flax to Belfast, the 

 quality of which, it is said, can not be sur- 

 passed for excellence. While the aggregate 

 number of Mennonites in the United States 

 exceeds fourfold those of the Dominion, the 

 former are generally engaged in the usual .oc- 

 cupations of the communities in or near which 



